Reflections in the Water

Author's note: all links are underlined.

It was a dreary day in September when Captain Billy Tyne and crew set off on what would ultimately be their final journey as sword fishermen. The crew of the longliner, the Andrea Gail, owned by Bob Brown, a notorious and evident taskmaster of a captain, had spent many years in an industry which was the lifeblood of the coastal town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, the oldest fishing port in America with a long history and many tales to tell.

One crew member, Adam Randall, had left the crew right before they departed, saying to his father-in-law that he had "...a funny feeling...". Another crew member, Douglas Kosco, whom Adam Randall was replacing, had also left the crew before the trip saying, "...I just got a funny feeling…". It was to be a sad omen of what was to come in a very "...premonitory industry," as Diane Lane mentioned during the film's publicity run in a press interview.

Many years later, the "perfect storm," as the "Halloween Gale" or the "Halloween Storm" of 1991 came to be known, still stands as both a warning and a stark reminder of the power of nature and efforts of those to sail her seas; stormy as they sometimes are and challenging to sail.

As I write this article, we are fast approaching precisely 30 years since the events of that fateful month. As I edit this, the UK has just endured Storm Arwen, the most severe to hit the UK since 2005, with winds of up to 100mph. Storm Barra is now passing through too. Back in 1991, the storm that was to be called "the storm of the century" came out of nowhere. Instead, it resulted from a low-pressure system that spiraled off from a cold front coming down from Canada and grew in power near Sable Island, just off the coast of Nova Scotia.

It then combined with the remnants of Hurricane Grace, which had come up the coast from Florida, and formed an unholy union that resulted in what meteorologists called a retrograde, as shown by this visual representation. Typically, any large storms or the remnants of hurricanes move out to sea, in this case, east of the North American coast, following the jet stream.

However, in this instance, the storm, a "nor'easter," retrograded back to the coast, having been caught between the remnants of Hurricane Grace and the aforementioned cold front where the main storm originated. These subsequent gears in the atmosphere drove the storm back to land, churning up the ocean for far longer than normal and creating huge waves and unprecedented flooding along the coast.

The situation at sea, of course, was much different, boats and ships alike caught in a storm of ungodly proportions. One such man who saw out to sea and was fascinated by it was Sebastian Junger, a young journalist who lived in Gloucester at the time and who worked as a freelance tree climber to support himself.

He started investigating the storm, resulting in an article entitled "The Storm" published in Outside magazine in October 1994, followed by the novel, "The Perfect Storm," which came out in 1997. The term "the perfect storm" originated from a conversation Junger had with a meteorologist Bob Case, who described it not, as Junger explains it, disrespectfully, but in a way to describe a storm which couldn't possibly be any worse: a perfect combination of elements which generated a 100-year storm.

The book itself is a riveting, fascinating, and ultimately tragic retelling of an event that affected the lives of many. Through Junger's research, it became an example of the power of the sea and the danger many endure who make their living on its surface. It became a no.1 international bestseller, and it is a testament to the dedication and research that Junger put into the book that it remains as riveting today, in 2021, as it did 30 years ago.

Junger went to great lengths to ensure its veracity, interviewing many of the people directly involved or connected to the event and spending time in places involved in the event, such as the Crow's Nest. The Crow's Nest is one of the main watering holes in Gloucester, a town with a long history of fishing, which Junger details extensively in the book, like a historian holding up a lens to an industry of past and modern life that few perhaps give much thought to, save for interest in shows such as "Deadliest Catch."

It is clear from reading the book that Junger, through the process of his research, became very involved in the story behind the storm and wished to recreate the events of the storm and the people affected by it with as much authenticity and respect as he can muster. The book details the events leading up to the storm, starting with Bobby Shatford, his girlfriend Christina Cotter, and the fallout from a previous night of drinking, a rather down-to-earth and sobering way to start proceedings.

Bobby was the first mate on the ship, and like many who worked on the ships, spent an existence living between trips; spending his money as fast as he could earn it; knowing there were no guarantees and not much safety in a line of work that many were involved in but which could also be very lucrative financially.

The other crew members: Michael "Bugsy" Moran, Dale "Murph" Murphy, Alfred Pierre, and David "Sully" Sullivan, were all members of a challenging industry; a job on a fishing boat now acknowledged as the most dangerous job in the United States. But, as Junger explains, many did it for the money and a way of life stretching far back into the community.

Generations of "the finest kind" or "the Gloucestermen" as they have come to be known, putting out into the George Banks, Grand Banks, and many other affluent fishing areas of the North Atlantic, where, as far back as the 17th Century, men were risking their lives to catch the rich bounty that the sea provided.

It was in their blood and the blood of their families who lived out their lives with wives and girlfriends. They would often watch the horizon for any signs of ships about to return to port, their cargo replete with the latest catch from the depths. A life that begets intimacy of its regularity, instead offering intensity and heart-worn goodbyes, often not knowing if loved ones would return home from their next trip.

It was accepted, though, and it was a life they were committed to for many and could not imagine doing anything else. "The sea is a cruel mistress...", as the saying goes, but also a very rewarding one, and as Junger details, Gloucester was one of many fishing towns that reaped the sea's bounty but lost over 10,000 souls to its dark and mysterious depths.

He interweaves the town's history and its industry with the events leading up to and during the storm itself. He does so with the keen eye and detail of a master storyteller. Many passages induce both chills and wonder simultaneously, one particularly memorable and haunting one, detailing the experience of several Air National Guard PJs, or pararescue jumpers, journeying back from an aborted rescue mission, whose helicopter crashed during the storm at its peak intensity. The scene is, as Junger so aptly puts it, "nightmarish beyond words":

"It is so dark that he can't see his hand in front of his face, the waves just rumble down on him out of nowhere and bury him for a minute at a time. The wind is so strong it doesn't blow the water as much as fling it; there is no way to keep it out of his stomach. Every few minutes he has to retch it back up. Spillane has lost his one-man life raft, his ribs are broke, and every breath feels like he is being run through a hot fire poker. He is crying out in pain and dawn isn't for another eight hours."

Junger also describes at length the power of storms in general, hurricanes, in particular, the focus of an extraordinary statement that Junger lays out here:

"A mature hurricane is by far the most powerful event on earth; the combined nuclear arsenals of the United States and the former Soviet Union don't contain enough energy to keep a hurricane going for one day. A typical hurricane encompasses a million cubic miles of atmosphere and could provide all the electric power needed by the United States for three or four years."

He describes one particular hurricane, the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, as being so powerful that people were sandblasted to death so that all that remained of them was their boots and belt buckles. Just let that statement sink in for a moment. It is passages like this that capture the imagination and are an extraordinary testimony to the power of the subject matter that Junger covers in the book.

As the storm intensified over the fateful days and nights in late October 1991, those left at sea were in the fight of their lives. One of the boats who managed to avoid the brunt of the storm was the Hannah Boden, piloted by Linda Greenlaw, herself an established author and one of the few female captains of a fishing boat and one of the best. Not only that but an inspirational talker who knew she wanted to fish at an early age and started when she was 19 to pay for her college tuition.

She talks about how June - November is usually peak hurricane season and swordfishing season. During the height of the storm, she mentions how even experienced captains in the fleet to the west of her were giving indications of how bad it was, something which was cause for concern. But, unfortunately, Billy was heading right into the middle of it. He'd been at sea for a month, all the way to the Flemish Cap, trying to find the fish.

He'd been steaming home for three days after a successful trip when the storm hit and was trying to make port after the ice machine which kept the swordfish preserved had a malfunction. Most of the fleet was to the east of him, some to the south, and as a result, they missed the brunt of the storm, which, in hindsight, they thought would have taken down most of their fleet.

A storm that, as Junger puts it, was strong enough to peel cargo containers from the top of a giant container ship, the Contship Holland, and leave the captain fearing for its safety, ultimately letting nature steer its course. Another ship, the Eishin Maru 78, which had Judith Reeves, a Canadian observer from the fishing industry on board, was forced to abandon standard steering, relying on the captain relaying orders to an engineer in the hold who would use a cable system to steer the rudder.

A storm that, unfortunately, it seems, was not forecast in any great detail since there were only two buoys in operation near Sable Island, covering an area as big as New England itself. At one point, buoys recorded waves of over 100ft, fetch being a key element in driving this, and winds so powerful that they might have resembled a sound like a church organ, only played by children, far removed from the usual sounds we associate with high winds and going beyond what any of us would experience in day to life. A storm for the ages, leaving many in its wake both awed, humbled, and bereaved by its powerful intensity.

The book itself was so popular that Warner Bros. made a film in 2000, with director Wolfgang Petersen (who turned 80 earlier this year), of "Das Boot" fame, taking the helm (pardon the pun) with a screenplay by Bill Wittliff of "Lonesome Dove" fame. According to Petersen, Steven Spielberg had taken a look at the project first but then decided it wasn't for him, leaving Petersen - who had already read the book and loved it - free reign to direct.

George Clooney and Mark Walhberg were its main co-stars. The supporting cast included Mary Elizabeth-Mastrantonio - not unused to the maritime world after starring in James Cameron's "The Abyss" - playing Linda Greenlaw. Other cast members included Diane Lane, William Fichtner, John C. Reiley, and Michael Ironside.

George Clooney played Captain Billy Tyne, and Mark Walhberg played Bobby Shatford, the chemistry between the two stars - who had already worked together on "Three Kings" - contributing to some dynamic scenes between the two. Wahlberg even went so far as to stay in the same room where Bobby had lived in the Crow's Nest to lend some authenticity to his performance.

Filming took place in Gloucester, with many scenes also shot in the Atlantic and the Pacific, and the rest completed in a giant tank in Studio 16 on the Warner Bros. lot. The tank was the largest indoor tank ever constructed for a film at that point, complete with a massive gimble and a full-size recreation of the Andrea Gail.

Although Junger does not describe the relationships between the men in any great detail as far as day to day interactions and dialogue, etc., save for the day to day pressures that ultimately led to fights, sometimes fuelled by drink or other stresses; the film, like any dramatic adaptation, has to flesh out these relationships in a very experiential and dramaturgical way. As a result, there are many scenes with interesting choices; Clooney's portrayal of Billy even thundering out a rare f-bomb directed at Bobby in a film intended for general audiences.

It's not perhaps not surprising that the film has received criticism from surviving family members of those lost on the Andrea Gail - the swordfishing boat featured in the movie and which Junger focuses on extensively in the novel - as well as Linda, for the accuracy of their portrayal and the depiction of events as they took place.

Science Daily even published an online article disputing how bad the storm was as portrayed in the novel, although they also complimented Junger on his research for the book, which I think is very appropriate. Said accuracy in the film adaptation can sadly be an aspect of any film adapted from either a novel, a true-life story, or both.

Whether you agree with this or not is another matter entirely, but for my part, I think the film is very well made, with a beautiful score by James Horner and the song "Yours Forever" performed by John Mellencamp with lyrics by James Horner, John Mellencamp, and George Michael Green, which plays over the end credits.

Overall, it is relatively accurate, with some great performances from all concerned. Petersen was passionate about bringing the fishing industry to life and doing justice to the story and the people involved. Ultimately, I think one benefit of any such adaptation is the ability to draw people's attention to the source material, which it certainly did for me, and draw closer attention to the real-life events in the process.

Any such criticism is, of course, understandable, and there are several good documentaries on YouTube such as "Sea Hunters: The Search for Andrea Gail" and "Killer Storm" - that I've already referenced in the article for information - which shed further light on the real-life events as well as subsequent discoveries which add to the storm itself.

Seeing Sable Island itself, for example, the location of the epicenter of the storm in "Sea Hunters," adds further weight to the event, further illustrating it in a way that is truly eye-opening and profound. It is a lonely, windswept place called the graveyard of the Atlantic, a home for wild horses, along with grey and harbor seals, and an island that shifts with the winds and tides.

The same documentary crew attempted to find the wreckage of the Andrea Gail, and although they came close to finding something - an unknown object is found on sonar and netting seen on camera - they had to call off the search due to the bad weather.

Ultimately, we may never know as the only wreckage found from the ship consisted of blue fuel barrels, fishing gear, a propane tank, a radio beacon, and an Emergency Position Indication Repeating Beacon, otherwise known as an EPIRB, essentially a distress beacon, itself the subject of some scrutiny as Junger details in the book.

An extensive search and rescue operation was attempted immediately after the events of the storm, and at several points, there were various false alarms about one of the PJs, Rick Smith - who took part in an aborted rescue mission, and who many hoped would survive, but despite extensive efforts, he is never seen or heard from again.

The last words Billy announced over the radio to the fleet were, "She's coming on strong boys, she's coming on strong," a fated and chilling last message from a ship that was sailing into the middle of, as Junger put it, metrological hell. According to Linda, the rest of the fleet had been trying to raise him quite frequently, maybe even by the hour after a certain point, and, as she also explains, swordfishing boats are not that easy to steer in extreme conditions.

So it was, unfortunately, safe to assume that, on the night of October 29th, something happened to the ship. Junger details what he postulates to have been their final moments at that point, and it makes for sobering reading; one critic put it aptly as "the closest you will ever come to drowning...".

The storm was at its peak throughout October 28th-30th, forming a distinct eye on November 1st after making it to the coast. By now, it was bigger than any recorded hurricane over the Atlantic by size, and at its height, formed a distinct eye, although meteorologists referred to it as the "no-name hurricane" to avoid confusion. In fact, unlike a hurricane, which typically has high winds packed around the center, this storm had strong winds over a large area contributing to its strength and ferocity.

A sailboat from Florida, the Satori, was one of many ships caught up in its path, resulting in a daring search and rescue operation. Footage of this event is available online now, which is pretty remarkable. As portrayed in the film, the rescue is an amalgamation of two separate events.

One took place after the rescue mission to the Satori in the movie, as several of the PJs mentioned above, not involved in the rescue mission, were dispatched, many miles away, to rescue a Japanese sailor named Mikado Tomizawa in a sailboat, caught up in the storm 250 miles off the Jersey coast.

The PJs - Maj. David Ruvola, Capt. Graham Buschor, SSgt. Jimmy Mioli, TSgt. John Spillane, and TSgt. Arden Rick Smith - trained for extreme rescue scenarios of any kind, could not reach the boat, namely because the weather was so severe that the waves were barely missing the helicopter's underside, which is a testament to its power.

Due to the uncertainty generated by the conditions at hand and the risk it might pose to themselves as much as the sailor, they were forced to retreat to land but unexpectedly hit a rain band heading east from the coast, forcing them to ditch in the ocean, resulting in the quoted passage at the beginning of the article.

A rugged Coast Guard cutter, the Tamaroa, essentially a giant bulldog of a vessel, as Junger describes her, from the days of World War II, was dispatched to rescue both the people involved with the Satori and the ditched PJs in what was a brutal period of furious weather and the desperation of those trying to survive it. As Capt. Lawrence Brudiki, the former Commanding Officer onboard the Tamaroa, puts it,"...it's easier to walk on the walls or the bulkheads of the ship that it is to walk on the floor."

As Junger puts it, as quoted from oceanographer William Van Dorn, "...in violent storms, there is so much water in the air, and air in the water, that it becomes impossible to tell where the atmosphere stops and the sea begins...". As a result, birds have literally drowned in mid-flight during hurricanes.

Using the magic of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Petersen produced a visual tapestry that awe-inspiringly showed the storm in all of its terrifying nature. However, there is something to be said for the power of Junger's words that I feel, in some instances, takes you even deeper (pardon the pun again), leaving you with vivid descriptions that are both haunting and humbling at the same time; words that leave a silence in their wake which contrasts strongly with the storm itself and leaves a void which perhaps only the imagination can fill.

As Junger so aptly demonstrates in the book, few of us will ever experience conditions like those who in "the perfect storm" faced; YouTube videos perhaps provide some approximation, some taken during the storm on land, but this was ultimately a once in a lifetime event, and one that he captured superbly in my view.

He talks in further detail about the book and the event in this wonderful talk, which you can find here, revealing more about the events and his personal history and its relevance. Storms have always fascinated me, and the world of the ocean is both a mysterious, beautiful, haunting, and, at times, frightening one that has always called out to humanity, I feel.

Rogue waves that split oil tankers in two; waves so tall they block out the sun; one rogue wave that stretched from horizon to horizon, its wave face teeming with "white ripples, like a waterfall." These are all examples of sea-bound terror and wonder, vividly portrayed as part of the history of storms at sea, and I'm grateful that a book such as this exists to not only capture the imagination but inspire those who read it to learn more about nature and the beauty and terror that it can provide in equal measure.

Today, memorials exist to those who dedicate their lives to an industry that has its roots deep in the ocean's past. A scene touchingly portrayed at the end of the film depicts Linda giving a moving eulogy to the crew of the Andrea Gail. Her heartbeat is audible in the film, an effect not expected but one Petersen left in for dramatic effect, and it is a testament to the emotion of the events which took place, still felt to this day.

Many like Chris would look out to sea after the storm, remembering their loved ones lost to its waves. She describes in the book visitations from Bobby after the storm in a dream. It's a kind of final goodbye that many others have also described. As portrayed by Diane Lane, her character describes this in a moving monologue at the end of the film.

It has a bittersweet poignancy that is emotionally powerful and adds even more to the book and the movie. More echoes continue to this day as well. On YouTube, a video shows the Andrea Gail herself, taken onboard another longliner, the Sara T. The Andrea Gail can be seen briefly at the end of the video, which was filmed in October of 1988 during Hurricane Helena off the Flemish Cap, and it is a haunting reminder of the boat, and as far as I can tell, the only footage that exists of her.

The fishing industry has always played a vital role in many coastal communities worldwide, and Gloucester, Massachusetts, is one particular example of this. Yet, unfortunately, captains and crew still risk their lives, and many challenges remain, both from an industrial and ecological viewpoint. I hope, however, that 30 years on, this particular storm will continue to be remembered, not only for its ferocity and historical note but as a reminder. It is a reminder of the power of nature, the respect we hold for it, and the many lives changed by it.