Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
When Sebastian Junger tried to interview Linda Greenlaw for his bestselling book The Perfect Storm, he could never find her. She was always out fishing. He was researching the events that led to the disappearance of the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing boat that went down off the coast of Nova Scotia in October 1991. Six crew members died in the storm.
He heard stories about Greenlaw, who had been a commercial fisherman for 17 years and was rumored to be one of the best swordfishing captains around. Then he saw a woman in work boots strolling along the waterfront in Massachusetts. "She was straight-talking, humble, and seemed utterly in love with what she did," he writes. "In a business that leaves many people hardened and bitter, Linda was a wonderful exception."
The Hungry Ocean is Greenlaw's own memoir of one trip as captain of the Hannah Boden, one of the most well outfitted and successful swordfishing boats in the offshore fleet. It was the sister ship to the Andrea Gail, and Greenlaw recounts steaming through the fog one week after the Halloween storm. She and her crew scoured the gray water for a raft that might have kept the six men alive. All they found was a plastic drum with the ship's initials, which was not what they were hoping for.
Offshore fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs around, even when the weather does cooperate. The Hungry Ocean is a no-nonsense account of what it takes to bring back a ship with its hold full of 50,000 pounds of swordfish -- from the backbreaking process of hauling in lines to deftly navigating racial tensions among crew members. Greenlaw may be the only female swordfishing captain in the world, but she never considered her gender to be particularly relevant when commanding a crew or steering a ship.
She discovered her hunger when she was 12 years old on the coast of Maine. She abandoned the woods and bayberry bushes where she had built forts and wandered to the ocean instead. She watched a boy picking lobsters from a trap, listened to the lapping of the sea in a hermit crab shell, and was hooked for life.
At the age when most teenagers dream of tooling around in the family car, she gravitated toward her dad's 40-foot powerboat. She took her first offshore job at the age of 19, working her way through college as a cook. When one of the crew members injured his back, she took his place on deck, where she has remained for nearly two decades.
Greenlaw is at her best describing the minute details, combined with the pure excitement, of catching monster fish. After days of bad weather and temperaments, everyone on the boat knows when the fishing is about to get good. The water temperature breaks just right, the baitfish slap the surface of the water, and spirits rise. The crew is rewarded for 20-hour days and little sleep with every hook that lifts a gleaming, purple-blue swordfish onto the deck.
Greenlaw combines the day-to-day events aboard an offshore boat with stories of past trips. Her challenges include not only life-threatening weather but also drug-addled crew members and other captains moving in on her turf. The Hungry Ocean also hints at some of the things she has given up in her life -- romance, normalcy, and a home base. That's why taking time off from fishing to write a book seemed alluring, she writes in the introduction. But the departure from her true passion proved temporary.
"One year later...I wonder daily if the opportunity to write this book was a blessing or a curse. Writing has proved to be hard work, often painful. I can honestly say that I would rather be fishing."
Jennifer Langston
FROM THE PUBLISHER
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.
FROM THE CRITICS
Douglas Whynott - New York Times Book Review
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.
Library Journal
Greenlaw is the female skipper of a commercial swordfishing boat and was a primary source of technical detail for Sebastian Junger's best-selling The Perfect Storm (LJ 5/15/97). The Hungry Ocean details a 30-day swordfishing trip from Gloucester to the Grand Banks. Greenlaw describes her boat, equipment, and various electronic gear, including the "temperature bird" that is lowered to measure the temperature at the fishing depth, as well as her technique for finding just the right area to fish. The process of laying out the 40-mile longline, with radio beacons at intervals so that the expensive gear and the catch can be hauled aboard, is also discussed in great detail. Greenlaw also tells of life aboard for her crew, including personality conflicts that invariably subside when the tired and busy crew is occupied with the grueling haul-back of the catch. After all their hard work, there is the gut-wrenching suspense of not knowing what the market price of the catch will be. An exciting and detailed look inside the commercial fishing industry, sure to be popular in public libraries.--John Kenny, San Francisco P.L. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
School Library Journal
YA-The story of a woman who attended college, worked on fishing ships, and became a fishing captain. Greenlaw's name came to national attention a few years ago in Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm (Knopf, 1997) when her vessel's sister ship capsized, losing all its crew. Here, readers accompany the captain and her five-man crew as they travel in calmer weather on the Hannah Boden from their home port of Gloucester, MA, to catch swordfish on the Grand Banks of the North Atlantic. The readable, straightforward account of the trip reveals the day-to-day regularity of steaming to the site, preparing, setting, and hauling in the four-mile long fishing line, followed by cleaning and icing the catch. This routine allows for about four hours of sleep per day and continues for two to three weeks. It's a demanding job and the necessary precision of tasks handled by the crew is astonishing. Interspersed throughout the book are chapters entitled "Mug-Up," which provide folkloric background about ships and fishing superstitions. A fascinating look at an unusual career.-Pam Spencer, Young Adult Literature Specialist, Virginia Beach, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Douglas Whynott - The New York Times Book Review
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.
Kirkus Reviews
A precise account of what happens aboard a swordfishing boat on the Grand Banks when it is not being terrorized by a perfect storm, from a captain among the fleet.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
John Casey
A crystal-clear account of fishing the Grand Banks in a modern swordfish boat. Greenlaw is an excellent captain...and an excellent writer. — Author of Spartina
Daniel Hays
An authentic, insightful account of the intensity of captaining a crew of strong men in an ocean which does what it wants. — Co-author of My Old Man and the Sea
Sebastian Junger
This is the best book, period, I've ever read on fishing. Anyone who loves the sea will love this book. — Author of The Perfect Storm
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