title: In Peril: A Daring Decision, a Captain's Resolve, and the Salvage that Made History
author:  Skip Strong 
description: Strong and Braden's tale of an imperfect storm, three ships and a daring rescue comes to vivid life in this gem of a book. Strong, captain of an oil tanker carrying 10 million gallons of crude, was trying to outrun tropical storm Gordon when he picked up a distress call off the Florida coast in the early hours of November 15, 1994. An oceangoing tug with a cargo barge tethered behind it had lost engine power and was foundering. Strong decided to attempt a rescue, although doing so put his own crew and cargo, not to mention hundreds of miles of Florida coast, at risk of a catastrophic oil spill. Strong also didn't know that the barge's cargo, a brand-new external fuel tank for a space shuttle, was worth nearly $50 million. The successful rescue of all life and property later resulted in a landmark judgment in court when the company that owned Strong's ship claimed, via long-standing maritime laws, the right to a percentage of the value of the rescued goods. Strong's first-person narration of the immediate story is gripping, while still allowing for discursions into topics such as shipping, admiralty law and meteorology. Strong and co-writer Braden don't rush into the high-seas drama, but the complex details involved in the rescue itself are sharp and clear. The court case is anticlimactic, but the authors don't linger on it unnecessarily. This is a great story, well told. Photos.<br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  # CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  
  Citizen Captain Oliver Diamato punched the button to adjust  
  the captain's chair on the bridge of the brand-new battlecruiser PNS _William
  T. Sherman_. The chair assumed the angle he wanted (or, rather, that his
  aching back and shoulder demanded in the wake of yet another physical therapy
  session), and he swiveled in a slow circle to contemplate his new domain.
  
  In some respects, he rather regretted being elevated to his new rank and given
  his splendid, shiny toy. Not that he was tempted to give it back. Navies, even
  revolutionary ones, tended to agree that an officer who felt he was incapable
  of command was undoubtedly right. That being so, his superiors wouldn't dream
  of arguing with him . . . or ever offering him a command, or any other
  worthwhile duty, again. There were probably some exceptions to the rule, but
  Diamato couldn't think of a single one.
  
  Besides, he knew _Sherman_ was a sign the Navy in gene