The words written on the capsized ship were “ANDREA GAIL, GLOUCESTR M.A”. “The Perfect Storm” is the story of what men are made of. A monolithic effort in the face of sheer adversity and the forces much more capable and powerful than humans are. Andrea Gail was the name of the ship that sank on September 1991 as a result of the nature’s fury never been precedented.
The Perfect Storm is the name of the book written by Sebastian Junger. Sebastian Junger has recorded and recreated the events of surrounding the events that occurred in relation to the Andra Gail and the fishermen onboard, in vivid details. The first half of the book deals with the lives of the fishermen of the ship and second half are about the storm.
As Andrea Gail returned on that fateful day of September 1999, the catch it had collected was too little and as fishing was the only way of earning for Captain Billy and his companions, they planned to go again and try their luck. In the start of their journey the conditions did not improve much. They remained persistent and decided to go bit farther than usual. They crossed a developing storm in their way and as they went ahead the catch became better. Their satisfaction over the catch was short lived. Their ice machine got broken.
There was no way left but to turn the ship back. As they reached the point where storm was raging, they have to encounter extraordinary events requiring extraordinary courage and effort. They were fighting with the raging waves until they saw a huge “Rogue Wave” of almost 80~100 feet height. Andrea Gail started to climb the wave but then capsized.
A helicopter was sent to rescue the fishermen but the fate has something else in store for the rescuers. Helicopter was also crashed into the sea.
All the crew members onboard including all the rescue crew of helicopter vanished in that ugly storm, just leaving behind the memories of few brave men.
Andrea Gail
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