Richard Garrett (1920–2008)

Written in the 1970s, and feels dated. Kind of a lightweight overview. It was interesting to look at some events, like the 1918 flu, from a British perspective. (I'm not sure I'd classify that as a natural disaster, though—too many human factors involved in its spread.) There was a nice sprinkling of understated humour, but nothing else particularly notable.

"No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to het himself into jail; for being in a ship is being in jail, with the chance of being drowne"."
(Samuel Johnson)