Maybe it’s the sight of the sky when the sun sinks low. Maybe it’s the thrill of the sea when the sky is black. Maybe it’s the call of the swordfish 1500 miles away. Whatever it is, men bound for the Grand Banks fishing grounds have been leaving Gloucester harbor for centuries. Some of them never return.
At sea for thirty days at a time, they have a way of life uniquely theirs. Often they cannot see land at all. When they can, they must be careful. Some of the islands in the North Atlantic are like icebergs. What you see above water is not all there is. Places like Sable Island, off the coast of Newfoundland, have a reputation: “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
The town of Gloucester keeps track of “men who go down to the sea in ships.” Six names are on the 1991 list. This story is dedicated is about those six. It’s especially about the ferocious storm that took their lives. The storm Bob Case of the National Weather Service called “The Perfect Storm.”
On October 28, 1991, a perfect storm created monster waves in the North Atlantic. Some folks called it a “Nor’easter,” but the National Weather Service called it “The Perfect Storm.” The Andrea Gail, a fishing boat from Gloucester, was trapped in the middle of it. Too far from land, Billy Tyne, her captain, could not escape to a safe harbor. Too small for the swirling ocean, the Andrea Gail was lost at sea. She and her crew were never seen again. The Perfect Storm had swallowed them.
In “The Perfect Storm” (the book), Sebastian Junger popularized their fate. But the Andrea Gail isn’t the only ship to famously meet her fate off Newfoundland’s Grand Banks. In this episode of Storm Stories, see the story behind the movie.
(source: lawbuzz.com)
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