The East Hampton Star: Postscript; The Enduring Mystery of Scott Clarke

Exactly five years ago, I began gathering material for what started out as an assignment for East magazine but eventually morphed into my first nonfiction book.  

The story centered around a tragedy that occurred off the coast of Montauk in late March of 1984. Four young fishermen, Michael Stedman, David Connick, Michael Vigilant, and Scott Clarke, had been longlining for tilefish when their commercial fishing vessel, the Wind Blown, collided with an unpredicted, early spring northeaster.

Somewhere between Block Island and Montauk Point, gale-force winds and 40-foot seas swallowed the crew whole. Neither the steel-hulled boat nor the bodies of the men were ever recovered.