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Linda Greenlaw's firsthand account of her stint as Captain aboard the swordfishing boat Hannah Boden will undoubtedly appeal to those who were captivated by Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm.
Captain Greenlaw is an experienced fisherman (the gender term she prefers) who for the last nine years has fished all over North America. She is referred to by Junger, in The Perfect Storm, as "one of the best captains, period, on the entire East Coast."
The particular story she tells is of the account of her trip swordfishing off Newfoundland's Grand Banks. The similarities of her tale and the voyage of the Andrea Gale in The Perfect Storm are remarkable in that both boats were out in the same general area at the same time. The two boats, Hannah Boden and Andrea Gale were sisterships. The results of the two trips, however, were different enough to show the fine line between success and failure in offshore fishing. The Andrea Gale and her entire crew were lost, whereas the Hannah Boden's voyage was a "slammer" (the fishing term used to describe a very successful trip). In fact, Greenlaw's boat landed a record amount of swordfish.
Linda Greenlaw was raised and educated in Maine. She graduated from Colby College in 1983 where she majored in English.
Her writing style is direct, descriptive and easy to read. She is particularly adept in her description of her crew, bringing the reader a real sense of the rigors of fishing. Those interested in the sea, boats, sailors and fisherman will find this account highly enjoyable. I found it more rewarding than The Perfect Storm, because it was a first-person account, written by a woman who is thought of as one of the best in one of the world's most dangerous professions.
- Edmond J. Moran, Jr.
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