Into the Storm

“An intense, immersive deep dive into a wild, dangerous, and unknown world, written with the pace and appeal of a great thriller. This is nonfiction at its very best.”--Lee Child The true story of two doomed ships and a daring search-and-rescue operation that shines a light on the elite Coast Guard swimmers trained for the most dangerous ocean missions With a new epilogue about a flight on a hurricane hunter In late September 2015, Hurricane Joaquin swept past the Bahamas and swallowed a pair of cargo vessels in its destructive path: El Faro , a 790-foot American behemoth with a crew of thirty-three, and the Minouche , a 230-foot freighter with a dozen sailors aboard. From the parallel stories of these ships and their final journeys, Tristram Korten weaves a remarkable tale of two veteran sea captains from very different worlds, the harrowing ordeals of their desperate crews, and the Coast Guard’s extraordinary battle against a storm that defied prediction. When the Coast Guard received word from Captain Renelo Gelera that the Minouche was taking on water on the night of October 1, the servicemen on duty helicoptered through Joaquin to the sinking ship. Rescue swimmer Ben Cournia dropped into the sea--in the middle of a raging tropical cyclone, in the dark--and churned through the monstrous swells, loading survivors into a rescue basket dangling from the helicopter as its pilot struggled against the tempest. With pulsating narrative skill in the tradition of Sebastian Junger and Jon Krakauer, Korten recounts the heroic efforts by Cournia and his fellow guardsmen to haul the Minouche’ s crew to safety. Tragically, things would not go as well for Captain Michael Davidson and El Faro . Despite exhaustive searching by her would-be rescuers, the loss of the vessel became the largest U.S. maritime disaster in decades. As Korten narrates the ships’ fates, with insights drawn from insider access to crew members, Coast Guard teams, and their families, he delivers a moving and propulsive story of men in peril, the international brotherhood of mariners, and the breathtaking power of nature. Praise for Into the Storm “The story [Tristram] Korten tells is impressively multifaceted, exploring everything from timely issues such as climate change to timeless themes such as man’s struggle against the ocean’s fury.” -- Miami New Times “ Into the Storm is a triumph of reporting and you-are-there writing that becomes a deeper tale--with more implications about our own lives--with every chapter.” --Robert Kurson, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers ...

ldquo;Spectacular in every way—an intense, immersive deep dive into a wild, dangerous, and unknown world, written with the pace and appeal of a great thriller . . . This is nonfiction at its very best.”—Lee Child, #1 *New York Times*bestselling author of the Jack Reacher novels

“The story [Tristram] Korten tells is impressively multifaceted, exploring everything from timely issues such as climate change to timeless themes such as man’s struggle against the ocean’s fury.”—Miami New Times

“Korten does an excellent job of describing the nearly indescribable power and ferocity of major hurricanes. . . . Korten brings readers inside the world of the rescue crews whose incredible courage so often makes the difference between life and death in catastrophes like this one. . . . Into the Storm reads like more than just the chronicle of one maritime disaster—and may be a warning claxon against the possibility of more such disasters coming this hurricane season.”—Open Letters Review

“Readers of ocean drama will snap up Korten’s work. . . . [He] gets to tell a complete story; impressively, he keeps it suspenseful.”—The Free Lance-Star 

“An incredible story and a first-rate adventure . . . Tristram Korten delivers us into a thrilling and dangerous world, strapping us in beside everyday heroes who confront forces of nature even Hollywood can’t re-create. Into the Storm is a triumph of reporting and you-are-there writing that becomes a deeper tale—with more implications about our own lives—with every chapter.”—Robert Kurson, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers
 
“Riveting stuff—a terrifying but also inspiring story of disaster and resilience on the high seas. This is as close as I ever need to get to being aboard a ship in a hurricane. Riveting stuff.”—Josh Dean, author of The Taking of K-129

Autorentext

Tristram Korten

Leseprobe
Chapter 1

Clearwater

The C-­130 cargo plane sat on the tarmac, a hulking, high-­winged, metal-­sheathed beast of burden, painted white and orange, the belly so low to the ground it obscured its own wheels. The predawn sky above was dark, but not still. It never is. Currents of air continued journeys that had started continents away, where they twisted and flowed across mountains and deserts, then forests and oceans, pulled and pushed by troughs and ridges of low and high pressure, deflected and guided across an in­visible topography, propelled by the sun’s heat and the planet’s motion. Cool air descended while warm air rose. Within the ­currents, celestial gases drifted through a transparent skyscape of peaks and valleys—­nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, ozone, and water vapor—­redistributed according to their weight up to the stratosphere. The moisture formed into clouds—­cirrus, altocumulus, cumulus, stratocumulus, the towering and formidable cumulonimbus—­that dissolve and re-­form. Below this invisible ballet, in the emergent morning of September 17, 2015, the plane waited on a runway at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Air Station Clearwater, on Florida’s west coast. Nearly twenty thousand horsepower spread over four turbo­prop engines, waiting to ride up and surf those clouds.

Across town, Ben Cournia woke in the blue-­black of early morning to a quietly chirping alarm. He hit the button quickly and eased his long body up, careful not to disturb his wife, Lindsay, as she slept next to him. She’d have to get up in a couple of hours and go through the tumult of getting the kids to school by herself—­making their lunches, packing their backpacks, and hustling them along through teeth brushing and getting dressed. Lord knows, she needed her rest.

Cournia quietly made his way to the bathroom and bent his tall frame over the sink as he turned on the water, his skin pale in the bathroom light, his long arms ropey with muscles and veins. He had thick brown hair, cut short per regulations, and his eyes were set back under a prominent brow. Cournia’s swimsuit hung from the shower curtain rod, still damp from the swim in the pool last night. This is their tradition. The night before Daddy leaves for his two-­week deployments, the kids get an after-­dinner swim in the pool.

As Lindsay cleared the table, Lucy, six, and Lincoln, three, had run squealing to their rooms and wiggled into their suits. Ben also changed into his, then went out and knelt by the pool’s edge, furrowing his brow, pretending to fix something. The kids came running out, the soft pads of uncalloused little feet thup-­thupping over to him, and—­splash!—­they pushed Daddy into the pool. Oh no, he’s drowning! Daddy needs help! The kids jumped in for the rescue. They glided under the water like chubby little dolphins. His kids can swim, Ben has made sure of that. Of course, they rescued Daddy. Afterward, they showered and got ready for bed. Ben tucked them in.

I’ll be gone for…