Perfect Storm or Antarctica

Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea

Author: Sebastian Junger

It was the storm of the century—a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm."

When it struck in October, 1991, there was virtually no warning. "She's comin' on, boys, and she's comin' on strong," radioed Captain Billy Tyne of the Andrea Gail from off the coast of Nova Scotia. Soon afterward, the boat and its crew of six disappeared without a trace.

The Perfect Storm is a real-life thriller, a stark and compelling journey into the dark heart of nature that leaves listeners with a breathless sense of what it feels like to be caught, helpless, in the grip of a force beyond understanding or control.

Penny Smith

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger is brilliant. I've given it to all my friends. It's got everything, drama, pathos, terror on the high seas, and then the exciting build-up to the crescendo with the 100 foot waves. — Cover Magazine

Anthony Bailey

...thrilling -- a boat ride into and (for us) out of a watery hell. -- New York Times Book Review

Philadelphia Inquirer

Takes readers into the maelstrom and shows nature's splendid and dangerous havoc at its utmost.

Boston Globe

Mesmerizing....Packs an emotional wallop.

LA Times Book Review

A wild ride that brilliantly captures the awesome power of the raging sea.

Washington Post Book World

Superb...told with authority, brio, and deep sympathy for those in peril on the sea.

Publishers Weekly

In meteorological jargon, a "perfect storm" is one unsurpassed in ferocity and duration a description that fits the so-called Halloween Gale of October 1991 in the western Atlantic. Junger, who has written for American Heritage and Outside, masterfully handles his account of that storm and its devastation. He begins with a look at the seedy town of Gloucester, Mass., which has been sliding downhill ever since the North Atlantic fishing industry declined, then focuses his attention on the captain and the five-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing vessel. He then charts the storm particularly formidable because three storms had converged from the south, the west and the north that created winds up to 100 miles an hour and waves that topped 110 feet. He reconstructs what the situation must have been aboard the ship during the final hours of its losing battle with the sea, and the moments when it went down with the loss of all hands. He recaps the courageous flight of an Air National Guard helicopter, which had to be ditched in the ocean leaving one man dead while the other four were rescued then returns to Gloucester and describes the reaction to the loss of the Andrea Gail. Even with the inclusion of technical information, this tale of the Storm of the Century is a thrilling read and seems a natural for filming.

School Library Journal

The powerfully destructive forces of nature that created the Halloween Gale of 1991 are made vivid through interviews with survivors, families, and Coast Guard rescue crews. True adventure at its best

Entertainment Weekly

Guaranteed to blow readers away...A+.

Washington Post Book World

Superb...told with authority, brio, and deep sympathy for those in peril on the sea.

Kirkus Reviews

The experience of being caught at sea in the maw of a 'perfect' storm (that is, one formed of an almost unique combination of factors), a monstrous tempest that couldn't get any worse, is spellbindingly captured by Junger. It's late October 1991, and the Andrea Gail, a fishing boat out of Gloucester, Mass., is making its way home from the Grand Banks with a crew of six, 40,000 pounds of swordfish, and a short market promising big returns. Coming to meet the boat is a hurricane off Bermuda, a cold front coming down from the Canadian Shield, and a storm brewing over the Great Lakes. Things get ugly quickly, unexpectedly. The Andrea Gail is never seen again, lost to 100-foot waves and winds topping 120 miles per hour. Junger builds his story around the vessel; he starts with biographies of the deckhands and the captain, and gives as complete an account of the boat's time at sea as he can dredge up, so readers feel an immediate stake in its fate. Since it is unknown exactly how the Andrea Gail sank, and because Junger wanted to know what it was like for the men during their last hours, he details the horrific tribulations of a sailboat caught in the storm, the rescue of the three aboard it by the Coast Guard, and the ditching of an Air National Guard helicopter after it ran out of fuel during another rescue operation. Junger's fine dramatic style is complemented by a wealth of details that flesh out the story: wave physics and water thermoclines; what it means if you see whitewater outside your porthole; where the terms mayday, ill-wind, and down East came from. Reading this gripping book is likely to make the would-be sailor feel both awed and a little frightened bynature's remorseless power.

What People Are Saying

Patrick O'Brian
One feels the absolutely enormous strength of the hurricane winds and the incredibly towering mass of the hundred-foot waves.

Table of Contents:

	Foreword
	Georges Bank, 1896	3
	Gloucester, Mass., 1991	5
	God's Country	37
	The Flemish Cap	65
	The Barrel of the Gun	95
	Graveyard of the Atlantic	117
	The Zero-Moment Point	136
	The World of the Living	147
	Into the Abyss	166
	The Dreams of the Dead	202
	Acknowledgments	226

Go to: From the Mixed up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler or Disney Princess

Antarctica: A Guide to the Wildlife

Author: Tony Soper

Both a beautiful and practical guidebook, Bradt’s Antarctica Wildlife has remained a perennial favourite with cruise voyagers to this remarkable continent and a book suitable for natural history lovers to dip into.

This guide covers Antarctica’s major land, sea and air species. Each mammal, bird or creature has been illustrated with a fine original watercolor by Dafila Scott, with a concise but descriptive passage by high-profile natural historian, Tony Soper.  An ideal gift or souvenir for travelers on tour, it also makes a perfect armchair read and would grace a coffee table or library collection.