Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History

by Kalee Thompson

Deadliest Sea by Kalee Thompson is the spellbinding true story of the greatest rescue in U.S. Coast Guard history. Recounting the tragic sinking of the fishing trawler, Alaska Ranger , in the Bering Sea and its remarkable aftermath in March 2008, Deadliest Sea is real life action and adventure at its finest. The full story of an amazing rescue—where extraordinary courage, ingenuity, will, and technology combined in one of the most remarkable maritime feats ever recorded—has never been told before now. It’s The Perfect Storm meets Deadliest Catch.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Survival, Military Fiction, Adventure, Maritime, Ebooks

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2010

About the author

Kalee Thompson is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in a range of publications including Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Inc., Runner's World, and The Hollywood Reporter. She is the author of Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History (HarperCollins, 2010), and the co-author of The Border Within: The Economics of Immigration in an Age of Fear (University of Chicago Press, 2022). Kalee currently works as a senior editor at the product-review site Wirecutter, a New York Times company. She lives in Portland, Maine, with her husband, Dan Koeppel, and their two young boys.

Reviews

[Beth DeLong · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fisheries observer, we spent a lot of time in training discussing both the Alaska Ranger and the Galaxy sinkings. This book does have quite a bit of background info, so the book takes a while to get going. However, I also greatly appreciate the author sharing the background info and the tremendous amount of research she put into her writing. Despite the tragedy and mentioning the lives lost, I also appreciate her focus on the positive, both with those who survived and with new safety regulations that came about as a result of the incident. Overall I felt the book was thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and told in such a way as to show respect for all involved.

[LibraryCin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2008, a fishing trawler sunk in the Bearing Sea in Alaskan waters. There were 47 people on board. They were hours away from any help, but Coast Guard helicopters made their way there, along with a ship to help rescue as many people as possible.

The book started off a little “slower” (though still good), with cutting back and forth between the sinking of the boat and background information. At times, I found it a bit hard to follow… but only at first. As the book continued on, I got to know the people better (though there were a lot of people, so it was still easy to get some of them mixed up), so it helped me “place” where we were in the story (whether “current” timeline or background info on the people, or the history of the area, or the fishing industry, or whatever). In the end, I thought it was really good. The book was primarily put together based on interviews with the people involved.

[Walter Underwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, so good, though a bit slow. It took nearly 100 pages to get one chopper in the air.

I decided to read this because the supernatural woo-woo at the end of The Guardian was so awful. I'd like to have more positive mental association with the Coast Guard.

===

Once the rescue gets moving, it picks up. At one point a rescue chopper throws out their own life raft and leaves their rescue swimmer behind so they can transport more people back to the cutter. The rescue swimmer pulls another three people into the raft and alternates caring for them and looking for more survivors.

Well worth a read, and I was sufficiently involved the whole story (safety as well as rescue) to hunt down the final USCG Marine Board Report on the accident, finished after the book went to press. I recommend reading the summary of that report after you finish this book.

So skip "The Guardian" and read this instead. Available from the Palo Alto Library.

[Polly Krize · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having had first-hand experience with the Coast Guard, I cannot express adequately my admiration for their dedication. As they were on the other end of our radio a few years ago, so were they there for the fishermen of the Alaska Ranger. A good read about the inside workings of the Coast Guard and their work out on our seas.

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good “rescue at sea” book. What makes this different from a lot of other books of this ilk is that there is a lot of things done right instead of a lot of things done wrong.

Since this occurred in 2008, many of the safety features ignored for years are actually on the Alaska Ranger when it sinks. Most books covering sea rescues follow a very familiar pattern. Boat owners and officers are incompetent and lazy then the boats sink and most of them die. See any of the books below for this storyline (but they are still good!).

However, in Deadliest Seas, the story is only half right. The Alaska Ranger actually had the water survival suits, the strobe lights, and the life rafts. Now, the owners and captain still didn’t take care of the ship as well as it should have, but most of the crew were saved by the Coast Guard and a Good Samaritan boat.

It makes for a much longer story than you would usually see and actually illustrates that life saving equipment actually saves lives. What a concept!

Also, Alaska is really cold.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book about the sinking of the loss of the Alaksa Ranger that cost the lives of several crewman and was the largest rescue to date by the US Coast Guard. The book is told through the eyes of the both the rescuers and the rescued. If you want an understanding of large-scale rescue operations in an unforgiving environment, this is a good book to read.

[Maureen Caupp · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative read about the dangers of commercial fishing, and lengths members of the United States Coast Guard go to in order to save lives. It was scary to learn how under prepared many fishing crews were/are and how unseaworthy some of the fishing boats were. Fishing boats weren't classed (I haven't researched to see if that has changed in the years since then. I am curious now.) as boats that needed to inspected. When the USCG started a voluntary inspection program through a loop hole in federal law they were shocked at the state of the ships and the amount of repair they would be require to be safer. This book doesn't go into lots of detail about coast guard training, but it did talk a little bit about some of the training the pilots, flight mechanics, and rescue swimmers do. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the service of the USCG, or to anyone who enjoys shows like "Deadliest Catch". Their is a reason the fishing industry and the Discovery Channel show got that name.

[Lucy Bowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Deadliest Sea investigates the sinking of The Alaska Ranger, a trawling vessel, in the Bearing Sea. I thought it was fascinating to take a look into how Coast Guard Aviation functions, and how phenomenal they are at SAR ops. It was a fantastic read and both made me want to visit Alaska, but absolutely never set foot on any of the fishing vessels up there.

[Audrey Approved · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know the audiobook is good when I'm trying to find extra chores to complete so I can keep listening! Lots in here about Alaska's commercial fishing industry, the general deep sea fishing culture, American Coast Guard training/safety standards, and what happens when one goes into hypothermic shock. Good for fans of narrative nonfiction, heroism stories, and/or the Discovery Channel's show The Deadliest Catch!

[Ryan Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first received this book, Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History, in May of 2010 just before it was released in June. As such I’d like to express both a thank you and a sorry to its author, Kalee Thompson, for sending me this preview copy. The thank you is obviously for sending it to me; however, the sorry is for the fact that I was forced to put it aside until recently to ensure school was a top priority.

Nonetheless I was able to finish it last night and the best way I, as a Coastie, can describe how good this book was is to say that it, Deadliest Sea, should be issued to every new Coastie recruit along with their Bluejacket’s Manual. No joke.

Kalee does a great job wrapping you into the mindset of not only the crew of the Alaska Ranger but also the Coast Guard crews from the Cutter Monro and the helicopters used in the initial search. With the Rangers crew of 47 in peril the Coast Guard works the frigged waters of Barring Sea while having everything against them; yet in the spirit of being Coasties the likes of 20+ foot seas, 34 degree water, and lots-o-snow there’s little doubt in there minds as to why they’re there: to save lives.

The fishing industry is a dangerous one..., no- a deadly one. The Coast Guard does everything in its limited power to keep it safe yet there’s times when it all goes to hell. Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History is the true result of the limitations our service has and serves as a great tool for inspectors and prospective rescuers alike.

[Lisa Manke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this vivid tale of a terrifying sea disaster and subsequent rescue scenario, also terrifying.

Super read - don't want to EVER work on a fishing vessel in the Bering sea

[Dave Hoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Excellent book on the Fishing industry and the Coast Guard that try to make the industry play by the safety rules and the effort to save their lives when things go wrong. The sinking of the Alaska Ranger, what survival suits and rafts kept most of the crew alive until the CG helos were able to pluck them out of the freezing sea. A CG C 130 was above to guide the Cutter and the helos to the spot of the sinking. Tho I've served in the waters of the Antarctica, Greenland and Iceland, I count my lucky stars I pulled no duty in Alaskan waters.

[Dee Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audible Plus 9 hours 38 min. Narrated by Suzanne Toren(A)

[Bruce Bingaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

[Apriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will never get tired of reading books about daring sea rescues.

[chad chrysanthemum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was recommended this book via, of course, everyone's favourite Formula 1 crab fishing AU Forced Rhubarb. This was a not an industry that I knew anything about ahead of time, but I have become quite fascinated by everything about it. Alaskan fishing is, I believe, the deadliest industry in the US (and by quite significant margins). While crab fishing as a subset is the most dangerous (the crab pots make dangers worse, making ships dangerously top-heavy and causing industrial accidents), this book focuses on head & gut factory ship operations, in much larger vessels. These are ships that can stay out at sea for weeks at a time, and process fish right there in the belly of the ships, keeping them in gigantic freezers until they reach land again. Because of this, many of the workers on the ships are not expert fishers, but low-paid factory workers, making matters worse in other ways. This, together with some other factors that I'll talk about later, makes this almost the modern The Jungle of our times. But before I get into that, let's zoom out a bit.

I'd heard good reviews that this was a gripping and interesting book, and the reviews on goodreads seemed to echo this as well as mentioning that it was one of the more positive books in this genre, so I decided I'd give Deadliest Sea a shot, despite this not being a book I would ever normally read. I've read quite a few non-fiction books this year, but most of them have either been political or academic, neither of which this purports to be. All it promises you is a really good story -- which it more than delivers. Thompson tells this story as a reconstruction, without her as a character (rather than discussing, "In interviews they told me blah blah" it is told more as "David was there and he thought this..."), which I think helps to put you really in to the scene of the action, experiencing things along with the characters. You can tell how much work she put in to the book, and the countless interviews and detailed reviewing of all other available data were worth it, making this extremely vivid. She knew what people were thinking at different times, and can tell the story from multiple viewpoints. At times it gets a little overwhelming because there were SO many different characters, but when I let myself go with the flow and not obsess over making sure I kept every single story straight, I got into it and really enjoyed it. Plus, she's good at repeating key pieces of identifying information, so you can remember, "oh ok, that guy is the one who had the safety training and was the factory manager" etc. Additionally, so many different perspectives allows Thompson to tell another layer of the story -- that of the many problems with the safety and working conditions on Alaskan fishing boats. As I said, Thompson's done an INCREDIBLE amount of research, and she packs in so much extra backstory and detail, giving you information about different people's childhood, how they ended up on the ship, what there jobs were normally like. And what emerges from all of this, is a common story -- people who needed money, and were willing to do difficult jobs for it, who either didn't know enough to understand how bad conditions were or had few other options. Working 12 hours on and 12 off is considered the best shift pattern; most men seem to be off 8 hours or less a day. Despite policies against it, use of alcohol was rampant, people making the most of their meager time off or doing what they could to get through difficult days. Turnover is extremely high -- most men don't make it back to their second season. And, to top it all off, H&G operations are unenrolled ships, which means they're not subjected to safety requirements, which results in 40-year-old converted ships that are falling apart being mainstays of the shipping operations.

Now, let's be clear -- it is true when people say this is a positive book. For the most part, Thomspon talks about the incredible efforts made by the Coast Guard to keep these men as safe as possible. Through the book, I learnt in detail about the training they do, how they prepare for these sorts of accidents by pre-deploying helicopters, the stations that exist. Once the rescue is underway, you really understand how difficult their jobs are, and how well they do them. They have to make incredibly difficult decisions in complicated and stressful situations. In the Bering Sea, waves are gigantic, winds are high, the water is freezing, and everything is really fucking far away from everything else. Still, the care they put into saving every individual life is incredible. Involved in this rescue, besides the Alaska Ranger's sister ship as a Good Sam were a CG cutter, two helicopters, and a fixed-wing plane, each of which is manned by at least 5 (and the cutter many many more) people who work around the clock in these horrible conditions to pull of difficult maneuvres, including throwing their own life raft into the sea for survivors, in-air refueling, airlifting survivors, and saving pretty much every single survivor with severe hypothermia. It's impressive, and also really beautiful to read about. On top of that, I learnt about the efforts put in by the CG to try and increase the safety on the vessels. For years, people had been trying to mandate actual safety requirements for the vessels, but it kept getting stuck being passed in to law. Instead, the CG, headed by literally two guys who cared a lot about this, found a loophole: almost 100% of ships classed as H&G were processing and selling by-products from the fish that they weren't legally allowed to under their license. So, they created a program (ACSA) with voluntary enrollment that would require the ships get up to code, which would then allow them to continue with their operations. Or, they could get re-licensed as a different class of boat. Many companies joined the voluntary program, giving CG finally the chance to check over boats and mandate worklists to bring them up to current safety standards. Though what happened on the Alaska Ranger was a tragedy, it could've been much much worse were it not for this work that was put in by these people. Though the ship was still not considered up-to-code and had a remaining worklist (it, as were many of the other ships in the fleet, was in much worse shape than had been expected by the Coast Guard), additional training and strobe lights on survival (gumby) suits, among other measures, made the rescue much more successful, and cut out as much needed for the actual search for survivors. That's really incredible, and I loved learning about people working around the law to do the right thing. In the end, 42 of the 47 men on the ship were successfully recovered and returned to the mainland. This is a much better survival rate than in previous similar sinkings.

However, as I said, I don't think these really good people being involved absolves people of responsibility for what is still a horrible situation. I somewhat joke about the connections to The Jungle (when you learn about the horrible work conditions in the factory processing, it focuses on how gasoline, sweat and other excretions end up in the fish, and how poor treatment results in worse quality products), but I really do think there's something there about how this exposes the modern-day exploited classes. I actually also found it a bit similar to Nomadland in some parts as well, because it shows how people are sometimes forced into this back-breaking and dangerous work, and how people make the best of it. After the ship was converted from an oil tanker, the conversions meant it now sat 2 feet lower than previously, so the previously watertight rudder boxes were now submerged when one detached. The watertight doors that should've protected the ship even in that case leaked profusely and did not do their job. When the ship was in an emergency situation the CPP kicked in, which nobody seemed trained to deal with -- rather than the engines turning off, they turned on and put the ship in to reverse, which launched it away from the life rafts. Many men did not speak English as a first language, and that meant some struggled to communicate in a crisis. Because of the high turnover, many men were new, and had had no training for marine accidents; only 30% had training (and having training resulted in almost 3x the chance of successfully making it into a life raft). When drills were run, they were perfunctory, not wanting to pull men away from their work for too long. It's easy to see how the deaths of the 5 men on the crew are ultimately at the hands of the company and owners who were neglectful, allowed horrible safety standards, and pushed the men so hard they weren't prepared for emergencies. And if this hadn't happened, it still would've been a story of exploitation, and people putting their life on the line so that people across the US and Asia (mostly) can eat neatly packaged white fish. It's miserable.

While reading this book, I ended up crying quite a lot of times. I commend Thompson for telling the story so well that it impacted me viscerally. A lot of the time, it was because I was just really hit by the force of how much people cared. S0, I think I end up in the same place as Nomadland. Nobody in this book should've had to be in the situation they were, but the way they deal with it is incredible, and I really loved reading this story.

[Nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other reviews were so good I can't say it anywhere near as well. However, here goes - Kalee gave such great details that it will give someone (like me) who knows nothing about arctic commercial fishing boats and the arctic Coast Guard a good picture of their daily life and working conditions (not a reality TV view, which is often faked for TV), and a bit of their life outside work. You almost feel you've met them.

Also a great picture of rescue operations from points of view of the rescued, USCG rescue boats, planes, helicopters, and those involved in rescue operations from a distance, at bases. It makes you feel the immense size of the area the rescuers have to cover, in the arctic's worst weather. You see what people in all these areas were doing during before, during & after the boat sinking & rescue.

I feel informed enough to have an opinion I never had before - that commercial arctic fishing is another area where big company greed encourages people working on production pay to cut corners while management turns a blind eye, so everyone makes more money (most of all the companies) but at the cost of some working joes losing their lives. Maybe consumers need to pay a little more for their seafood, and maybe big fishing companies need to accept decreased production for increased safety - whatever way, things need to be safer & cleaner. If everyone was a vegeterian like me, this particular problem wouldn't exist, but the world is what it is right now.

Overall, very well written, interesting, fair to all parties involved, doesn't take sides (though the reader may), and so informative in an easily readable format. I skimmed through the investigation part at the end but may read it later - a little dry for me - I'm usually a fiction reader - but even fiction readers who enjoy character development & details - & like learning something real from books - would mostly enjoy this book.

[LWF · Rating 4 out of 5]

True story of the sinking of the Alaska Ranger and rescue and recovery of the fisherman in the Bering Sea. The book is very detailed, giving many backgrounds on not only crewmen, captains, fish masters but also those who did the rescuing from the US Coast Guard to other fishing boats that the survivors were dropped off on.

If you enjoy the series, "Deadliest Catch", you will enjoy this book a lot. You will gain a better understanding of other fishing which occurs in the bearing sea. The Alaska Ranger was a factory ship which caught, killed and packed the fish all on one boat.

The book also talks about previous disasters and how the US Coast Guard learns from each one and tried to investigate and implement new safety standards in order to save more lives in the future. I believe that the new safety standards of having blinking lights on survival suits for these type of fishing boats is what saved so many lives. The lights should be mandatory on ALL Gumby survival suits for all fishing boats!

I learned so much from this book, it gave me an even greater appreciation than I already had from watching Deadliest Catch, for all the men and women who risk their lives everyday so we can enjoy seafood as well as those in the Coast Guard who work 24/7 to protect them.

About a 5 hour read time.

I own the Kindle edition only.

[James Korsmo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts off a bit slow (I'm not sure we need to know the background of every person we encounter), but it still proves to be an engaging narrative of the dangers of fishing in the Bering Sea and the valor of the Coast Guard. The book is filled with cold-water drama; have a warm beverage close at hand. Thompson is also well attuned to the larger issues of the story, such as the lack of meaningful regulation of the boats in the fishing fleet (there is far more regulation protecting the fisheries and regulating the boat's catch than protecting the fishermen plying the dangerous waters above).

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic non-fiction account of the "greatest rescue in Coast Guard History." Granted you know from the start that there will be some type of rescue, you have no idea how many, how long it will take or how it is possible to sit on the edge of your seat while reading the entire book. Well researched and assembled! I HIGHLY recommend this book! Well done!!

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't let the appearance of disjointed rabbit trails early on make you stop reading this book! The vignettes all piece together to make a fascinating read, and with so many people, agencies and an unfamiliar industry, those vignettes are ultimately critical to build the foundation of the story. It is truly an unbelievable heroic event worth the time and admiration to read and ponder.

[Alex Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. A great story told in journalistic style - clean clear expository prose, but allied to good character development / highlights. Clearly very well researched, with admiration and sympathy for all the characters. A great read.

[Gary Detrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well researched story placing you in the dangerous waters of the Bering Sea. You can feel the swells of the rising and lowering of 20' waves as this amazing rescue is being attempted. Obvisouly, safety issues exist that help leading to cause of this deathly event. Unfortunately, they dont just exist on sea vessles but also our own local manufacturing industries and businesses as safety rules are "ignored". I'm sure many of us have worked in places where safety standards are "posted" and "spoken about", but the reality is when suggestions are made, they seem to many times go ignored.
The rescue attempts are amazing and take you on a caotic journey as last minute decisions are made as these "hero" rescuers surmize the situations, communicate and dedicated their lives to saving others.
At times the lives of the personel on board the sinking Alaska Ranger drags on just a little, but is kept interesting. My thought is that is personally aquaints you with some of the members as if you were working with them personaly.
An easy read and worthy read for those interested in these types of stories, and espically fans of the "Deadliest Catch" series.

[Stacia · Rating 4 out of 5]

How could this book not be riveting? It's the story of a fishing vessel that sank in the Bering Sea with 47 men aboard, and the Coast Guard rescue mission that saved 42 of them. From a pure story perspective, this book gets five stars.

That being said, a third of the way through, the book was still almost all backstory. That's when I flipped back to the acknowledgments and verified that the book has its basis in the author's 2008 Popular Mechanics article about the rescue mission. To me, that's how the book reads: like a very good long form story that was expanded just a little too much to reach book length. This is a purely subjective opinion, though. The details about the people involved were interesting, and they didn't bog down the narrative. If you want the full story of all of the people involved, read this book. If you want the streamlined version of the actual rescue, the original article can give you that.

[Stephen Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read!

I am a former Coastie, who left the Coast Guard after ten years of service. I will freely say that while we do many good things, we still fall short of our mission! Boating Safety is one of our mandated missions, both recreational and in the commercial worlds!

As I read each chapter I would recall the two plus years of sea duty that I had. I fondly recall all the training that I endured in case an emergency were to happen. Yet these owners and slippers never did that. Tying a rope to a water right door is outright stupid!

Every CG Cutter I served upon was older than I was. They were kept in serviceable shape at a tremendous cost to the tax payer. I would never spend a day on one of these fishing boats!

Again, a well done job by an amazing writer, and thank you!

[Susan Olesen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, enjoyable book overall, but if it was just about the accident and rescue, the book would have been 2 chapters long. The majority of the book is taken up with backgrounds about just about every one of the 100 people involved. This isn't to say those people aren't worthy of recognition. They were heroes, and deserve it, but after a while there were so many names that I couldn't keep straight which ship or plane they were on, or where they were coming from, or who had a family where, and it just blurred and I didn't care anymore. It would have more appropriate to write a Heroes story and tell about the rescues these people did, rather than cover a shipwreck with 47 people, but write about the rescuers.

So a good enough read, but it lost a lot with overburdening the reader with trying to keep track of 40 rescuers - and not enough about the rescue/sinking itself.

[DeWayne Neel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written account of a sea disaster in the cold waters of Alaska's Bering Sea in which very few lives were lost in extreme conditions. A detailed account of all aspects of the event including personal stories of its participants is presented in a page-turner format that keeps one from putting the book down. It is "chilling," but not depressing as the ships travel through ice, snow, wind, and waves in the dark in search of tiny lights on the survival suits. Those of you who watch The Greatest Catch or similar fishing programs will relate to the cold, wet, and dangerous working conditions to provide fish for our dining enjoyment.

[Alice M. Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read

This book portrays a real life story in a gripping manner. As Kalee introduces us to the fishermen, officers and Coast Guard rescue crews we feel as if we know them. We feel the tension as the situation goes from bad to worse, we anxiously wait to see who will survive, we cheer for those that do and we mourn those that don't. I highly recommend this book to anyone who thinks that there are no real heroes left today. The bravery and determination of the Coast Guard will prove them wrong.

[David Forsyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

With 6,000 nautical miles of wake behind me, I may perceive this non-fiction narrative uniquely, but in my case at least, I found this book to be a thrilling window into the savage brutality of the Bering Sea and the factory-ship fishing industry. If you sail; if you have endured the chill of northern waters; if you have ever experienced an ocean's wrath, you will thoroughly enjoy Ms Thompson's objective description of the sinking of the Alaska Ranger and the incredible perseverance of her crew and their US Coast Guard rescuers. When your next watch is over, read this one!

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am fascinated by the Coast Guard and rescue swimmers as they were the ones who rescued my daughter after a scuba accident. She did not make it but I will forever be grateful that they got her heart beating and we could say goodbye.
There are a lot of details in this book and it was sometimes hard to keep track of names but I couldn’t put it down. I can’t even imagine being on a fishing boat in those conditions, let alone being in a raft or even worse, floating in the sea.
Thank you to the Coasties! You are heros!!