Broken Seas: True Tales of
Extraordinary Seafaring Adventures
by Marlin Bree
In his fourth book set mostly on his home cruising area of Lake Superior, author and sailor Marlin Bree writes about some of the colorful Minnesota waterfront characters he’s met as a boater. Here Bree recreates real-life adventures upon a lake he regards as an inland ocean in such nonfiction tales as The Old Man and the Inland Sea, the tale of Helmer Aakvik, a Norwegian fisherman who went out in an oncoming Superior ice storm to attempt to rescue a fellow boater and survived after being frozen alive in his small skiff; The Day All Hell Broke Loose, the account of Bree’s own survival during the July 4, 1999 Boundary Waters “Green Storm” in which the author’s home-built sloop, Persistence, was hit on Superior’s open waters with winds over 100 mph. Bree also suspense fully recreates The Last Race of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which gives an hour-by-hour account as the aft-section crew struggle during a monster Superior storm. Broken Seas is Bree’s most award-winning book with two stories (The Day All Hell Broke Loose and The Old Man and the Inland Sea) winning the prestigious Boating Writers International Grand Prize in 2004 and again in 2009.
“Adventuring, and reading about it, gets no better than that.”—Kliatt magazine
“Veteran journalist and seasoned sailor Marlin Bree has crafted a series of stories that prove the adage that truth is stranger than fiction. A remarkable collection of well-told tales.” – Herb McCormick, Editor of Cruising World and Boating Editor of The New York Times.
BIOGRAPHY
When Marlin Bree first launched his home-built boat, Persistence, in the chill waters of Lake Superior, little did the former Minneapolis Tribune magazine editor realize that his boating adventures would begin a new career for him as a marine journalist and best-selling boating author. He has written numerous magazine articles about his adventures and his boat in regional and national magazines, ranging from Lake Superior magazine to Cruising World and Small Craft Advisor. He has written five books including Wake of the Green Storm: A Survivor’s Tale, which was number 2 on Amazon.com’s regional best-selling list for more than a year and which opened in 2010 as a Kindle e-book in the number 7 slot in Canada. In his books, Bree’s heroes are small boats and the sailors who man them; his books are internationally noted for authentic tales of wicked storms and the skippers who brave high seas and the forces of nature that sometimes overpower them. As he sees them, his real-life characters often are imbued with native courage, compassion and dignity, as well as a waterfront humor that arises in the worst circumstances. (One reviewer wrote: “Bree is at his best when the lake was at its worst”) The author has sailed his 20-foot home-built sloop most places on Superior and he writes some of his material onboard his boat while at anchor in some remote anchorages. In addition to his Superior stories, he also co-authored with Minnesota sailor Gerry Spiess, the nonfiction book, Alone Against the Atlantic, which became a national best seller and translated into many languages as well as to be published as a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book (circulation more than 2 million). A former resident of Duluth, he is a member of Boating Writers International, The Author’s Guild and he is profiled in Who’s Who in America.
MARLIN BREE NAUTICAL BOOKS
Extraordinary Seafaring Adventures
by Marlin Bree
In his fourth book set mostly on his home cruising area of Lake Superior, author and sailor Marlin Bree writes about some of the colorful Minnesota waterfront characters he’s met as a boater. Here Bree recreates real-life adventures upon a lake he regards as an inland ocean in such nonfiction tales as The Old Man and the Inland Sea, the tale of Helmer Aakvik, a Norwegian fisherman who went out in an oncoming Superior ice storm to attempt to rescue a fellow boater and survived after being frozen alive in his small skiff; The Day All Hell Broke Loose, the account of Bree’s own survival during the July 4, 1999 Boundary Waters “Green Storm” in which the author’s home-built sloop, Persistence, was hit on Superior’s open waters with winds over 100 mph. Bree also suspense fully recreates The Last Race of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which gives an hour-by-hour account as the aft-section crew struggle during a monster Superior storm. Broken Seas is Bree’s most award-winning book with two stories (The Day All Hell Broke Loose and The Old Man and the Inland Sea) winning the prestigious Boating Writers International Grand Prize in 2004 and again in 2009.
“Adventuring, and reading about it, gets no better than that.”—Kliatt magazine
“Veteran journalist and seasoned sailor Marlin Bree has crafted a series of stories that prove the adage that truth is stranger than fiction. A remarkable collection of well-told tales.” – Herb McCormick, Editor of Cruising World and Boating Editor of The New York Times.
BIOGRAPHY
When Marlin Bree first launched his home-built boat, Persistence, in the chill waters of Lake Superior, little did the former Minneapolis Tribune magazine editor realize that his boating adventures would begin a new career for him as a marine journalist and best-selling boating author. He has written numerous magazine articles about his adventures and his boat in regional and national magazines, ranging from Lake Superior magazine to Cruising World and Small Craft Advisor. He has written five books including Wake of the Green Storm: A Survivor’s Tale, which was number 2 on Amazon.com’s regional best-selling list for more than a year and which opened in 2010 as a Kindle e-book in the number 7 slot in Canada. In his books, Bree’s heroes are small boats and the sailors who man them; his books are internationally noted for authentic tales of wicked storms and the skippers who brave high seas and the forces of nature that sometimes overpower them. As he sees them, his real-life characters often are imbued with native courage, compassion and dignity, as well as a waterfront humor that arises in the worst circumstances. (One reviewer wrote: “Bree is at his best when the lake was at its worst”) The author has sailed his 20-foot home-built sloop most places on Superior and he writes some of his material onboard his boat while at anchor in some remote anchorages. In addition to his Superior stories, he also co-authored with Minnesota sailor Gerry Spiess, the nonfiction book, Alone Against the Atlantic, which became a national best seller and translated into many languages as well as to be published as a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book (circulation more than 2 million). A former resident of Duluth, he is a member of Boating Writers International, The Author’s Guild and he is profiled in Who’s Who in America.
MARLIN BREE NAUTICAL BOOKS
The Dangerous Book for Boaters: A humorous waterfront guide to the ways & wiles of boaters, 2009 Marlor Press.Broken Seas: True Tales of Extraordinary Seafaring Adventures, 2005 Marlor Press.
Wake of the Green Storm: A Survivor’s Tale, 2001 Marlor Press. Also available 2010 as a Kindle e-book on Amazon.com.
Call of the North Wind: Voyages & Adventures on Lake Superior, 1996 Marlor Press.
In the Teeth of the Northeaster: A Solo Voyage on Lake Superior, hardcover edition 1988 Crown Publishing; trade paperback edition, 1993, Marlor Press.
Also:
Alone Against the Atlantic, Gerry Spiess with Marlin Bree, hardcover edition 1981 Control Data Publications; mass market edition, 1983 Berkley Books.
Marlin Bree’s books are widely available in the U.S. and Canada from various bookstores around the shores of Superior as well as from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble. Com. and several other Internet booksellers. Some titles are available abroad including in England, India and Australia. All books except Alone Against the Atlantic are in print. Marlin Bree’s books are published by Marlor Press, Inc., St. Paul, Minn., and are distributed to the book trade in the U.S. and abroad by Independent Publishers Group (IPG Books), Chicago, Illinois.
Marlin Bree’s website, http://www.marlinbree.com/., features pictures of Bree’s wooden boat on Superior and some downloadable PDF’s of his award-winning articles including his latest BWI First Place Writing Award, The Last Battle of the Grampa Woo.
Marlin Bree’s Boater’s Blog is found on his website http://www.marlinbree.com/
Posts
