He reconstructs what the situation must have been aboard the ship during the final hours of its losing battle with the sea, and the moments when it went down with the loss of all hands. He then charts the storm-particularly formidable because three storms had converged from the south, the west and the north-that created winds up to 100 miles an hour and waves that topped 110 feet. He begins with a look at the seedy town of Gloucester, Mass., which has been sliding downhill ever since the North Atlantic fishing industry declined, then focuses his attention on the captain and the five-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing vessel. Junger, who has written for American Heritage and Outside, masterfully handles his account of that storm and its devastation. In meteorological jargon, a ""perfect storm"" is one unsurpassed in ferocity and duration-a description that fits the so-called Halloween Gale of October 1991 in the western Atlantic.
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