"In the spring of 2001, an industrial fishing trawler went down in the icy, forbidding waters just below the Arctic Circle. The Arctic Rose sunk so abruptly, in the middle of the night, that there was no time for the crew to put on survival suits or call for help. All fifteen men aboard were killed. To the baffled authorities, the cause of the sinking was a mystery. There were no witnesses, no clues, and the nearest vessel reported calm seas that night. The only thing known was the Arctic Rose's last position: 58 degrees north." "Journalist Hugo Kugiya's investigation of this unprecedented disaster reveals how the modern fishing industry gave rise to these sailors' dangerous and strangely archaic life. Drawing upon interviews with family members and the crew's personal correspondence, Kugiya recreates the stories of the fifteen young men, of wildely different backgrounds, trapped in close quarters and able to call home or mail letters only in their occasional returns to port." "While delving ever deeper into the lives of the crew, Kugiya also follows the Coast Guard's continuing inquiry, the most costly in history, as experts in weather, naval architecture, and wave formation, as well as salvage crews and rescue workers, all testify in an attempt to determine what really sank the Arctic Rose."--Jacket.