Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro

Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro

by Rachel Slade
Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro

Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro

by Rachel Slade

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Overview

WINNER OF THE MAINE LITERARY AWARD FOR NON FICTION

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

ONE OF JANET MASLIN’S MUST-READ BOOKS OF THE SUMMER

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE

ONE OF OUTSIDE MAGAZINE’S BEST BOOKS OF THE SUMMER

ONE OF AMAZON'S BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR SO FAR

“A powerful and affecting story, beautifully handled by Slade, a journalist who clearly knows ships and the sea.”—Douglas Preston, New York Times Book Review

“A Perfect Storm for a new generation.”
Ben Mezrich, bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook

On October 1, 2015, Hurricane Joaquin barreled into the Bermuda Triangle and swallowed the container ship El Faro whole, resulting in the worst American shipping disaster in thirty-five years. No one could fathom how a vessel equipped with satellite communications, a sophisticated navigation system, and cutting-edge weather forecasting could suddenly vanish—until now.

Relying on hundreds of exclusive interviews with family members and maritime experts, as well as the words of the crew members themselves—whose conversations were captured by the ship’s data recorder—journalist Rachel Slade unravels the mystery of the sinking of El Faro. As she recounts the final twenty-four hours onboard, Slade vividly depicts the officers’ anguish and fear as they struggled to carry out Captain Michael Davidson’s increasingly bizarre commands, which, they knew, would steer them straight into the eye of the storm. Taking a hard look at America's aging merchant marine fleet, Slade also reveals the truth about modern shipping—a cut-throat industry plagued by razor-thin profits and ever more violent hurricanes fueled by global warming.

A richly reported account of a singular tragedy, Into the Raging Sea takes us into the heart of an age-old American industry, casting new light on the hardworking men and women who paid the ultimate price in the name of profit.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780062699718
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 05/01/2018
Sold by: HARPERCOLLINS
Format: eBook
Pages: 416
Sales rank: 275,519
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Rachel Slade is a Boston-based journalist, writer, and editor. She was a staff writer at Boston magazine for ten years, and her writing earned her a City and Regional Magazine Award in civic journalism. She splits her time between Brookline, Massachusetts, and Rockport, Maine.

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters xiii

Chain of Command Aboard El Faro xvii

El Faro Plans and Section xviii

Map of the Final Voyage of El Faro xx

A Note on the Text xxiii

Part 1

Chapter 1 The Clock Is Ticking 3

Chapter 2 Blount Island 7

Chapter 3 Tropical Storm Joaquin 19

Chapter 4 Third Mate Jeremie Riehm 29

Chapter 5 A Hurricane is not a Point on a Map 47

Chapter 6 Second Mate Danielle Randolph 59

Chapter 7 Collision Course 69

Chapter 8 Hull Number 670 81

Chapter 9 Afternoon 97

Chapter 10 Captain Michael Davidson 111

Chapter 11 Question Authority? 121

Chapter 12 The Jones Act 135

Chapter 13 Evening 147

Chapter 14 Night 159

Chapter 15 Necesitamos La Mercancía 167

Chapter 16 Dawn 177

Chapter 17 The Raging Sea 185

Chapter 18 We're Gonna Make It 195

Part 2

Chapter 19 We've Lost Communication 203

Chapter 20 Search and Rescue 215

Chapter 21 Flight to Jacksonville 229

Chapter 22 Ships Don't Just Disappear 241

Chapter 23 Profit and Loss 253

Chapter 24 The Truth Is Out There 265

Chapter 25 How to Sink a Ship 277

Chapter 26 Admiral Greene Clears the Air 283

Chapter 27 Portrait of Incompetence 299

Chapter 28 Mission Number Two 311

Chapter 29 The Proof is in the Pudding 319

Chapter 30 Voices 331

Chapter 31 Twenty-Four Minutes 339

Chapter 32 Spirits 345

Epilogue 351

Crew List 365

Acknowledgments 367

A Note on Sources 371

Index 375

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