30 pages • 1 hour read
The Perfect Storm
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaThemes
Man Versus Nature
The overarching, dominant theme of the book is man versus nature. The swordfish ships, at 70-80 feet, may seem large, but are tiny when compared to the size and strength of the ocean. Junger describes waves over 100 feet high and winds over 100 miles an hour. He says hurricanes are the most powerful event on earth. He describes container ships tossed about and large sailboats beaten and battered. Even the most experienced captains have little idea what to do in such a storm and, in several cases, only sheer luck keeps them afloat.
Set against nature are these ships and men. When the storms come, all they can do is run with the wind, try to stay above the waterline, and keep from sinking. It isn’t easy. Junger searches through history for examples of ships overwhelmed at sea, for rogue waves so high they block out the sun. He does not have to search far. There are numerous examples, from the 584-foot freighter Gold Bond Conveyor, that goes down barely two years after the Andrea Gail in a similar storm, to the wave that flooded the wheelhouse of the Queen Mary, which was ninety feet above sea level.
Several men who were supposed to be on the Gail had a premonition. One backed out. Another went anyway, saying he needed the money. But the premonition itself perhaps shows that the men know they are both connected to and at the mercy of nature. As Junger writes, “[t]here’s a lot of denial in swordfishing [. . .] [e]very man on a sword boat knows there are waves out there that can crack them open like a coconut” (95). All they can do is hope one never hits them, and that nature has mercy on them.
Money
It is because of money that Bobby Shatford takes a spot on the Andrea Gail. The same goes for Sullivan and Murphy, the same for all the men fishing on all the ships in the sea. It is money that sends the Andrea Gail out to sea so late in the year, when storms are more numerous, and more dangerous. The entire swordfishing fleet is out, trying to make money: for the ship owners, for the ship captains, for the fisheries and canneries along the coast. The town of Gloucester survives off the money from fishing. The repair shops fix the ships and the grocery stores sell them supplies and the icehouses keep fish cold on the smaller boats. The bars along the waterfront make their money when the ships come in because the fishermen drink hard and fast, celebrating that they have survived. The entire history of fishing off the Atlantic Coast has been fueled by money, from the mid 1650s, when three-man crews went out in open boats, to the 1990s and the Andrea Gail. Men brave the dangers of the ocean for money. They put up with horrible conditions. They take hooks through the hand and the threat of going overboard, trying to make a living from the sea.
Communication
Junger surmises that the Andrea Gail was hit by a wave and lost communications abilities. He gives numerous examples of other ships suffering a similar fate. He also explains that during storms, the radio is often unreliable—the electricity in the air disrupts signals. The Gail’s EPIRB (location beacon) was no help in rescuing the Gail—it either malfunctioned or was turned off—and little help in determining what happened.
All of this points to the importance of communication in a storm. Junger says that someone—he is not sure who is at fault, or even if any fault is to be had—forgot to inform the Coast Guard of the severity of the storm, so that information didn’t get passed on to the fleet. Dave Ruvola, piloting the helicopter that went down, doesn’t know about the curtain of rain coming toward the helicopter, while he tries to refuel. When the Satori is on the verge of sinking, the mayday she sends out is only by a stroke of luck picked up by another ship and relayed to the Coast Guard. In the rescue attempts, spotters are forced to rely on eyesight, which can be next to impossible in the wind and rain, and when the Coast Guard cutter Tamaroa arrives on the scene, her captain can’t even communicate with the ships and swimmers he’s trying to rescue.
Separately, the loved ones of fishermen don’t hear from them the whole time they’re out to sea. Junger mentions houses where grooves have been worn in the floorboards by women pacing, waiting for word of their men coming home. Chris doesn’t know when Bobby’s coming home. Murphy’s wife doesn’t know when he’s coming home. Rick Smith’s wife will never know, for sure, what happened to him, just as the loved ones of the Andrea Gail will never know for sure what happened. They only know their communications went down, and then they went down.
Unlock all 30 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Sebastian Junger
