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Author Stephen Puleo returns with WWII novel
The author who captivated much of Manchester last year with his novel Dark Tide: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919, has produced a second book about the true story of the Eagle 56, a World War II patrol boat sunk off the coast of Maine by a German U-boat on April 23, 1945. “It just amazes me how this interest has continued,” said author Stephen Puleo, who spoke with fans of his last book Tuesday at the Gloucester Public Library. “I was honored.” The book, Due to Enemy Action: The True WWII Story of the USS Eagle 56, chronicles the 57-year-long saga of the Eagle 56, a 200-foot submarine chaser built in 1919. After her tour of active duty ended, the 25-year-old ship was used to tow a green target float, nicknamed the “pickle” by crew members, which was target practice for a torpedo bomber aircraft from a Naval air station in Brunswick, Maine. Just after noon on April 23, the ship exploded a few miles off the coast of Portland, Maine. Navy officials originally declared the cause as a boiler explosion, but sailors aboard the ship said they saw the form of a German U-boat lurking beneath the depths. Of the 67 crew aboard the ship at the time, only 13 survived, known as “the lucky 13.” Three of those men, John Breeze, Harold Petersen and John Scagnelli — and a fourth survivor who came forward after the book was finished — were interviewed by Puleo for the novel. The historical narrative covers the sailors’ and widows’ accounts of that day, and also the Navy’s subsequent investigation into the accident, culminating with their reversal 57 years later. “Last year my wife and I took my folks down to the dedication of the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C.,” Puleo said. “I thought it just kind of all tied together beautifully.” Puleo said his father was never one to talk about what he faced while at war, but like many veterans, has recently been more forthcoming about the conflict. “I think part of that was the whole 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994, it kind of triggered all of that,” Puleo said. “In some cases, these guys saw some terrible things. So it wasn’t the type of thing you talked about a lot.” The book will be released April 15, in time for the 60th anniversary of the Eagle 56’s sinking on April 23. On the day of the anniversary (a Saturday), there will also be a memorial service in Portland, Maine, where a plaque will be unveiled in front of the survivors and their family members, he said. “It should be a pretty emotional ceremony. I think it will be interesting,” he said. Puleo recently spoke at a social studies teachers conference in Boston, where he gave a speech to 600 history teachers on how to keep kids engaged in history, a topic Puleo said nearly 65 percent said they find boring. “I think that that’s just such an important thing, to make sure that young people are interested [in history],” he said. “If you’re taught history badly one year, that experience stays with you.” While at the conference, Puleo encountered a favorite history teacher that he had not seen in almost 30 years. “If you have strong, real life characters, readers will identify with them,” he said.
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