Tom; Off Topic; With mentioning that book You have touched
on something that I cant help but write about.
Before getting My Masters ( the hard way up the ropes ) I spent most of my life as a fisherman, from crabs, to shrimp , to Cod Fish, working my way from the East coast to the Gulf, to the West Coast, even did some Salmon Fishing. It was a rough life, not just at sea
the crowd you ran with ashore was rough, most had looked death in
the eyes so many times that they had an inner anger about it
playing games with them.
I have read The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger,
I couldn't put the book down till finished, so much of it hit me right between the eyes.
It was not so much his coverage of the storm, ( which was
good ) but he captured the life style and feelings of the offshore
fisherman to a degree better than I would have ever been able to
describe them.
This is a very serious book to me, I could feel
myself in the shoes of the lost crew right up to the end.
Chances are the end for them came fast, and they were to busy
fighting to keep her afloat to have given much thought to drowning.
Over the years and after several very close calls
( one I can remember a quick ironic thought when in the
middle of a small hurricane the boat I was running broke her steering
chain in the rudder room ) I wouldn't bet 25 cents
I will get out of this exactly how that fleeting thought passed in front of me to were I can still remember it I have no idea,
as I was so busy at the time I never even thought to pray.
There was just two of us aboard and we managed to repair the
chain with me ( as Captain ) making several trips from the
wheel house across the deck to the rudder compartment.
( with just the manhole cover off it filled with water until we were over waste deep )
Not getting washed overboard on each trip across the deck was
something of a miracle. I didn't have a safety line there was no
way to find or time to rig one. We fought so hard getting that chain
fixed there was not even any time to pray or think of anything else.
In the long run what saved us is that we never gave up, ( and
of course a lot of luck considering what we were caught in. )
Later The boat owner when he saw the boat could not
believe his eyes. Not one window remained, the aft deck looked
like it had been sand blasted. The mattresses fit into a
recessed enclosure that sticks up above their level ( to help
keep you from rolling out ) well it had tossed every mattress on
the boat out of their bunks and onto the deck. ( they were NOT just
wet and soaked "they were shot" ) Try running a mattress through
a huge washing machine for over a day. Because that is what the
inside of the crew quarters turned into.
There was not one piece of electronics that was not a complete
loss, 3 radios , a loran, a depth sounder , and the auto pilot
all so soaked to be beyond repair.
My mates name was Lewis, and after it was over and we took off our life jackets and undressed to change into some stuff ( that we had dried out ) he saw the bruises on me first, and said "my GOD", then I looked and it was like I had been beaten all over my body with a rubber hose, there was hardly a place that was not black and blue , I looked at him and he was the same. The life jackets were the old soft
kind and must have saved us from some licks that I'm sure would
have disabled us.
I was young and strong at the time and I remember well
one sea I heard coming before it crashed down on the boat, and
I had wedged my feet between the companion way I was in
and grabbed a big brace with a death grip..just prior to it
hitting us , the impact of that wave riped me lose, death grip
and all and tossed me into the next room like I was
a rag doll. As I remember it and will never forget it, I still marvel at how either of us survived.
It was a 75ft steel hull shrimp trawler, and I'm sure
that a wooden boat ( and I've sailed plenty ) would not have
survived , a wooden boat would have come apart, it was that bad.
Us with no way to hold up or go with it got caught sideways
between the seas, and these babies were not spread out , they
were not just huge as ( I've rode out bigger ones , in deeper
water) but these caught us trying to skirt an offshore shoal when
the chain broke and had us in just the wrong place to be, they
became very steep and were breaking on top , it was like being
in a 30 to 50 foot surf with seas pounding you every 5 to 10
seconds. Like a series of 6 or 8 left jabs and then you
could hear the big right upper cut coming. ( you couldn't see
a damm thing more than 10ft away ).
So I think I kind of know what the men on the Andrea Gail went
through , except for the cold , but I had enough cold and ice conditions at other times to piece that in.
--------------------
That particular storm She was caught up in the heart of; was in
1991 late OCT. I was on my way to Africa doing a delivery of a fishing boat ,and was like over 1200 mi to the south , and was getting such a heavy swell that I turned more south..and kept angling south
( the swells from that storm found their way south even
pass the equator ) I had no real idea of what was happening
that could cause even the doldrums to be so rough for days on end.
There was no hurricane warnings up any where that I knew of.
I had an "old" wooden boat at the time and wanted to take it easy
on her as I had a long way to go, so I just angled south, even
crossing the equator I still had a damm good size head swell.
It was not until after I read
The Prefect Storm, that I looked up some old logs and made the
connection. I sure can't remember ( at the time ) of hearing of such
a bad weather report as to connect the swell I was fighting
in the damm doldrums to the same storm, ( but I'm now 100% sure
now that's what it had to be ).
---------------
As far as I'm concerned Sebastian Junger should receive every writing
award there is, that was one good story. He capture the truth and the
the full experience of being caught in a real Nightmare, that goes beyond all the fiction garbage found in some horror book.
The odd thing is, fishermen can come back having survived an ordeal
that they know by all rights should have killed them, and
will make a most solemn and sometimes sacred oath not to ever go back to sea ever again and in just a few weeks or some times even days, you will see them setting sail again.
I guess once a fisherman always a fisherman,
at heart any way. Just like the Old man and the Sea, it's not
something you can get out of your system after it hooks you.
Allow me to add, for those who have not been to sea and caught in
a storm to were you see nothing but white water as you try to
look at the conditions.
It can induce much the same feeling and terror in you as if a mad man had you captured and was waving a gun in your face every second, and all the time screaming he was going to kill you, and from time to
time hits you with a rubber hose he holds in his other hand,
you know you must some how fight back because there is no
chance he is not serious.
He is armed and you are not, at best you
may have your hands free, but leg irons with very short chains bind your feet, and you can't go any where. He shoves, pushes,
and kicks you, screaming obscenities all the time and you have no
idea of when he will pull the trigger on his gun, he is working
himself into a complete rage and you know if it doesn't subdue
shortly it can only end in your death.
There is no hope for help from any outside source, you already know there is no way they could get to you even if they knew your situation and exact location, it's just you and this mad killer that any thing you say or do seems to make him even more angry.
If you roll over and play dead his fun will cease and he will surely kill you. So you know you must somehow fight and ever so cautious you try to size him up and plan some course of action,
but being an experienced professional you know the odds against
you , and if you had to bet on the success, they are so great
as you would not bet anyone even 25 cents that you would win.
Latter when you tell people you were taken prisoner by a mad man,
hell bent on killing you and some how escaped they can not come to grips with your experience as it's to unbelievable, until some one like Sebastian comes along and puts it in words you never had.
Thanks a lot for reminding me of it, think I'll read it again.
It causes me to count my blessings.
Jim
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