Books : Hungry Ocean, The: A Swordboat Captain's Journey
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In association with Amazon.com
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by: Linda Greenlaw
List Price: $14.00Amazon.com's Price: $12.60 You Save: $1.40 (10%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 639.2778
EAN: 9780786885411
ISBN: 0786885416
Label: Hyperion
Manufacturer: Hyperion
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: June 07, 2000
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: June 07, 2000
Sales Rank: 197339
Studio: Hyperion
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER--NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK!
Known to millions of readers of The Perfect Storm as the captain of the Hannah Boden, sister ship to the Andrea Gail, Linda Greenlaw is also known as one of the best sea captains on the East Coast. Here she offers an adventure-soaked tale of her own, complete with danger, humor, and characters so colorful they seem to have been ripped from the pages of Moby Dick.
'A beautiful book...a story of triumph, of a woman not only making it but succeeding at the highest level in one of the most male-dominated and most dangerous professions.' -- Douglas Whynott,
The New York Times Book Review
'An authentic, insightful account of the intensity of captaining a crew of strong men in an ocean which does what it wants.' -- Daniel Hays, co-author of My Old Man and the Sea
'A crystal-clear account of fishing the Grand Banks in a modern swordfish boat. Greenlaw is an excellent captainand an excellent writer.' -- John Casey, author of Spartina
Amazon.com Review:
The term fisherwoman does not exactly roll trippingly off the tongue, and Linda Greenlaw, the world's only female swordfish boat captain, isn't flattered when people insist on calling her one. 'I am a woman. I am a fisherman... I am not a fisherwoman, fisherlady, or fishergirl. If anything else, I am a thirty-seven-year-old tomboy. It's a word I have never outgrown.' Greenlaw also happens to be one of the most successful fishermen in the Grand Banks commercial fleet, though until the publication of Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm, 'nobody cared.' Greenlaw's boat, the Hannah Boden, was the sister ship to the doomed Andrea Gail, which disappeared in the mother of all storms in 1991 and became the focus of Junger's book. The Hungry Ocean, Greenlaw's account of a monthlong swordfishing trip over 1,000 nautical miles out to sea, tells the story of what happens when things go right--proving, in the process, that every successful voyage is a study in narrowly averted disaster.
There is the weather, the constant danger of mechanical failure, the perils of controlling five sleep-, women-, and booze-deprived young fishermen in close quarters, not to mention the threat of a bad fishing run: 'If we don't catch fish, we don't get paid, period. In short, there is no labor union.' Greenlaw's straightforward, uncluttered prose underscores the qualities that make her a good captain, regardless of gender: fairness, physical and mental endurance, obsessive attention to detail. But, ultimately, Greenlaw proves that the love of fishing--in all of its grueling, isolating, suspenseful glory--is a matter of the heart and blood, not the mind. 'I knew that the ocean had stories to tell me, all I needed to do was listen.' --Svenja Soldovieri
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Long days, long nights ...
On the advice of a sometime sailer / daily co-worker, I read Sebastian Junger's non-fiction "The Perfect Storm" well before it became famous and a movie and enjoyed it, although I know zilch about commercial fishing. A tragic story.
Linda was mentioned in Junger's book, as a fellow Captain fishing the North Atlantic's Grand Banks and I recently went looking for her book. Very well done, also much different.
While Junger's introduced the reader to the general nature of ... Read More
Rating: - Great Maine writer
I've always heard good things about Ms. Greenlaw's writings. I must admit that this story swept me right in. It does a great describe describing the pressures and personalities that would have to come together in the Grand Bank. Great stuff, looking forward to reading more by this author.
Rating: - A woman to be admired
Linda Greenlaw captained an American sword boat. By itself, this is an accomplishment worthy of respect. More than that, she became one of the most successful captains in the fleet. And as "The Hungry Ocean" attests, she is also an accomplished writer with a fine eye for detail. I don't say things like this often, but this is a woman who "walks the walk", AND "talks the talk." A woman to be admired.
Forced by international law to fish a thousand miles from their home ports, Americans who ... Read More
Rating:  - Terrible grammar, okay story
I am listening to this book. Greenlaw has made the mistake of reading it herself. She's a terrible reader. She swallows words and stops in the middle of sentences. Plus her writing ain't the greatest. I don't mean her storytelling, which is good. I mean that her sentence structure is awful and if I hear her say "lay" once more when she means "lie," I'll scream. Where was the editor?
Rating: - Hungry for more.
After seeing the movie and reading the book, The Perfect Storm, I became very interested in reading more about the captain of the Hannah Boden, (sister ship of the Andrea Gail) Linda Greenlaw. When I found out she was a writer, I immediately jumped on-line to get one of her books. This book is her first. She writes about a specific fishing trip she commanded and all the trials and tribulations of getting a good catch and bringing it home. Although she down plays the fact that she is a female captain ... Read More
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