Torn in Two: The Sinking of the Daniel J. Morrell and One Man's Survival on the Open Sea

Dennis Hale reached the dock just in time to see the *Daniel J. Morrell* heading out to open waters, a 600-foot freighter that had plied the waters for sixty years, carrying ore from Minnesota's Iron Range to steel firms around the Great Lakes. The twenty-six-year-old 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 find himself clinging to a life raft alongside 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 remain as 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 freighter in half, sending twenty-five of the *Morrell*'s twenty-nine-man crew to their deaths and consigning the surviving four to the freezing raft where all but Hale would perish. At the heart of *Torn in Two* are the terrible hours spent by Hale on the life raft with his crewmen, clinging to life 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-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.