Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro

by Rachel Slade

including odd behaviors among birds, which are exquisitely sensitive to shifts in barometric pressure. When they sense a pressure drop, they might try to outrun it.

“If the definition of wisdom is understanding the depths of your own ignorance,

meteorologists are wise,” says Kerry Emanuel, an MIT professor who has dedicated his

When the Depression hit, orders for new ships slowed to a trickle. But the Pew family, like many major owners of the day, believed that companies had an obligation to take care of their employees. Sun Ship retained nearly all its workers by paying them two days a week, whether or not there was a ship in the yard.

Taking a walk around the yard in 1952, Schorsch observed, “It was rugged. It was busy. Perhaps six thousand people working on a dozen ships. Some streets were paved with old riveted shell plates to make them less muddy. Philadelphia still had horse-drawn wagons and the horses had not long left the shipyard.”

Some say that the word cracker comes from the crude Florida slave owners’ fondness for the whip.

New Englanders were global citizens. Southern planters waited for the world to come to them.

The American Revolution was as much a maritime dispute as it was a philosophical

battle. The wealthiest colonists—the captains and merchants—would not be legislated and taxed without representation.

This was exceptionally dangerous work; the US Merchant Marine suffered more casualties than any other military division in the war.

In Osnos’s story, the thirty-year-old CEO of Reddit, Steve Huffman, said that he was “increasingly concerned about basic American political stability and the risk of large-scale unrest. ‘Some sort of institutional collapse, then you just lose shipping—that sort of stuff.’ (Prepper blogs call such a scenario W.R.O.L., ‘without rule of law.’)” Huffman believes that contemporary life “rests on a fragile consensus. ‘I think, to some degree, we all collectively take it on faith that our country works, that our currency is valuable, the peaceful transfer of power—that all of these things that we hold dear work because we believe they work.’”

Mariners fought these nefarious practices for years but had little sway over a corrupt political system committed to supporting the moneyed end of the industry.

He called organized labor anti-American at best, communism at worst.

Laurence Gonzales writes, “The word ‘experienced’ often refers to someone who has gotten away with doing the wrong thing more frequently than you have.”

In contrast, the International Maritime Organization (the branch of the UN dedicated to regulating shipping) issued an International Maritime Safety Code in 1987 in response to a spate of accidents caused by major management errors. This code, adopted by most of the world’s merchant fleet (with the exception of the US), offers clear SMS guidelines, has been continually tested and updated, and has resulted in safer shipping worldwide.

The testimony of these two men provided the starkest contrast between those who toil in the trenches and those who call the shots. One had made his living on the high seas for four decades, working with nature, machines, and the rough folks who sometimes end up on ships. The other ran various corporations from offices, boardrooms, conference rooms, and golf courses. It was as if they were from different countries, speaking different languages. Yet both

The world, however, was changing. Facts were no longer just facts. Everything was debatable. Playground bullies in expensive suits had stormed the gates.