Bill's Book Reviews
The Perfect Storm
by
Sebastian Junger
‘The Perfect Storm’ of the title is the ‘Halloween’ storm of October 1991 - a phenomenally violent meteorological event which led to much loss of life and property. On the face of it, this doesn’t seem to be the stuff of which best sellers are made, but the fact that the book is a best seller indicates that the treatment of the subject matter is exceptional.
For most of the book, the author follows the stories of the crewmembers of the Andrea Gail a sword fishing boat out of Gloucester Massachusetts. He has painstakingly interviewed surviving friends and relatives of the crew, and people associated with the boat, and pieced together the events leading up to its tragic loss with all hands in the storm. The dialogue is based on the best recollections of the interviewees and on radio messages recorded at the time of the storm, with different printing styles being used to distinguish actual words from recollections.
One is stunned by Junger’s ability to get people to talk about the incident - even the owner of the ship who found himself in a legally tricky situation which would have generated a ‘No comment!’ response for most interviewers. The other side of the coin is the deeply personal recollections - not all of them creditable - of the interviewees.
While this, in itself, is a remarkable achievement, Junger gently takes the reader through the complexities of the meteorology and hydrodynamics of a storm at sea, without ever becoming boring. We feel that we have experienced the extreme discomfort and terror that go with being in a little boat in the middle of this natural violence.
For me, the most horrifying part of the book is a step-by-step account of the biological and emotional processes that take place during drowning - based on the experiences of people who have almost drowned. The most awful thing about drowning would seem to be that you know you’ve only got a minute or two to live, and yet you are still perfectly lucid. It seems that many people, as they drown, feel stupid and ashamed that they’ve let themselves get into this situation. They perhaps wish they’d given the lawn one last cut before this happened to them. Most of all, they wish they had said their goodbyes.
The Andrea Gail was by no means the only boat to be caught up in the storm, and much of the book follows the events leading to the rescue of sailors from other boats, and of the Air National Guard personnel from a ditched helicopter. One guardsman remains missing and the unsuccessful efforts of the search team to locate him are heartbreaking.
Junger’s style is simple and objective. He does not exaggerate for effect, nor does he hype up the events. He is meticulous in keeping the reader aware of the facts, as opposed to speculation.
Next to Dava Sobel’s ‘Longitude’, this is my favourite non-fiction book of recent years. If you have any interest in the sea, or even if you don’t, you owe it to yourself to read ‘The Perfect Storm’.
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My friend BILL SAMSON in real life has been a higher education consultant with his Ph.D. degree in Astronomy, Masters in Computer Science and B.Sc. in Mathematics. Now, he's the Astronomer at Mills Observatory, Britains only full-time public observatory. He lives and works in Dundee, Scotland, a stones throw from the Tay River where he spends most of his spare time sailing his Bolger Chebacco "Sylvester", building boats, studying and thinking about all things nautical. |
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