The Perfect Storm

by

Sebastian Junger

Storms Symbol Icon

In the book, storms—and particularly the titular “perfect storm” of October 1991, in which the crew of the Andrea Gail and several others were lost at sea—symbolize the extreme danger and unpredictability of deep-sea fishing. The phrase “the perfect storm” can be used in a meteorological sense—literally referring to a bad storm—but it can also refer to any given situation in which several negative factors have combined, often in a way that’s unlikely or unexpected. Indeed, just as the so-called perfect storm was a mix of several dangerous factors (a hurricane coming off of Bermuda, a cold front from Canada, and another storm from the Great Lakes, and jet stream irregularities), deep-sea fishing itself is a metaphorical perfect storm in its own right for several reasons. The ocean is powerful and deadly, weather conditions can be unpredictable, and human fallibility makes things even worse. No matter how experienced a captain is, it’s impossible to juggle so many different factors affecting a fishing trip and to do so perfectly. On a similar note, pride and arrogance often make deep-sea fishing even more dangerous than it already is. As Bob Brown, a captain notorious for risk-taking, shows, captains often feel overconfident, overly optimistic, and overprepared. Much as the deadly storm was made up of several perfectly aligned, mutually reinforcing subsystems, the fishing industry likewise combines several parts that sustain a complex and unpredictable force: physical dangers, financial motivations, environmental risks, and technological factors, not to mention individual human strengths and weaknesses.

Storms Quotes in The Perfect Storm

The The Perfect Storm quotes below all refer to the symbol of Storms. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Money and the Fishing Industry Theme Icon
).
The Flemish Cap Quotes

More people are killed on fishing boats, per capita, than in any other job in the United States. Johnston would be better off parachuting into forest fires or working as a cop in New York City than longlining off the Flemish Cap. Johnston knows many fishermen who have died and more than he can count who have come horribly close. It’s there waiting for you in the middle of a storm or on the most cloudless summer day. Boom—the crew’s looking the other way, the hook's got you, and suddenly you're down at the depth where swordfish feed.

Related Characters: Albert Johnston
Related Symbols: Storms
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:

The circumstances that place a boat at a certain place at a certain time are so random that they can’t even be catalogued, much less predicted, and a total of fifty or sixty more people—swordfishermen, mariners, sailors—are also converging on the storm grounds of the North Atlantic. Some of these people have been heading there, unavoidably, for months; others made a bad choice just a few days ago.

Related Symbols: Storms
Page Number: 88
Explanation and Analysis:

Around nightfall a Canadian weather map creaks out of the satellite fax. There’s a hurricane off Bermuda, a cold front coming down off the Canadian Shield and a storm brewing over the Great Lakes. They're all heading for the Grand Banks. A few minutes after the fax, Linda Greenlaw calls.

Billy, you seen the chart? she asks.

Yeah I saw it, he says.

What do you think?

Looks like it's gonna be wicked.

Related Characters: Billy Tyne (speaker), Linda Greenlaw (speaker)
Related Symbols: Storms
Page Number: 94
Explanation and Analysis:
The Barrel of the Gun Quotes

After talking to Barrie, Billy picks up the microphone on his single sideband and issues one last message to the fleet: She's comin' on boys, and she's comin' on strong. The position he’d given Linda Greenlaw on the Hannah Boden— 44 north, 56.4 west—is a departure from his original heading. It appears to be more the heading of a man bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, or maybe even Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, than Gloucester, Massachusetts. […] Whatever the reason, Billy changes course sometime before 6 PM and neglects to tell the rest of the fleet.

Related Characters: Billy Tyne (speaker), Linda Greenlaw, Tommy Barrie
Related Symbols: Storms
Page Number: 106
Explanation and Analysis:

In a sense Billy’s no longer at the helm, the conditions are, and all he can do is react. If danger can be seen in terms of a narrowing range of choices, Billy Tyne’s choices have just racheted down a notch. A week ago he could have headed in early. A day ago he could have run north like Johnston. An hour ago he could have radioed to see if there were any other vessels around. Now the electrical noise has made the VHF practically useless, and the single sideband only works for long range. These aren’t mistakes so much as an inability to see into the future. No one, not even the Weather Service, knows for sure what a storm's going to do.

Related Characters: Billy Tyne, Albert Johnston
Related Symbols: Storms
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
Graveyard of the Atlantic Quotes

The crew just racks out and watches videos. Everybody acknowledged this was the worst storm they'd ever been in—you can tell by the size of the waves, the motion of the boat, the noise, the crashing. There’s always a point when you realize that you're in the middle of the ocean and if anything goes wrong, that’s it. You see so much bad weather that you kind of get used to it. But then you see really bad weather. And that, you never get used to.

Related Characters: Albert Johnston (speaker)
Related Symbols: Storms
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:

The Andrea Gail crew, all experienced fishermen, are probably trying to shrug it off as just another storm—they’ve been through this before, they'll go through it again, and at least they're not puking. Billy's undoubtedly working too hard at the helm to give drowning much thought. Ernie Hazard claims it was the last thing on his mind. "There was no conversation, just real business-like," he says of going down off Georges Bank. "You know, 'Let’s just get this thing done.'” […]

Be that as it may, certain realities still must come crashing in. At some point Tyne, Shatford, Sullivan, Moran, Murphy, and Pierre must realize there's no way off this boat.

Related Characters: Ernie Hazard (speaker), Billy Tyne, Bobby Shatford, Bugsy Moran, Dale Murphy (Murph), Alfred Pierre, David (Sully) Sullivan
Related Symbols: Storms
Page Number: 127
Explanation and Analysis:
The World of the Living Quotes

By October 30th, the Sable Island storm is firmly imbedded between the remnants of Hurricane Grace and the Canadian high. […] These two systems function like huge gears that catch the storm between their teeth and extrude it westward. This is called a retrograde; it's an act of meteorological defiance that might happen in a major storm only every hundred years or so. […] Meteorologists see perfection in strange things, and the meshing of three completely independent weather systems to form a hundred-year event is one of them. My God, thought Case, this is the perfect storm.

Related Characters: Bob Case (speaker)
Related Symbols: Storms
Page Number: 150
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Perfect Storm LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Perfect Storm PDF

Storms Symbol Timeline in The Perfect Storm

The timeline below shows where the symbol Storms appears in The Perfect Storm. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Georges Bank, 1896
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
...before. The note said that the Falcon’s cable and rudder had been destroyed in a storm and that the crew had given up. The writer of the note had then tossed... (full context)
Gloucester, Mass., 1991
Money and the Fishing Industry Theme Icon
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
Science and Technology Theme Icon
...having already been saturated. This situation meant that overloaded boats rushed home even through heavy storms and were sometimes sunk. Yet those who survived stood to make a lot of money.... (full context)
God’s Country
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
...Atlantic fishing ground, are especially dangerous. That’s because the spot is situated in an infamous storm track. When low pressure systems develop over the Great Lakes or Cape Hatteras, they follow... (full context)
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
...dread of Georges Bank. When people turned complacent, though, the Bank grew deadly. If a storm blew in, the many ships anchored around Georges Bank could collide, become entangled, and run... (full context)
Money and the Fishing Industry Theme Icon
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
...and a captain might risk his fishermen’s lives to get it back, even in a storm. (full context)
The Flemish Cap
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
Science and Technology Theme Icon
One of the features of a boat that’s crucial in a storm is its ability to clear its decks. A boat’s deck contains gaps called scuppers (normally... (full context)
Money and the Fishing Industry Theme Icon
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
...with a crew off Georges Bank, his boat, the Fair Wind, foundered in a winter storm, and one crewman, Ernie Hazard, almost died of exposure after cutting himself adrift in a... (full context)
Money and the Fishing Industry Theme Icon
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
Science and Technology Theme Icon
...mean that a group of about 50 or 60 people are on the North Atlantic’s storm grounds during the last week of October. (full context)
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
...sailing to Bermuda. As they set sail on October 26th, Stimpson asks Leonard about a storm front she’s heard about. Leonard isn’t concerned—he figures they can always tuck into the Cape... (full context)
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
Science and Technology Theme Icon
...fax. A hurricane is coming off of Bermuda, a cold front from Canada, and another storm from the Great Lakes—all on course to converge on the Grand Banks. Linda Greenlaw calls... (full context)
The Barrel of the Gun
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
In the swordfishing business, denial isn’t uncommon. Captains often overload their boats and ignore storm warnings. Coast Guard inspectors say that the idea of sinking is unthinkable to many captains,... (full context)
Science and Technology Theme Icon
...deceptively calm sea, Billy is heading straight into a weather nightmare. At 7 p.m., the storm hits. (full context)
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
Science and Technology Theme Icon
When the Andrea Gail moves into the storm, the change would have been as dramatic as if a person had stepped from one... (full context)
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
By this point, the storm is impacting New England, too. The Satori is off Cape Cod by this time, but... (full context)
Graveyard of the Atlantic
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
...Meanwhile, most of his crew hunkered down to watch TV, sensing this was the worst storm they’d ever faced. “There’s always a point,” Johnston says, “when you realize that you’re in... (full context)
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
...sent onto the deck with plywood to board up the window—a terribly dangerous task in stormy conditions. Aside from that, there isn’t much to do but keep heading into the storm... (full context)
The Zero-Moment Point
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
Ernie Hazard remembers surviving a late November storm on the Fair Wind. He felt the boat flipping over and then found himself upside... (full context)
The World of the Living
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
Science and Technology Theme Icon
Albert Johnston gets hit by the storm a few hours after the Andrea Gail did, but the center of the Sable Island... (full context)
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
Most of the swordfishing fleet escapes the worst of the storm because they’re farther out, while those closer to shore are hit badly. One of them... (full context)
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
...and a cutter called the Tamaroa, along with a Falcon jet, head out into the storm. The Satori crew have no idea if they’ve been heard until, half an hour later,... (full context)
The Dreams of the Dead
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
Family and Domestic Strife Theme Icon
...million square miles are under gale-force conditions, and by the morning of October 31st, the storm has stalled off Long Island, its winds raking across Gloucester. At first, on this mildly... (full context)
Danger, Human Frailty, and Death Theme Icon
Junger observes that “the effects of a storm go rippling outward” in people’s lives for years after the fact. Judith Reeves recalls falling... (full context)