So Close to Home: Author tells sea tales that amaze

Feb. 16--Michael Tougias has come a long way from his days as a worker's compensation underwriter for an insurance company. These days, the New York Times best-selling author is about two-thirds through completing his 25th book, a non-fiction account of one of the few casualties of the Cold War during the intense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

If nothing else, it will be a book that will be hard to put down. Tougias has proven that with a track record that includes some of the most gripping tales of heroic sea rescues and heart-wrenching tragedies on the unforgiving seascape of the Atlantic Ocean.

His most famous book, The Finest Hours, written with co-author Casey Sherman, was made into a 2016 major motion picture starring Chris Pine, Casey Affleck and Eric Bana. It detailed the account of the daring 1952 U.S. Coast Guard rescue of the crew of the S.S. Pendleton, an oil tanker which sheared in half during a frightening nor'easter. Bernie Webber, a crewman stationed at Coast Guard Station Chatham in Massachusetts, led a handful of men in a 36-foot boat out to the wreckage to save the seamen on board.

Tougias said having one of his projects make it to the silver screen was "luck." But he still relished the chance to embarrass his grown children on the red carpet during the premier of the movie.

"When you see the video on YouTube of the premier, there I am in the background waving my kids over as the paparazzi is trying to capture the shot of one of the movie's stars," Tougias laughed. "My kids were mortified."

Tougias learned quickly that a fast-paced book is often more widely read than another. So if looking for a cure for insomnia, don't pick up his latest, So Close to Home. It tells the story of a German U-boat sent on a mission to the Gulf of Mexico to cripple the U.S. shipping supply chain at the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1942. No one knew U-boats had the range to reach the Gulf, and even the history books glossed over the details, but Tougias informs his readers there was indeed a credible threat to the U.S. The book examines the impact of U-506's torpedoing of the United Fruit Company's freighter Heredia near the entrance to the channel off Louisiana, one of nine boats the submarine sunk in that area during a two-week mission.

"I came across the war diary of the U-boat captain, and was able to find one of the ship's survivors, Ray Downs, who was an 8-year-old boy the night of the sinking," Tougias said. "I've been approached to work on stories about maritime events and people further back in history, but I prefer working with survivors."

Tougias has learned a lot from survivors, too. When he is not researching a book project, he likes to fish for striped bass and bluefish near his home in Longmeadow, Mass. He admits, he has become a much more conscientious boater after interviewing scores of survivors and the families and friends of some who were not so fortunate.

"I used to be the most unsafe boater on the planet," Tougias said. "I wouldn't check the weather the day before I went fishing. I would get so focused on my fishing, I would ignore obvious signs like big black clouds heading right for me. I never wore a life jacket."

But all that has changed.

"When I interviewed the subject of the book Overboard! he told me if it hadn't been for the strobe light on his life jacket, he never would have been rescued," Tougias said. "He said the rescue planes would fly over him during daylight hours and never could see him. But after dark, they were able to see the light. The next day, I went out and bought a strobe light to attach to my life jacket."

Tougias said sometimes a project can seem a little like a fishing trip.

"You have to have a similar tenacity on slow days to keep at a book project the same way you keep seeking to sight cast to a fish," he said. "You also have to be flexible and be willing to change technique or direction, or put a project down altogether."

"I learned from survivors, and I use it in my own life, that it's important to have a fixed goal set in stone of what you want, but make sure your path to get there is really flexible," he said. "Sometimes in these maritime disasters the problem was becoming obsessed with with their goal, and they begin going in a straight line ignoring warning after warning. I never hesitate to put the brakes on one thing and start over. The goal is to get a great book out, so you have to be flexible and know when to put it down if it's not there."

SPEAKING DATES

Thursday: Blake Library in Stuart at 2 p.m. (tickets are sold out for this event, but there will be a book signing following the talk)

March 2: "Decision Making Under Duress" at TrawlerFest Stuart at 10:45 a.m., go to www.passagemaker.com/events/trawlerfest-stuart-fl-2017

Nov. 16: "So Close to Home" at 7 p.m. at Elliott Museum, Stuart

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