Run the Storm: A Savage Hurricane, a Brave Crew, and the Wreck of the SS El Faro

by George Michelsen Foy Narrated by L.J. Ganser

Overview

In the bestselling tradition of The Perfect Storm and The Finest Hours, “an exquisitely written and dramatic book...a literary page-turner” (Doug Stanton, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Horse Soldiers)-the 2015 mysterious disappearance of the SS El Faro, a gigantic American cargo ship that sank in the Bermuda Triangle, taking with it thirty-three lives.

On October 1, 2015, the SS El Faro, a massive American cargo ship disappeared in Hurricane Joaquin, a category 4 storm. The ship, its hundreds of shipping containers, and its entire crew plummeted to the bottom of the ocean, three miles down. It was the greatest seagoing US merchant marine shipping disaster since World War II. The massive ship had a seasoned crew, state-of-the-art navigation equipment, and advance warning of the storm. It seemed incomprehensible that such a ship could sink so suddenly. How, in this day and age, could something like this happen?

Relying on Coast Guard inquest hearings, as well as on numerous interviews, George Michelsen Foy brings us “the most insightful exploration of this unthinkable disaster” (Outside), a story that lasts only a few days, but which grows almost intolerably suspenseful as deep-rooted flaws leading to the disaster inexorably link together and worsen. We see captain, engineers, and crew fight for their lives, and hear their actual words (as recorded on the ship's black box) while the hurricane relentlessly tightens its noose around the ship. We watch, minute by minute, all that is happening on board-the ship's mysterious tilt to one side, worried calls to the engine room, ship-to-shore reports, the courage of the men and women as they fight to survive, and the berserk ocean's savage consumption of the massive hull. And through it all, the pain and ultimate resilience of the families of El Faro's crew. Now with a new afterword, this “tour de force of nautical expertise” (Ocean Navigator) is a masterwork of stunning power.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Fans of The Perfect Storm and Into Thin Air will love this exquisitely written and dramatic book. George Foy has an action story that doesn’t quit. At the same, time he charts this emotional journey with captivating sensitivity. As readers, we, too, board the SS El Faro, and discover what is the very best and most enduring about ourselves. A literary page-turner, a joy to read.” —Doug Stanton, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Horse Soldiers, The Odyssey of Echo Company, and In Harm’s Way

“Here is the pitch-perfect pairing of subject and author, a gripping deconstruction of one of recent history’s most terrible and vexing sea tragedies. Run the Storm is a meticulous forensic study that, in Foy’s able hands, rises to the level of literature.” —Hampton Sides, author of In the Kingdom of Ice

“Make no mistake, Foy is a natural story teller, but what impressed me was his uncommon ability to weave his deep knowledge of the ship, weather systems, and navigation to accelerate the story, instead of slowing it down. Foy is an experienced mariner who clearly knows his stuff, which gives the reader confidence in his account, and allows us to get lost in an amazing story that builds to a wild finish.” —John U. Bacon, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism

“Run the Storm is a dramatic, thrilling adventure story, as well as a cautionary tale about the dangers of going to sea—even today, in our age of satellite communications and real-time weather forecasting. George Foy uses the surviving audio tapes of the crew’s final hours on the doomed ship to chilling effect, and he convincingly shows how a series of seemingly unrelated errors and omissions metastasized into a full-scale disaster. A remarkable book.” —William Geroux, author of The Mathews Men

“With just the right pedigree to tell this familiar story...Foy connects the detail with the domino each represented in causing one of the nation’s deadliest maritime disasters.” —Florida Times-Union

“A fact-filled, exciting tale of a ship’s tragic final voyage.” —Kirkus

“Foy does the best job. He tells the story briskly and confidently while working in helpful asides: how cargo containers are fastened to a ship deck, how forecasts are determined, how huge ships stay upright (and how they don’t). Run the Storm...gracefully covers everything you’d want to know about El Faro’s sinking and the 33 lives that went with it.” —Outside

“A tour de force of nautical expertise coupled with sensitive treatment of one of the worst maritime disasters in our history.” —Ocean Navigator

“There will presumably be dozens of thrillers and horror novels published this year that will not have the sheer and frightening strength of Foy's words. They're Conrad by way of James Lee Burke, Melville through the prism of Marquez.” —New London Day

Kirkus Reviews

2018-05-01
Tense recounting of the final hours aboard a cargo ship that went down in a hurricane with all hands onboard.At the end of September 2015, the captain and crew boarded El Faro, a ship loaded with metal containers, on a routine run from Jacksonville to Puerto Rico. At the same time, a hurricane was building in the Atlantic, but Capt. Mike Davidson felt they could outrun the storm and reach the island without too much trouble. Using interviews with family members and thousands of pages of documentation, including the transcriptions of hours of recordings from the voyage data recorder, Foy (Finding North: How Navigation Makes Us Human, 2016, etc.), a former officer on coastal freighters, pieces together the final few days aboard El Faro, including its fateful run-in with freakish Hurricane Joaquin on Oct. 1, 2015. The author carefully introduces the captain and crew, painting fully fleshed portraits, and he also provides a solid overview of the ship itself. Foy describes the numerous errors that occurred on the last voyage. "The quantum chain reactions that would end in shipwreck began individually and at varied locations, at different hours, sometimes on separate days," he writes, "but they started to come together most concretely in the afternoon of Tuesday, September 29, 2015, as the SS El Faro prepared for sea." These mistakes, including hubris, the relentless chase for profits, and breaches in safety, claimed the lives of all onboard. The author provides little information about what happened after the ship sank, how it was found, and who was found responsible—details that receive greater elaboration in Rachel Slade's compelling book on the same subject, Into the Raging Sea. Foy maintains the focus on the hours leading up to the last minute that anyone was alive, and photographs, maps, and drawings help readers imagine the entire scenario.A fact-filled, exciting tale of a ship's tragic final voyage. A good complement to Slade's more well-rounded book.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170803095
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	376,517

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