Research Catalog

Title

Deadliest sea : the untold story behind the greatest rescue in Coast Guard history / Kalee Thompson.

Author

Thompson, Kalee

Publication

New York, NY : William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers, c2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

309 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., map; 24 cm.

Summary

Soon after 2:00 A.M. on Easter morning, March 23, 2008, the fishing trawler Alaska Ranger began taking on water in the frigid Bering Sea. While the first mate broadcast Mayday calls to a Coast Guard station more than 800 miles away, the men scrambled to inflate life rafts. By 4:30, the wheelhouse was just barely visible, and most of the 47 crew were in the water, wearing the red survival suits--many torn or inadequately sized--that were supposed to keep them from freezing to death. Two Coast Guard helicopter rescue teams battled snow squalls, enormous swells, and gale-force winds. Before dawn, the Coast Guard had lifted more than twenty men from the freezing waves--more than any other cold-water Coast Guard rescue in history. This book recounts the harrowing stories of both the rescuers and the rescued, and investigates the negligence that leads to the sinking of dozens of ships each year.--From publisher description.

Subject

• Alaska Ranger (Trawler)
• United States. Coast Guard > Search and rescue operations > Bering Sea
• Shipwrecks > Bering Sea
• Search and rescue operations > Bering Sea

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The Alaska Ranger -- "Go to the suits!" -- Always ready -- Best speed -- "Abandon ship!" -- The observers -- Alone in the waves -- Swimmer in the water -- Sick at sea -- Man down -- Out of the cold -- Death at the extremes -- The final search -- The investigation.

ISBN

• 9780061766299
• 0061766291

LCCN

^^2010001922

OCLC

456180388

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library