A true story of fishermen in peril on the sea.

In the predawn darkness of September 5, 1996, the fishing boat Heather Lynne II was run down by a tugboat and 272-foot barge and overturned ten miles off Cape Ann, Massachusetts. A diminishing air pocket kept the boat from sinking and provided the only hope of survival for the three fishermen trapped inside. Shouted pleas and desperate tapping for help from these men could be heard by would-be rescuers for more than an hour, until just before divers pulled the three lifeless bodies from the capsized boat.

Dead Men Tapping opens four years later in a federal courtroom, where the victims’ families are suing the U.S. Coast Guard for a rescue gone wrong. Trial testimony takes us back to the events of that September morning, each witness—fishermen, tug crew, Coast Guardsmen, and others--adding another piece to the emerging mosaic of a tragedy. Who or what caused the collision? Why did the Coast Guard take so long to get rescue divers to the scene? Did the Coast Guard prevent other fishermen from helping? Why weren’t the men saved? Was it reasonable to expect the men to be saved? The truth is hidden beneath layers of mystery that lure us ever deeper into this suspenseful story, finally to be haunted by the mute testimony of the dead themselves: the knuckles shredded from banging on a thick fiberglass hull, the tines of a dinner fork bent in a desperate attempt to pry open a hatch leading to more air.

We come to know these trapped fishermen, their community, their would-be rescuers, the Coast Guardsmen, and the crew of the tug and barge that ran down the Heather Lynne II. These ordinary people, doing what they think is their best, propel Dead Men Tapping to its heartbreaking conclusion..