Run the Storm

By: George Michelsen Foy

Narrated by: L. J. Ganser

Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

In the best-selling tradition of A Perfect Storm and The Finest Hours, a harrowing account of the incredible true story of the recent shocking disappearance of El Faro, a gigantic American cargo ship that sank suddenly in the Bermuda Triangle in 2015 - taking with it 33 lives.

On October 1, 2015, the SS El Faro, a cargo ship tall as a hundred-story building that made a regular run between Jacksonville, Florida, and Puerto Rico, delivering everything from razor blades to new Chevrolet cars, disappeared in Hurricane Joaquin, a category 4 storm. The ship, her hundreds of shipping containers, and her entire crew sank to the bottom of the ocean, three miles down. The sinking was the greatest seagoing US merchant marine shipping disaster since World War II and evoked the haunting resonances of Gordon Lightfoot’s famous song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”.

The massive ship had a seasoned crew, state-of-the-art navigation equipment, advance warning of the storm, and knowledge of its supposed track. It seemed incomprehensible that such a ship could sink so suddenly, unable to send even a Mayday call before disappearing. How, in this day and age, could something like this happen? 

The answer is that a ship as large as the El Faro doesn’t sink for just one reason; it sinks because many factors intersect - everything from hurricane-tracking algorithms to the decay of rubber gaskets on hatches to the arcane science of loading shipping containers to the complex relationship between a ship’s captain and his corporate overlords, who are anxious that cargo be delivered on time. All of these factors and more came into play in the sinking of the El Faro.

Relying on Coast Guard inquest hearings as well as numerous interviews, Foy has crafted a brilliant account that brings to life the last voyage of El Faro, from her loading to her shocking demise, a story lasting only a few days but that relentlessly becomes more suspenseful as the deep-rooted flaws leading to the ship’s sinking inexorably link together and worsen. As we anxiously watch the captain and his crew, the hurricane tightens like a noose around the ship, and we see, minute to minute, all that is happening - the dangerous tilting to the port side, the frantic calls to the engine room, the ship-to-shore cries, the loss of propulsion, the courage of the men and women as they fight for survival, and the berserk ocean’s savage consumption of the massive hull. And through it all, the pain and ultimate resilience of the families of El Faro’s crew...

Meticulous and absolutely thrilling, Run the Storm is a masterwork of stunning power.

©2018 George Michelsen Foy (P)2018 Simon & Schuster Audio

Struggled to survive this book

Although I normally become engrossed in any true tales of disasters at sea, this was my first exception. The facts of the story were not to blame however the writing went from dry and quite boring to analogies that literally made me groan. As my mind is picturing towering waves and foam i am suddenly distracted by the comparison of the fat that marbles a steak !. Add to this the "maybe he did this" or no actually maybe he did that ...but actually he probably did this other thing. I realize that with no survivors some presumptions must be made however this author's approach and style , for me, became a downright struggle to survive this book and make it to The End !

3 people found this helpful

What a Ride!

It seems impossible that George Michelsen Foy could ignite such an engaging keen and urgent interest in me about the technical minutia of a simple screw or the width of a boiler pipe on a freighter but I was glued to every word for the entire journey. The narration by L.J.Ganser was masterful in all the right places. Listening to this brilliantly told story was like watching a slow moving tragedy unfold, we know it’s going to end, we know how it ends and we are reminded of this in the most quietly pulsing way with impeccably well placed parts of the story just often enough to keep reality afloat. In spite of knowing this certain end, I felt that as long as I was listening to this story, the freighter and the crew were still alive.

Foy describes, nautical and navigational facts, technical data, the core crew and the vast sea with equal care and attentiveness. There is no technical detail or human nuance too small to describe. Everything and everyone on this doomed journey was vital. I will never be able to look at a fighter with the same banal interest ever again. Now I almost feel like I’ve been on those freighters, loaded them, been in the engine room, watched the gages and hung out with it’s crew as they ride through the unpredictable ocean. I still have a dread of these over-size monster boats carrying the life’s blood of commerce on and inside as they score the high seas, but now I have an interest and a respect for them and their brave crew.
I will definitely be listening to this story again and then possibly again.

3 people found this helpful

Great narrator

Sometimes bad reader ruins a good book but this guy does great. The author does a great job of bringing the events to life.

2 people found this helpful

very exciting

This story is amazing, spell binding and full of drama! You wish the best for all aboard as they struggle to keep afloat. Wonderful!!!

2 people found this helpful

BEST ACCOUNT OF MODERN DAY SHIP DISASTER EVER READ

FLAWLESS IN EVERY REGARD.
FACTUALLY LADEN; AS SUSPENSEFUL AS A THRILLER.
MAJOR KUDOS TO THE AUTHOR AND ALL CONCERNED.

2 people found this helpful

Fascinating

Two days after finishing it, I started to listen again. Wanting to know more and go even deeper. How could a modern, well equipped merchant ship vanish? How could this catastrophe have happened? All this small mistakes piling up.
Fascinating story, bringing the crew alive, well performed. I started to research this story on the internet, and may listen to and read this book again.

2 people found this helpful

Great book

I very much enjoyed this book. The writer gave a very accurate look into life in the merchant marines, the working of a ship, and I believe an accurate account of the events leading to the loss of the El Faro. I definitely recommend. I found myself sitting in the car in the parking lot because I didn’t want to stop listening.

1 person found this helpful

Important case study of merchant marine disaster

Narration: clear. Voice shifts among different crew members helps to understand underlying attitudes and reasons for actions taken.

Story: truly tragic, avoidable loss.