FV Andrea Gail was an American 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 out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Her last reported position was 180 mi northeast of Sable Island 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, and a 2000 film adaptation of the same name.

FV Andrea Gail

Andrea Gail was a 72 ft commercial fishing vessel constructed in Panama City, Florida, in 1978, and owned by Robert Brown. Her home port was Gloucester, Massachusetts. She sailed from Gloucester, 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 on September 20, 1991, bound for the Grand Banks of Newfoundland off the coast of eastern Canada. After poor fishing, Captain Frank W. "Billy" Tyne Jr. headed east to the Flemish Cap, 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, captain of the F/V Hannah Boden, owned by the same company, and gave his coordinates as 44°N, -56.66667°W, or about 162 mi east of Sable Island. He also gave a weather report indicating 30 ft seas and wind gusts up to 80 knot. 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 100 ft in height, but ocean buoy monitors recorded a peak wave height of 39 ft. However, data from a series of weather buoys in the general vicinity of the vessel's last known location recorded peak wave action exceeding 60 ft in height from October 28 through 30, 1991. A buoy off the coast of Nova Scotia reported a wave height of 100.7 ft, the highest ever recorded in the province's offshore waters.

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, United States Navy, United States Coast Guard and Canadian Coast Guard forces. The search eventually covered over 186000 sqnmi. On November 6, 1991, Andrea Gail's emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) was discovered washed up on the shore of Sable Island in Nova Scotia. 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". Authorities called off the search for the missing vessel on November 9, 1991, due to the low probability of crew survival. All six of the crew were lost at sea.

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