Coming Back Alive
The True Story of the Most Harrowing Search and Rescue Mission Ever Attempted on Alaska's High Seas
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4.5 • 34 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
When the fishing vessel La Conte sinks suddenly at night in one-hundred-mile-per-hour winds and record ninety-foot seas during a savage storm in January 1998, her five crewmen are left to drift without a life raft in the freezing Alaskan waters and survive as best they can.
One hundred fifty miles away, in Sitka, Alaska, an H-60 Jayhawk helicopter lifts off from America's most remote Coast Guard base in the hopes of tracking down an anonymous Mayday signal. A fisherman's worst nightmare has become a Coast Guard crew's desperate mission. As the crew of the La Conte begin to die one by one, those sworn to watch over them risk everything to pull off the rescue of the century.
Spike Walker's memoir of his years as a deckhand in Alaska, Working on the Edge, was hailed by James A. Michner as "masterful . . . will become the definitive account of this perilous trade, an addition to the literature of the sea." In Coming Back Alive, Walker has crafted his most devastating book to date. Meticulously researched through hundreds of hours of taped interviews with the survivors, this is the true account of the La Conte's final voyage and the relationship between Alaskan fishermen and the search and rescue crews who risk their lives to save them.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Walker spends about half of his narrative assembling a cast for his tale of seafaring disaster on the southern Gulf of Alaska fishing grounds: a five-man crew of earnest commercial fishermen; a leaky trawler, La Conte; helicopter crews and surprise! an anomalous winter storm. The January 1998 storm was the worst in the state's history, and La Conte took in water and sank, leaving its crew to the mercy of 100 mph winds and 90-foot seas. Walker (Nights of Ice) ably describes the Coast Guard's heroic rescue of the ship's crew along the rugged Alaskan coast. The episode in which the crew is finally forced to abandon their vessel in 40-degree water, and to stay lashed together long enough for three Coast Guard teams to attempt wind-whipped rescues, is harrowing and suspenseful. Still, too many adverbs slow down the narrative and strain to convey tension. Walker tracked down and interviewed the La Conte's survivors and other participants in the operation, and his portrayal of the fringe existence of commercial fishermen juxtaposes society's typical disdain for them with the loyalty and stoicism of these five men. But he manages only a pat resolution: "he relationship between fishermen and the sea, and the airborne alliance of those sworn to watch over them, continues today all across the vast ocean reaches and tidelands of Alaska." Map not seen by PW.
Customer Reviews
Riveting Read
Retired Coastie, who was aboard the CGC Jarvis 1971-1973 (including the November 1972 incident) and saw monstrous seas in the Bering Sea, I can relate to these stories. Alaskan fishermen are some of the most bravest fishermen in the world. CG aviators are the most elite aviators because of exactly what takes place in this book.
Attention grabbing!
It takes a lot to grab me to keep engaged in a book. I read this on my vacation over a 2 day period and couldn’t let it down. Phenomenal stories of heroic actions that made me feel I was with each of the rescue and stranded parties.
Great book
Thoroughly enjoyed this book, descriptive of extreme Alaskan terrain and weather, and the heroic Coast Guard men who rescue folks at the mercy of storms and unfathomable difficulties. Why these Coasties are not the ones receiving the Medal of Freedom is beyond me.