The Perfect Storm

In the late afternoon, the crew has their last drinks in the Crow’s Nest. They make final preparations, saying goodbye to girlfriends and wives, then board the boat.

“Almost as soon as the New World was discovered,” Junger writes, “Europeans were fishing it” (41). He relates the first Frenchman who fished off the Grand Banks and returned home with a hold full of cod, and how this discovery led to the Portuguese fishing there. They salted or dried the cod and returned home to sell them. Eventually, the first Europeans settled in New England, and immediately began to fish. The fishing settlements, like Gloucester, eschewed Puritan ethics and established brothels and taverns. The fishermen “lived hard […] because they died hard as well” (44). By the 1860s, the first ships were fishing Georges Bank, and elevated sea floor that separates the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic Ocean. For almost 300 years, captains had shunned it. In 1991, a few modern boats fish Georges Bank, but more make the long trip to the Grand Banks, which are further north, near Newfoundland. During the trip they repair gear, sleep, read, and eat, often trading chores for cigarettes. Billy Tyne, captain of the Andrea Gail, has been out to the Grand Banks dozens of times. Originally he did not want to fish, but once his wife suggested he try it, he was hooked.

As the Andrea Gail motors toward the fishing ground, Junger describes swordfish, and swordfishing: how dangerous setting the lines are, how dangerous the fish are. He describes how tired the men get, how the sea looks at dawn, how back-breaking the work is. He gives an account of a boat similar to the Andrea Gail, written by a marine biologist who spent time on the Tiffany Vance. When the Andrea Gail reaches the Grand Banks, she sets out her gear. There are other boats in the area, namely the Mary T., but her captain, Albert Johnson, hauls his last gear early in October and heads back to shore. Billy Tyne, captain of the Andrea Gail, radios in to Captain Johnson of the Seneca—Tyne says the Gail was hit by a rogue wave and almost went over.