The Perfect Storm

Captain Billy Tyne:
The fog's just lifting. Throw off your bow line, throw off your stern. You head out to South channel, past Rocky Neck, Ten pound island. Past Niles Pond where I skated as a kid. Blow your airhorn and throw a wave to the lighthouse keeper's kid on Thatcher Island. Then the birds show up, black backs, herring gulls, big dump ducks and green legged coots. The sun hit ya , head North, open up to 12, steamin' now. The guys are busy, you're in charge. Ya know what? You're a goddamn swordboat captain! Is there any thing better in the world? We'll always wonder.

Bobby Shatford:
Christina? Christina, can you hear me? I don't know if you can, but I'm talking to ya, baby. Do you know how much I love you? I loved you the moment I saw you. I love you now, and I'll love you forever. No goodbye. There's only love, Christina. Only love.

Linda Greenlaw:
[warning Billy over the radio] Billy? Get outta there! Come about! Let it- let it carry you out of there! What the hell are you doing? Billy! For Christ sake! You're steaming into a bomb! Turn around for Christ sake! Billy, can ya hear me? You're headed right for the middle of the monster! Billy?... [starts crying] Oh, my God!

Linda Greenlaw:
[at the services for the crew of the Andrea Gail] I knew Billy Tyne, but I did not know his crew very well, but any man who sailed with him, must have been the better for it. Robert Shatford, Dale Murphy, Micheal Moran, David Sullivan, Alfred Pierre... May you rest easy long-liners, in fair winds, and calm seas... For those of us left behind, the vast unmarked grave which is home for those lost at sea is no consolation. It can't be visited, there is no headstone on which to rest a bunch of flowers... The only place we can revisit them, is in our hearts, or in our dreams. They say swordboatmen suffer from a lack of dreams, that's what begets their courage... Well we'll dream for you: Billy, and Bobby, and Murph, Bugsy, Sully, and Alfred Pierre... Sleep well... Good Night...

Todd Gross:
Look, look at this. We got Hurricane Grace moving north off the Atlantic seaboard. Huge...getting massive. Two, this low south of Sable Island, ready to explode. Look at this. Three, a fresh cold front swooping down from Canada. But it's caught a ride on the jet stream...and is motoring hell-bent towards the Atlantic. What if Hurricane Grace runs smack into it? Add to the scenario this baby off Sable Island, scrounging for energy. She'll start feeding off both the Canadian cold front...and Hurricane Grace. You could be a meteorologist all your life and never see something like this. It would be a disaster of epic proportions. It would be...the perfect storm.

Bobby Shatford:
Skip, what are we gonna do about those numbers? They suck.

Captain Billy Tyne:
The boys are talking? About how I lost it? Billy Tyne's lost it? Things get a little slow they're ready to draw and quarter you. I didn't think you would go along with them.

Bobby Shatford:
It's not that, Skip. I'm out here because I need the money.

Captain Billy Tyne:
You know, last trip I thought you had something to offer. But you know, you're just a punk.

Bobby Shatford:
Hey, you promised me a shitload of fish!

Captain Billy Tyne:
You'll get a shitload of fish. I've gone out before and motored back with so much stock little boys like you had to pack it on the pier. I always find the fish, always! And I will this time. So don't f*** with me!

Melissa Brown:
This weather fax just came in. Edie, have a look at this.

Edie Bailey:
We have got to head in now! Put in at Watch Hill!

Alexander McAnally III:
In this stuff, harbor's too dangerous.

Melissa Brown:
Dangerous?

Alexander McAnally III:
Dash into shore, cut across shipping lanes...

Edie Bailey:
This is a hurricane coming straight at us!

Melissa Brown:
Let me reduce sails, Sandy, or even go back home.

Alexander McAnally III:
This is my boat. We're gonna ride this thing out, not for fun, for safety. Do what I've always done: go with the flow.

Bobby Shatford:
I got a woman who I can't stand to be two feet away from.

Captain Billy Tyne:
Congratulations.

Bobby Shatford:
Then again, I love to fish.

Captain Billy Tyne:
Son, you've got a problem.

Bobby Shatford:
So, what are you so happy about?

Captain Billy Tyne:
You just caught me on a good night. I'm doing what I was made to do - and I've got a feeling I'm going to do it even better this time.

Dale 'Murph' Murphy:
So, I guess you're the big hero, huh?

David 'Sully' Sullivan:
You would have done the same for me. Isn't that what I'm supposed to say?

Dale 'Murph' Murphy:
You can say what you want, but... I'm sure glad you know how to swim.

David 'Sully' Sullivan:
Well, that's real big of you, Murph.

Dale 'Murph' Murphy:
It's all I can manage right now. I'll work on it. All right?

Christina Cotter:
I'll be asleep, and all the sudden there he is, that big smile. You know that smile. And I say, 'Hey, Bobby - where you been?' but he won't tell me. He just smiles and says, 'Remember, Christina: I'll always love you; I loved you the moment I saw you; I love you now; and I love you forever. There's no goodbyes - there's only love, Christina; only love. Then he's gone. But he's always happy when he goes so I know he's got to be okay - absolutely okay.

Ethel Shatford:
I love your dream.

No one was prepared for this storm.

Feel Its Fury

The storm is coming.

In the Fall of 1991, the "Andrea Gail" left Gloucester, Mass. and headed for the fishing grounds of the North Atlantic. Two weeks later, an event took place that had never occurred in recorded history.