Hungry Ocean, The: A Swordboat Captain's Journey | Linda Greenlaw

Hungry Ocean, The: A Swordboat Captain's Journey | Linda Greenlaw | Enjoy the Voyage

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Hungry Ocean, The:...

	Hungry Ocean, The: A Swordboat Captain's Journey Linda Greenlaw Hyperion, 2006 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In his number-one bestseller, 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 it doesn't stop until the last page. Under way, she must cope with nasty weather, equipment failure, and treachery aboard ship, not to mention the routinely backbreaking work of operating a fishing boat.

Displaying a true fisherman's gift for storytelling and a true writer's flair for both drama and reflection, Greenlaw offers an exciting real-life adventure tale filled with the beauty and power of the sea.

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this is commercial fishing and these are the fisherman

I'm a longline fisherman in Italy.
The book is very interesting and well written (my english is not so good but it was a pleasure to read it).
As a commercial fisherman fishing the mediterranean, thousand miles from the north atlantic banks, after readed this book I could tell you that commercial fishing is the same in every part of the world, the same the people and the same the hard work.
Read this book, it's a really good one.

Enjoy the Voyage

In her refreshingly frank, casual but confidential memoir of a longline swordfishing trip, fisherman and captain Linda Greenlaw shares a voyage that is a metaphor of her life in the harsh, demanding environment of the open ocean deep-water fisheries. Greenlaw, who one immediately senses is private and closed - as befits her station as captain - opens her thoughts, doubts, and concerns to the readers. It is am impressive revelation of the woman's character and courage.

Written in a flowing, conversational style, the reader has the sense of sharing the wheelhouse with a sword boat captain whose physical and moral courage is matched by technical skill.

Greenlaw shows a wide range of writing talent as she describes sea conditions, fisherman's Golden Horseshoes, crew disaffection, losses of loved ones, attention to detail, and the inherent loneliness of her chosen profession - a captain hundreds of miles from shore responsible for business success and human life.

I highly recommend this book, especially for those who enjoyed Junger's Perfect Storm, this is a required companion. She brings to those of us who are strangers to the sea a deep appreciation for the brave few who tempt the elements to eke out a living in an amazingly wonderful, but unforgiving element.

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Wonderful writer

I love the way Linda writes. I will read anything she publishes. I have learned so much and am reading this book again. If you read Perfect Storm you will understand it much better having read this book. Sebastian Junger did a masterful job writing 'Storm but Linda was on an identical boat owned by the same person. She also has many years experience. I can't recommend this book enough and all others as well. She has a cookbook too "Recipies From a Very Small Island" which she wrote with her mother. Super good.

The ones that got away

Linda Greenlaw achieved some measure of fame as a supporting character in the nonfiction book "The Perfect Storm" (and the more fictional movie that followed). Now, Greenlaw tells her own story in "The Hungry Ocean," a less thrilling but equally fascinating tale of a four-week swordfishing run over the Grand Banks.

Writing with the casual, conversational style of a story told over coffee and breakfast, Greenlaw describes the details of preparing for and executing a swordfishing expedition. She describes at length the supplies needed and the work that must be done to prepare for the water. She explains the crew dynamics, worries about the persistent illness of one crewman and wrangles over the racist attitudes of another. She frets over the readings as she steams northeast in the ocean and fills in the logistics on temperatures, currents and competing boats. She admits to occasional lies regarding fishing conditions in her wake.

She also recalls yarns from her earlier days, before she captained her own ship and sailed with others. She conveys the feeling of complete, utter exhaustion that is par for the course on a cruise of this nature. By the end of this book, you'll know how to clean a fish, whether you want to or not.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.NET editor

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Something to tie you over

If you are a fan of the hit TV series Deadliest Catch and just can't wait until late March to see new episodes than I suggest that you do read this book, it a very quick and easy read for the fans of that show. This publisher is trying to cash on the popularity of this series, by reprinting the book with a different type of cover art on it, which is clearly showing not a longliner type of fishing vessel, with this book is all about, but quite possibly a Bering Sea crab boat. While the cover art is a little bit of a misnomer, don't let that stop you from buying this book or reading it if somebody you know has it, for your time will be rewarded, and you will learn a few things in the course of reading the novel.

This book tells the story of Linda Greenlaw, the captain of the fishing vessel, Hannah Boden, which would be her last trip fishing for swordfish. Now, Linda, gain some popularity with the novel and the movie "The Perfect Storm", so she cashing in her new found fame to tell her own story and her own personal experiences in this industry.

While, this might sound like this could be a boring novel it not because of the style that Linda writes in this novel, very down to earth like you are having a conversation with her over a meal at a roadside dinner. Explaining a good majority of what it takes to get these boats prep and ready for a fishing trip, or what they call "Turing the Boat Around", the gear that they used, and the terms that they used to describe that type of swordfish that they are out there. Also in the course of the 31 day fishing trip, she take some time to tell some of the stories of her childhood, pervious trips, and there is also a section of the novel that tell the reader some of the superstitions that fishermen have.

While, I did enjoy this book, I found out that her explanation of the gear that they use and the electronics were a little hard to put into picture without the visual aid. Also reading this novel I gain a new respect to the Captains of all of the fishing vessels that out there, because you have a lot tougher job then I first thought.

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