Michael Tougias

I’m a sucker for survival stories, and when this title came up, I excitedly downloaded a copy. What a fascinating read!

Tougias is a masterful author. I had a hard time putting this book down, staying up late multiple nights just so I could get the story to a slightly better place, so I could sleep.

At times, I wondered if some of the background information or “side notes” were all that important. One of the biggest things I wondered about was a whole chapter about which types of sharks show more typically live in the Gulf of Mexico. I enjoyed learning that information (it was written in an interesting way), but at the time, it didn’t seem like it added much to the story. Later on, however, when sharks threatened to attack the main characters, I understood why that chapter needed to be there, because I could immediately understand the threat these men were under. It was brilliantly done—just enough information to bring weight to the story, but not enough to be over-telling on the research side.

The survival story itself? Incredible. I can’t imagine living through what these men faced. Once again, I’m in awe at our built-in desire to live, and the way fight or flight mode can supersede many physical problems that would otherwise be overwhelming in less dangerous circumstances. I was also amazed at the “coincidences” that happened that made it possible for these men to be found—in my opinion, only God could have orchestrated that so well.

If you are interested in a realistic, gripping story that not only tells about how three men survived the unimaginable, but also gives you insight into how the Coast Guard works, and other natural and historical facts, I’d highly recommend you pick up this book. I’m planning to look for more Tougias books—I expect they’ll be great reads, too!

I was given a complimentary copy of this book, and this is my honest opinion of it. show less

Three friends head out for a morning of fishing 15 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico when their boat starts taking on water. By the time they realize what's going on it's too late to keep their boat from sinking, and they only have what they managed to grab before it went down to use to stay alive until help comes - a couple of life jackets and two coolers. Unfortunately, they weren't able to send out a Mayday call, their cell phones don't have any reception, and their flare gun went down with show more the ship. To make matters worse, they realize that none of them told anyone exactly where they'd be fishing, or when they'd be back, so they know it will be a long time before they are even missed. This is the true story of their experience trying to survive in the open for 28 hours, in shark infested waters, just hoping they can hold on until rescue comes.

This was such an exciting story, one that read more like fiction than nonfiction. It seemed like anything that could go wrong, did go wrong, including a malfunctioning radio, the lost flare gun, endless swarms of stinging jellyfish, roughening seas overnight, currents swinging them away from oil rigs they keep trying to get to, and last but not least, a shark attack. I honestly don't think I would have made it. The pacing of this story was spot on and made it a very quick and easy read.

All in all, I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend it.

5/5 stars

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Michael J. Tougias for the opportunity to read and review this book. show less

The Finest Hours, by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman is a true story. It is a book about exceptional human bravery and true heroism. It is based on an event, or rather, a series of events, that happened off the eastern seaboard of the United States in 1952.

Picture yourself in a boat. A wooden boat. A wooden boat only thirty-six feet long. A boat designed to hold just twelve people. Then ask yourself: would you venture out in a boat just a little longer than two cars parked end-to-end, show more into the teeth of a fierce Atlantic nor’easter blowing sixty knots, in a February snowstorm, at night, into waves seven stories high?

Hold that thought. Then picture this. Would you go out into the Atlantic Ocean in a storm with gale-force winds that had churned up the sea to a point where it had already torn not one, but two, five-hundred-foot-long, ocean-going steel ships into two pieces, just forty miles from each other? A storm that left the drifting bow and stern sections of the huge broken ships tossing about like corks in the sixty and seventy foot waves? A storm that left dozens of survivors stranded on the drifting hulks, praying desperately against hope, for a miraculous rescue before those ripped-apart sections sank? If you said yes, I’d say: read this book. Then think again.

That scenario really happened in 1952. And there were four people who did go out into the Atlantic, in a small craft, in such a storm. They were a U.S. Coast Guard crew. One man was ordered to go. Three of them volunteered. They went on a search and rescue mission. Before they even got out into the open ocean, the boat’s windshield was smashed as they plunged through a sixty-foot wave, and the compass was torn from its mount and rendered useless. That was just the beginning of what they went through. Incredibly, they all survived. And they carried out one of the most daring sea rescues of the twentieth century.

That story is the essence of the The Finest Hours. The bare facts about the events on their own are astonishing enough—two 10,000-ton ships, the SS Fort Mercer and SS Pendleton, were snapped in two like matchsticks. The sea-battered hulks of one of them went undiscovered for eight hours because the crew was unable to get off a distress signal before the catastrophe—but the authors have put human faces on the story. That is this book’s most compelling feature. Sadly, not everyone on those two wrecks made it back to shore alive. But the reader is pulled inexorably through this well-written book page after page, by a sense of hope for both the shipwrecked sailors, and the rescue crews.

I say crews, because The Finest Hours focuses essentially on telling the story of the one small Coast Guard motor lifeboat, CG36500. But it also covers the greater scope of the overall rescue operation. Four other larger Coast Guard ships, cutters Achushnet, Eastwind, McCulloch, Unimak and Yakutat also raced to the search and rescue effort, as did other vessels and several aircraft. The accounts of rescues by the other ships, some almost as harrowing as that of CG36500 are also woven into the story. But the four-man crew of the small motor lifeboat; Bernard C. Webber and the three volunteers, Andrew J. Fitzgerald, Richard P. Livesey and Ervin E. Maske are the book’s focal point. Their accomplishment was, quite simply, extraordinary.

Seventy of the eighty-four crew from the two huge ships that were torn apart that night were rescued. But there were men on board who were never found. One of the surviving seamen off the Pendleton, Oliver Gendron, believed that some of the crew, including the ship’s captain, would have perished instantly in the midship house on the Pendleton’s bow, when it broke up.

The book is drawn from a deep well of research as the 1952 rescue operation was front-page news worldwide the next day. The authors were able to glean from more than fifty newspaper, wire service and magazine articles, fifteen government agency reports and a number of earlier books. They also interviewed more than two dozen rescue-crew members and shipwreck survivors still living. Their memories, still stark and vivid many years, later go to the very heart of the story.

The Finest Hours is a book with a story that speaks to a reader at the elemental level. Heroism; raw courage in the face of overwhelming odds; the possibility of a miracle in the face of a maelstrom. It was made into a movie in 2016. show less

First sentence: Port Tawfiq, Egypt, simmered in the summer sun of mid-August 1942.

Premise/plot: Nonfiction book suitable for MG, YA, and Adults about the sinking of RMS Laconia on September 12, 1942, in the midst of the Second World War. It was carrying British soldiers, of course, but also women and children--in addition to 1,800 Italian Prisoners of War. The destination was Britain, but it sank shortly it was torpedoed. The German submarine realized afterwards that the ship they'd bombed show more had been carrying thousand plus ITALIAN POWs. Commander Werner Hartenstein decided to help rescue those he'd just attacked--yes, the Italians, but also all the others. Some he took aboard his own ship, others he helped find accommodations on lifeboats. (The lifeboats were a bit haphazard. Some too full. Others less so. Some more seaworthy than others.) The most in need of medical attention received it. Women and children were prioritized as well. But this isn't a sweet, warm-and-cozy rescue. For things got a LOT more complicated and complex as the rescue unfolded...

My thoughts: WHAT AN ORDEAL. I found this one captivating and fascinating. But also super-intense. I'm not sure I'd have been able to handle it as a child. But it is an incredibly told tale of survival. I do wish it was more well known. (I'd not heard of it before.) I would have been watching documentaries and such about it if I'd known. It tells a big picture story, but it also focuses in on some of the survivors and their MANY ordeals in the days and weeks (yes, WEEKS) spent at sea adrift. show less