Lost at Sea - by Patrick Dillon (Paperback)

About the Book

In a narrative filled with the excitement of "The Perfect Storm" and the historical significance and human drama of "A Civil Action", Dillon recounts the story of a commercial fishing voyage in 1983 that claimed the lives of 14 men and left a small town devastated by the loss.

Book Synopsis

On February 3, 1983, the men aboard Americus and Altair, two state-of-the-art crabbing vessels, docked in their home port of Anacortes, Washington, prepared to begin a grueling three-month season fishing in the notorious Bering Sea. Eleven days later, on Valentine's Day, the overturned hull of the Americus was found drifting in calm seas, with no record of even a single distress call or trace of its seven-man crew. The Altair vanished altogether. Despite the desperate search that followed, no evidence of the vessel or its crew would ever be found. Fourteen men were lost. And the tragedy would mark the worst disaster in the history of U.S. commercial fishing.
With painstaking research and spellbinding prose, acclaimed journalist Patrick Dillon brings to life the men who were lost, the dangers that commercial fishermen face, the haunting memories of the families left behind...and reconstructs the intense investigation that ensued, which for the first time exposed the dangers of an industry that would never again be the same.

Review Quotes

Rinker Buck USA Today Dillon meticulously recreates the events leading up to the 1983 capsizing of the Americus and Altair...[and] artfully chronicles the lives of the lost fishermen and their families.

Sudip Bose The Washington Post Book World A meticulously detailed narrative, pieced together with the deft touch of a suspense writer -- a fine accomplishment.

Susan Salter Reynolds Los Angeles Times Book Review A gripping account...Lost At Sea is a better book than Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm, even more thrilling, more mysterious.

Tom Walker The Denver Post Patrick Dillon's deftly written Lost at Sea is more than just another man-vs.-the-sea story. It's an engrossing, evenhanded look at how greed, negligence, naivete and downright stupidity can lead to tragedy when man and nature collide.

About the Author

Patrick Dillon is the Adventure and Sailing Events Programming Director at QuokkaSports, Digital Sports Entertainment. He has won numerous awards, including a share of the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. His columns and essays have appeared in many publications throughout the nation, including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and Fast Company.