Rescue of the Bounty: Disaster and Survival in Superstorm Sandy
Page 25
In early May of 2005 Captain Tom Tighe and First Mate Loch Reidy of the sailboat Almeisan welcomed three new crew members for a five-day voyage from Connecticut to Bermuda. While Tighe and Reidy had made the journey countless times, the rest of the crew wanted to learn about offshore sailing—and were looking for adventure. Four days into their voyage, they got one—but nothing that they had expected. A massive storm struck, sweeping Tighe and Reidy from the boat. The remaining crew members somehow managed to stay aboard the vessel as it was torn apart by wind and water. Overboard! follows the simultaneous desperate struggles of the boat passengers and the captain and the first mate fighting for their lives in the sea. (An interview with the author and the survivors, along with actual footage from the storm, can be found on YouTube, “Michael Tougias—Overboard Parts I, II, III.”)
“A heart-pounding account of the storm that tore apart a forty-five-foot sailboat. Author Michael Tougias is the master of the weather-related disaster book.”
—Boston Globe
“Overboard! is a beautiful story deserving of a good cry.”
—GateHouse News Service
“Tougias has a knack for weaving thoroughly absorbing stories—adventure fans need this one!”
—Booklist
The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue
(coauthored with Casey Sherman)
On February 18, 1952, an astonishing maritime event began when a ferocious nor’easter split in half a five-hundred-foot-long oil tanker, the Pendleton, approximately one mile off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Incredibly, just twenty miles away, a second oil tanker, the Fort Mercer, also split in half. On both fractured tankers, men were trapped on the severed bows and sterns, and all four sections were sinking in sixty-foot seas. Thus began a life-and-death drama of survival, heroism, and tragedy. Of the eighty-four seamen aboard the tankers, seventy would be rescued and fourteen would lose their lives.
Going to the rescue of the Pendleton’s stern section were four young coastguardsmen in a thirty-six-foot lifeboat—a potential suicide mission in such a small vessel. Standing between the men and their mission were towering waves that reached seventy feet, blinding snow, and one of the most dangerous shoals in the world, the dreaded Chatham Bar. The waters along the outer arm of Cape Cod are called the Graveyard of the Atlantic for good reason, yet this rescue defied all odds when thirty-two survivors were crammed into the tiny lifeboat and brought to safety. (Coast guard officials later said that “the rescue is unparalleled in the entire annals of maritime history.”)
Several cutters and small boats raced to the sinking sections of the Fort Mercer, and valiant rescue attempts were undertaken—some successful, some not. (An interview with Michael Tougias and photos of the disaster unfolding can be found on YouTube, “Finest Hours—Adam Knee (producer).”)
“A blockbuster account of tragedy at sea . . . gives you a you-are-there feel.”
—Providence Journal
“A gripping read!”
—James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers
Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Tale of Disaster and Survival at Sea
On a cold November day in 1980, two fishing vessels, the Fair Wind and the Sea Fever, set out from Cape Cod to catch offshore lobsters at Georges Bank. The National Weather Service had forecast typical fall weather in the area for the next three days—even though the service knew that its only weather buoy at Georges Bank was malfunctioning. Soon after the boats reached the fishing ground, they were hit with hurricane-force winds and massive, sixty-foot waves that battered the boats for hours. The captains and crews struggled heroically to keep their vessels afloat in the unrelenting storm. One monstrous wave of ninety to one hundred feet soon capsized the Fair Wind, trapping the crew inside. Meanwhile, on the Sea Fever, Captain Peter Brown (whose father owned the Andrea Gail of The Perfect Storm fame) did his best to ride out the storm, but a giant wave blew out one side of the pilothouse, sending a crew member into the churning ocean.
Meticulously researched and vividly told, Fatal Forecast is first and foremost a tale of miraculous survival. Most amazing is the story of Ernie Hazard, who crawled inside a tiny inflatable life raft—only to be repeatedly thrown into the ocean as he fought to endure more than fifty hours adrift in the storm-tossed seas. By turns tragic, thrilling, and inspiring, Ernie’s story deserves a place among the greatest survival tales ever told.
As gripping and harrowing as The Perfect Storm—but with a miracle ending—Fatal Forecast is an unforgettable true story about the collision of two spectacular forces: the brutality of nature and the human will to survive.
“Tougias skillfully submerges us in this storm and spins a marvelous and terrifying yarn. He makes us fight alongside Ernie Hazard and cheer as he is saved . . . a breathtaking book.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Ernie Hazard’s experiences, as related by Tougias, deserve a place as a classic of sea survival history.”
—Boston Globe
“Tougias spins a dramatic saga. . . . [He] has written eighteen books and this is among his most gripping.”
—National Geographic Adventure magazine
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Copyright © 2014 by Michael J. Tougias and Douglas A. Campbell
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First Scribner hardcover edition April 2014
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013042684
ISBN 978-1-4767-4663-0
ISBN 978-1-4767-4665-4 (ebook)
Permission granted by the Cassie Brown Estate for the excerpt printed in this publication from Cassie Brown’s Standing into Danger.
Photograph credits: 1 courtesy of Scott McQuire; 2–3 courtesy of Jim McNealy; 4–5 courtesy of Susan Tamulevich; 6 courtesy of Adam Prokosh; 7 courtesy of Andy Beck; 8–9 courtesy of Marc Castells; 10–11 courtesy of Tim Kuklewski; 12 courtesy of Dan Todd; 13–18 courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.