Eric Wiberg
Eric Wiberg (born 1970) is an American author and historian currently living in New York City.
Wiberg's specialty is nautical non-fiction, with a recent focus on Axis U-Boat attacks on the Americas and stories of Allied survival in Bahamas, Bermuda and New England during WWII. With five nautical non-fiction titles published, he has four new books presently under contract in the US & UK. Recently Wiberg provided expert support for the documentary Freightened the real Cost of Shipping. Last year he helped lead a Norwegian investigative team to the grave of a Norwegian sailor, Olaus Johansen, buried hurriedly in an abandoned lumber camp on Abaco Islands after their tanker had been sunk by a Uboat nearby.
Starting in May 2009 Captain Wiberg essentially discovered and disseminated the key focused information on Allied and Axis naval and merchant marine battles over a vast million square mile area that had not been covered exclusively before. He added over 75 vessels to the last effort by Gaylord Kelshall in the 1980s which focused on the Caribbean Sea as distinct from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, which lie to the north, and outside the Caribbean. Wiberg's area of study includes the east coast of Florida and Georgia to Savannah then east to Bermuda and Anegada, covering the major channels and passages that the UBoats both German and Italian patrolled.
The activities of 112 Italian and German submarines in and around the Bahamas region have been almost entirely unknown and neglected by the public and the historical community until Wiberg gathered the data and published his findings in a dozen periodicals and international lectures on the topic. Historian J. Revell Carr, author of the book All Brave Sailors, said that Wiberg has made a significant contribution to the bibliography of World War II, Wiberg next shines his light and BLEND of seagoing and maritime law training and experience on the regions of Bermuda and New England. They are all due to be published by 2017, the final two by Fonthill Media of the U.K.
Boards
- New York Yacht Club, Library Committee since c.2008
- Steamship Historical Society of America, Board Member since 2014
- Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, UK, US Representative since 2016
Books
- U-Boats off Bermuda, Fonthill Media, Gloucester, England, UK, August 2, 2017,
- Swan Sinks, Island Books, New York, NY, May 28, 2017,
- U-Boats in the Bahamas, Brick Tower Press, New York, NY, June 30, 2016,
- Round the World in the Wrong Season, Island Books, Norwalk, CT, February 1, 2010,
- Published Writing 1983-2009, Island Books, Norwalk CT, January 7, 2010,
- Juvenilia, Teen Books and Travel Writing, Island Books, Norwalk CT, December 30, 2009,
- Tanker Disasters: IMO’s Places of Refuge and the Special Compensation Clause, Island Books, December 18, 2009,
Publications
- War in Paradise: The Allied survivors who found refuge in Bermuda and the Bahamas (Harris Manchester, 1992) Oxford Today
References