the crew of a sword fishing boat from GL
Massachusetts are heading home with a
hold full of fish they decide to motor
straight through a storm they don’t have
time to go around their deck is heavily
Laden with barrels of drinking water and
extra fuel their ice machine isn’t
working and they need to land their
catch what they don’t know is that the
Andrea Gale is sailing into what will
become the worst storm for a 100 years
some would say
The Perfect
[Music]
Storm the Andrea Gale was a steel held
Western Rig fishing ship mainly used for
catching North Atlantic swordfish
Western rigs are fishing boats with a
square stern a steep angled bow and a
flat deck at the back the crew do most
of their work on the deck at the back
the captain stays in the Pilot House
which is at the front of the ship
Western rigs fish for swordfish by long
lining where 40 m long fishing lines
with as many as a thousand baited hooks
are trailed behind the ship ships fish
for weeks at a time and catch tens of
thousands of pounds of swordfish every
trip in 1987 the ship was modified to
store extra Fuel On Deck the stern was
extended by almost a meter and the port
side bulock or side wall was raised by
almost a meter the stability of the ship
isn’t reviewed after the modifications
gler massachus tett is the Andrea gal’s
Home Port gluster is over 400 years old
with a rich Maritime history the first
settlers were men from an English vessel
who decided to stay instead of returning
home after fishing nearby in the
Atlantic fishing developed in gler after
these first arrivals becoming an
organized industry towards the end of
the 17th century as early as 1711
Bluster fishermen were found fishing as
far away as Cape Sable in Nova Scotia in
wooden sailboats in the 1990s when the
Andrea Gale set out on its final voyage
a third of all gluster jobs were fishing
related the glester fisherman’s Memorial
was built in 1925 to celebrate the
city’s 300 anniversary and to honor the
lives of the city’s many fishermen
who’ve been lost at sea at least 4,000
gluster men are known to have died
fishing but it’s thought that number
could be as high as 10,000 between 1860
and 1906 660 ships sank in the North
Atlantic in those days a storm could
sink an entire fleet in one
go it’s midt 1991 and the crew of the
Andrea Gale are preparing to depart from
glasto Harbor on a fishing trip modern
ships like the Andrea Gale can sail huge
distances and spend long periods of time
at Sea this ship will fish over 1,000 M
away at the Grand Banks this is a
shallow area 90 Mi southeast of New
Finland where warm water from the Gulf
Stream meets cold water from the
labrador sea swordfish like feeding in
the shallow Waters and this makes it
popular with the fishermen of Gloucester
the crew carry enough supplies for a 40
to 50-day trip and they plan to land a
catch that will earn them a lot of money
deck hands can make $10,000 in one trip
boats like the Andrea Gale can make as
much as
$500,000 profit in a year before the
ship departs Linda greenw the captain of
the Andrea Gale’s sister ship the Hannah
Bowden gives the Andrea Gale extra Fuel
and bait so they can last longer at Sea
they’re going to make sure they land a
good catch the Andrea Gale is captained
by Frank William Ty Jr and the ship has
a full crew of six men tytin goes by his
nickname Billy Billy Ty is 37 years old
old he has a Year’s experience on the
Andrea Gale with 3 months as the ship’s
Captain before the Andrea Gale he has
over 10 years of fishing experience with
5 years as a captain Ty was born and
raised in glester but he wasn’t always a
fisherman before fishing he was a
carpenter and a drug counselor but he
gave that up when he was 27 for the
chance to earn big money in Sword
fishing around the time he took up
fishing he married jod T and together
they had two daughters Erica and Billy
Joe tytin found he was a natural
fisherman and by the late 1980s he’d
become one of the most successful
captains in the Gloucester sword fishing
fleet he and jod divorced in 1990
fishing is a single man’s game Crews
will often fish for a month at a time
and sometimes they’ll only be home for a
week the danger and stress also put
strain on relationships and lots of
gluster fishermen are divorced Billy and
Jodie did get divorced but they
reconciled and formulated a plan to move
to Hawaii with the hope that the safer
fishing in Hawaii will put less strain
on their relationship this is Billy
tin’s last trip from Gloucester before
they go before he leaves he has a 3-hour
phone call with jod they talk about
their upcoming move to Hawaii and about
taking their daughters to Disney
World conditions can be tough in the
Atlantic around September the Summer’s
over and the weather’s getting colder
working outside on a ship’s deck is much
more difficult in the winter the crew
have to work through strong winds heavy
rain and cold temperatures morning day
and night they work whenever they can
fish the sea is getting colder and
people don’t survive for long if they go
overboard storms are also a threat with
a history of ships lost to powerful
storms the Andrea Gale is a large strong
ship the owner Bob Brown thinks there
isn’t a storm that could sink it and
tytin is known as a brave sailor who
will safely sail ships like the Andrea
girl through any North Atlantic storm
and they’re prepared for an emergency
the ship has survival suits for all the
crew members a six-person life raft an
emergency position indicating radio
Beacon or eerb two VHF FM radios a
single sideband radio a GPS system radar
and two weather receivers
the ship’s ready and it departs gluster
on the 20th of September 1991 it’s
heavily loaded two additional fuel tanks
that are added to the ship Stern in 1987
are full between them they carry an
extra 3,800 gallons of fuel that’s on
top of the fuel in the two original
1,000g fuel tanks in the engine room The
Vessel also has 30 additional 55 Gall
fuel drums stored on Deck 2,000 gall of
drinking water are stored in the ship’s
integrated water tanks and 10 extra 55
gallon plastic drums of drinking water
are stored on Deck with the extra fuel
carrying extra drums of fuel and water
isn’t unusual for a ship like this but
the Andrea Gale is heavily loaded and
sailing slightly low in the water as it
leaves gler Harbor it takes nearly a
week for the Andrea Gale to sail to the
Grand Banks where they’ll start their
fishing during the passage the crew get
the fishing get ready eat sleep watch TV
and talk amongst themselves they fish
hard at the Grand banks in tough
conditions when they’re fishing the crew
work all the hours they can manage they
spend their evenings late into the night
baiting their lines with up to a th000
hooks by hand and putting out as much as
40 Mi of line it takes until midnight to
set the line then they wake at 4 in the
morning to bring it back in they hardly
sleep and in the rough Atlantic Ocean
they Rock restlessly in their bunks
bringing the 40 m line in is hard work a
swordfish can weigh up to ,000 and they
have to be dragged onto the ship with
hooks their day is spent butchering and
icing the fish organizing the fishing
gear and keeping the boat running they
cook eat and shower whenever they can
steal a moment by midnight the line is
set and baited and so the cycle repeats
itself their pay is hard
fought the five deck hands Ty has on his
ship are a mixture of both seasoned
fishermen and less experienced greenh
horns the captain Billy Ty lives on
Gloucester avenue just around the corner
from the Sullivan family tytin recruited
David Su Sullivan to work on the ship
after Adam Randall dropped out at the
last minute Randall cheated death this
time but is later lost at sea on a
different boat the Terry Lee Billy tin
is close friends with Sullivan’s older
brother Mark Sully is the most recent
hire on the Andrea G and the youngest
member of the crew at 29 su’s sister
Kathy says he’s got guts and loves
fishing some months earlier Sally was on
the fishing boat Harmony when it started
taking on water in the middle of the
night the crew of the harmony called to
another ship for help but couldn’t Rouse
the sleeping crew Sul dived into the icy
water swam to the other ship and woke
the crew who then helped them save the
Harmony from sinking at 30 years old
Robert Bobby shatford is another one of
the younger crew despite being less
experienced than the rest of the crew
shatford is already well known in the
Gloucester fishing Community he’s the
son of Ethel shatford Preston who runs
the Crow’s Nest Crow’s Nest is the local
Watering Hole this is where the crew go
to drink after a fishing trip and
sometimes bunk down in their rooms like
the other members of the crew shatford
is drawn to fishing by the prospect of
making big money from a good catch no
doubt influenced by the stories from
fishermen in the Crow’s Nest shatford
has two young Sons he’ll leave behind in
Gloucester they’re with their mother
Lisa shatford O’Brien the couple are
already separated Dale murf Murphy is
also 30 years old originally from
Brenton Beach Florida Murphy leaves his
3-year-old son Dale behind with his
ex-wife Deborah for this fishing trip
Murphy is the ship’s cook on this
undertaking the other two members of the
crew are Michael Bugsy Moran and Alfred
Pierre Moran is slightly older than the
other crew at 36 like Murphy he’s also
from Brenton Beach Florida Pierre is 32
from New York
City the Andrea Gale lost its cook from
the previous two trips Doug Costco
decided not to go on this trip a
decision that saves his life Costco is a
friend of times he signed up for three
trips over the summer as the ships cook
but on the second trip he had a
spiritual encounter with a swordfish
that made him decide to give up
swordfishing entirely near the end of
the trip Ty calls Costco up on Deck to
help Butcher and Ice down a large catch
Costco’s killed hundreds of swordfish
without ever thinking about it but this
time he sees the colors in one
particularly large swordfish he later
recalls when you take them out of the
water and they’re still alive they’ve
got all these colors more colors than
the rainbow and as they start to Die the
colors fade away one by one he says it
looked up at him and he knows it can see
him it’s old 10 20 years he’s taken it
out of its environment and it’s saying
to him please don’t kill me I have a
family Costco kills the fish but he
feels like he’s had a connection with it
and he promises to himself that he’ll
never kill another swordfish again after
they reach Port from that trip Costco
collects his pay and disappears he
couldn’t face Billy all the rest of the
crew at the Crow’s Nest he just got on a
train and left after learning about the
fate of the Andrea Gale Costco started
having a recurring dream that he was
trapped inside the boat with his face
pressed up against the portal window
staring out into the abyss as the ship
sinks deeper and
deeper the crew spend weeks fishing at
the Grand Banks they fish hard setting
the line then bringing it in day in and
day out but luck is not on their side
and they have a poor catch at the Grand
Banks time decides to change plans and
sail the andreag Gale almost 300 Mi
Northeast to fish the Flemish Cap this
is another area of relatively shallow
water popular with swordfish and
fishermen it’s the 23rd of October and
the moon is full in the night sky the
Andrea Gale is fishing the Flemish Cap
and they finally start to bring in a big
Hall a few days of successful fishing
and they’ve got the catch they need
there’s 40,000 lb of starfish in the
hold this is a full load and it could be
worth as much as
$250,000 but there’s a problem with
their ice machine which isn’t working
properly without a functioning ice
machine they can’t keep their catch
Frozen they need to head back to land
immediately or they risk losing their
entire Hall and the trip would be a
waste of time and money Billy time
decides to end the fishing trip and head
home the ship begins its return Voyage
to glester on either the 26th or 27th of
October
they received warnings of a possible
storm in the ship’s path an area of low
pressure has been forming on land over
Southern Quebec this cold front coming
off the Eastern side of North America
looks like it might head out to sea and
develop into a storm storms aren’t
uncommon at this time of year and Ty
expects the Andrea Gale will handle it
he starts the return journey and they
steam directly towards Gloucester on the
28th of October the Andrea Gale is at
the start of its Journey towards
Gloucester meteorologists have been
monitoring the area of low pressure
coming from Quebec it’s heading out to
sea they’re also tracking a hurricane
that’s developed further south in the
Atlantic this hurricane started forming
while the crew were catching swordfish
at the Flemish Cap it began as a
midlevel area of low pressure to the
south of Bermuda on the 23rd of October
by the 27th it’s developed into a
hurricane and given the name Grace
Hurricane Grace heads North but it
doesn’t pose an immediate threat
hurricanes happen at this time of year
normally they don’t travel far north
they tend to make landfall in the
Southern United States over land they
burn themselves out ttin just needs to
keep an eye on it he also has more
immediate things on his mind a different
storm is forming around them the area of
low pressure coming from Quebec is
creating storm conditions out at Sea to
the east of Nova Scotia in the precise
path of the Andrea Gale the Andrea Gale
needs to navigate this storm to get home
the ship steams on towards Gloucester
the hurricane and the storm start to
flirt with one another but there’s no
suggestion that this is significance
over the day of the 28th of October
Hurricane Grace continues moving
northwards rather than going over land
like hurricanes normally do Hurricane
Grace travels further north instead and
meets the Far Western Edge of the storm
the Andrea Gale is sailing through the
cold front coming off the Eastern side
of North America that spawned the area
of low pressure over Quebec is now
blocking the hurricane from reaching
land moisture from Hurricane Grace
merges with the storm now the northern
low pressure system actually keeps the
hurricane at Bay it influences the
Hurricane’s path turning it Eastward and
out towards the middle of the Atlantic
the Andrea Gale is safe from the
hurricane and left to deal with only the
storm Ty speaks to the crews of other
fishing vessels in his area over the
radio he’s coming from the north and is
now in the middle of the storm ttin has
sailed through storms before but this
one is powerful enough for him to give
everyone a warning he reports to the
other ships that they’re experiencing 10
m waves and winds from 50 to 80 knots
it’s a strong storm and the Andrea Gale
is battling hard he tells the other
fishing boats she’s coming on boys she’s
coming on strong tytin and his men have
to battle the storm but they believe
they’ll be okay the experienced men know
how to handle a storm and they all have
faith in the ship they’re in the Andrea
Gale is 22 M long and over 6 M wide with
a draft of 3 m it’s got a 365 horsepower
engine with a max speed of 12 knots the
Andrea Gale’s a hefty ship and with a
length over 20 M it would probably take
a wave bigger than 20 M to topple it Ty
and his crew continue in the storm
prepared to Brave out the tough
conditions what they don’t know is that
the situation is going to get worse than
they could probably ever imagine a freak
natural event is about to take place and
they’re sailing into the most powerful
storm for a century the radio
conversation tytin has with his fellow
captains is the last thing any one will
hear from the Andrea Gale their position
at the time of their last transmission
is 113 nautical miles east of Sable
Island no one knows exactly which
direction the Andrea Gale is headed Ty
may have been heading towards Nova
Scotia to wait out the storm Hurricane
Grace has intensified on the 29th of
October it reaches Peak intensity
satellites see an eye develop near
Bermuda its speed of movement
accelerates and it becomes becomes a
category 2 hurricane meanwhile the
Northern Storm the Andrea Gale is in is
changing as well the high pressure Ridge
over Eastern Canada was forcing the
storm Southeast but now it pushes West
the centers of the Northern Storm and
the hurricane are separated by a large
distance but they’re close together at
the edge and moving towards each other
bear in mind the Andrea Gale is already
in what experienced Seaman regard as
challenging sea condition
a weather phenomenon is developing that
only occurs every 50 to 100 years the
Northern Storm that the Andrea Gale is
in and Hurricane Grace merge to create a
storm with unbelievable intensity the
huge storms are combining and the
different temperatures and conditions of
each storm creates an incredible
pressure gradient with intense winds and
exceptionally large waves what will
later become known as The Perfect Storm
is forming right over the Andrea Gale
by the 30th of October Hurricane Grace
and the Northern Storm merge into one
superstorm conditions at Sea are dire
weather boys report sustained wind
speeds over 50 knots with gusts up to 65
knots they also report significant wave
heights between 9 to 12 M interspersed
with larger waves and towering rogue
waves one boy 264 Mi south of hlex Nova
Scotia reports a wave of 30.7 M this is
the biggest ever recorded wave on the
oceanic shelf of Nova Scotia the scotian
Shelf a 30 m wave could easily topple
the 22 M Andrea Gale waves breaking over
the top of the ship could flood the deck
it’s heavily loaded with a full catch
along with fuel and Water Supplies it’s
sailing low in the water and the port
Bullock that’s been raised by 1 M could
trap more water on the deck making the
ship vulnerable to
flooding over the 29th and 30th of
October the owner of the Andrea Gale Bob
Brown tries to reach the ship by radio
but he doesn’t get a response at 1815 on
the 30th he contacts the Coast Guard to
log the Andrea Gale as unreported from a
fishing trip he tells them he fears the
worst there’s no recorded communication
from the Andrea gel after the last
conversation Ty has with the other
fishermen no distress calls are received
and no signals are received from the
ship’s eerb on the 31st of October a
search operation is launched the Coast
Guard Atlantic area Operation Center in
New York coordinates a huge multi-
agency search effort that covers the
area from the grand Banks to Cape Cod in
Massachusetts 23 US Coast Guard vessels
eight US Coast Guard aircraft three US
Navy aircraft three Canadian aircraft
and one US Marine aircraft take part in
the the search which lasts 10 days by
the 10th of November the total searched
area exceeds 109,000 square miles the
search is abandoned when the chances of
anyone surviving are finally deemed too
low when the ship was last contacted it
was just over 100 nautical miles east of
Sable Island it may have traveled a long
distance between the last contact and
it’s sinking a few items of debris are
later found washed up on Sable Island
which suggests that this is the area the
ship went down one of the most important
things found on saple island is the
ship’s epur it’s found on the southwest
side of the island fully operational
with the switch in the off position we
can’t be certain if it was off when the
ship went down but it needs to be on to
automatically activate if it comes free
from its holster it’ll come free from
its holster if the ship capsizes or
sinks or the crew can activate it
manually if they need to if the ship
capsized or sank suddenly with its –er
turned off no one would ever know
another item cited during the search for
the ship was a submerged orange
cloth-like object that could have been a
deflated life
raft the loss of the Andrea Gale meant
the loss of family and friends for many
people in the city of Gloucester for
Billy tin’s sister Roberta Billy was the
second brother she had lost their other
brother was killed in the Vietnam War
Rober Bera and Sully sister Kathy
sometimes have a drink at Crow’s Nest
Kathy Sullivan learned of her brother’s
disappearance through a friend who’
heard a rumor in town she later said
that she had videotaped the storm as it
hit the shore because it was a beautiful
site not having any idea what her
brother was going through to this day
the wreck of the Andrea Gale hasn’t been
found no bodies of the crew have ever
been recovered without being able to see
the ship it’s hard to say exactly how it
sank ultimately it was the massive storm
that caused the ship to be lost it may
be that the ship encountered a giant
wave and was suddenly capsized this
would explain why no emergency signals
were ever received a 30 m wave was
recorded during the storm the consistent
10 m waves it experienced in the storm
could have caused the ship to capsize or
flood if water couldn’t escape the
raised bulock fast enough then
subsequent waves could compound flooding
perhaps the ship’s seaworthiness was
compromised by the modifications it may
have been unbalanced by the fuel tanks
at the stone it would also have been
sailing low in the water with its full
fish tanks and reserves of fuel and
water another theory is that the storm
muddied the fuel in the ship’s tanks
which resulted in the engine failing at
a crucial moment it’s easy to imagine
what might have gone wrong what’s harder
to imagine is what it must have been
like for the crew when such a large
storm formed right on top of them the
crew were lost to an unimaginable storm
that only occurs once in a
lifetime you may have seen the movie The
Perfect Storm released in the year 2000
after the movie was released a lot of
people from the city of Gloucester
including friends and family of the
Andrea girl’s crew disputed the way Ty
and his men were presented in the film
it’s quite common for movies to add some
drama another well-known story I’ve
covered is deep water Horizon which was
also made into a film you’ve probably
seen I’ll leave a link to that video
here