The Perfect Storm

Around the time people in Gloucester get word that the fleet’s in trouble, the storm is bearing down on them. Local, state, and federal agencies begin to prepare. The coast gets hammered. Cities are flooded, houses torn from their foundations. In the midst of the storm, however, two search-and-rescues are still ongoing. The first is for rescue swimmer Rick Smith, and “the combined assets of half a dozen East Coast airbases are thrown into the search” (206). Planes and helicopters and Coast Guard cutters go out. They know where he should be, but they can’t find him. Finally, after nine days of continuous searching, they call it off.

The second search is for the Andrea Gail. Fifteen aircraft are flying grids southwest of Sable Islands. On November 1st, Albert Johnston plows through blue fuel barrels marked AG in his boat. Other gear is found, including the EPIRB (a position-indicating radio beacon), but finally, on November 8th, the search for the Andrea Gail is suspended.

At the funeral for the Andrea Gail’s crewmen, the reverend asks the bereaved to remember all the men who have died at sea. The wives of the men sue the boat owner and settle out of court. They dream of the men they lost. Those who almost died in the storm have trouble coping; they enter long bouts of depression.

The storms aren’t finished yet, either. Eighteen months later, a nor’easter roars up the coast. The Gold Bond Conveyor, the freighter that relayed the Satori’s mayday to Boston, is lost in the storm. Thirty-three people go overboard and are never seen again. Adam Randall, who walked away from the last voyage of the Andrea Gail at the last moment, disappears when his ship goes down in calm waters off the coast.