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The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey
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The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey Hardcover - 1999

by Linda Greenlaw

Greenlaw tells her own riveting story of a 30-day swordfishing voyage, complete with danger, humor, and characters so colorful they could have been ripped from the pages of "Moby Dick."


From the publisher

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

Details

  • Title The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey
  • Author Linda Greenlaw
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 288
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Hachette Books, New York
  • Date 1999-05-12
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780786864515 / 0786864516
  • Weight 1.08 lbs (0.49 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.66 x 5.72 x 0.98 in (22.00 x 14.53 x 2.49 cm)
  • Ages 18 to 17 years
  • Grade levels 13 - 12
  • Themes
    • Sex & Gender: Feminine
  • Library of Congress subjects Swordfish fishing - Grand Banks of, Greenlaw, Linda
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 98-51985
  • Dewey Decimal Code 639.277

Media reviews

Citations

  • Booklist, 04/01/2000, Page 1449
  • Kirkus Reviews, 04/15/1999, Page 598
  • Library Journal, 05/15/1999, Page 116
  • New York Times, 05/09/1999, Page 23
  • Outside, 07/01/1999, Page 125
  • Publishers Weekly, 04/12/1999, Page 62
  • School Library Journal, 01/01/2000, Page 161
  • Time, 08/23/1999, Page 67

About the author

Linda Greenlaw has been a deep-sea fisherman for 18 years, becoming the first and only female swordfish captain in the Grand Banks Fleet. This career earned her a prominent role in Sebastian Junger's runaway bestseller, The Perfect Storm and a protrayal in the subsequent film. She was raised in Maine and graduated from Colby College. Greenlaw now lives on Isle au Haut, Maine, where she captains a lobster boat.
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