Seaworthy: A Swordfish Captain Returns to the Sea

Every once in a while I’ll read a book of nonfiction. I enjoy fiction more, but when done well, nonfiction can be good, too. My husband gave me “Seaworthy: A Swordfish Captain Returns to the Sea” for Christmas I think because he wants to keep me interested in being on a boat at sea. We stayed aboard a sailboat for a week last summer, sailing around Lake Ontario, which was pretty much tantamount to heaven for him, though I’m not sure I ever really got to be captain of the boat like Linda Greenlaw.

You may remember Linda Greenlaw from Sebastian Junger’s 1997 book “The Perfect Storm” about the swordfishing crew aboard the Andrea Gail who were lost at sea during a huge storm in 1991. Greenlaw was also featured in the 2000 movie version played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio; Greenlaw was captaining the sister ship the Hannah Boden at the time and was friends with the captain of the Andrea Gail and in radio contact before it went down. She told about that experience in her 1999 book “The Hungry Ocean.” She’s noted as being America’s only female swordfish boat captain and has written three books about being a commercial fisher.

But this was my first of hers. I had read Junger’s “Perfect Storm” and somehow never got around to reading Greenlaw’s “Hungry Ocean” (though I still want to). “Seaworthy” picks up her story 10 years later after she’s been asked to captain a boat for a season of swordfishing once again. She’s been out of swordfishing since then, while lobstering, and now at 47 years old was worried she’d be rusty, but couldn’t help but jump at the chance.

“Seaworthy” tells of her time captaining the sixty-three-foot boat the Seahawk on a quest for swordfish with a crew of four guys along the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. It’s quite a tale. Who knew Greenlaw would incur such terrible happenstances upon her return to commercial deepwater fishing? It seems almost as if everything that could go wrong, sort of does. The equipment doesn’t work, the shoddy boat breaks down, they drift into Canadian waters while fishing and Greenlaw is arrested, they lack gear and electronics, and the boat’s overseer makes a wrongful decision in ordering them back to port too early to drop the fish off at market.

I realize now there’s so many aspects that come into play in swordfishing at the Grand Banks. Greenlaw writes it’s 1,000 miles from home and 144 hours from Cape Cod Bay, just in getting there. Good luck if you break down. They planned for 60 days at sea, out on the ocean setting and hauling in 30 miles of long lines of 800 hooks again and again, all amid hurricane season. It’s sort of madness that can get one killed in unpredictable weather and on an unreliable boat, but Greenlaw appears at home in her element, being at sea on a fishing boat captaining men.

She’s an entertaining narrator, and combined with the daily journey, gets into the mental aspects of what makes a good captain, how she gets along with the crew, and how she’s changed in her years away from swordfishing. She goes into her inner doubts and explores herself at this stage in life while facing a myriad of challenges onboard the Seahawk.

It all makes for interesting reading. I got caught up in “Seaworthy” and felt despite the Seahawk’s various disasters it was a worthwhile and compelling read. I’m envious Greenlaw is both such a knowledgeable boat captain and an author who can write so well about her adventures and the profession she loves. I felt like I could feel the boat rocking and the wind at sea. I’d be interested to read her other books as well.

Which by the way, she has just published a new book called “Lifesaving Lessons: Notes From an Accidental Mother” about her newly adopted daughter. From what blogger Beth Fish says of the audiobook, it’s quite inspirational as well. Check it out.