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Rescue of the Bounty
Disaster and Survival in Superstorm Sandy
Table of Contents
About The Book
From the author of the Fall 2015 Disney movie The Finest Hours, the “thrilling and perfectly paced” (Booklist) story of the sinking and rescue of Bounty—the tall ship used in the classic 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty—which was caught in the path of Hurricane Sandy with sixteen aboard.
On Thursday, October 25, 2012, Captain Robin Walbridge made the fateful decision to sail Bounty from New London, Connecticut, to St. Petersburg, Florida. Walbridge knew that a hurricane was forecast, yet he was determined to sail. The captain told the crew that anyone could leave the ship before it sailed. No one took the captain up on his offer.
Four days into the voyage, Superstorm Sandy made an almost direct hit on the ship. A few hours later, the ship suddenly overturned ninety miles off the North Carolina coast in the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” sending the crew tumbling into an ocean filled with towering thirty-foot waves. The coast guard then launched one of the most complex and massive rescues in its history.
In the uproar heard across American media in the days following, a single question persisted: Why did the captain decide to sail? Through hundreds of hours of interviews with the crew members and the coast guard, Michael J. Tougias and Douglas A. Campbell create an in-depth portrait of the enigmatic Captain Walbridge, his motivations, and what truly occurred aboard Bounty during those terrifying days at sea. “A white-knuckled, tragic adventure” (Richmond Times-Dispatch), Rescue of the Bounty is an unforgettable tale about the brutality of nature and the human will to survive.
On Thursday, October 25, 2012, Captain Robin Walbridge made the fateful decision to sail Bounty from New London, Connecticut, to St. Petersburg, Florida. Walbridge knew that a hurricane was forecast, yet he was determined to sail. The captain told the crew that anyone could leave the ship before it sailed. No one took the captain up on his offer.
Four days into the voyage, Superstorm Sandy made an almost direct hit on the ship. A few hours later, the ship suddenly overturned ninety miles off the North Carolina coast in the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” sending the crew tumbling into an ocean filled with towering thirty-foot waves. The coast guard then launched one of the most complex and massive rescues in its history.
In the uproar heard across American media in the days following, a single question persisted: Why did the captain decide to sail? Through hundreds of hours of interviews with the crew members and the coast guard, Michael J. Tougias and Douglas A. Campbell create an in-depth portrait of the enigmatic Captain Walbridge, his motivations, and what truly occurred aboard Bounty during those terrifying days at sea. “A white-knuckled, tragic adventure” (Richmond Times-Dispatch), Rescue of the Bounty is an unforgettable tale about the brutality of nature and the human will to survive.
About The Authors
Photo Credit: Alison O'Leary
Michael J. Tougias is the author of a number of books, including Rescue of the Bounty: Disaster and Survival in Superstorm Sandy; Overboard!; The Finest Hours (with Casey Sherman), the basis of the major motion picture released in 2016; Fatal Forecast; and Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do. He is a sought-after lecturer who gives more than seventy presentations each year. He lives in Massachusetts.
Photograph by
Douglas A. Campbell spent three decades in daily journalism, twenty-five of those years as a staff writer at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where two of his stories were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Campbell has sailed his own boats since 1979 and has twice competed in the biannual Bermuda One-Two race.
Product Details
- Publisher: Scribner (April 1, 2014)
- Length: 256 pages
- ISBN13: 9781476746654
Raves and Reviews
"Tougias and Campbell superbly re-create the disastrous voyage, providing just the right amount of detail to bring every character involved in this dramatic tale to life, from Bounty captain Robin Walbridge and his shipmates to the brave coast guard rescue swimmers. A thrilling and perfectly paced book, Rescue of the Bounty is filled with good intentions but bad decisions, tall-ship history and current usage, and the roar and taste of the storm-whipped ocean."
– Booklist
“Riveting….breathtaking….Tougias and Campbell build tension slowly and methodically…a sound strategy that pays off when they reach the storm itself. Then, the book becomes a white-knuckled, tragic adventure experienced by recognizable and sympathetic figures.”
– Richmond Times-Dispatch
“A book that succeeds both as a high-seas adventure and as a psychological portrait of Bounty’s ill-fated captain, Robin Walbridge….a gripping account.”
– The Day
"A taut recounting of a needless maritime tragedy."
– Kirkus
“Tougias and Campbell’s well researched and very personal effort details the doubts and questions as the ship gets underway, takes you aboard as the exhausted crew struggled to keep it afloat, then into the raging sea as the soggy survivors feverishly clambered into the bouncing rafts, and onto the tossing aircraft as the Coast Guard hoisted the sailors from the maelstrom below.”
– Florida Times-Union
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Rescue of the Bounty eBook 9781476746654
- Author Photo (jpg): Michael J. Tougias Photo Credit: Alison O'Leary(0.1 MB)
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- Author Photo (jpg): Douglas A. Campbell Photograph by(0.1 MB)
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