Lost At Sea

by Patrick Dillon

On February 3, 1983, the men aboard Americus and Altair, two state-of-the-art crabbing vessels, docked in their home port of Anacortes, Washington, prepared to begin a grueling three-month season fishing in the notorious Bering Sea. Eleven days later, on Valentine's Day, the overturned hull of the Americus was found drifting in calm seas, with no record of even a single distress call or trace of its seven-man crew. The Altair vanished altogether. Despite the desperate search that followed, no evidence of the vessel or its crew would ever be found. Fourteen men were lost. And the tragedy would mark the worst disaster in the history of U.S. commercial fishing.
With painstaking research and spellbinding prose, acclaimed journalist Patrick Dillon brings to life the men who were lost, the dangers that commercial fishermen face, the haunting memories of the families left behind...and reconstructs the intense investigation that ensued, which for the first time exposed the dangers of an industry that would never again be the same.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Reviews

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book discusses a four ship fleet of crab boats, all beginning with A names, which were known as the A Boats. The boats (Americus, Altair, Alliance, & Alyeska) were constructed in the 1970's and belonged to Jeff Hendricks. The ships were scheduled to depart Dutch Harbor to fish for crabs on Valentine's Day 1983. The crew members were experienced and capable, the ships were essentially brand new. The weather was good at the time of departure. A few hours after departure, two of the ships were found a couple of miles from each other, both capsized, and with no sign of the crew. The waters were a bit over 4,000 feet deep, and the ships sank before being able to be recovered. I do not want to ruin the book for others who may be reading it, so I won't include any other details about the ships and crew here. I will say that this particular incident changed the way that things were done in several instances.

As anyone who follows me on here knows, I am have a huge interest in disaster books. It seems that lately I have managed to find plenty of books about shipping disasters, but this one I had not heard of. I have also never read anything by this author, but the reviews were good. I really appreciated the research that the author put into this book. It really gave you a sense of knowing the crew members, thanks to statements made by coworkers and family. The book gave a good amount of detail about shipping and the way these particular ships were built. It was also an engaging read, and I had a hard time putting it down to do other things because I wanted to know what happened to the crew and what caused the ships to capsize. I don't want to ruin the story, but there is a memorial to these two ships located in Anacortes. I would highly suggest this book.

[L.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! It’s nonfiction but written like a suspense novel! I loved the references to Kodiak and Anacortes, two places that have my heart. If you’re from a fishing town, this book will touch your heart. If you’re not, the suspense will keep you in its grips! Best book of my year.

[Andrew Troske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this gem in a sale stack at a used book store. Haunting, riveting and a good reminder that engineering saved lives.

[Doug Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This well written and thorough documentary lavishly portrays the human character, legal and technical intricacies of late 20th century commercial fishing in the Bering Sea. I found it hard to put down.

Note: this book is a factual undertaking, not a suspenseful sea story. It makes the case for the necessary regulation that was finally passed to ensure a greater level of workplace safety in the Alaskan and other U.S. fisheries. Fatalities are now (c. 2016) down into the teens per year as opposed to the hundreds during the 1980's and 1990's.

One other (Amazon) reviewer, claiming to be an Anacortes local, says there are exaggerations in this book, I don't know. I do know a close relative of two of the victims of the A-Boat sinkings and he says the book is generally accurate, which led me to read it.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunting, creepy, nightmare stuff. And tragic. And not a word about how our demand for those big tasty crab legs is the reason so many of our children, fathers and brothers die fishing every year. Dillon could have gone deeper, but that would be philosophy and he was writing history, so he stuck with personal heartbreak and macho risk takers and the ultimate price they pay.
The author's struggle was evident as he tried to tell the real story of dead people's character flaws based on what he heard from survivors. In places he may have overstepped, like when he blamed loss of life on skippers who died too, but the story needed to be told.

[Pete Reinagel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've known that crabbing in Alaskan waters was very dangerous but this book put faces on the statistics. I could relate to the story since I was stationed on a Navy ship in the Seattle area. We regularly sailed past the same towns and shipyards he mentions.
The book was well written and I will pass it on to a friend who is a Naval Architect and former officer who still lives in the Pacific NW. Great read.

[Paula Lyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Francis Barcott was my uncle, so this was personal. It is hard to believe that anyone would do this for a living. A sobering look at an extremely dangerous life.

[Chris Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the nonfiction book, Lost At Sea by Patrick Dillon, I found it to be a great eye opener for the dangers and struggles of commercial fishing. The book’s main plot was how multiple crabbing boats went missing during dangerous weather in the 1980s, and it was a complete mystery as to why they sank. The author breaks the book into three parts, part one being mostly things about the backstory of the crews and boats, part two being the legal issues, and part three being the aftermath. Throughout the book, all of the boats were described as properly constructed to standard with all crew members including the captain were properly trained with years of experience for each boat. This is the main reason as to why it was so hard for the surviving crews to understand why and how the ships sank. The author’s choices of wording such as using quotes from those who were there to make it clear as to what Dillon had been trying to accomplish. Most of the events that happened, such as the sinking of the two boats, were explained in great detail to give a precise understanding of how much effort and dangers were involved in commercial fishing. With that, he also made sure to include quotes from interviews of crew members who were involved to get you tied to each one and make sure you won’t forget their legacy. This makes reading this book that much more interesting because of how you know exactly what is happening and what each aspect truly means to the fishermen. Lost At Sea brings light to the friendships and great experiences that come with fishing and piloting a commercial fishing boat and that is truly why this book was made. It gives these experiences that people have had and it brings a new audience to it so that they can also understand how emotionally grueling it is for these crews to lose so many people so quickly. Patrick Dillon does this so well that when reading this book you can compare it to your life and understand how bad of a tragedy these ships sinking was. Overall I enjoyed reading this book and would heavily recommend it to those interested in a nonfiction book with events that have actually happened and has people in it talking about what happened having seen it first hand. It could also be a great read for those wanting to go into the field of fishing. With how well the book describes the hard work and dedication along with the general dangers it could give a perspective for anyone unsure.

[Logan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came into this book to read about the disaster and disappearance of the ‘Americus’ and the ‘Altair.’ Two crabbing vessels that that underwent hell in the Bering sea. With one ship capsizing and the other never to be found. The author gives a very good background to the crew-mates, culture, and area their business takes place. I personally knew nothing of this incident, the crabbing business, or anything in the state of Washington or Alaska so I would find this to be a very educational read.

Everything was very interesting, even up to the point of the disaster, where they transition to a more sophisticated part of the story. The legal battles and politics of this incident. Which conveniently begins to be the part I begin to lose interest.

I liked when they described all the Coast Guards efforts to find the cause of this fatal accident. Making models, searching thousands of kilometers of the ocean, finding who is to blame. When it becomes numbingly boring is when they seem to describe that this incident isn’t abnormal. Ships capsizing and going missing happens all the time! What?! This is probably something that should have been stated earlier in the book. This focus on this one incident (…the title of the book) becomes stories of other ships sinking and lives lost. Families who can never recover. They use more than half of this book to push a ‘safety first’ agenda instead of - I don’t know - sharing the story!!!

One thing I also don’t understand and what bothers me after I read this…how can a boat go missing? It sounds stupid because of multiple missing airplanes around the world but…these boats are huge. How?!?!?

I’m very disappointed in how the book turned out and will definitely have to look somewhere else. Hopefully another book can capture the story in full instead of turning a tragic event into a political ad.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started out well enough and the author captures the state of the US West Coast fishing industry of the 80s and 90s pretty well. However, the book is billed as bringing "to life the men who were lost, the dangers that commercial fishermen face each day, the haunting memories of the families left behind." It does none of these things well.

The opening briefly introduces the crews of two vessels that will be lost early on in the book. It's hard to keep the crew members straight as very few words are devoted to each one. This in turn, lessens the impact when talking about families as the scant attention given to each sailor is reflected in the brief overview of the families after the tragedy. The book then devolves into an incredibly lengthy telling of the USCG inquiry into the disappearance of these boats, followed by an equally lengthy explanation of how the fishing industry was eventually regulated.

The dangers the commercial fisherman faced were boiled down to a litany of vessels and crews lost. Mr. Dillon is actually a decent writer, but he definitely failed to provide a human touch to what is essentially a long-winded exposition of how the US fishing industry came to be regulated. Not one I would recommend to take off the shelf unless you are really interested in this very niche topic.

[Brayden Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

I selected the book lost at sea because of the cover honestly. The cover is what brought my attention to the book, and I find it very interesting to read about people surviving at sea. The way the book was written was very interesting to me also because the author always made it very suspenseful, like you didn’t know what was going to happen next. I always wanted to keep reading because at the end of each chapter, it would end leading to the next one, like it would leave you on the edge of your seat. There were some parts of the book that I didn’t like, like the begging of the book because it was very slow and it could’ve been written a little differently. Some of the events the author states that happened seem over exaggerated, besides the begging of the book there were other parts of the book that were also very slow and bored me. I recommend this book for everyone, it was a very good book with lots of action just slow at some parts and it was an easy read. It definitely lived up to what I thought it would be and I would give it a 4 out of 5 starts.

[Jennifer Jarboe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dillon’s book reads like Perfect Storm coupled with a particularly scintillating episode of Law and Order. He artfully describes the dangers of commercial fishing in its more lawless 1980s era, the mysterious sinking of two ships, and the journey of countless people to make the seas safer for the people who fish them. Dillon makes riveting the intricacies of Coast Guard trials and congressional hearings and at various points in the book. There are so many people and interests at play here that it was hard for me to discern the protagonist, which made it an exceptionally interesting read.

I would encourage readers to read a more modern account after this one (I read Time Bandit, you could consider just watching Deadliest Catch, too) - to see the importance, impact, and eventual adoption of the regulation described in this book. The journey Dillon describes here completely sets up modern commercial fishing.

[David Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using real people and real tragedy, this book focuses on US fishing industry safety policy. Pretty boring sounding stuff right? The author however makes this a very compelling read. I'm from the mountain west and know virtually nothing about the fishing industry, however I found this book well written and fascinating. Also, the epilogue - an account of the author's research aboard a crabbing boat in the Bering Sea really pulled it together for me.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Commercial fishing in the Alaskan waters grew to be a very big business very quickly, involving large financial investments and huge risks to vessel and crew. This book is a true account of the number of lives lost due to the gross lack of regulation and the years of political battles to improve safety standards.

[Cathy Enns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because it is a part of my town's history. What a tragedy for so many families--it was very satisfying to learn more about what happened, then walk down to the memorial by the harbor and touch those names. So many guys gone in a flash, and though the incident occurred almost 30 years ago it is still talked about here.

[Alice Medeiros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book regarding the fishing industry in the Bering Sea. Extremely well researched book. I learned so much about the fishing/crab industry and the conditions involved. Many deaths due to unsafe working conditions.

[Margo · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who enjoyed The Perfect Storm, or who watch Deadliest Catch, this book beats both of them.

[James Dillon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm probably biased, but the first half was riveting. Very well researched and documented. The second half, dealing with the trial is a bit slower (interesting nonetheless).

[Gordondad2nine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will never view “The Deadliest Catch” the same way again!

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

To start things off, the main idea of Lost at Sea is that two sister ships set sail out of the small town of Anacortes. The Americus and the Altair, two highly-prized vessels, pulled out to sea, aiming for a fortunate crab season. 11 days later, the hull of the Americus was found drifting in the sea, with no evidence of any distress signal. The sister ship Altair would never be found. With the main focus of the story out of the way, let’s talk about the book cover. The cover is very intriguing and made me want to read the book as soon as I saw it. The description is very detailed and mysterious. A main point of the cover is to get a reader’s attention. I feel like this book does that well. The cover artwork also fits well with the theme of this book. The picture portrays men stranded in the ocean, with few supplies on a tiny life boat. This image does not only fit well with the theme of the book, but is rather scary. It depicts what the final moments of life were like for the 14 men and boys of Anacortes. Along with the imagery and overall cover, the title of the story fits well. Although Lost at Sea may not be the most creative title, it fits perfectly, especially because one of the ships was never found. The author’s intended purpose in Lost at Sea is to share the shocking story of the men and families of Anacortes. The author helps to show the scary reality of the situation with quotes of family members. Patrick Dillon is uniquely qualified to write about the topic of commercial fishing because he grew up among commercial fishermen on an island in Puget Sound. Because of this, I feel like he writes out the story better due to the fact that he had knowledge under his belt. Now, where this book really differs from others is that no one knows what the fishermen felt, because they all died. The author uses the families’ stories and quotes, which makes the story even more chilling. I’m not trying to give too much away, but there is a chapter where the families first find out about Americus sinking. The families of the crew talk about how there was no way to escape the details. It was all over the news, and everyone was talking about it. They hated it, and there was nothing they could do to stop it. The most painful part (according to George Boles, Brent’s father) was that all he could do was sit down and stare at the boat on a screen. There was nothing he could do to help. If I could make any change in this book, I think it would be the technicality of it. Every chapter, Dillon would go far in depth on a certain part of a boat, or the way a fishing system worked. I am not saying this was a bad thing, it just distracted meme from the main tragedy of the story. Lastly, I would recommend this book to anyone who seeks knowledge in the field of commercial fishing, due to the amount of detail the book contains. Also, anyone who likes mysteries would enjoy this book, since there was no sign of distress signals, and one of the ships just disappeared. Overall, I would rate Lost at Sea a good book, with a lot of factual information and a mysterious background to add interest to the story.

[Sandra Strange · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book details the difficult life of NorthWestern US fishermen (think Alaska and Seattle), victims and villains of the ecological disaster shaping up in our seas because the demand for fish far exceeds the world's ability to supply that demand. The title refers to the tragedy of inadequate vessels braving horrendous storms so that men can follow their traditional way of making a living: commercial fishing, and ending with both vessel and fishermen "lost at sea." The book is not what I expected, an adventure tale detailing what happened to the two vessels lost almost at the same time, but really an extended exploration of the risks commercial fishermen take with resulting tragedies and the issues that such tragedies raise: how much risk is fishing diminishing ocean resources really worth?

[Leslie Mesmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book gets technical on explaining things, it does a real good job on explaining how the fishing industry has evolved and what motivates the fishing comunity.
This book starts by telling of 2 sister ships from the same company and fitted almost the same both disappeared in the same time frame shortly after leaving port.
On Jan. 3 1983, the Americus and the Altair sailed out in the early morning. Eleven days later the Americus was found in calm waters, overturned and drifting with no signs of damage. The Altair was never found. Neither ship sent out a distress call and the 14 crew members from both ships were never found.
The resulting investigation and families trying to get answers started a push to make tighter regulations in the commercial industry and the politicians trying to not regulate it.
If you like Deadliest Catch then this is a must read.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

flowers in the water were unlucky, Anacortes to Dutch Harbor, maytag affect, chute risks, 4K deep water, knock ice from doors, experimenting as it takes a lifetime to learn fishing, Ash Wednesday, other boats down Fly Boy, cross tanking, Bering Sea only bachelors should be allowed to fish here losing 15-20/year, Arctic Dreamer capsized with survival suits retain 6 hours, trim configurations with cross tank and lots of pots, hard to starboard turn—evasive, cut power and no turn to stabilize, waves 4-5’ over back deck too many pots too much weight, accident when 2-3 wrongs and can’t see what coming, too many pots and no stability calcs, added trolling gear, every inch 7ton wt gain, A-boat arrogance vs respect power of sea and how fragile one is, safety behavior via Hendricks, what the hell are you doing out here.

[Diego Quijano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un ensayo periodístico sobre el hundimiento de dos barcos pesqueros en el mar de Bering. Excelente balance entre la historia de las personas, el análisis de la situación y los cambios en políticas públicas. Sobre todo, hay que reconocer que el autor reconoció el problema de incentivos causado por una temporada pesquera cada vez más chica y con más competencia que obligaba a los pescadores a salir aún en condiciones de alto riesgo y con barcos sobrecargados. La solución estaba no solo en el tema de preparar a los capitanes y obligar a tener equipos de seguridad (los dos que se hundieron justamente eran dos barcos con lo más nuevo y moderno en términos de seguridad), sino en cambiar las instituciones que gobernaban la pesca y establecer derechos pesqueros intercambiables.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book deals with the loss of 2 ships from a crab fishing fleet. If you are a fan of "Deadliest Catch" on Discovery, this book will be of interest to you. The author does a good job of investigating what caused these ships to sink, and chronicles the investigation and safety measures that result from the coast guard's findings. A lot of this deals with the aftermath, so if you're looking for high sea adventures, that's only covered in the beginning of the book. The author gets bonus points for actually signing on and working on a commercial fishing boat to further understand his subject. It was a good read on vacation.

[Frank Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've watched the Deadliest Catch, this non-fiction work will give you an appreciation for just how deadly the work was before the government finally stepped and put down stringent safety requirements on the boats. It's clear that lobbyists and special interests considering the fishing fleets around the USA fiefdoms -- and treated their workers as expendable.

This is the story of the loss of two hi-end boats on the same day; the investigation into what happened; and the battle by survivors to change the laissez-faire attitude of Alaska congressional delegation in particular. A must read.

[Elynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this deals with the loss of fishing boats at sea, the majority of the book deals with the after effects: the investigation and changing of policies. Although not "gripping danger on the seas" novel, it was a fascinating look at how industries (in this case the crab and fishing industries) are shaped by booming markets. It deals with the dangers of uncontrolled growth. It is amazing to me to realize how recent some of the safety standards we take for granted today came into existence.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been really good; it is a scary story. Since there were no survivors, everyone is left to speculate what the final moments were like (which, all told, could be creepier than what it was actually like). The last portion of the book is all the bureaucratic mess of trying to set some sort of standard for the commercial fishing industry. The magnitude of this loss ended up being overshadowed by legal nonsense...perhaps that's the point.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that makes the case for government regulation! The book begins with the loss of two ships and all of the crews in 1983. These ships had been proudly built and carried some of the best safety gear at the time. To no avail. Young men from Anacortes, WA, died far too often when they signed up to crew on a fishing boat in the Bering Sea. The struggle to pass safety regulations is told in the last part of the book. It's a long and arduous struggle.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dillon, Patrick. 1998. Lost at sea : an American tragedy. Simon & Schuster, New York. Purchased at Watermark book store. $14.95 ISBN: 0-684-86909-8
Gripping account of the lose of 2 crab boats from Anacortes in 1983. Lots of local history and information about fishing boat construction. Also, related is the long fight to improve fishing conditions in Congress.