Synopses & Reviews
In
The Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger describes Linda Greenlaw as "one of the best sea captains, period, on the East Coast." Now Greenlaw tells her own riveting story of a thirty-day swordfishing voyage aboard one of the best-outfitted boats on the East Coast, complete with danger, humor, and characters so colorful they seem to have been ripped from the pages of
Moby Dick.
The excitement starts immediately, even before Greenlaw and her five-man crew leave the dock and doesn't stop until the last page. While under way, she must contend with savage weather, equipment failure, too few fish, and too many sharks not to mention the routinely backbreaking work of operating a fishing boat in a state of mind-numbing exhaustion after working ten 21-hour days in a row.
With a true fisherman's gift for spinning a yarn and a voice that's wry, honest, and all her own, Greenlaw brings readers right on deck with her and her crew, re-creating the experience of going for the big haul against awesome odds. At once a thrilling page-turner and a passionate ode to a fascinating way of life, The Hungry Ocean will captivate lovers of the sea, adventure, and literature alike.
Review
"A beautiful book for what it says about the love of the sea sea fever, Greenlaw calls it. And it is a story of triumph, of a woman not only making it but succeeding at the highest level in one of the most male-dominated and most dangerous professions." Douglas Whynott, The New York Times
Review
"An exciting and detailed look inside the commercial fishing industry." Library Journal
Review
"A fascinating look at an unusual career." Pam Spencer, School Library Journal
Review
"This is the best book, period, I've ever read on fishing. Anyone who loves the sea will love this book." Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm
Review
"An authentic, insightful account of the intensity of captaining a crew of strong men in an ocean which does what it wants." Daniel Hays, co-author of My Old Man and the Sea
Review
"A crystal-clear account of fishing the Grand Banks in a modern swordfish boat. Greenlaw is an excellent captain...and an excellent writer." John Casey, author of Spartina
Synopsis
Familiar to millions of readers of "The Perfect Storm" as the captain of the "Hannah Boden", sister ship to the "Andrea Gail", Greenlaw is also known as one of the best sea captains on the East Coast. Here she offers an adventure-soaked tale of her own, complete with danger, humor, and characters so colorful they seem to have been ripped from the pages of "Moby Dick".
Synopsis
The term fisherwoman does not exactly roll trippingly off the tongue, and Linda Greenlaw, the world's only female swordfish boat captain, isn't flattered when people insist on calling her one. "I am a woman. I am a fisherman. . . I am not a fisherwoman, fisherlady, or fishergirl. If anything else, I am a thirty-seven-year-old tomboy. It's a word I have never outgrown."
Greenlaw also happens to be one of the most successful fishermen in the Grand Banks commercial fleet, though until the publication of Sebastian Junger's
The Perfect Storm, "nobody cared." Greenlaw's boat, the
Hannah Boden, was the sister ship to the doomed
Andrea Gail, which disappeared in the mother of all storms in 1991 and became the focus of Junger's book.
The Hungry Ocean, Greenlaw's account of a monthlong swordfishing trip over 1,000 nautical miles out to sea, tells the story of what happens when things go right -- proving, in the process, that every successful voyage is a study in narrowly averted disaster. There is the weather, the constant danger of mechanical failure, the perils of controlling five sleep-, women-, and booze-deprived young fishermen in close quarters, not to mention the threat of a bad fishing run: "If we don't catch fish, we don't get paid, period. In short, there is no labor union."
Greenlaw's straightforward, uncluttered prose underscores the qualities that make her a good captain, regardless of gender: fairness, physical and mental endurance, obsessive attention to detail. But, ultimately, Greenlaw proves that the love of fishing -- in all of its grueling, isolating, suspenseful glory -- is a matter of the heart and blood, not the mind.
"I knew that the ocean had stories to tell me, all I needed to do was listen." -- Svenja Soldovieri
Synopsis
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER--NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK!
Known to millions of readers of The Perfect Storm as the captain of the Hannah Boden, sister ship to the Andrea Gail, Linda Greenlaw is also known as one of the best sea captains on the East Coast. Here she offers an adventure-soaked tale of her own, complete with danger, humor, and characters so colorful they seem to have been ripped from the pages of Moby Dick.
"A beautiful book . . . a story of triumph, of a woman not only making it but succeeding at the highest level in one of the most male-dominated and most dangerous professions." -- Douglas Whynott, The New York Times Book Review
"An authentic, insightful account of the intensity of captaining a crew of strong men in an ocean which does what it wants." -- Daniel Hays, co-author of My Old Man and the Sea
"A crystal-clear account of fishing the Grand Banks in a modern swordfish boat. Greenlaw is an excellent captainand an excellent writer." -- John Casey, author of Spartina
About the Author
Linda Greenlaw is the bestselling author of The Hungry Ocean and The Lobster Chronicles, and the first and only female swordfish captain in the Grand Banks fleet. She currently lives in Isle au Haut, Maine, where she is taking a break from swordfishing to captain a lobster boat.
Table of Contents
--Preface xi
1 Turning the Boat Around 1
2 Mug-up 18
3 Second Thoughts 26
4 Mug-up 51
5 The Men 59
6 Mug-up 93
7 Sea Time 101
8 Mug-up 132
9 Loose Lips 135
10 Mug-up 190
11 The Golden Horseshoe 194
12 Mug-up 234
12+1 West Bound 238
--Epilogue 254
--Appendix 259
--Map 263
--Acknowledgments 265