By Debbie Gardner
dgardner@thereminder.com
Longmeadow native Michael Tougias has quite a literary listing under his belt, having authored or co-authored 30 books, many of which have been award-winners, including one New York times best seller.
Though his titles range from outdoor guides and humor to young adult adventure tales, he’s best known for his gripping maritime disaster stories. Among those tales is 2009’s “The Finest Hours,” co-authored with Casey Sherman, detailing the U.S. Coast Guard’s daring 1952 rescue of sailors from two oil tankers, the Pendleton and Fort Mercer, that broke apart off Cape Cod during a brutal nor’easter.
That tale, which chronicles the heroism of the four coastguardsmen who took a small lifeboat into 70-foot seas to rescue more than 30 men, was even adapted into a major motion picture by Disney in 2015.
And this summer, Tougias is back with another survival tale sure to keep summer readers on the edge of their seats.
His latest maritime disaster story, “In Deep Water – a true story of sharks, survival and courage,” chronicles the story of three friends fishing for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico when their boat, tied to an oil rig, begins taking on water. The vessel succumbs faster than they can send out a Mayday call and, with no cell reception, only life jackets and coolers for protection, the trio spend 28 hours battling seas and sharks in an ultimate survival story.
Prime was privileged to connect with Tougias to ask about his latest book and his award-winning writing career. Here’s what he shared.
Your latest nonfiction book, “In Deep Water – a true story of sharks, survival and courage” is the 13th of your works to focus on a maritime disaster. How did you learn about this incident, and what compelled you to want to tell the stories of the three survivors and their rescuers?
It had been five years since my last survival book, “Extreme Survival,” but all the stories I investigated for a new book just didn’t have the qualities I wanted. I prefer survival stories that are multi-day rather than a couple hours, have twists and turns, and make me think I could never have done what these survivors did. Then a friend in the Coast Guard told me about an amazing survival at sea ordeal that happened in 2022. I called one of the survivors and after talking for an hour I knew this was the story I’d been waiting for
You started your career as an outdoor and nature writer in the 1990s, with works that include a guide to the Quabbin Reservoir here in Western Mass. What first drew you to the stories of disasters at sea, and what keeps you coming back to these tales?
Over 25 years ago I heard about an incredible story of bravery that happened at sea just one mile off the coast of Massachusetts during the Blizzard of 1978. Much of what happened was preserved on audio tape from the men on the two vessels in distress and the Coast Guard men and women trying to save them.
That incident became “Ten Hours Until Dawn” and it won the America Library’s designation as “One of the Best Books of the Year.” The next book was “Fatal Forecast” and that became an international bestseller. After that, some incredible survivors and rescuers started tracking me down and I found more great stories. But I still write about the outdoors. My book “The Waters Between Us” is about my complex relationship with my father while growing up during the 1960s and ‘70s in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and then in Vermont. I was a wild kid, always in trouble but also always outdoors. I think my love of nature actually slowed me down and gave me a sense of peace and ultimately, maturity. That book even features my own survival story in the water.
What do you hope readers will take away from your many stories of heroism and courage on the sea and in other perilous situations?
First and foremost, I try to transport the reader right into the situation, and I do that by making the books fast paced. I hope the reader then starts to think “what would I have done in that situation.”
Of the 30 works that bear your name, do you have a favorite?
I think of the books kind of like children: you don’t have a favorite but there are certain qualities you appreciate. I think “In Deep Water” will be my best seller, and it was just recently selected by Amazon as “The Best Non-Fiction Book for the Month of May.” It is kind of the culmination of learning the craft of writing these types of stories. “In Deep Water” is somewhat unusual as it is written in the present tense to give it a sense of immediacy and propels the story forward at a rapid pace.
I offset these series projects with very different tones, and I love writing humor and personal misadventures such as in “The Waters Between Us,” “There’s A Porcupine In My Outhouse,” “The Cringe Chronicles,” and “The Power of Positive Fishing.”
If I only wrote survival stories I worry I’d become a one trick pony and not laugh as much. And I love to laugh!