{"id":966,"date":"2012-11-29T14:59:33","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T14:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2012\/11\/29\/line-by-line-amy-ellis-nutt-and-the-wreck-of-the-lady-mary-part-1\/"},"modified":"2024-11-15T14:35:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T14:35:31","slug":"line-by-line-amy-ellis-nutt-and-the-wreck-of-the-lady-mary-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2012\/11\/29\/line-by-line-amy-ellis-nutt-and-the-wreck-of-the-lady-mary-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Amy Ellis Nutt and the wreck of the Lady Mary, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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This is the third in an occasional series of line-by-lines with narrative writers and their work, adapted from a project called Annotation Tuesday! on Tumblr. Earlier, we featured the <\/em>Tampa Bay Times\u2018 Michael Kruse<\/strong> and his story about a woman who disappeared inside her own home<\/a>; and  <\/em>Jon Franklin<\/strong>\u2018s classic \u201cMrs. Kelly\u2019s Monster,\u201d<\/a> the inaugural winner of the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. Today, we have \u201cThe Wreck of the Lady Mary,\u201d Amy Ellis Nutt<\/strong>\u2018s Pulitzer-winning investigative narrative on the sinking of a scallop boat and the deaths of nearly the entire crew. The story is long, so we\u2019ve divided it. The first part of the annotation runs today, the second part tomorrow. Observations and questions are highlighted in blue, Nutt\u2019s answers are highlighted in red. It\u2019s worth mentioning that these line-by-lines are like a little part-time job for the journalists who agreed to describe their experiences\/insights for readers and other journalists, and to talk about the work. Nutt finished hers last year, while covering Hurricane Irene.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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In \u201cThe Wreck of the Lady Mary<\/a><\/strong>\u201d the Newark Star-Ledger\u2019<\/em>s Amy Ellis Nutt<\/a><\/strong> told a deeply reported, literary story about a scallop-boat sinking that killed six of the seven fishermen aboard. By its very nature the story calls to mind The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor<\/a><\/em> by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Perfect Storm<\/a><\/em> by Sebastian Junger; from a policy standpoint it\u2019s important because it raised questions about maritime safety regulations. The series, which began on Nov. 21, 2010, won the Pulitzer Prize<\/a><\/strong> for feature writing and is a model for marrying reporting with storytelling, and for multimedia: Nutt\u2019s colleague Andre Malok<\/a><\/strong> created video, photos and graphics<\/a> to accompany the text.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Nutt\u2019s narrative work beyond newspapers is also deeply intelligent and moving. Her first book, Shadows Bright as Glass: The Remarkable Story of One Man\u2019s Journey from Brain Trauma to Artistic Triumph<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, is a beautiful, fascinating read; you\u2019ll especially love it if you\u2019re into stories about the mysteries of the human brain. (Here\u2019s a fun \u201cpage 99 test<\/a><\/strong>\u201d derived from the Ford Madox Ford quote, \u201cOpen the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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But back to the Lady Mary. A few questions, to start:<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Paige Williams: The 24-minute video<\/a> adds important dimension to the Lady Mary story, particularly with regard to mapping\/graphics. To actually see\/hear <\/em>a mariner say, from the deck of his boat, \u201cIn five or 10 minutes a fast-moving ship can be on top of you before you know it,\u201d makes the danger feel all the more real. Cross-platform\/multimedia applications are part of what make this such an exciting time for storytelling. How did you decide to add the multimedia?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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AEN: There was never a question about it, and because we figured video was even more important than photos, Andre, who is one of our best videographers, was assigned to do both PLUS the graphics, which is his main background. I want to add that I believed the video MADE this story and I asked Andre to accompany me to the Pulitzers because he was such an integral part of the story. I wish the feature writing award had included the video.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Did you write the script for it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I helped with it a lot, edited it and added to it, but it was Andre\u2019s baby and his voice narrating.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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How did you simulate the scene of the Lady Mary<\/em> sinking, particularly the presence of the approaching ship?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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We spent a good deal of money shipping out the reconstruction to a contractor who did the amazing animations with detailed instructions from us, although he didn\u2019t EXACTLY follow our instructions about how to depict the glancing blow of the container ship.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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How did this story come to your attention?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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It was mostly a back-of-the-paper story because we don\u2019t really cover South Jersey, so I kept track of the news for a few months and there were occasional updates about the Coast Guard hearings. Toward the end of 2009, I realized that there was still a fundamental mystery about why the boat went down and that\u2019s when I decided it would make a great project.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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How did you begin, and how long did you work on it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I think the first thing I did was drive down to Cape May \u2013 it\u2019s a long trek, about 2.5 hours \u2013 to meet with Capt. Fuzzy. There were two things we absolutely had to have for the story to work: Fuzzy and Jose, the only survivor. We worked on the story beginning in January and if you include the writing, didn\u2019t stop until right before publication in late November.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What were the biggest reporting challenges?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The biggest COULD have been Jose, who was the second person I tried to contact. Unfortunately he was an illegal alien \u2013 long story about whether to include this, because Jose told me this and said he didn\u2019t care if we published it; but I believe he was also still in a depression \u2013 so he had no permanent address or landline. Even Capt. Fuzzy didn\u2019t have an address for him. So I took several trips down to Cape May and canvassed the docks talking to fishermen who might have known him. Eventually I found out that he probably lived in Wildwood, which is next to Cape May. So I drove to Wildwood and decided to go to the first Catholic church I saw and ask if there was a particular parish that served the Hispanic community. But as I was about to pull up to a church I noticed a Mexican market in a little strip mall and went in and asked the manager if she might know him. I showed her a photo and she said she was pretty sure he did come in on a regular basis. I was fully prepared to stake out the store for days on end if need be, but miraculously this woman said she knew someone who might know where Jose lived. Turns out his apartment was just around the corner.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The only other reporting challenges were the lack of cooperation from the Coast Guard regarding their inspection of, and interview with the crew of, the Cap Beatrice. More than anything else, I really, really, really wanted to talk to the captain of the Cap B. I found him online and also found a phone number in the Ukraine. When I called, the woman who answered, who did not speak much English, said he didn\u2019t live there anymore and didn\u2019t know where he lived.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Were you present for any of the hearings, etc., or did you do everything via documents\/interviews\/reconstruction?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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By the time I decided to do the story, the hearings were over, so yes, everything was from documents, interviews, reconstruction, etc.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What information did you want but couldn\u2019t get, if any?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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An explanation of what the Cap Beatrice was doing in the hours after the accident and why her AIS (Automatic Information System) was turned off. Also, that interview with the captain of the Cap B. Also, I would have loved to interview the wife of Jorge Ramos. I tried a number of times, and even met with her \u2013 she did not speak English, so I was also with a translator \u2013 but she said she was still too sad.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What did you read to prepare yourself for this series\/immerse yourself in the subject?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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First, I always try and read some literature pertaining to the subject of a project before I start. It\u2019s a way to steep myself in the feeling of it more than anything else, and get myself in a certain frame of mind \u2013 I suppose it\u2019s kind of like the way an athlete listens to a certain piece of music before a big game. For instance, when I wrote a series of articles about memory research, I read Proust\u2019s Remembrance of Things Past<\/em> for the first time and totally loved it. For this project, I re-read Moby Dick<\/em> \u2013 I hadn\u2019t read it since high school \u2014 and Joseph Conrad\u2019s Typhoon<\/em>. As for preparing to write about the particulars of the subject matter, I do loads of research reading, including everything from sailing terminology to the history of navigation. I really run up my bill from Amazon.com<\/a> before every project!<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Before this project what kind of relationship did you have with the sea? What about now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Interesting question. I grew up in New Jersey, which is a coastal state, and I was born in Staten Island and often visited my grandparents there, and stayed at their summer house at the beach for several weeks as a young kid. For 50 years \u2013 I\u2019m 56 \u2013 my family has always gone to the Jersey Shore for vacation during the summer. So the sea, the ocean, was something I grew up with. I never really sailed or fished; I was a swimmer mostly. And becauase I\u2019ve always been drawn to poetry \u2013 both the writing of it and the reading of it \u2013 the sea has always been evocative for me, and as a writer, I\u2019ve mined it for not a few metaphors. As for what my relationship is now, I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s much different, except for one thing: Everytime I\u2019m in or near the ocean, I think of the crew of the Lady Mary.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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CHAPTER 1<\/h2>\nRiotous waves pummel Jos\u00e9 Arias. In the frantic scramble to abandon ship, he zipped his survival suit only to his throat and now the freezing Atlantic is seeping in, stealing his body\u2019s heat.
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\nThe cold hammers him, a fist inside his head. <\/a> How did you decide to tell the story in present tense? Did you play at all with past tense? <\/span> I played a bit, but early on I knew exactly where I wanted to start the story, and for the effect of immediacy knew present tense was best. There were several possible scenes I could have opened with \u2013 at any point as the boat is going down, in fact \u2013 but I wanted to be able to return to that action, to the final minutes of the boat, and build up to it, so the next best dramatic point is really with Jose in the water, wondering whether he\u2019s going to live or die. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nSeesawing across the ocean, he cannot tell east from west, up from down. At the top of a wave the night sky spins open, then slides away. Buckets of stars spill into the sea. <\/a> lovely image, particularly the verbs \u2013spins, slides, spill; how did you arrive at \u201cspins\u201d? <\/span> I consider myself a fairly visual person and after going over and over with Jose about the conditions that night, what he saw and heard and felt, I wanted to put the reader in the water, see-sawing up and down the waves. Imagining myself in the same situation, floating on my back, in heavy seas, I realized that looking up at the sky as you\u2019re moving up and down will make the stars seem to move too. I worked on the wording of the lede for many many hours, tweaking it many times over the days before publication. When I did, I always read the lede out loud. I do this with stories whenever I can, to make sure the rhythm and flow is right, and of course alliteration and assonance is important in that regard. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\n\u201cS\u00e1lvame, por favor. S\u00e1lvame.\u201d
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\nSave me. Please save me, he prays to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
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\nIn the chilly, early morning hours of March 24, 2009, 57-year-old Jos\u00e9 Arias fights for his life, floating in the water 66 miles from Cape May. The nearest lights are from another fishing vessel, which does not see him, anchored less than a half-mile away. A little farther out, a mammoth container ship steams toward Philadelphia.
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\nAlthough Arias does not know it yet, all six of his friends and fellow fishermen are dead, and the red-hulled scalloper, the Lady Mary, is resting, right-side up, <\/a> such a great, specific detail; what\u2019s the source, photos? <\/span> Video and photos, taken by professional divers with whom I worked closely in researching the story. <\/span><\/span><\/span> on the sandy bottom of the Atlantic. The mystery of what sank her, which continues to haunt the maritime world, has just begun. <\/a> interesting move \u2013 takes us out of straight narrative and allows for a traditional nut-graf-y moment, which then hour-glasses us back to narrative. The next seven grafs provide context and cue the reader to settle in for Story \u2013 I\u2019m curious about the thought that went into using this particular tool of newspaper writing, which seeks to establish immediate relevance (before the jump, if possible) and declare the story\u2019s (and newspaper\u2019s) authority and intentions. Sometimes nut grafs and nut-graf passages work against the story, though, by derailing\/defusing it and by turning a distracting amount of the attention onto process \u2013 did you worry about that here? <\/span> Ahhh, the nut graph. The bane of many a reporter\u2019s existence! At a newspaper it\u2019s almost impossible to get away without one \u2013 especially with my editor! \u2013 but the story is also a complex one. It\u2019s part narrative, part investigation, part profile of an industry, etc. So I actually do think it was important to help the reader out a bit in terms of what to expect. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nFor months, what happened to the 71-foot Lady Mary baffled the Coast Guard, marine experts, fishermen, divers and heartbroken loved ones \u2014 all of whom wanted to know how a sound and stable boat with an experienced crew could disappear from the ocean\u2019s surface in a matter of minutes and leave so few clues behind.
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\nThis story is about a tragedy no one lived to tell \u2014 except Arias, the only crewman plucked from the ocean alive, but who was asleep below decks when the sea suddenly began to swallow the boat. But from the tormented memories of its sole survivor, hundreds of pages of Coast Guard documents, the analyses of more than a dozen marine experts and the Lady Mary\u2019s own ghostly remains, a picture has slowly emerged.
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\nNo single event doomed the six fishermen, rather a cascade of circumstances set in motion years earlier by a slip in penmanship on a vessel safety form, compounded by a clerical error. Darkness, deteriorating weather, a tired crew and an open hatch contributed to the vessel\u2019s vulnerability. Then, a floating behemoth 10 times the size of the little scalloper came plowing through the fishing ground at nearly full throttle.
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\nThe men of the Lady Mary were like thousands of others who earn their living from fishing, toiling in a Wild West sort of world, in hazardous, ever-changing conditions with scant safeguards and few legal protections.
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\nOn today\u2019s oceans, endangered whales have more protection than fishermen, though scores are killed each year.
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\nAnd when fishermen die at sea, their deaths often remain unexplained, their bodies never found and their lives soon forgotten by the public.
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\nAs one mariner said, \u201cThere are no skid marks on the ocean.\u201d <\/a> amazing quote. Did this person say it to you or did you find this in documents? <\/span> My favorite quote in the whole story. It came from a naval architect who said he did not feel right about commenting on the evidence we showed him, but was happy to talk about the issues of accident investigations in general, and so because I did not use him anywhere else I decided best not to name him. All that being said, when he uttered those words I felt my heart leap. It pretty much encapsulated so much of what the story was about, and how hard it is to solve these mysterious sinkings. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\u2018SEE YOU WHEN I GET BACK\u2019<\/h4>\nOn the morning of Wednesday, March 18, 2009, a week before the Lady Mary disappeared, Jos\u00e9 Arias lingered on the dock of Cold Spring Fish & Supply in Cape May. Arias, like most commercial fishermen, lived frugally. He shared a spartan one-bedroom apartment in Wildwood with another fisherman and used a bicycle to get around town. A trip to the area known as the Elephant Trunk, the richest scallop grounds on the East Coast, meant he and the other six men aboard the Lady Mary might pocket $10,000 to $15,000 each \u2014 more for the captain \u2014 for a week to 10 days at sea. <\/a> Lovely. It\u2019s clear that you think about cadence. And I\u2019ve heard you recite \u2013 beautifully, memorably \u2013 the final paragraphs of The Great Gatsby<\/em>, so I know you think about lyricism. <\/span> Thanks. Yes, Fitzgerald and Gatsby are particular favorites. Fitzgerald was so astute to cadence and the music of words that he removed more than a thousand commas from the final draft of The Great Gatsby<\/em> before publication. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nThe federal government strictly regulates commercial fishing, placing limits on the number of trips and the size of the catch. So at the beginning of each season, usually around March 1, fishermen are eager to get back to work. <\/a> Interesting that you drop in exposition rather than work it in, say, via Arias\u2019 POV. How did you arrive at that choice? <\/span> There was so much explanatory information that I needed to weave into the story \u2013 about the fishing industry, commercial fishing boats and the various regulations, that I knew I had to have these \u201cpauses\u201d in the narrative to keep the reader up to speed. The eagerness to get back to work in the spring is true of all scallopers, I learned, so it was certainly not just true of Jose. I also wanted to drop in hints along the way about all the various reasons why the Lady Mary was doomed, including, obviously, the need for fishermen to get out as soon as possible when the season opens. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nWaiting for the rest of the crew to arrive at the dock that Wednesday morning, Arias noticed an 8-foot-long wooden plank leaning against the ice machine, not far from where the scallops are weighed and packed for shipment. Perfect, he thought to himself. He would use the wood to fix one of the bins in the boat\u2019s fish hold. Arias picked up the plank and carried it onboard, placing it on the bow, or front, <\/a> Just curious: Why include \u201cor front\u201d? Were you worried readers wouldn\u2019t understand \u201cbow\u201d? <\/span> My editor\u2019s suggestion, at least early on in the story, to help nonboaters. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> of the ship, next to the life raft.
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\nAccording to the vessel tracking system operated by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Lady Mary cast off shortly after 10 a.m. <\/a> Here\u2019s an interesting point of difference between newspaper and magazine writing. A magazine writer might have written \u201cThe Lady Mary cast off shortly after 10 a.m.\u201d and let it go at that if the backup contained NMFS documents affirming the fact. Do you think newspaper writers often feel an undue burden to show our work at the local level even when the reporting backs up the story? Did you attribute the shove-off time because it was a contentious point? <\/span> Certainly it\u2019s true that newspaper reporters feel more of a burden to show attribution, but in this case, the vessel tracking system almost becomes a kind of character in the story \u2013 especially when it comes to trying to figure out what the Cap Beatrice was doing in the hours after the accident \u2013 and I wanted the reader to know early on that there was a lot we DID know, and CAN know, about a ship\u2019s whereabouts, which to me underscores the terrible tragedy of the accident \u2013 that despite the most sophisticated technology in the world, a boat can sink 65 miles off shore and take six men down with her, and yet no one knows until hours later. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> Among the seven men were two brothers, Capt. Royal \u201cBobo\u201d Smith Jr., 41, and Tim \u201cTimbo\u201d Smith, 39, the only children of 64-year-old Royal \u201cFuzzy\u201d Smith Sr., who co-owned the boat with son Tim. One of Fuzzy\u2019s brothers, Tarzon, (nicknamed Bernie) 59, was also aboard, as was a cousin, Frankie Credle, 56. The other two members of the crew were 23-year-old novice Jorge Ramos and Frank Reyes, 42.
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\nPointing the boat east, Bobo picked up his cell phone and called Stacy Greene, his 39-year-old girlfriend and the mother of two of his three biological children.
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\nA teller at Crest Savings Bank in Wildwood, Stacy couldn\u2019t answer, but she knew Bobo would leave a slew of messages.
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\n\u201cBabe, we\u2019re leaving. We\u2019re pulling away from the dock,\u201d he said after Stacy\u2019s voice-mail message played.
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\nA few minutes later, according to phone records, <\/a> Again, why did you choose to attribute? Was this point in question? <\/span> It may not have been necessary, but again I think I wanted the reader to know how much we DID know about the Lady Mary\u2019s last days, etc., and yet not the ultimate reason why she sank. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> he called again. The boat had probably cleared the lighthouse by then. Soon it would be out of range.
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\n\u201cBabe, got the outriggers out. See you when I get back, okay?\u201d <\/a> Dialogue handled so nicely and cleanly <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nWhen they were fishing, and well out of sight of cell-phone towers, Bobo often called Stacy on the satellite phone. Because they worked virtually around-the-clock, he sometimes dialed her at crazy hours, ringing her at 2 a.m. to ask what she was doing.
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\n\u201cWhat do you think I\u2019m doing?\u201d she\u2019d say in mock anger.
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\nOver the next six days, Bobo called Stacy on the satellite phone 10 times, not always reaching her. He called Fuzzy twice on Saturday, March 21. The first time was just after 2 in the afternoon, to tell him the crew was catching a good load of scallops and things were going well.
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\n\u201cGo bag \u2019em up, and don\u2019t be guessing how much you got,\u201d Fuzzy told Bobo.
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\nHe never liked to hear from his sons when they were out fishing, <\/a> It’s details like this that make a narrative. How’d you get this one? <\/span> We \u2013 photographer\/videographer Andre Malok and I \u2013spent hours and hours with Capt. Fuzzy and he was very open and generous and told us this quite straightforwardly <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> he just wanted them to get the job done and come home.\n
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\nHe worried about them, especially when they were on the same boat. Usually they took two boats and kept an eye on each other. When one of them called Fuzzy in the middle of a fishing trip, he always thought something was wrong.\n
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\nAt 10:37 that night, Bobo called his father back to tell him they had 200 bags of scallops \u2014 big ones, he told his father \u2014 and would probably be heading back on Tuesday, the 24th.\n
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\nThree minutes later, Bobo called Stacy. The couple had broken up so many times over the years, often because of his drinking, but when he moved back into the house in Whitesboro in June of 2008, he quit and told her he wanted to be a real father to his kids.\n
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\nThe next eight months were blissful, according to Stacy. Bobo fixed breakfast for the children, attended every one of 8-year-old Jeremiah\u2019s basketball games \u2014 in fact, every one of his practices \u2014 and on weekends drove the kids to the Family Dollar Store in Rio Grande to buy them presents.\n
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\nOf course, that was when he was just back from a fishing trip and had money in his pockets. When he did have cash, he spent it freely, usually on the kids, but sometimes on complete strangers.\n
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\nThe previous November, when they were all driving down to Virginia Beach for a big family reunion, Bobo spotted a homeless man wandering on the side of the road. He pulled over, handed him all the food they\u2019d just picked up at KFC and gave him $10 in cash.\n
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\n\u201cHere you go, man,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope you can make it.\u201d\n
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\nWhen fishing season opened in March 2009, Bobo was broke again. Just before leaving on the first trip of the year, he stopped by Adele\u2019s Jeweled Treasures in Cape May and, according to store receipts, <\/a> How\/why the decision to attribute? <\/span> In this case, there was no other way we could have known this. The reader already knows Bobo is dead, and so he couldn\u2019t possibly have told us, and his wife didn\u2019t know about the chain until the shop called after the boat went down <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> pawned the gold chain he always wore around his neck for $200.\n
\n
\nLike Bobo, younger brother Tim was utterly and completely a fisherman. He even married a fisherman\u2019s daughter. Carinna often went down to the boat before a trip, clean sheets in her arms, and made her husband\u2019s bed. <\/a> great detail <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nShe also liked to pack Tim\u2019s duffel and sneaked \u201csea letters\u201d \u2014 love notes, really \u2014 into the pockets of his clothes. Each day, when Tim dressed, was like Christmas morning, and he tucked the little presents into his shaving kit for safekeeping.\n
\n
\n\u201cTell (the Realtor) I\u2019ll have the money for the house when I come back in,\u201d he told Carinna right before leaving that Wednesday morning.\n
\n
\nHe was going to use his share from the trip to make a down payment on a new home. <\/a> Students and I often talk about the pros and cons of single-sentence grafs \u2013how and when to use them, and when to combine material and keep powerful ideas streamlined. Obviously it depends upon the story but generally how do you view single-sentence grafs? Do you ever worry about their potential to overdramatize certain material? <\/span> In this case, the single sentence graph wasn\u2019t meant to be dramatic. It\u2019s just that I switch to a new subject in the next sentence, so I couldn\u2019t run it in with that graph. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nOn the same block in Whitesboro on which Tim and Carinna lived, 37-year-old Jeannette Rodriguez was reluctant to see Frank Reyes leave on his first fishing trip of the year. The two had been together 20 years and although they\u2019d never married, they had three children. Jeannette and Frank met at a Christmas Eve party in Wildwood. She was 18 and had just arrived from Puerto Rico. He was five years older, and conscious of the age difference, so he allowed their relationship to develop slowly over the months. Eventually, they moved in together.\n
\n
\nReyes, 42, was a cook at the Lobster House in Cape May and loved his job, but during the slow winter months the restaurant cut back on staff. Fishing was one way to fill the gap financially.\n\u201dDon\u2019t go,\u201d she would say to him. \u201cIt\u2019s so dangerous.\u201d\n
\n
\nAnd sometimes he wouldn\u2019t. Reyes never wanted his family to worry about him. So when he did go out, he never called his parents back in Puerto Rico and he always left before the kids were up. <\/a> Good details, these personal rituals\/superstitions <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> Personally he didn\u2019t much care for fishing, but he had no fear of the water. In fact he loved it. Nearly every weekend in the warm weather he would go swimming off Sunset Beach, at the western edge of Lower Township. Early in the season the water was always too cold for Jeannette and the kids, but not for Frank.\n
\n
\n\u201cOnly God would separate us,\u201d he would tell Jeannette before leaving on a fishing trip, \u201cso you have to trust me.\u201d\n
\n
\nOn the morning of March 18 she drove him to the dock and kissed him goodbye.\n
\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m going to be home Monday morning,\u201d he said. \u201cTake care of the kids.\u201d\n
\n
\nOn the first two days of fishing, the crew had little luck and kept moving, until they were at the outer edge of the Elephant Trunk, named for the shape of the sea\u2019s floor in that area. That\u2019s when they hit the mother lode, dredging up shells with plump scallops the size of half-dollars inside.\n
\n
\nOn Monday, March 23, Arias got up early, ate a breakfast of ribs and bacon, then spent the next 18 hours in the cut room, separating scallop meat from their shells. Two-hundred bushels later, he finally ducked into the forepeak bunk room, below the galley in the bow of the ship, and slipped into bed, exhausted. It was just after midnight. <\/a> So streamlined and visual <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nThe other six men continued to work: Capt. Bobo kept watch in the wheelhouse; Tim, Bernie, Frankie Credle, Frank Reyes, and Jorge Ramos were all either on deck dredging or in the cut room shucking.\n
\n
\nThe boat was about 60 to 70 miles east by southeast of Cape May and carrying close to a full load: 18,000 pounds of scallops packed neatly into 50-pound muslin bags. <\/a> Great specificity: east by southeast, FIFTY-pound MUSLIN bags, 18,000 pounds of scallops <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> One more shift, and the Lady Mary would probably head for home.\n
\n
\nThe boat was well-equipped for long voyages and included up-to-date <\/a> Glad you didn\u2019t use the clich\u00e9d \u201cstate-of-the-art\u201d \u2013 possibly because that\u2019s not what the reporting actually showed; with \u201cup-to-date\u201d you seem to be making a technical distinction about on-board inspections and the required equipment but you didn\u2019t hit us over the head with it. It\u2019s a small move but if I\u2019m reading it right it shows precision reporting <\/span> Thanks, that\u2019s just what I wanted to convey. It certainly wasn\u2019t state-of-the-art, but it\u2019s a detail that helps underscore the coming mystery \u2013 that despite all the navigation equipment and the apparent safety of the boat, it is somehow doomed. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> navigational and safety equipment, including a covered life raft and an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, or EPIRB, which automatically emits a distress signal when it\u2019s submerged in water.\n
\n
\nStaggering their shifts, two men usually slept while everyone else worked. Arias and Timbo were scheduled to knock off <\/a> Love this moment of lingo; important to echo the language\/collective voice of a subculture, if possible; Tom Wolfe does it particularly well. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> at the same time, but Tim didn\u2019t turn in right away. At some point after midnight he smoked a little marijuana, probably with Bobo, according to a toxicology report, before finally heading to bed.\n
\n
\nRamos was supposed to wake Tim and Jos\u00e9 at 6 a.m. when it was his turn to rest, but Arias wouldn\u2019t have been surprised if Bobo told the others to take a break, too, then just let the boat drift for a few hours. It was getting difficult to work anyway. The seas were building and the wind was up. <\/a> Love this sentence <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nIn his bunk bed, Arias pulled a blanket up around his shoulders. He was used to the labored grunts of the engine and the high whine of the winches as they lowered and lifted the dredge, and though his hands and arms ached and the smell of fish and diesel fumes still oozed from the clothes he\u2019d tossed in the corner, he fell asleep quickly. <\/a> How did you get the precise detail about where he tossed his clothes? <\/span> Many hours of interviews with Jose, almost all of it through a translator. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nOne-hundred-and-twenty miles to the north, the container ship Cap Beatrice was steaming from Antwerp, Belgium, toward the Port of Philadelphia at nearly 20 knots. <\/a> Thank you for not converting this to mph<\/a>; I think I as a writer would have done so, and it would\u2019ve been wrong <\/span> There was discussion of this; I wanted to stay in character, so to speak, and not convert, because no one does that out at sea <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> Owned by the Reederei Thomas Schulte company in Hamburg, Germany, the Cap Beatrice<\/a><\/strong> was sailing under a Liberian flag and was leased by the Hamburg Sud shipping company, the 16th largest in the world. Since launching in 2007, her route was usually a 70-day round-trip to various ports between Australia and the United States.\n
\n
\nFor some reason in mid-March 2009, the Cap Beatrice had made a detour to Europe, perhaps for repairs, <\/a> I\u2019ll bet you killed yourself trying to nail this down; would the company, Hamburg Sud<\/a>, just not cooperate? Did those details not come out in the Coast Guard hearings? <\/span> Oh, Lord, there were sooo many of these details. First, no, unfortunately it did not come out in the hearings. Second, yes, neither Hamburg Sud nor the Coast Guard would answer the question <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> and on the 24th was headed to the United States, presumably to resume her loop to Australia and back.\n
\n
\nCapt. Vasyl Stenderchuk<\/a><\/strong>, a 55-year-old Ukrainian, was in charge of the 728-foot-long ship, and spent most of his days in the wheelhouse, some seven stories above the deck. Radar, along with a sophisticated Automatic Identification System and other navigation tools, keep the officer on watch apprised of other ships in the area.\n
\n
\nAIS, however, can only detect ships carrying the same system and virtually no fishing vessels carry the expensive equipment. <\/a> blockbuster detail. Source? General research? Coast Guard investigation? <\/span> Talked with a lot of navigation experts and fishing industry experts as well as fishing vessel inspectors, to confirm. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nIn the deteriorating weather, the 40,000-ton Cap Beatrice was headed straight for one of the most crowded fishing grounds on the East Coast of the United States.\n
\n
\nArias slept soundly, even as the Lady Mary rolled and pitched with the waves. The wind continued to scoop up barrels of water and sling them over the gunnels. <\/a> Your verbs in this series are so good I had to make a partial list just to see them that way: scoop, sling, slap, shudder, lurch, scramble, slosh, brace, bang, clutch, dip, swerve, grip, grab, skid, tip, jam, crackle, sputter, huddle, split, nose, whirl, thunder, gun \u2013 nothing fancy, all power lifters <\/span> Ha! I always take F. Scott Fitzgerald to heart on this. He said \u201cAll fine prose is based on the verbs carrying the sentence.\u201d Just re-read his description of the cocktail party at Gatsby\u2019s house in Chapter 3. For example, count all the verbs in just these three sentences \u2013 and he\u2019s writing about a cocktail party, for crying out loud!: \u201cThe lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher. Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word. The groups change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath; already there are wanderers, confident girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable, become for a sharp, joyous moment the centre of a group, and then, excited with triumph, glide on through the sea-change of faces and voices and color under the constantly changing light.\u201d <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> Heavy cables slapped against the deck and hull, and the sound of metal grinding was enough to wake the deepest sleeper.\n
\n
\nFishermen, however, get used to the movement and noise of a boat \u2014 or they don\u2019t stay fishermen for long.\n
\n
\nAt 5:10 a.m., the Lady Mary automatically reported her position to the fisheries service for the last time. The next electronic signal she sent was from her EPIRB hitting the water at 5:40 a.m.\nThe only other information that is known for certain is that a phone call was placed from the Lady Mary at 5:17 a.m.\n
\n
\nWhat else happened between 5 and 6 Tuesday morning, March 24, 2009, has been reconstructed <\/a> I love that you did this \u2013 told the reader straight out that from here on we\u2019re dealing with reconstructions from a variety of sources; it\u2019s clear, honest (not to say a lack of disclaimer would\u2019ve been dis<\/em>honest) \u2013 it\u2019s transparent, is my point <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> from vessel tracking reports, information from weather buoys, and interviews not only with Jos\u00e9 Arias, but with marine experts, other fishermen out there that night, as well as Fuzzy Smith, the co-owner of the Lady Mary, who knew the boat, the crew and the routine aboard the scalloper better than anyone.\n

\nAWAKENING TO TERROR<\/h4>\n\nAround 5 a.m. something happened to the Lady Mary. <\/a> Even though you\u2019ve just announced that you\u2019ll be telling us what else happened, this simple phrasing is beautifully unexpected\/compelling. You take us back by 40 minutes and into an intimate POV <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> Arias wasn\u2019t sure what, but he jerked awake. The boat had shuddered, lurched hard to the left, and nearly catapulted him from his middle bunk.\n
\n
\n\u201cCome on, Jos\u00e9, the boat\u2019s sinking!\u201d Timbo shouted as he dropped from his upper berth <\/a> Visual \u2013 sourcing of detail about where Timbo slept? <\/span> interviews with Jose <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> on the other side of the room. In emergencies, the crew is drilled to go to the wheelhouse on the upper deck. Arias and Smith were in the bow of the ship, the farthest point from the bridge.\n
\n
\nThey scrambled out of the bunk room and up the steps into the galley. The water was ankle-high as they sloshed across the kitchen to the port-side passageway. Moving slowly down the narrow hall, they braced themselves against the wall. The freezing water was now up to their knees. Through the cut room <\/a> I love that you included the route through the cut room \u2013 the notion of a \u201ccut room\u201d (I\u2019d never heard of such a thing) echoes your earlier mentions so powerfully that I immediately see Arias there pre-storm, separating meat from shell <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> and out the double doors <\/a> nice <\/span> In detailing the route so exactly I also wanted the reader to realize that it took a minute or more for him to actually get out on the back deck. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> they finally emerged onto the deck. The Lady Mary was now leaning harder to port and a third of the stern was awash.\n
\n
\nFrankie Credle, dressed only in black boxer shorts, banged a piece of pipe against the metal steps and yelled something up to Bobo in the wheelhouse, but Arias, who speaks little English, did not understand what he was saying.\n
\n
\nAt 5:17 a.m., about 80 miles away the phone rang in Stacy Greene\u2019s house. She was sound asleep, but her mother, Janet, a light sleeper, answered. The voice on the other end sounded like Bobo, but all she heard was, \u201cHey!\u201d and then static. <\/a> Deft; we instantly remember that the last call from the Lady Mary went out at 5:17; I like that you delayed identifying who made the call <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\n\u201cHello? Roy?\u201d she said, calling Bobo by his given name. When there was no answer, she hung up.\n
\n
\nReception from a boat that far out could be sporadic, and satellite calls from the Lady Mary were often dropped. Janet knew he\u2019d phone again later, when he was closer to home, and went back to sleep.\n
\n
\nInside the wheelhouse, Bobo frantically tried to steer the Lady Mary. The engines were throttled up but it seemed to Arias as if the boat was somehow stuck and not moving. Outside the wheelhouse, on the upper deck, Frank Reyes clutched the starboard railing with both hands, frozen in fear.\n
\n
\n\u201cJos\u00e9, Jos\u00e9, Qu\u00e9 vamos hacer?\u201d\n
\n
\nWhat are we going to do? he pleaded.\n
\n
\nThe two men, both Spanish speakers, were friends. Neither drank or smoked, which was unusual in the world of fishermen. Arias enjoyed spending time with Reyes and his partner, Jeannette Rodriguez, at their home in Whitesboro and eating the dinners Reyes loved to cook: spaghetti, turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, rice and beans. Afterward, the two men would trade stories about their hometowns. Reyes grew up in suburban Hatillo, Puerto Rico, just two blocks from the ocean; Arias was raised in the rural state of Chiapas, Mexico, one of the country\u2019s poorest regions. <\/a> Nice condensing of back story, and because you\u2019ve framed the revelations within exchanges between friends <\/em>we not only see them, we feel them <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nAboard the Kathryn Marie, several miles from the Lady Mary, Capt. Antonio Alvernaz was shucking scallops and keeping an ear out for the ship\u2019s radio. Around 5:15 a.m. it crackled to life.\n
\n
\n\u201cMayday!\u201d\n
\n
\nThat was all Alvernaz heard \u2014 one word, in a panicked voice.\n
\n
\nHe rushed back into the wheelhouse, hoping to hear the person identify himself or give the name or location of his boat. Instead, the next voice on Channel 12 was that of Capt. Jos\u00e9 Neves, aboard the Paul & Michelle, a few miles west of the Lady Mary.\n
\n
\n\u201cCome back with that more clearly,\u201d Neves radioed. \u201cCome back with the name of your boat and position.\u201d <\/a> How did you get the dialogue \u2013 radio recordings or reconstruction? <\/span> This is from Neves\u2019 testimony at the Coast Guard hearing. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nNothing.\n
\n
\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t make out a thing,\u201d Neves radioed next, to anyone listening.\n
\n
\n\u201cIt sounded like a mayday,\u201d Alvernaz responded.\n
\n
\nNeither man could be sure, and with no name or location, there was no point in calling the Coast Guard. Both went back to work. Mayday hoaxes were a common occurrence, and Neves and Alvernaz didn\u2019t think about the aborted call until eight or nine hours later.\n
\n
\nSix miles due west of the Lady Mary, Jim Taylor, on the Elise G., also heard a frantic voice over the radio, but couldn\u2019t make out what was said.\n
\n
\nTaylor, 34, was first mate on the Elise G. and was keeping watch at the time. While the captain slept, the rest of the crew was dredging and cutting. For awhile Taylor had been watching a large ship on the radar \u2014 a container or cargo ship, he thought \u2014 as it crossed straight through the fishing grounds. <\/a> This sentence is so haunting; I think it\u2019s powerful because you cast the fact from Taylor\u2019s POV<\/em>, which is so much more visual than something abstract such as, \u201cFor a while a large ship had been crossing the radar as it made its way through the fishing grounds.\u201d <\/span> Thanks. I think it also underscores, yet again, that there were people so close by, people who saw things, or thought they saw things, and yet for one reason or another were not in a position to be able to help the Lady Mary or even know she was in distress. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nOnly two vessels were within a mile of the Lady Mary, according to Coast Guard and Marine Fisheries records: The 728-foot container ship Cap Beatrice<\/a><\/strong>, and the 69-foot scalloper Alexandria Dawn, which was \u201claying-to\u201d \u2014 using her dredge as an anchor \u2014 and so was not moving.\n
\n
\nOther than the Cap Beatrice, the only other large merchant ships in the area were the Energy Enterprise<\/a> <\/strong>and the APL Arabia<\/a><\/strong>, but they were 20 to 30 miles north of the Lady Mary, moving in opposite directions. <\/a> All of this detail is so good and clear \u2013 it gives us almost a bird\u2019s-eye view of that ocean sector <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nAs Taylor hauled back on the dredge, he noticed to the east a huge ship suddenly turn on its deck lights.\n
\n
\n\u201cLike a Christmas tree, or a football stadium,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIt was the first time I\u2019ve ever seen that.\u201d\n
\n
\nAnatoly Parayev, who later served as captain of the Cap Beatrice, said there is only one time he will turn on a ship\u2019s deck lights in the middle of the ocean \u2014 when overtaking a fishing boat. “\nTo scare them off,\u201d he said. \u201cTo warn them.\u201d <\/a> Holy crap; source of this quote? CG hearings? <\/span> No, this was from conversations with Parayev IN THE WHEELHOUSE OF THE CAP BEATRICE! Andre and I were able to secure permission to board the ship when it was in port in the spring of 2010. Our second request, a few months later, was denied, as was access to the rest of the crew. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nOn the massive, window-encased bridge of the Cap Beatrice, there are three satellite phones, a large-screen radar system with a maximum distance of 55 miles, and two pairs of high-powered binoculars. <\/a> So you were allowed on the CB only once, if I\u2019m understanding correctly; did you scramble to get all the physical detail from that one visit or did you have to pair your observations with details from records? So often we don\u2019t know what\u2019s valuable from a scene until later, when we\u2019re piecing together the narrative, so we\u2019re inclined to suck in everything we see\/hear, etc., knowing we might not get another chance, which is nerve-racking <\/span> Yes, a mad scramble indeed. Almost all the detail in this graph is from first-hand observation; other details from official records <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> Seeing other large ships, either electronically or with the naked eye, is no problem, but keeping an eye on smaller vessels is another matter entirely. With its deck stacked with metal containers and the wheelhouse set back 590 feet from the bow, according to Parayev, the person on watch is blind to everything on the surface of the water inside a quarter-mile from the ship.\n
\n
\nTaylor, aboard the Elise G., has been fishing since he was 18 years old. To him, it appeared the container or cargo ship had slowed considerably, perhaps even stopped. Not far from the ship, he noticed the green mast-light of a fishing boat flickering in the dark. Normally, just below the green light, is a white light, part of a signal system that indicates to vessels in the vicinity that the boat is a fishing trawler and is underway. Taylor observed neither a white signal, nor the fishing boat\u2019s bright deck lights, which are usually turned on whether the vessel is dredging or not. <\/a> I like that you stuck with the facts of what Taylor could see and let us draw our own conclusions about what it meant \u2013that the boat was capsizing <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nOn the bridge of the Cap Beatrice, the AIS tracking system stopped transmitting the ship\u2019s position shortly after 5 a.m. By law, virtually all deep-draft vessels (ships of 300 tons or more) are required to continually report their location when transiting international waters, except where the ship\u2019s security is endangered. In these rare cases the nearest vessel-tracking service must be notified. Traffic monitoring is required by international law, mostly as a way for large ships to avoid hitting each other. AIS is a line-of-sight signal, and reception on land depends in large part on the height of the antenna.\n
\n
\nThat night there were no interruptions in the AIS transmissions from either the APL Arabia or the Energy Enterprise, according to the Coast Guard, although both were farther from shore than the Cap Beatrice. <\/a> I hate to be a dork but I got a little lost here about the takeaway; did the CB purposely stop transmitting? Just curious. <\/span> This is one of the big mysteries, and because the Coast Guard would not answer our questions \u2013 they interviewed the crew of the Cap Beatrice months after the sinking \u2013 we don\u2019t know who or why she stopped transmitting, only that she did, according to vessel tracking records. Our supposition is that someone turned off the AIS, but because we don\u2019t know that, I could only intimate how unusual it was by comparing her to the other big ships out there that night. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nONBOARD THE LADY MARY<\/h4>h4>\nIn the wheelhouse of the Lady Mary, Arias and the two Smith brothers pulled survival suits, also called immersion suits, out from under the captain\u2019s bunk. The vessel was now listing 45 degrees to port. In a few minutes she would be submerged.\n
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\nArias knew he had to get to the highest point on the boat. He left the bridge and pulled himself up to the starboard railing. There, leaning against the outside wall of the wheelhouse, he put one foot into his immersion suit, then the other. His friend Reyes was just a few feet away, still gripping the railing, a look of desperation in his eyes. On the side of the wheelhouse, Arias grabbed a life ring off its hook and handed it to Reyes.\n
\n
\n\u201cAg\u00e1rralo,\u201d he shouted into the wind, \u201cTe va salvar la vida.\u201d\n
\n
\nHold onto it. It will save your life.\n
\n
\nThe Lady Mary dipped and swerved, skidding down one wave, then hurtling up another. The boat tipped hard again to port. Suddenly the 30-foot starboard outrigger swung up out of the water and jammed itself behind its cradle, high on the mast.\n
\n
\nThe water had risen to Arias\u2019 waist. There was no time left, and no sign of Frankie Credle or Bernie or Jorge. Tim and Bobo had left the bridge, too, both in their survival suits. There was nothing more Arias could do for Reyes. He looked at his friend one last time, and let go.\n
\n
\nA plunge into cold water, with the face unprotected, can set off a lethal series of physiological events. First, the shock of the frigid temperature causes a person to involuntarily gasp, which blocks the flow of air into the lungs. Drowning, more than anything else, is a kind of quick suffocation, and in frigid water the reflex to inhale can kill even the strongest of men in minutes. <\/a> Brilliant idea, to include the physiological effects of hitting frigid water. What led you to the decision to include this? By doing so you give us added sensation <\/span> Drowning, I knew from research, is really so awful that I knew I wanted to detail it. Just saying \u201cdrowning\u201d gives a reader absolutely no idea about what it\u2019s really like. Also, I wanted the reader to understand how quickly you can die in frigid water and drown. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nArias slid into the water on his back. He tried to move away from the Lady Mary as quickly as possible, using his arms like paddles and making sure to keep his face out of the water.\nA few yards from the sinking ship, a voice cracked through the wind and waves. Someone was yelling, but Arias couldn\u2019t see him or understand what he was saying.\n
\n
\n\u201cQui\u00e9n es? D\u00f3nde est\u00e1?\u201d\n
\n
\nWho\u2019s there? Where are you?\n
\n
\nNo one answered. The bright deck lights of the Lady Mary blinked out. The engine sputtered to a stop. She was sinking quickly now.\n
\n
\nTaylor, at the wheel of the Elise G., looked out the window to the east. It was, he recalled, five or 10 minutes since he\u2019d spotted the container ship with its deck all lit up. The lights were off now, and the green light of the fishing trawler was nowhere to be seen. Taylor figured the boat was obscured from view behind the container and turned his attention back to dredging.\nWhen the sea started to crest the wheelhouse,the only part of the Lady Mary still visible to Arias was the long arm of the starboard outrigger, pointing heavenward. <\/a> Good Lord, what an image; did this one come to you right away or did you have to beg it? <\/span> I specifically asked Jose what was the last thing he saw and went over the last few minutes of the sinking with him so much that I had a very, very clear picture in my mind of what he saw and when I saw it in MY mind, I shivered. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

AN INCREDIBLE TWIST OF FATE<\/h4>\n\t\n\tRolling over the waves, his survival suit slowly filling with water, Arias hears <\/a> Back to present tense; why the shift? <\/span> I wanted to end the story where I began \u2013 back with Jose in the water. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> nothing \u2014 no voice, no engine \u2014 only the wind thrashing wildly at the waves and the sound of his own heavy breathing.\n
\n
\nBobbing and weaving in the mountainous seas, he spots a piece of debris floating toward him and can\u2019t believe his eyes \u2014 it\u2019s the 8-foot-long board he picked up off the dock before the Lady Mary left port. <\/a> So he saved his own life <\/span> Another point that I shivered when Jose told us this story. I had to resist mentioning Moby Dick<\/em> and Queequeg\u2019s coffin<\/a><\/strong>! <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> After placing it on the bow of the boat, he\u2019d never had time to use it to make repairs.\n
\n
\nNow, reaching out, he lifts his arms wearily across the plank, then lets the waves take him where they will.\n
\n
\nJos\u00e9 Arias, a slender, middle-aged fisherman, a grandfather with graying temples, is alone in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.\n
\n
\nAnd dawn is still another hour away.\n

CHAPTER 2<\/h3>\n\nAll his life, Royal \u201cFuzzy\u201d Smith has followed the sea. One of 13 children from rural Bayboro, N.C., he took his first fishing trip with his father when he was just 4 years old. By the time he was 18, he was working full time on shrimpers plying the Intracoastal Waterway, a 3,000-mile ribbon of inlets, rivers and bays that stretches south from the Jersey Shore to Key West, Fla., then up into the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Apalachicola, Fla.\n
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\nFrom a young age, Fuzzy could read the water \u2014 where it ran warmer, faster or deeper \u2014 and knew the tides without checking the charts. He fished from October to June, at night, when the shrimp came out to feed in the shallows, and especially around a full moon, when they rode the currents out to spawn. <\/a> Again, such graceful writing \u2013 I\u2019m guessing you read your work aloud <\/span> You bet. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> <\/a> Having heard you read Fitzgerald I\u2019d like to hear you read this whole series aloud. You should record it and add it to the Star-Ledger archives \u2013 for the blind, for posterity, for the hell of it. But that\u2019s just me. <\/span> Ha! You might be interested in an 8-minute video we will be posting. I was asked to write an essay kicking off our week-long 9\/11 anniversary coverage, and the assignment, believe it or not, was to visit historic places of hallowed ground. We started at Ground Zero, then Gettysburg, then Arlington National Cemetery, Oklahoma City and finally Pearl Harbor \u2014 all in 10 days! It was exhausting and exhilarating. And my colleague John Munson has done an incredible job making a video out of an essay. For this I did write the script and did the narration\u2026 <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nHe followed the shrimp south, catching Georgia whites and Key West pinks, and then followed them up into the Gulf of Mexico, hauling in Pensacola reds and Texas brownies. <\/a> I like the repetition of \u201cfollow\u201d here and that you didn\u2019t force yourself the switch up the verbs \u2013 thought behind that? <\/span> The repetition reinforces the visual of the travels and its linearity <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nOver the years, Fuzzy moved from mate to captain to owner, and when scallops became the big moneymaker, <\/a> Thank you for not giving us the history of scalloping <\/span> The photographer\/videographer on the project, Andre Malok<\/a><\/strong>, is also a graphic artist and he did a beautiful word graphic describing the life of the scallop \u2013 another reason why other elements like graphics and video and photos are so key to good storytelling \u2013 so that the writer doesn\u2019t have to shoehorn EVERY explanation and piece of information into the story. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> he gave up shrimping and moved his boats from North Carolina to Cape May. By the time his sons Bobo and Tim were of age, Fuzzy had a fleet of scallopers and was content to let his sons do the fishing while he managed the business on shore.\n
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\nHis office in Cape May is a one-room apartment in a squat, cinder-block building at the back of a parking lot across from the Lobster House. Photos of boats and family fill the room. The most recent is a picture of Bobo and Tim taken in November 2008 at a large family get-together in Virginia Beach. It\u2019s almost dusk, and the sons are framed against a cornflower-blue sky. They smile into the camera, both dressed in crisp, white \u201cSmith Reunion\u201d T-shirts inscribed with a quote from Proverbs 3:5.\n
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\n\u201cTrust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.\u201d <\/a> Such a closely observed detail that adds meaning\/depth\/even comfort \u2013 how do you go about gathering details when you\u2019re on scene? My hands always start to shake when I come across something that I know will be vital to a story. <\/span> Instead of shaky hands I get jumpy eyes and feet! I pride myself on picking up as many details as possible, always with the thought that you never know what detail can enhance or illustrate a theme, character or event. And sometimes I use the details to go do more research. For instance, I always look into the history, geography, even geology of a place where my story is centered, looking to see if those bits of information can inform a metaphor or image or theme. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nFrom his desk in Cape May, Fuzzy kept watch over his boats and his boys. Looking out the window, he could see the clammers and scallopers huddled up against the dock and watch Bobo and Tim steer in and out of port. When they were on a trip for a week, two weeks, Fuzzy followed their progress using a special program on his computer, mainly to help them stay within the federally designated fishing grounds. If they strayed, fines would be levied.\n
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\nBut in truth, he was anxious about their safety. They usually fished together in two boats, so they could keep an eye on each other. But if it was a quick trip, it was easier to go out in one, and the best boat was the Lady Mary.\n
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\nThose solo trips were when Fuzzy worried the most. If something went wrong, there was no second boat to help out. He kept the TV tuned to the Weather Channel, and when he couldn\u2019t sleep at night he\u2019d get up, turn on his computer, and in the sea-green glow of its screen look for his two sons somewhere out in the Atlantic.\n
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\nFuzzy was good at all the nuts and bolts. Although he filed his mail in a tall kitchen garbage can, <\/a> I\u2019m with Fuzzy on this one <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> he knew where everything was \u2014 bills and boat records, tax papers, trip reports and safety equipment registrations.\n
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\nHe wrote everything out in bold, black letters and numbers \u2014 in print, mostly, not cursive \u2014 and if, on the hundreds of forms he filled out every year, occasionally a \u201cC\u201d looked like an \u201c0,\u201d what could it possibly matter? <\/a> Nice foreshadowing <\/span> Credit for this goes to my editor on the project, David Tucker<\/a><\/strong> <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nA CALL FOR HELP<\/h4>\nAt 5:40 a.m. on March 24, 2009, a geostationary satellite 22,236 miles <\/a> Great, specific; source? <\/span> NOAA records as well as interview with NOAA satellite scientist <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> above sea level wakes up. <\/a> I may be stretching the analysis here, but you almost anthropomorphize the machines in this story \u2013 from the beginning they seem to have a life of their own, which for me adds a layer of mystery <\/span> This is purposeful \u2013 so many things happened that conspired against the Lady Mary that they acted almost like characters in the story. I also think anthropomorphizing makes these \u201caccidents\u201d of timing , etc., more poignant <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> Its antennae have picked up a maritime distress signal from an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon.\n
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\nAbout the size of a large flashlight, an EPIRB is a required piece of equipment on most commercial fishing vessels. When submerged \u2014 that is, when a ship begins to sink \u2014 the device automatically releases from a bracket attached to the outside of a ship\u2019s cabin or wheelhouse and floats to the surface.\n
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\nThe EPIRB emits a distress signal, in bursts, every 52 seconds <\/a> Nice <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> on a special radio frequency (406 megahertz), <\/a> It might be easy to dismiss this as over-detailing but it\u2019s critical to understanding what happens later <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> reserved for emergencies. Embedded in the signal transmitted in the early morning hours of March 24 was a unique 15-digit code identifying the Lady Mary and its owners. <\/a> Huh; kind of like a digital license plate; thank you for not giving us those 15 digits <\/span> Well, I do later! <\/span> There, it\u2019s perfect <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nThe geostationary satellite is the first link in an electronic rescue chain, and it immediately notifies the nearest automated \u201clocal user terminal,\u201d which is an unmanned computer at U.S. Mission Control Center in Suitland, Md. The center is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and its Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking program, or SARSAT, is in the same building on the Suitland campus. Atop the flat roof of the office, radio dishes sprout like mutant mushrooms, scanning the skies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. <\/a> Deftly described <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nNormally, the local user terminal attaches the EPIRB registration information to the electronic message it sends to the mission-control computer, and when the SARSAT computer receives the emergency data, it notifies a watch-stander \u2014 the officer in charge \u2014 at a rescue coordination center.\n
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\nIn the case of the Lady Mary, that\u2019s the Fifth Coast Guard District\u2019s headquarters, or Atlantic Area command center. But there\u2019s a problem: The local user terminal can\u2019t match the signal coming from the Lady Mary\u2019s EPIRB with one of the more than half-million registered beacons in SARSAT\u2019s database. Without a matching registration, there is no vessel name, and without a vessel name, the mission-control computer takes the local terminal\u2019s information and \u201ctables\u201d it. The Lady Mary\u2019s EPRIB also did not have a GPS, which was not mandatory.\n
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\nNo other alert is sounded. No one is notified. <\/a> Why the double passive here? <\/span> I think it emphasizes the finality <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> With the lives of seven fishermen in the balance, and despite the most sophisticated communications technology in the world, those who could save the men of the Lady Mary remain oblivious to the unfolding disaster.\n
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\nAt 5:45 a.m., Petty Officer 3rd Class Lake Downham<\/a><\/strong> is still asleep in one of the second-floor bedrooms in the hangar of Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City. The heliport is actually 10 miles from the city\u2019s neon signs and casinos, next to a commercial airfield in the Pine Barrens.\n
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\nDownham\u2019s 24-hour shift will be up at 2:30 p.m. The previous day he flew a training mission, checked and rechecked his gear, then lay in bed and watched the Philadelphia Flyers beat the New Jersey Devils for their third win in a row. <\/a> Interesting how you nudged this detail one step further with \u201cthird win in a row;\u201d some writers might\u2019ve let it drop at \u201cDevils\u201d \u2013 why the little something extra? <\/span> You\u2019re right. I didn\u2019t need it. I think it\u2019s a case where I may have gotten carried away with showing how much reporting I did. On the other hand, Downham is a Flyers fan, so it would have meant something to him \u2013 not to the reader, though, since I don\u2019t mention he IS a Flyers fan! <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> Shortly after 9 p.m., he turned off his light and went to sleep.\n
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\nAt age 28, the 6-foot-4, square-shouldered officer has been in the Coast Guard for nearly a decade, the last three years as a rescue swimmer. Although he grew up in Pennsylvania, he spent summers with relatives in Ocean City, and the summer after graduating from high school worked as a lifeguard during the week and surfed on the weekends.\n
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\nAlmost every day as he sat in the lifeguard chair he would look up and see one of those orange-and-white Coast Guard helicopters zipping back and forth, either on a rescue or training run. Flying a chopper and making mid-ocean rescues seemed a lot more glamorous than blowing a whistle from the beach and occasionally pulling someone out of a riptide.\n
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\nTired of being a lifeguard and with little interest in filling out college applications, Downham joined the United States Coast Guard at the end of the summer of 2001. He spent the next few years as a boatswain\u2019s mate on a cutter in Hawaii, carrying a gun and inspecting fishing vessels. <\/a> Such efficient writing; I see his life in these couple of paragraphs <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> Two months before his enlistment was up, he rescinded his discharge papers after realizing he\u2019d never followed through on what he originally joined the Coast Guard to do \u2014 save lives.\n

ANOTHER CHANCE<\/h4> <\/a> Okay so here\u2019s something I\u2019m wondering. We use subheds as mileposts\/cues, but in this story we already know the fishermen\u2019s fate because of the nut-graf passage, so one could argue that \u201canother chance\u201d doesn\u2019t sincerely appeal to a deep sense of drama; in terms of structure, why not draw out the mystery of what happened and who lived\/died \u2013 it might\u2019ve been slightly more challenging, and definitely atypical of newspaper structure, but \u2026 discuss? <\/span> I actually think it would have been more typical to pretend not to know what happened to the men, and even too easy to build the story that way. I also decided ahead of time that the bigger mystery was why the boat went down and why the men died, as opposed to merely whether they lived or died. And by telling readers ahead of time about the men\u2019s fate, I focus them on the \u201cwhat happened\u201d question, not the “who lived or who died” question. I also felt there was SO much drama in the reconstruction of the event that knowing the fate of men \u2013 and perhaps especially because of that \u2013 gave readers a sense of the enormity of the tragedy. It\u2019s more agonizing, too, to follow them in the days and hours and minutes up to their deaths, knowing their fate ahead of time. Finally, telling the story this way mimics the great Greek tragedies, where we know in advance the horrible outcome that awaits the main characters \u2013 which is NOT to say that I am comparing myself to the Greek tragedians! \u2013 only \u201cborrowing\u201d their device. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nLuckily, the high-altitude, geostationary satellite rotating in sync with the Earth is not the Lady Mary\u2019s only hope. A lower, earth-orbiting satellite can get a fix on her even without a beacon number or name, but there is only a small, 15-minute window of opportunity when the satellite passes directly overhead. By the time the EPIRB aboard the Lady Mary activates at 5:40 a.m., the low earth-orbiting satellite is 20 minutes beyond her and just out of range.\n
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\nNot until it passes over this patch of ocean again \u2014 an hour and 16 minutes later \u2014 will the satellite have another chance to hear the ship\u2019s distress signal.\n
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\nAt 7:07 a.m., Petty Officer 1st Class Cullen Rafferty has been on duty as watch-stander at the Fifth Coast Guard District headquarters in Virginia for less than an hour. The morning has been slow, until a computer next to Rafferty clacks to life like an old teletype announcing breaking news. Rafferty prints out the distress message from mission control. No boat ID, no owner name, just a notice that an EPIRB signal has been detected by a low-orbiting satellite.\n
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\nWhat will not be known for months is that a contractor for NOAA, which handles EPIRB registrations, made the tiniest of errors. In December 2006, Fuzzy purchased a new EPIRB and filled out the required paperwork from NOAA by copying the code that came with the device onto NOAA\u2019s form. On Jan. 18, 2007, a clerk working for NOAA transferred the ID from Fuzzy\u2019s form into the agency\u2019s system, but misread the 13th digit in the 15-digit code. <\/a> Love that you get that specific: The clerk didn\u2019t just misread the code, he\/she misread the THIRTEENTH digit <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nInstead of ADCD023C3542C01, the clerk wrote down ADCD023C3542001. <\/a> Ah, and NOW deliver the code \u2013 detail now serves the narrative <\/span> And here again is the beauty of the \u201cart\u201d that accompanied the story, because we had a copy of that form and we published it, highlighting the wrong digit and how close it was to the correct sticker on the form. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> Fuzzy\u2019s \u201cC,\u201d the third to last digit, was just the slightest bit sloppier than the other letters and numbers, and the clerk copied it down as \u201c0.\u201d\n
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\nJust to the right of the code on the registration form Fuzzy filled out was a neatly typed sticker with the correct ID. The contractor, however, was trained only to look at the middle of the form \u2014 at the spaces filled out by the owner \u2014 according to the testimony of a NOAA official. <\/a> Attribution \u2013again, you know where this info came from, you source it in your About This Story box \u2013 were there discussions about whether to attribute this at the local level? I\u2019m not saying you shouldn\u2019t have attributed it, I\u2019m just wondering about specific choices. Some would argue that with solid backup \u2013 and without causing doubts \u2013 you could\u2019ve ended the sentence at \u201cowner.\u201d <\/span> Honestly, in this case I don\u2019t remember. I know right before publication my editor was nervous that there weren\u2019t enough attributions, so this may be one that was reinserted. Call it over-due diligence. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nFor more than two years, the wrong EPIRB code for the Lady Mary had been kept on file in NOAA\u2019s Maryland office. Which means that as the 71-foot scalloper sinks to the bottom of the sea, a half-billion-dollar satellite passing overhead is all but blind to her. <\/a> Neat switchback to the present moment <\/span> Also, notice again the anthropomorphizing of the satellite being \u201cblind.\u201d <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nWhen the low-earth satellite finally does register an alert with mission control, a computer indicates there are two possible locations for the signal: Sac City, Iowa \u2014 or a point somewhere out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.\n
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\nEight minutes later \u2014 at 7:15 a.m. \u2014 the satellite resolves the ambiguity to latitude 38 degrees, 35 minutes, 42.8 seconds north; longitude 073 degrees, 41 minutes and 27.8 seconds west. The alert is coming from 66 miles east by southeast of Cape May. Rafferty\u2019s watch partner picks up the phone and calls Sector Delaware Bay in Philadelphia, which will contact the Coast Guard air station near Atlantic City.\n
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\nNormally, an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast, or UMIB, is also sent out to all mariners in the area telling them to keep a lookout for a ship in distress. But at Sector Delaware Bay, the communications specialist responsible, Shayne Kendrick, who graduated from Mount Vernon High School in Virginia less than three years earlier, is feeling \u201coverwhelmed\u201d in his new job, which he later admits in a signed statement. <\/a> Good attribution here <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nForty-six minutes pass before Kendrick sends out the first UMIB at 8:01 a.m., and when he does, he makes a mistake. Petty Officer 1st Class Trista Fisher, also on watch, tells him to send the UMIB on two frequencies, VHF Channel 16 and HF Channel 2182, both reserved for emergencies. The signal emitted by VHF is line-of-sight, and only as good as an antenna is tall.\n
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\nMost recreational vessels and fishing boats will only pick up a VHF message when they\u2019re no more than 20 to 25 miles offshore. The high-frequency channel, HF 2182, can transmit much farther, up to 3,000 miles.\n
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\nWhen Kendrick finally punches the information into his computer, he sends it on Channel 16, but not on Channel 2182. The radio message disappears some 40 miles short of the two dozen fishing boats working near the stricken Lady Mary. <\/a> I like how you phrase this \u2013 by making the message the subject of the sentence you give it action\/power. Instead of saying something like \u201cThe boats near the LM never receive the message\u201d you force us to follow, almost by sight, the message going out over the ocean; the phrase \u201c40 miles short\u201d creates an instant visual; the \u201cdisappears\u201d echoes the disappearing vessel <\/span> I have to say \u201cThe Wreck of the Lady Mary\u201d was one of my most visual stories \u2013 I felt like I could see the radio signal just drop down and dissolve into the ocean. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

LEAPING INTO ACTION<\/h4>\nLake Downham is up and showered and has just spread his gear out on the long tables in the crew room when the station\u2019s Klaxon alarm goes off shortly before 7:30 a.m. \u2014 WHAAA-hoo! WHAAA-hoo! WHAAA-hoo<\/a><\/strong>!\n
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\n\u201cEPIRB signal 60 miles offshore,\u201d a voice over the intercom announces. \u201cPut Ready Helo on line. Launch Bravo crew.\u201d <\/a> Great detail; sourcing? <\/span> Downham <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nThat means Downham. An aviation survival technician, second class, he\u2019s one of the guys helicopters drop into hellacious seas to save people\u2019s lives. <\/a> Don\u2019t kill me but I have to play editor for a second and say this may have been one of those moments when you didn\u2019t need to switch to an expository graf. You might\u2019ve done this: \u201c\u2026 \u2019Launch Bravo crew.\u2019 Downham quickly changes from his flight suit into his orange, waterproof and fireproof dry suit. An aviation survival technician, second class, he\u2019s one of the guys helicopters drop into hellacious seas to save people\u2019s lives. While the pilot and co-pilot are briefed on weather and rescue coordinates, Downham repacks his mask\u2026\u201d <\/span> In retrospect, I totally agree! It should also be obvious to the reader that that\u2019s what this guy does. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nDownham quickly changes from his flight suit into his orange, waterproof and fireproof dry suit. While the pilot and co-pilot are briefed on weather and rescue coordinates, Downham repacks his mask, snorkel, fins, flashlights, three knives, gloves, extra batteries, extra straps for his fins, and several chem-lights \u2014 small, taffy-shaped flares. <\/a> I love lists <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nBefore heading out of the hangar to the helicopter, he also grabs breakfast \u2014 a chocolate protein shake \u2014 from the crew-room refrigerator. <\/a> Why set this info off in a new graf? It seems to beg for attention yet it doesn\u2019t belong with the previous graf or with the one that follows. Is the graf even necessary? <\/span> I don\u2019t know why it\u2019s a separate graph, actually. Should be attached to the one above. Don\u2019t know if it had anything to do with layout. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nThree hundred miles to the south in Virginia, Coast Guard Petty Officer Rafferty frantically makes survival calculations: air temperature offshore (33 degrees); water temperature (40.6 degrees). <\/a> Great that you fold this information into the narrative \u2013 that you put the action into a character\u2019s hands rather than just delivering information. Did you play with the idea of giving water temperature above, as the ship begins to sink? So glad you didn\u2019t <\/span> As much as possible, I wanted there to be a person behind the numbers and the details. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> He feeds the information into a cold exposure survival model and what spits out is not comforting: Based on the approximate time of sinking and the height and weight of an average man wearing some protection from the cold, Rafferty gives the fishermen just 1 to 1.5 hours of functional time, which means the ability to move, and a survival time of 1.5 to 3.1 hours.\n
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\nAt the hangar, the pilot and co-pilot are briefed on weather conditions and the EPIRB coordinates, and the helicopter is slowly cranked up. Downham, along with the pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Tina Pe\u00f1a; co-pilot, Lt. Matt Tuohy; and the flight mechanic, Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason Oyler, are strapped in and ready for takeoff. Pe\u00f1a pushes down on the throttle <\/a> How did you report this precise fact of pushing down on the throttle\/understanding how that particular aircraft flies? <\/span> Believe it or not, I read an operating manual<\/span><\/a> <\/strong>for this helicopter. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> <\/strong>of the Coast Guard MH-65C<\/a><\/strong> and slowly noses the helicopter up and forward.\n
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\nAt 7:53 a.m. they are airborne, lifting quickly away from Atlantic City. Pe\u00f1a banks to the left and whirls southeast out over the ocean at 140 mph. With a strong tail wind out of the north, they should be on the scene in less than 30 minutes. By that time, and if found right away, the men of the Lady Mary will have been in the water close to three hours.\n

A SUDDEN RUSH OF HOPE<\/h4>\nDawn arrives early out in the middle of the Atlantic, and sometime before 7 a.m., as Jos\u00e9 Arias continues to pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the first few cracks of light split the bruised horizon. He is losing feeling in his fingers and toes and struggles against exhaustion to keep his face out of the water.\n
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\nRising to the top of a wave, he suddenly catches sight of what looks like an enclosed orange life raft about 100 yards away. His vision is blurry and his mind confused, but he\u2019s sure of what he\u2019s seeing and a surge of hope makes him think the others might be alive. As Arias slides into the next trough, the raft disappears behind a wall of water.\n
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\n\u201cTim! Frank! Bernie! Bobo!\u201d he yells into the wind.\n
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\nAt the crest of the next wave, he sees the raft again and tries to kick his way toward it, but within seconds stops, exhausted and limp. Expending energy causes heat loss, and humans lose heat 25 to 30 times faster when they\u2019re in water than on land. <\/a> Interesting Moment o\u2019 Exposition \u2013 how did you decide to drop that in? obviously it\u2019s relevant, and I think it\u2019s not that distracting, but some might argue that reading this sentence right after watching poor Arias go limp is like watching a movie only to have the director poke his head in front of the camera and say, \u201cExpending energy causes heat loss and \u2026\u201d Could you have located this information up where we\u2019re learning, from the rescue crew, about the survival conditions? (Asked with love! I mean no disrespect!) <\/span> I think I did move this sentence around a bit and it does interrupt the narrative a bit, but it was important for the reader to know how quickly life can slip away in the ocean as opposed to on land. A second explanatory sentence definitely would have been over the top! <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nThe blood flowing to Arias\u2019 muscles has thickened and slowed. Hypothermia is beginning to set in.\n
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\nAs the Coast Guard helicopter thunders across the ocean, it\u2019s too noisy inside for conversation. Downham sits uncomfortably on a pad on the floor \u2014 there is room for only three seats in the chopper, so the rescue swimmer is odd man out. The ride is bumpy as the helicopter is buffeted by the wind. Strapped to the inside wall of the craft, and left to his own thoughts, Downham stares out the window at the shifting mosaic of whitecaps below.\n
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\nHe\u2019s taken so many wasted trips \u2014 maybe 100 \u2014 when an EPIRB is set off either accidentally or by a raucous teenager, or someone on a boat who\u2019s had too much to drink. The crew has to launch on every alarm, but they never know until they arrive at the beacon\u2019s location whether it\u2019s a real rescue situation or not.\n
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\nSince 2006 Downham has helped save a dozen or so fishermen from their boats or life rafts, two jet skiers stranded in a marsh, and the pilot of a Cessna airplane that went down in a blueberry patch not far from the hangar. None had life-threatening injuries. <\/a> Another annoying editing question but I wondered whether this graf could have been located after the shifting mosaic of the whitecaps, keeping us slightly more in-narrative. So it would\u2019ve been something like: \u201c\u2026 stares out the window at the shifting mosaic of whitecaps below. Since 2006, he has helped save a dozen or so fishermen from their boats or life rafts \u2026 Yet he\u2019s taken a lot of wasted trips, too \u2013 maybe 100 \u2013 after an EPIRB\u2026\u201d Then you\u2019d have segued from \u201c\u2026whether it\u2019s a real rescue situation or not\u201d to \u201cThe visibility is better than 10 miles\u2026\u201d Don\u2019t hate me because I\u2019m anal. <\/span> You\u2019re a good editor because you\u2019re anal!! I agree with your suggestion. As an aside, I am one of those writers who sings the praises of my editors because without them I\u2019d look like an idiot. <\/span> Not possible <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nThe visibility is better than 10 miles and the cloud ceiling high, but pilot Tina Pe\u00f1a and co-pilot Matt Touhy are having trouble with the chopper\u2019s new 406-frequency EPIRB direction finder. It keeps pointing back to land.\n
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\nPe\u00f1a decides to switch to an older direction finder 200 times less powerful. For it to work the helicopter must be within five miles of the source to pick up the signal.\n
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\nBy 8:20 a.m. the crew finally spots a debris field. If they\u2019re not over the spot of the distress call, they\u2019re damn close. <\/a> Any damn kerfuffle? <\/span> Nope <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nA couple of miles south by southeast of the life raft, Jos\u00e9 Arias sees the helicopter booming in <\/a> nice <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> from the east and frantically waves at it, trying to get the attention of the pilot.\n
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\nDuring his nearly three hours in the water, he has been clutching the religious medal of Our Lady of Guadalupe that he wears around his neck and repeating to himself, \u201cMe van a salvar. Me van a salvar.\u201d I\u2019m going to be saved, I\u2019m going to be saved.\n
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\nThe orange-and-white helicopter descends from the sky like a quetzal <\/a> Imma tell ya I hadda look this one up. M-W: \u201ca Central American trogon (Pharomachrus mocinno<\/em>) that has brilliant green plumage above, a red breast, and in the male long upper tail coverts\u201d <\/span> Truthfully, I was surprised my editor allowed me to keep this in. I\u2019m stretching it here, I know. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> from the cloud forest. Arias\u2019 Mayan ancestors called the colorful bird \u201cGod of the air,\u201d and as the helicopter\u2019s rotors thump overhead, happiness floods the fisherman\u2019s heart.\n
\n
\n\u201cGracias, Dios m\u00edo. Gracias,\u201d he says to himself. Thank you, my God. Thank you.\n
\n
\nHe tries to shout to the helicopter, but the wind scatters his voice. Ensconced in his immersion suit, he waves one arm, then the other, making sure never to let go of the board, but it\u2019s not easy. Even when dry, the survival suit weighs 12 pounds, but because so much water has seeped in, it probably weighs twice as much. <\/a> In the sourcing box you say a similar survival suit was tested twice \u2013 did you do the testing? If so, wow, tell me about that<\/em> <\/span> My colleague, Andre, and I bought two suits and tested them in the water off a Cape May beach. He zipped his all the way up, but I wanted to know what it was like, and how the water got in, if I zipped it only as far as Jose, Bobo and Tim did. One thing I realized was how difficult it is to maneuver in a survival suit when you\u2019re floating in the water, making it even clearer to me how crucial it was that Jose went into the water on his back, and that Bobo and Timbo likely did not. A lot of people make fun of immersion journalism \u2013 wow, I just realized this was literally immersion journalism! \u2013 but it was so important to this story. For instance, being out on the scallop boat in gale-like conditions made me realize several important things. First, that rough conditions like that do not fazefishermen in the least and that the boats are built to sustain these conditions. Second, that at night, with the deck lights blazing, it is impossible to see anything beyond a few feet past the boat\u2019s gunwales. And third \u2013 because we actually saw a container ship pass by us on one of our trips \u2013 that these big ships are actually not well lit at night and that it is easy to come close to them, especially when you are working, and not be aware how close you truly are. This helped me a lot when people would ask after reading the series how it was possible that Jose did not see anything. As it turns out, very possible. <\/span> Did you have safety backup when you were testing those suits? Any seasickness while out on that scallop boat? <\/span> When we tested the suits we did it one at a time so that one of us was right there on the beach. As for seasickness: Oh. My. God. I was violently ill, and so was Andre, but luckily not until a couple of hours after me, because it rendered us both helpless. It was fine going out, flat water, then the wind picked up \u2013 and up and up. I was getting sick over the side of the boat but it was SO rough \u2013 even though they kept working \u2013 and so slippery with the rain and the water sloshing over the sides of the boat, that the captain told me he needed to lash me to the gunwales for my safety, or I needed to go back into the covered portion of the boat. At that point I wouldn\u2019t have cared if I\u2019d washed overboard, but I acceded to the last request and he gave me a bucket. After 13 or 14 hours, when we finally pulled into the dock the next morning, I told the captain, in all honesty, that I\u2019d been through 18 months of chemo (for breast cancer) five years earlier and I would go through that again \u2013 in a heartbeat \u2013 before I\u2019d ever go out on a scallop boat again! He was both amused and shocked, and told me that was worse than the guy who told him he\u2019d rather go back to jail!! It was truly an invaluable experience, and truly the worst experience of my life. \u2026 I did, however, lose 3pounds but for at least a week, even standing in the shower, I felt seasick! <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nThe helicopter, tightening its search pattern, moves a little north of Arias.\n
\n
\n\u201cMe ven, no?\u201d They see me, don\u2019t they?\n
\n
\n\u201cThat\u2019s a life raft, 3 o\u2019clock!\u201d Downham yells out. <\/a> I love that you didn\u2019t do something typical and Dramatic like \u201cBut they did see him. Downham spotted Arias and yelled, \u2018That\u2019s a life raft\u2026\u2019\u201d; the juxtaposed points of view are perfect <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> He\u2019s spotted a swatch of orange, bobbing in the heavy seas, and he thinks he can see an arm waving. It\u2019s 8:36 a.m.\n
\n
\nThe helicopter hovers, just 300 feet from the surface of the roiling sea. It is a delicate dance, trying to hold position in 35-knot winds above a moving, surging surface. An MH-65C helicopter normally carries 1,600 pounds of fuel, which it burns at a rate of about 600 pounds an hour when flying. When hovering, however, it burns more, as much as 750 pounds an hour.\n
\n
\nAdrenaline surging, Downham removes his helmet and takes out the ear plugs that help save his hearing from the violent roar of the rotors and engine. He puts on his fins, mask and snorkel, and hooks onto the hoist that will lower him into the water.\n
\n
\nWhen the flight mechanic, Jason Oyler, pats Downham on the chest \u2014 the \u201cgo\u201d sign \u2014 he detaches himself from the safety belt tethering him to the inside of the helicopter.\n
\n
\nOyler uses the hoist to raise Downham a couple of inches off the floor to make sure the harness is secure, then swings him out and slowly lowers him into the sea.\n
\n
\nEven in his dry suit, Downham is staggered by the cold. At 80 miles an hour, the rotor wash scalds his face, and with his flotation vest, lifting harness, radio, strobe light, pocket flares and knives, he has added another 45 to 50 pounds to his already considerable frame.\n
\n
\nDisconnecting from the hoist, he is in essence a 300-pound man swimming toward a moving life raft, in 10-foot seas, half a football field away.\n
\n
\nBefore he gets to the raft, Downham realizes the \u201carm\u201d waving at the helicopter is actually the flap over the entrance to the covered raft. Peeking inside, his spirits sink again. No one. Just a few supplies \u2014 food, a radio, the usual survival items, wrapped in plastic, unopened. <\/a> Did he remember seeing these specific things in that chaotic moment or did you later learn what the raft contained or likely contained? <\/span> Both \u2013 from Downham and from Coast Guard reports <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nAfter radioing the information to the helicopter, Downham slits the lifeboat with his knife and deflates it. He can\u2019t leave the raft floating, since it would likely result in more alarms being called in to the Coast Guard by other vessels.\n
\n
\nOnce back in the helicopter, Downham removes his mask and fins. As Pe\u00f1a turns the craft in a circle around the raft, she loses her bearings for a moment.\n
\n
\n\u201cWhere\u2019s the raft? All I can see is a red buoy down there,\u201d she says.\n
\n
\nDownham, looking out the window, knows that\u2019s not right.\n
\n
\n\u201cI got a plank in the water, 2 o\u2019clock and there\u2019s a survivor suit on it,\u201d he shouts out.\n
\n
\nThe survivor suit moves.\n
\n
\n\u201cThere\u2019s someone in the water!\u201d\n
\n
\nQuickly, Downham dons his gear again, and about 8:40 a.m. is lowered on the hoist and swims out to the man in the water. Six-foot swells carry the rescue swimmer up and down the heaving seas. Every few seconds, Jos\u00e9 Arias catches sight of the man in the dry suit, his neon-yellow arms thrashing powerfully toward him.\n
\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m a Coast Guard swimmer and I\u2019m going to get you out of here,\u201d Downham announces to Arias, just like he\u2019s been taught. The middle-aged fisherman is still clinging to the piece of wood he carried onto the Lady Mary before the trip began.\n
\n
\n\u201cThank you. Gracias. Thank you,\u201d Arias says, over and over, switching between English and Spanish. Downham struggles to pull the man\u2019s arms off the plank and push it away, but Arias resists. The piece of wood has saved his life. Downham will have none of it. His job is to rescue people in distress, and that\u2019s what he does, even if it means he has to manhandle them a bit. <\/a> Was there info here that you held back? What did Downham have to do to get Arias off the plank? <\/span> I was purposefully a bit vague because Downham couldn\u2019t remember exactly, just that he had to quickly \u201cconvince\u201d Jose to let go. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

A NEW, POTENTIALLY LETHAL DANGER<\/h4>\nThe fastest way up into the helicopter is the harness, or lifting strop, since it\u2019s secured under the arms and legs, but when someone has been in cold water for any length of time, it\u2019s also more dangerous. Hanging vertically from the strop, the body\u2019s blood will suddenly drain away from the core where it was redirected in the frigid water to keep the heart and lungs warm. Saved from hypothermia, the victim could easily go into cardiac arrest before reaching the helicopter door. <\/a> never knew that <\/span> Me, neither, until Downham explained it to me. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nDownham gives Oyler a thumbs up, which means drop the 4-foot-long metal basket. Buoyant cushions attached to the top edges of the basket allow it to float, and Downham pushes Arias in, headfirst. The slack cable whips around both men, threatening to entangle them, so when Downham signals Oyler to start the hoist, the rescue swimmer clings to the bottom of the basket until the cable is taut, then drops 5 feet back into the water. Oyler will send the hoist down for him after Arias is safely aboard.\n
\n
\nWhen both men are in the helicopter, Downham opens a special hypothermic blanket and drapes it around Arias\u2019 shoulders. Then Oyler taps Downham on the back. The flight mechanic points out the door of the helicopter, and down. Someone else has been spotted in the water.\n
\n
\nAs he\u2019s lowered a second time, Downham sees the orange survival suit is facedown, and he\u2019s worried he\u2019s too late. Swimming through the churning water, he can tell the man\u2019s eyes are open.\n
\n
\n\u201cHey! Hey!\u201d he yells as he turns the body face up, just as he\u2019s been taught. He rubs hard on the man\u2019s sternum with his knuckles to try to get a pain response. The technique can sometimes rouse a person from unconsciousness, but Downham\u2019s sternum rub produces no reaction at all. The victim\u2019s eyes are fixed, his mouth is open slightly and a white cable is wrapped around his legs.\n
\n
\nDownham calls again for the basket, pushes and pulls the body into it, then gives Oyler the thumbs up. When it\u2019s his turn to be hoisted, Downham just reaches the helicopter door and sees Oyler again pointing downward \u2014 another survival suit in the water.\n
\n
\nThe helicopter has been hovering for nearly 20 minutes, quickly burning through its \u201cbag\u201d of gas. Before Downham is lowered again, co-pilot Tuohy gives him a sign: five fingers, or five minutes to \u201cbingo,\u201d the cutoff time for the chopper to get back to land with a safe margin of fuel.\n
\n
\nWhen Downham reaches the second body, it, too, is turned facedown, eyes open and unresponsive. It\u2019s clear from the stiffness of the arms and legs that rigor mortis has set in. Downham realizes he can\u2019t call for the basket \u2014 it\u2019s only 4 feet long and is meant for sitting. This man is at least 6 feet tall and has rigor mortis. He doesn\u2019t even know Tuohy has been unable to move the first body out of the basket. The strop is the only alternative.\n
\n
\nThis is his fourth time in the water, and Downham tries not to think about his screaming muscles. The cold is starting to numb his fingers, even though he\u2019s wearing special gloves, and he fumbles to secure the harness to the body. When he finally does, he hooks himself onto the hoist, just above the body, and the two are lifted together. <\/a> All so tightly\/rivetingly told <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nAfter he unhitches, Downham helps Oyler pull the body in, but the man\u2019s legs are so rigid they stick out the door of the helicopter. Pe\u00f1a has to head back \u2014 now \u2014 or she risks ditching the chopper in the sea. But she can\u2019t go until the door is closed. It takes all the strength Downham and Oyler have to bend the body and get the legs inside. <\/a> Amazing details; did the specifics come up in the hearings or did you have to get them to walk you thru every single moment? Often when people are reconstructing stories they skip over details <\/span> This was entirely from repeated interview questions <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nIt\u2019s close to 9 a.m. when Pe\u00f1a points the helicopter northwest. They had a tail wind out. Now they\u2019re in a head wind. The trip back will not only take longer, it will use up more fuel.\n
\n
\nAfter Downham removes his mask, snorkel and fins, he feels helpless for the first time. Neither body appears to have vital signs, but he can\u2019t just sit there. With Oyler\u2019s help, he reaches into the basket and pulls on the man\u2019s legs until his back is flat against the bottom, then begins CPR.\n
\n
\nArias tells Downham the man on the floor of the helicopter is Capt. Bobo; the one in the basket, Timbo. <\/a> Nicely delayed detail; we\u2019ve been wondering which two they are <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> \n

\nHunched over in the tail of the chopper, Arias watches solemnly as Downham unzips Tim\u2019s survival suit, then takes out his knife and cuts the suit at the waist to expose more of his chest. When he does, seawater gushes out. Downham flinches, <\/a> Again, amazingly tight, precise details; how\u2019d that happen? Basic interviewing or a process of re-interviewing and\/or documents or \u2026? <\/span> Interviewing. It was a moment that stood out for Downham, so it wasn\u2019t hard to get. <\/span> <\/span> \n<\/span> worried all the saltwater might short-out the helicopter\u2019s electronics. After slicing through Tim\u2019s wet undershirt, and applying several conduction pads to Tim\u2019s chest, Downham tries to shock the fisherman back to life, twice.\n
\n
\nEvery time he looks up from his work, he catches Arias\u2019 eyes, and when he does, Arias asks, almost pleadingly, \u201cHe okay, yes?\u201d\n
\n
\nDownham pulls an oxygen mask over Tim\u2019s face and begins CPR: 30 compressions, then two pumps of the oxygen bottle; 30 compressions, two pumps, over and over for 45 minutes, all the way back to the air station.\n
\n
\nWhen the helicopter lands at 9:30 a.m. with a nearly empty tank, two ambulances are on the tarmac. Arias, flopping around in his bulky survival suit, is escorted into one of them and taken to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, 12 miles away in the heart of Atlantic City.\n
\n
\nBobo is placed in a body bag and carried from the helicopter on a stretcher.\n
\n
\nTim, still cradled in the basket, is carefully lowered to the ground. The entire time, Downham continues CPR, even as Tim is lifted onto a gurney.\n
\n
\nBoth bodies are put in the second ambulance, to be taken to the morgue at Shore Memorial Hospital, nine miles from Atlantic City.\n
\n
\nFinally, Downham stops the compressions.\n
\n
\n\u201cIs there anything else I could have done?\u201d he asks the EMT.\n
\n
\n\u201cNo,\u201d the man replies. \u201cNothing.\u201d\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the third in an occasional series of line-by-lines with narrative writers and their work, adapted from a project called Annotation Tuesday! on Tumblr. Earlier, we featured the Tampa Bay Times\u2018 Michael Kruse and his story about a woman who disappeared inside her own home; and  Jon Franklin\u2018s classic \u201cMrs. Kelly\u2019s Monster,\u201d the inaugural winner of the Pulitzer Prize in feature […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"topics":[],"authors":[61],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotation-tuesday","authors-paige-williams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAmy Ellis Nutt and the wreck of the Lady Mary, Part 1 - Nieman Storyboard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2012\/11\/29\/line-by-line-amy-ellis-nutt-and-the-wreck-of-the-lady-mary-part-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amy Ellis Nutt and the wreck of the Lady Mary, Part 1 - Nieman Storyboard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is the third in an occasional series of line-by-lines with narrative writers and their work, adapted from a project called Annotation Tuesday! on Tumblr. 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