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| Book review:
Right up there with the likes of Joseph Conrad, and Jack London, this modern-day maritime classic is a great yarn - a real-life tale - and a wonderful first-hand introduction to the perilous waters of the Grand Banks and nearby Georges Bank. Like the Agulhas Banks off South Africa or the Bass Strait between Tasmania and mainland Australia, these old fishing grounds off New England and eastern Canada are terrible places to hang out when the weather turns foul. And in The Perfect Storm we hang with some of the best fishermen in the US sword fishing fleet as they battle for their lives in the storm of the century. Junger show excellent understanding of weather systems, and conveys clearly the complexities of a storm that confounded meteorologists: ... Johnston is one of the most meteorologically-inclined captains of the
sword fleet and he's been keeping a weather eye on Hurricane Grace,
which has been sliding up the coast. At 8am on the 29th, Grace collides
with a cold front, as predicted, and goes reeling back out to sea. She's
moving extremely fast, and packing eighty-knot winds and thirty foot
seas. She's a player now, an important - if dying - element in the
atmospheric machinery assembling itself south of Sable Island. Grace
crosses the 40th parallel that afternoon, and at 8pm on October 29th
Hurricane Grace runs into the Sable Island storm. Of course, any weather story must include the human element if people are to remain interested for long, and in The Perfect Storm, Junger brings us close to the hearts of all those seamen and their families affected by this nightmare at sea. The Perfect Storm is a great read and is destined to become a modern-day maritime classic. More great reading: For more information about the storm check out the Perfect Storm Foundation web site. Intellicast's Dr Dewpoint has written a great review of the perfect storm, as it was created in late October, 1991. © weather-wise.com 2000 |