Michael
Tougias is the third author to visit the Morrill Memorial Library this fall (as
part of the Stuart Plumer Author Night Series). He is a local author and his
book, The Finest Hours (coauthored with Casey Sherman in 2009) is the basis for
a Disney film that will be released in theaters in January of 2016. Casey
Affleck, Chris Pine, Holliday Grainger and Ben Foster star in the movie that
portrays a daring and harrowing rescue off the coast of Cape Cod. The movie has
had several planned release dates over the past few years – one as early as
this October and the other as late as the spring of 2016.
The
Finest Hours is just one of six books that Mike Tougias has written about
heroism and tragedy at sea, most of them tales off the coasts of New England. A
related book, The Blizzard of ’78 (2001) recounts the storm that “knocked New
England to its knees”.
The
Finest Hours recounts the harrowing efforts of the Coast Guard to rescue
sailors when two oil tankers split in two by the force of a terrible winter
storm on February 18, 1952. This happened just off of the Cape Cod coast, and
the courageous men who braved stormy seas and insurmountable odds to save more
than 30 sailors from the ship.
On December 2 at 7 pm, Tougias will speak about
his latest maritime story, Rescue of the Bounty. An exact replica of the HMS Bounty (made for
the 1935 film Mutiny on the Bounty) was precipitously moored off New London,
Connecticut before that Hurricane Sandy roared up the Eastern coastline in 2012.
Fifteen men and Captain Robin Walbridge hoped to bring her to a safer port in
St. Petersburg, Florida, sailing to the east of the hurricane. Unfortunately,
the rest is history as that fateful storm bashed and battered the ship which
took on water and overturned, spilling its crew into the tumultuous seas. Once
again, the US Coast Guard rushed to the rescue and saved all but two of the
crew in a daring and courageous effort.
Mr.
Tougias has visited our library before to talk about his books Fatal Forecast
(2007), Ten Hours Until Dawn (2005) and Overboard (2010). Another, A Storm Too Soon (2013) is set off
the Gulf Coast. Like all his books, they are incredible stories of heroism and
tragedy at sea.
Fatal
Forecast is the tale of two lobster boats as they left for the fishing grounds
of Georges Bank. Weather, as it always is off the Massachusetts coast, was
unpredictable that November day in 1980. Brewing storms were off to the
southeast and malfunctioning weather buoys caught two fishing boats in the tumult
and frenzy. The story details the tale of the Fair Wind and the Sea Fever,
crippled by the fury of nature. While it was the last voyage, and a fatal one,
for some of the sailors, it is also the heroic tale of the amazing rescue of
Ernie Hazard, who spent hours adrift in an inflatable life raft.
Ten
Hours Until Dawn is another story of courage and death – yet it occurred two
years earlier during the Blizzard of 1978. While cars were caught on
snow-covered highways, the tanker the Global Hope was foundering on the shoals
in Salem Sound, just off the coast of Marblehead and west of Baker’s and Great
Misery islands. A Coast Guard patrol
boat, heading for a rescue, lost its equipment and power and foundered in the
mayhem. Captain of the Can Do, Frank Quirk, and his four men who disappeared in
the storm. They perished in the seas, courageously rushing in to help.
Tougias
admits (in the biography on his author blog) that his publishers would probably
“wish I would stay on one topic or theme.”
Instead, he acknowledges that he finds a subject he is passionate about,
and he researches until a book is born of that study. In 1996, he published a
novel, Until I Have No Country, about King Philip’s War in New England. In
1999, he co-wrote (with Eric Schultz) a non-fiction account of the struggles of
the New England colonists and Native Americans in 1665-1667. The book was made into a videorecording in
2000 and the DVD is available in Minuteman libraries.
Tougias
doesn’t limit his writing to history and sea rescue. He has authored ten guide
and travel books for New Englanders. Exploring the Hidden Charles, AMC’s Best
Day Hikes Near Boston, Outdoors in Franklin, and Nature Walks in Central and
Western Massachusetts are a sampling. He has written others about the Quabbin
Reservoir, fall colors in New England (Autumn Rambles) and quiet places to
explore in Massachusetts.
In 2014,
Tougias joined with his daughter Kristin in writing an unusual memoir, The
Cringe Chronicles. He also teamed up with Buck Harris, a teacher at Swampscott
High School, to publish the journals of student Derek Sheckman. Derek was 18
when he passed away from a rare cancer and Derek’s Gift details Derek’s
struggles along with his writings.
As I was
searching for a way to describe Michael Tougias’ varied and successful writing
career, I was reminded of this quote. Author Mary B. W. Tabor wrote that “one
sure window into a person’s soul is his reading list.” One clear window into Tougias’ soul is the
books he had authored – with a passion for local research, he shares the
stories and trails that we might miss otherwise.
If you
need help finding any of Tougias’ (pronounced toe-gis) books in the Minuteman
Library catalog, please call or stop by the Information or Reference desks at
the library. I hope you join us on December 2. Please make sure to call the
library to register for the program.
