Rescue of the Bounty: Disaster and Survival in Superstorm Sandy (33 page)

The authors wish to thank the following people we either interviewed or corresponded with. There were not one or two people who were crucial to this story. Instead, there were dozens, and each was an important piece of the mosaic of this dramatic saga. You were gracious with your time and opened up your hearts.

Kristin Andersen

Marco Angelini

Captain Richard Bailey

Michael Beck

Steve Bonn

Cliff Bredeson

Marc Castells

Steve Cerveny

Dina Christian

Jennifer Clark

Captain Bernard Coffey

Connie DeMarus

Todd Farrell

Doug Faunt

Jenny Fields

Captain Christopher Flansburg

Randy Haba

Darren Hicks

Herb Hilgenberg

Lucille Walbridge Jansen

Peter Jansen

Gary Kannegiesser

Tim Kuklewski

Shirley R. Lawyer

Ned Lightner

Michael Lufkin

Barbara Maggio

Wes McIntosh

Jim McNealy

Captain Jan Miles

Bill Miller

James Mitchell

Neil Moulder

Hal Mueller

Tom Murray

Mike Myers

Barbara J. Neff

Chris Parker

Ryan Parker

Jane Peña

Adam Prokosh

Captain Beth Robinson

Peyton Russell

Jonathan Sageser

Jim Salapatek

Joshua Scornavacchi

Andrew Seguin

Rochelle Smith

Larry Sprague

Ed Sychra

Dan Todd

Captain Eric Van Dormolen

Michelle Wilton

Gerald Zwicker

—Michael J. Tougias and Douglas A. Campbell

Michael J. Tougias
is a versatile author and coauthor of twenty-one books. Two of his previous books,
A Storm Too Soon
and
Overboard!
(both written in the present tense), received critical praise because of their fast-paced style and “heart-pounding” narratives. His bestselling book
Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Tale of Disaster and Survival at Sea
was praised by the
Los Angeles Times
as “a breathtaking book . . . [Tougias] spins a marvelous and terrifying yarn.” His earlier book
Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the
Can Do was praised by
Booklist
“as the best story of peril at sea since
The Perfect Storm
.” This book, about a sea rescue during the Blizzard of 1978, was selected by the American Library Association as an Editor’s Choice: “One of the Top Books of the Year.”

Tougias and coauthor Casey Sherman teamed up and wrote a combination history/ocean-rescue story titled
The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue.
This drama occurred in 1952 off the coast of Cape Cod when two oil tankers, in the grip of a nor’easter, were split in half and eighty-four lives were in jeopardy. The Disney Corporation is currently making a movie based on this book.

On a lighter note, Tougias’s award-winning humor book
There’s a Porcupine in My Outhouse:
Misadventures of a Mountain Man Wannabe
was selected by the Independent Book Publishers Association as “The Best Nature Book of the Year.” The author has also written for over two hundred different and diverse publications including the
New York Times
,
Field & Stream
,
Fine Gardening
, and the
Boston Globe
. He has just coauthored two new books:
The Cringe Chronicles
and
Derek’s Gift: A True Story of Love, Courage, and Lessons Learned.

Tougias has prepared slide lectures for all his books, including
Rescue of the
Bounty, and his lecture schedule is posted on his website at www.michaeltougias.com. (Interested organizations can contact him at [email protected].) The author also has an archive of maritime rescue articles and personal stories on his blog michaeltougias.wordpress.com, and he has an author page on Facebook at “Michael J. Tougias.”

Through research into dozens of survival stories, Tougias has also prepared an inspirational lecture for businesses and organizations titled “Survival Lessons: Peak Performance & Decision-Making Under Pressure.” Tougias describes this presentation as “an uplifting way to learn some practical strategies and mind-sets for achieving difficult goals from those who have survived against all odds.” He has given the presentation across the country for all types of organizations, including General Dynamics, International Administrative Association, Massachusetts School Library Association, NYU Surgeon’s Roundtable, North Platte Town Lecture Series, Lincoln Financial Services, Raytheon, United States Coast Guard, and many more. Interested organizations can contact him at [email protected]. For more details see www.michaeltougias.com.

Douglas A. Campbell
, the author of two nonfiction books,
The Sea’s Bitter Harvest
and
Eight Survived
, has spent his career in journalism. For twenty-five years, he was a staff writer at the
Philadelphia Inquirer
, where two of his stories were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. After retiring from the
Inquirer
in 2001, he resumed his career as senior writer at
Soundings
magazine, covering all aspects of recreational boating. His stories for
Soundings
have won numerous awards from Boating Writers International Inc.

Doug began sailing on the Delaware River in 1979 and still keeps a small boat moored there. He and his wife, Monica, also sail a thirty-two-foot blue-water boat,
Robin
, with which they’ve competed in the biannual Bermuda 1-2 Race. Doug has placed third out of thirty-nine boats on corrected-time sailing the single-handed leg of the race from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bermuda.

A
LSO BY
M
ICHAEL
J. T
OUGIAS

A Storm Too Soon

The Finest Hours
(coauthored with Casey Sherman)

Overboard!

Fatal Forecast

Ten Hours Until Dawn

Until I Have No Country

There’s a Porcupine in My Outhouse

The Cringe Chronicles

Derek’s Gift

King Philip’s War
(coauthored with Eric Schultz)

A
LSO BY
D
OUGLAS
A. C
AMPBELL

The Sea’s Bitter Harvest

Eight Survived

Seventy-foot waves batter a tattered life raft 250 miles out to sea in one of the world’s most dangerous places, the Gulf Stream. Hanging on to the raft are three men, a Canadian, a Brit, and their captain, JP DeLutz, a dual citizen of America and France. The waves repeatedly toss the men out of their tiny vessel, and JP, with nine broken ribs, is hypothermic and on the verge of death. The captain, however, is a tough-minded character, having survived a sadistic, physically abusive father during his boyhood, and now he’s got to rely on those same inner resources to outlast the storm.

Trying to reach these survivors before it’s too late are four coastguardsmen battling hurricane-force winds in their Jayhawk helicopter. They know the waves in the Gulf Stream will be extreme, but when they arrive they are astounded to find crashing seas of seventy feet, with some waves topping eighty feet. To lower the helicopter and then drop a rescue swimmer into such chaos is a high-risk proposition. The pilots wonder if they have a realistic chance of saving the sailors clinging to the broken life raft, and if they will be able to retrieve their own rescue swimmer from the towering seas. Once they commit to the rescue, they find themselves in almost as much trouble as the survivors, facing several life-and-death decisions.