''Captains of Thor' -- What Really Caused the Loss of the...

The first chapters of a serialized, book-length account examining the loss of the SS El Faro and her crew of 33 have been released by author Robert R. Frump.

"'Captains of Thor' What Really Caused the Loss of the SS El Faro" will have more chapters posted over the next few months with a goal of completion by year's end. They will appear on https://frumped.org There will be no charge or fee to read the chapters online.

"Serialization of books was popular in the 19th Century and is experiencing a rebirth in the 21st," Frump said. "The format is demanding but also allows freedom to write at the appropriate length without catering to conventional book concepts."

Frump, who investigated the wreck of the SS Marine Electric in "Until the Sea Shall Free Them," said his book-length narrative will concentrate on factors of the tragedy that lay largely outside the authority of the US Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board. These include the personal and emotional outlooks of the merchant seamen, in addition to the economic and policy forces that all too often send very old American ships out to sea.

"There is a tendency to heap the most blame onto Captain Michael Davidson for taking the ship into harm's way," Frump said. "My view of the tragedy is that there was a system of bad policy, inspections, and culture that placed a hand on the helm that was as firm if not firmer than Davidson's."

"This is an examination of a tragedy that has been well-researched and investigated — heroically so at times — by the United States Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board," Frump said. "My examination attempts to stand on the shoulders of these inquiries and survey the legacy of a system that seems consistently to shrug off reform and continue to send old rust buckets to sea."

"It’s this system, I feel, that will result in another SS El Faro some day unless it is reformed," Frump said.

Frump, the former managing editor of The Journal of Commerce, was for several years maritime writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. While there , stories he authored won The George Polk Award (with Tim Dwyer) and The Gerald Loeb Award. He was the anchor writer for a Philadelphia Inquirer Pulitzer Prize winning task force. He has been covering shipwrecks and marine safety since the sinking of the SS Poet in 1980

To post a comment, you must register and login.