F/V ''Andrea Gail'' was a commercial fishing vessel that was lost at sea with all hands during the Perfect Storm of 1991. The vessel and her six-man crew had been fishing the North

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

out of

Gloucester, Massachusetts Gloucester () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 U.S. Census. An important center of the fishing industry and a ...

. Her last reported position was northeast of

Sable Island Sable Island (french: île de Sable, literally "island of sand") is a small Canadian island situated southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and about southeast of the closest point of mainland Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island i ...

on October 28, 1991. The story of ''Andrea Gail'' and her crew was the basis of the 1997 book '' The Perfect Storm'' by

Sebastian Junger Sebastian Junger (born January 17, 1962) is an American journalist, author and filmmaker who has reported in-the-field on Dirty,_dangerous_and_demeaning, dirty, dangerous and demanding occupations and the experience of Light_infantry#United_Sta ...

, and a 2000 film adaptation of the same name.

F/V ''Andrea Gail''

''Andrea Gail'' was a commercial fishing vessel constructed in

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, in 1978, and owned by Robert Brown. Her home port was Marblehead,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. She also sailed from

, where she would offload her catch and reload food and stores for her next run. ''Andrea Gail'' began her final voyage departing from Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts, on September 20, 1991, bound for the

Grand Banks of Newfoundland The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordf ...

off the coast of eastern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. After poor fishing, Captain Frank W. "Billy" Tyne Jr. headed east to the

Flemish Cap The Flemish Cap is an area of shallow waters in the north Atlantic Ocean centered roughly at 47° north, 45° west or about 563 km (350 miles) east of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The shallow water is caused by a wide underwater ...

, where he believed they would have better luck. Despite weather reports warning of dangerous conditions, Tyne set course for home on October 26–27. The ship's ice machine was malfunctioning and would not have been able to maintain the catch for much longer.

Disappearance

The last reported transmission from ''Andrea Gail'' was at about 6:00 pm on October 28, 1991. Tyne radioed

Linda Greenlaw Linda Greenlaw (born December 22, 1960) is a best-selling author of books with maritime themes and the only female swordfishing boat captain on the East Coast of the United States. She was featured in the 1997 book '' The Perfect Storm'' and th ...

, captain of the ''Hannah Boden'', owned by the same company, and gave his coordinates as , or about east of

. He also gave a weather report indicating seas and wind gusts up to . Tyne's final recorded words were, "She's comin' on, boys, and she's comin' on strong." Junger reported that the storm created waves in excess of in height, but ocean buoy monitors recorded a peak wave height of . However, data from a series of weather buoys in the general vicinity of the vessel's last known location recorded peak wave action exceeding in height from October 28 through 30, 1991. A buoy off the coast of Nova Scotia reported a wave height of 100.7 ft (30.7 m), the highest ever recorded in the province's offshore waters on the Boston coast.

Search

On October 30, 1991, the vessel was reported overdue. An extensive air and land search was launched by the 106th Rescue Wing from the

New York Air National Guard The New York Air National Guard (NY ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of New York, United States of America. It is, along with the New York Army National Guard, an element of the New York National Guard. As state militia units, the units ...

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

, and

Canadian Coast Guard The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG; french: links=no, Garde côtière canadienne, GCC) is the coast guard of Canada. Formed in 1962, the coast guard is tasked with marine search and rescue (SAR), communication, navigation, and transportation issues in ...

forces. The search eventually covered over . On November 6, 1991, ''Andrea Gail''s

emergency position-indicating radio beacon An Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) is a type of emergency locator beacon for commercial and recreational boats, a portable, battery-powered radio transmitter used in emergencies to locate boaters in distress and in need of i ...

(EPIRB) was discovered washed up on the shore of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. The EPIRB was designed to automatically send out a distress signal upon contact with sea water, but the Canadian Coast Guard personnel who found the beacon "did not conclusively verify whether the control switch was in the on or off position".U.S. Coast Guard investigation report
/ref> Authorities called off the search for the missing vessel on November 9, 1991, due to the low probability of crew survival. Fuel drums, a fuel tank, the EPIRB, an empty

life raft A lifeboat or liferaft is a small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship. Lifeboat drills are required by law on larger commercial ships. Rafts ( liferafts) are also used. In the m ...

, and some other

flotsam In maritime law, flotsam'','' jetsam'','' lagan'','' and derelict are specific kinds of shipwreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage. A shipwreck is defined as the rema ...

were the only wreckage found. The ship was presumed lost at sea somewhere along the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

near Sable Island.

Crew

All six of the crew were lost at sea. * Frank William "Billy" Tyne Jr. (Captain), aged 37,

* Michael "Bugsy" Moran, aged 36,

Bradenton Beach, Florida Bradenton Beach is a city on Anna Maria Island in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The population was 908 at the 2020 census, down from 1,171 in 2010. It is part of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...

* Dale R. "Murph" Murphy, aged 30, Bradenton Beach, Florida * Alfred Pierre, aged 32,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

* Robert F. "Bobby" Shatford, aged 30, Gloucester, Massachusetts * David "Sully" Sullivan, aged 29, New York City

In the media

*The story of ''Andrea Gail'' and her crew inspired

's 1997 book, '' The Perfect Storm'', and a 2000 film of the same name. A ship similar to ''Andrea Gail'', ''Lady Grace'', was used during the filming of the movie. *An illustrated nonfiction book about the disaster for middle-school-age youth, ''The Wreck of the Andrea Gail: Three Days of a Perfect Storm'' by Gillian Houghton, was published in 2003. *A model of ''Andrea Gail'' built by Paul Gran is on display at the

Cape Ann Museum Cape Ann Museum is an art and historical museum located in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Its collection and programming focuses on the artists and art colonies of Cape Ann, including thRocky Neck Art Colonyand the Folly Cove Designers. The museum' ...

in Gloucester.

References

External links

Andrea Gail MFV on the wrecksite

Image of the pilot house

Image of the refrigerated storage area

{{1991 shipwrecks Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Fishing ships of the United States Maritime incidents in 1991 1978 ships 1991 Perfect Storm Marblehead, Massachusetts Ships lost with all hands Missing ships Sable Island Ships built in Panama City, Florida