Sea Disasters

In the tradition of The Perfect Storm, Sudden Sea hearkens back to a natural disaster that struck terror in the hearts of many. In this narrative, listeners experience the Great Hurricane of 1938, the most financially destructive storm on record.

When the fishing vessel La Conte sinks suddenly at night in 100-mile-per-hour winds and record 90-foot seas during a savage storm in January 1998, her five crewmen are left to drift without a life raft in the freezing Alaskan waters and survive as best they can. One hundred fifty miles away, in Sitka, Alaska, an H-60 Jayhawk helicopter lifts off from America's most remote Coast Guard base in the hopes of tracking down an anonymous Mayday signal. A fisherman's worst nightmare has become a Coast Guard crew's desperate mission.

A comprehensive catalog of the most devastating and deadly events-natural or man-made-in human history. If you follow the news it can seem like injury, sickness, and death are now constant, inescapable occurrences that threaten us every second of every day. But such catastrophic events - as terrible and frightening as they are - have been happening for as long as mankind has walked the Earth.... and even before. From ancient volcanoes and floods to epidemics of cholera and smallpox to Hitler's mass killings in the 20th century, humanity's continued existence has always seemed perilous.

Man’s struggle against the sea is a theme that has created some of the world’s most exciting stories. Now, in the tradition of Moby Dick comes a New York Times best seller destined to become a modern classic. Written by journalist Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm combines an intimate portrait of a small fishing crew with fascinating scientific data about boats and weather systems.

Fatal Forecast chronicles a dramatic fight for survival aboard two small fishing boats that were ambushed by a horrific surprise storm just southeast of Cape Cod. Soon after the Fair Wind and the Sea Fever reached the fishing ground at Georges Bank, they were hit with hurricane-force winds and massive 90-foot waves that battered the boats for hours. The direction of the wind made it impossible to turn back.

On the night of 14/15 April 1912, a supposedly unsinkable ship, the largest and most luxurious vessel in the world at the time, collided with an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage. Of the 2,208 people on board, only 712 were saved. The rest either drowned or froze to death. How could this 'unsinkable' vessel sink and why did so few of those aboard survive? The authors bring the tragedy to life, telling the story of the ship's design, construction, and maiden voyage.

When John and Jean Silverwood, both experienced sailors, decided to give their four children a taste of life on the high seas, they hoped the trip would offer important learning experiences - not only about the natural world but about the beauty of human life stripped down to its essence, far from civilization. But the adventure that awaited them would surpass anything they could have imagined.

The harrowing story of five men who were sent into a dark, airless, miles-long tunnel, hundreds of feet below the ocean, to do a nearly impossible job - with deadly results.

Mystery in The Deep Sea Not long after a young couple is attacked and killed by a mysterious predator in the ocean, an exploration crew goes to investigate some strange findings in the deep sea. What they discover is shocking, and the mission soon turns into a fight for survival. Fatal Submergence Cole, Ryan, and Troy go cruising on a boat, only to find themselves abducted and held hostage by a group of armed criminals on a ship. After they head further out into the ocean, they begin to realize that the abduction is actually the least of their problems.

On an August night in 1893, the deadliest hurricane in South Carolina history struck the Lowcountry, killing thousands—almost all African American. But the devastating storm is only the beginning of this story. The hurricane's long effects intermingled with ongoing processes of economic downturn, racial oppression, resistance, and environmental change. In the Lowcountry, the political, economic, and social conditions of Jim Crow were inextricable from its environmental dimensions.

On October 1, 2015, Hurricane Joaquin barreled into the Bermuda Triangle and swallowed the container ship El Faro whole, resulting in the worst American shipping disaster in 35 years. No one could fathom how a vessel equipped with satellite communications and a sophisticated navigation system could suddenly vanish - until now. Relying on hundreds of exclusive interviews with family members and maritime experts, as well as the words of the crew members themselves - whose conversations were captured by the ship’s data recorder - journalist Rachel Slade unravels the mystery.

In December 1944, while supporting General MacArthur's invasion of the Philippines, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey neglected the Law of Storms, placing the mighty US Third Fleet in harm's way. Drawing on extensive interviews with nearly every living survivor and rescuer, as well as many families of lost sailors, transcripts and other records from naval courts of inquiry, ships' logs, personal letters, and diaries, Bruce Henderson finds some of the story's truest heroes exhibiting selflessness, courage, and even defiance.

Evan, Zoe and their band of mostly young fighters have built a fragile new life amidst the chaos wrought by the Blood Virus and the New Humanity cult. Despite a series of successful attacks on the outposts of the sadistic empire of the cult and its leader, John Locke, freeing scores of its victims, Evan is no closer to real victory. New Humanity and its leadership sit secure in a headquarters complex that appears invincible, free to abuse the weak and innocent and continue a quest for a master race. Achieving final justice would take a miracle and could cost Evan everyone and everything he ...

Evan Garrison is a former Army Ranger running a private security firm near Naples, Florida. Asked by friends to join a reunion cruise vacation, he was surprised when Zoe Wilder, a beautiful young medical resident volunteered to accompany him. Leaving his three partners and old friends behind to manage his company, Evan and Zoe embark, both wondering if the cruise would move their friendship toward romance. They were unaware that a massive conspiracy to remake the world was looming, as John Locke, a billionaire and self-proclaimed visionary and his followers prepared to unleash a deadly ...

During the height of the blizzard of 1978, the tanker Global Hope floundered on the shoals off the Massachusetts coast. The Coast Guard dispatched a patrol boat, but was soon in as much trouble as the tanker. Then pilot boat captain Frank Quirk, hearing of the Coast Guard's troubles on his radio, decided to act.

Sawyer Westin is senior researcher for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where he works with Martina Bloom, another scientist, tracking climate issues relating to the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. A decorated former Army helicopter pilot, Sawyer can handle the dangers of these harsh and barren, yet beautiful settings, but when an American team is brutally attacked in Antarctica, he and Martina find themselves pulled into a growing mystery involving a hostile foreign power. A senseless murder on the polar ice quickly spirals into a terrifying global conspiracy ...

In July 1973, Bob Tininenko, his wife Linda, and his brother in-law Jim Fisher set sail from Tacoma, Washington, on a 31-foot trimaran, down the West Coast to Costa Rica. The journey was expected to take a matter of weeks, but 10 days into the cruise, the party encountered a freak storm off the coast of Northern California. When gale-force winds and 50-foot waves capsized their boat, the voyage became a nightmare. For 72 days, the trio was lost at sea. Challenged by nature and compromised by a bitter rivalry, their courage and will to live was put to the ultimate test.

On the south coast of Japan, everything is in a state of chaos. First, the earthquake hit. Then, the ensuing tsunami—a tragedy that took countless innocent lives. Now, to make matters worse, the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant is spilling radioactive water out to sea. Desperate to stop this ecological disaster in the making, Japan’s top scientists have called upon Dr. Tim Collins and Professor James Donaghey for help. But poisonous water isn’t the only threat facing this battered region. Priceless antiquities, irreplaceable pieces of Japan’s history, have been stolen from area...

Beneath the waves lie stories the world was never meant to forget. From the doomed voyage of the Titanic to the eerie silence of the Mary Celeste, Drowned in Silence dives deep into fifteen of the most chilling, mysterious, and tragic sea disasters ever recorded. Author James Calloway brings each tale to life with immersive, emotional storytelling that will haunt readers long after the final page. Survival. Mystery. Loss. The sea remembers everything.

On the night of February 18, 1952, during one of the worst winter storms that New England has ever seen, two oil tankers just off the shore of Cape Cod were torn in half by the force of the storm. This middle-grade adaptation of an adult nonfiction book tells the story of the shipwreck and a harrowing Coast Guard rescue when four men in a tiny lifeboat overcame insurmountable odds and saved more than thirty stranded sailors.