Brandon C. Meudt

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against Sea.  By Sebastian Junger.  New York London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. http://www.amazon.com/The-Perfect-Storm-Story-Against/dp/006101351X/ref=cm_lmf_tit_12/190-9037860-6772427

During my reading, and upon completion, of The Perfect Storm it became completely apparent to me that the author Sebastian Junger could easily draw in readers.  He has an ability with is writing that can place the reader of his text directly in the middle of the story; painting a clear image of exactly what is happening on the decks of the Andrea Gail and in the minds of its six man crew, the names of the crew members were Pierre, Tynes, Murph, Sullivan, Moran, Murphy, and Shatford.  At the beginning of his book, before the chapters even begin, he mentions that he fictionalized almost nothing about this story and sought after exact accounts and truths about what happened to the crew.  Sebastian Junger took on an enormous uphill battle accepting the fact that he wanted to get every piece of information he could to put together the story of the actual accounts of what happened during the perfect storm; but more importantly, what happened on the nights of October 28^th and 29^th in the waters of the Great Banks; the waters that destroyed numerous ships and called for countless acts heroic rescue missions.  Throughout the book you can easily see the amount of knowledge that Sebastian gained about the sword boating industry along with the information he was able to present about the “perfect storm.”  The “perfect storm” was a mixture of three independent storms that all came together to form one hellish of a ride for anybody caught in its path. Those who sailed the seas knew of such dangers every time they ventured out into the open water; knowing it was all in the dice as to whether they return with 20-40 thousand tons of fish or none at all; none at all because they did not make it back. 

In my opinion the story was a great one because it drew me into right away.  Especially knowing what I was reading were true events.  It placed you right into the lives of a sword fisherman on the docks of Gloucester, Mass. in 1991, sword fisherman who were about ready to take the Andrea Gail on its final voyage.  The book drew me because of its detailed explanations and descriptions of every little thing that was happening, as if I were living at that time; but another big part of the book that Sebastian incorporated was his knowledge of storms and storm patterns the he previously had, or gained through countless interviews.  Part of the book was about the overall strength and power that a hurricane, in this case hurricane Grace, could accumulate to at sea and the hell that the fishermen go through, and the decisions that have to be made with navigating through 45-100 foot waves; waves which in turn can roll a boat over in seconds. The author invited new material and definitions that readers will not know but he did a great job of describing what he was talking about.  

 The first few chapters of the book introduce very little into the concepts of terrible weather because you are getting integrated into the lives of the fisherman.  It was said that the sword fisherman had one life he lived out on the water, and a completely different life back ashore.  Sebastian gathers through his interviews that sword fishing is a young and single man’s game because they are gone almost seven months, sometimes more out at sea in any given year.  When they come home they are big spenders for a few weeks only to go back out onto the ocean once again.  In chapter two Sebastian introduces the concept of Gale Winds.  Gale Winds are classified as winds with speeds up to 34-47 knots, which equals out to 39-54 mph winds.  These winds can be very dangerous out at sea for many reasons.  In chapter five Sebastian mentioned that in the open sea, waves are a matter of how hard the wind blows, how long it blows, and how much sea there is for the wave to travel.  The harder the wind blows the bigger the wave you will receive because air is being caught in the wave causing it to get bigger and bigger.  He describes a scenario where a gale blows across a thousand miles of ocean for 60 hours, and how it can cause 97 foot waves with peak heights of almost 200 feet, which have never been recorded.  These types of waves can be considered rogue waves and can sink a ship in seconds upon impact.  He also talks a little bit in chapter two and other parts of the book later on about how the NOAA, National Oceanic and atmospheric Administration, always broadcasts weather forecasts to the captains of the boats out at sea.  Also, the NOAA has buoy’s that relay oceanographic information back to shore every single hour.  These types of devises can read win speeds and water elevations.

        Getting into chapter four, Sebastian starts to recollect the final days and hours of the Andrea Gail.  It starts receiving back wind, which essentially tells its crew members that a low pressure system is going into its cyclonic spin.  The chapter also does a spectacular job at describing how hurricanes brew in the Luke warm waters around the equator causing huge amounts of water into the air; and all this evaporated air is unstable and has actual energy.  Than you start to see a rotation drawing in warm violent air that gets sent to the vortex and eventually the inward air can’t overcome the centrifugal force, which in turns causes the eye of the storm to form.  Also, in this chapter you see the emergence of hurricane Grace and that it is going to collide head on with the cold front that is coming from the Canadian Shield.  When these two forces collide you’re going to have a pressure gradient that many meteorologists may never see in their lives.  At this point on October 28^th 1991, Billy Tyne, the captain of the Andrea Gale is headed directly into the heart of the storm.  Chapter five talks about the graveyard of the Atlantic which refers to Sable Island; it is given this name because both the Gulf Stream and the Glacial Labrador current converge at this location and when men are killed at sea they are found at this location.  Today it is now the home of two lighthouses and a coast guard and meteorological stations. In chapter five Sebastian mentions that on October 28 something went terribly wrong aboard the Andrea Gail.  Chapter six starts talking about terms called pitch-poling which means when a wave is taller than the length of your boat, your boat will climb it only to fall back down and that get submerged under water. It also talks about the zero moment point which means the point of no return for a boat to right itself and will eventually capsize.  In this chapter, it is the first time that all crew members aboard the Andrea Gail are dead.  Finally, in the last three chapters, Sebastian talks about the actual “Perfect Storm” itself. The weather conditions and actual storm, as I have said before, were considered a 100 year storm which means it only has a .01percent chance of happening every year.  That right there tells you that this storm was deadly.  It happened because there were three completely independent weather systems that all collided and meshed together to form one powerful storm. 
        When it was all said and done.  The storm ranked as one of the five most intense storms from 1899-1991 and was deemed as a 100 year storm as discussed before.  Sebastian talked a little bite about the storm damage inland and how they were not properly aware or informed about the actual strength and height of water levels.    Altogether though, many ships were lost along with tons of people to the “Perfect Storm” and it was hard to blame anybody because the High Seas Act stated that death at sea is an act of god which basically means nobody is at fault.  As stated previously, Sebastian Junger did an incredible job of luring his readers in by sticking to the truths and facts about what happened out at sea but he also gave detailed information about different types of meteorological terms to better understand what the point was he was making.  This book was an easy read because it had a lot of action in it and it was very easy to pretend as if you were actually there living the events that took place in 1991.  It is to my understanding that Sebastian wants it to be known that we need to have the proper equipment available to make sure people who have a dangerous job, like the sword fisherman can make it home safely and we can record such freak storms a lot more efficiently.