Torn in Two

A compelling tale of one of the worst shipwrecks in Great Lakes history and of amazing survival against all odds-now in paperback.

Dennis Hale reached the dock just in time to see the Daniel J. Morrell head out to open waters, carrying ore from Minnesota's Iron Range to steel firms around the Great Lakes. The watchman had, quite literally, missed the boat - which meant scrambling to rejoin the Morrell at its next stop or forfeiting a good chunk of his pay package. Seventy-two hours later, Hale would be clinging to a life raft next to the frozen bodies of his crewmates in the violent waves of Lake Huron. The boat would not be reported missing for another twenty-seven hours and by the time the life raft was found, Dennis Hale would be the sole survivor of the wreck of the Daniel J. Morrell.

This is life-and-death drama on the inland sea as only Michael Schumacher can tell it. In Torn in Two the Great Lakes historian recreates the circumstances surrounding the terrible storm of November 29, 1966, that broke the mighty 600-foot freighter in half, sending twenty-five of the Morrell's twenty-nine-man crew to their deaths and consigning the surviving four to the raft where all but Hale would perish. At the heart of Torn in Two are the terrible hours spent by Hale on the raft with his crewmen, desperately hanging on for thirty-eight hours in freezing temperatures and wearing only a peacoat, life jacket, and boxer shorts. The fight to save Hale and find the others, the Coast Guard hearings into what happened, the discovery of the wreckage more than twelve years later - Schumacher's vivid narrative captures every harrowing detail and curious fact of the Morrell's demise, finally doing justice to this epic shipwreck fifty years past.

About the Author

Michael Schumacher has published three previous books about the Great Lakes: Mighty Fitz, about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald; The Wreck of the Carl D., about the loss of the Carl D. Bradley; and November's Fury, an account of the Storm of 1913, the deadliest in Great Lakes history. Dharma Lion, his acclaimed biography of Allen Ginsberg, will be reprinted by the University of Minnesota Press in 2016. He recently edited The Essential Ginsberg and is currently writing an account of the 1968 presidential election, also to be published by Minnesota. He lives in Wisconsin.