These Drums Sank The Andrea Gail

I've fished commercially since '97. For most of that time I was either Engineer or Mate. Spent a lot of time on boats right similar to the Andrea Gail, including some time on the Hanna Boden when she was in the lobster/Jonah crab fleet. If I were to make a guess as to what did the Andrea Gail in, I'd be likely so suspect her fuel, not the barrels, but her tanks, specifically her fuel vents which were on deck. Typical fuel vents on boats like that have a u shaped pipe coming up from the deck usually right up under the gunwales as far outboard as practical. On the open end of the pipe there is a bell fitting which functions as a check valve, a form of float valve really, that if the fitting gets submerged the ball floats up in the housing and mates with a ring in the top of the bell, which seals most to all of the seawater from getting in and contaminating the fuel. Now I'm not sure which tanks they were drawing from at the time (no-one is) but I would bet significant money it would have been her saddle tanks as they were fairly close to her LCG and LCB while in a loaded state, with her lazarette tanks likely having been used earlier in the trip and topped off with the fuel from the barrels to avoid getting her too far out of trim at any time. Now back to those vents, a goodly few of the boats I've been on have had issues with their vents, fills or some times both; they are all just pipes welded to the deck which also forms the top of the fuel tank, and it is precisely that weld which caused four out of the seven fuel contamination issues I've had to deal with. There is often dissimilar metals between the pipe and the deck and whatever rod was used to weld it in place, its a hotspot for corrosive problems, and is pretty good for letting seawater into the fuel, and diesels do not like trying to burn seawater. Now if the aluminum ball in the bell housing for the tank vent is also shot; and I've only ever encountered a few what weren't you can get a surprising amount of seawater into your tanks. Ideally you would re-weld the fill pipe and slop some paint on it, and you also typically know what tank is know for leaking the worst and which one leaks the least, when you are expecting foul weather the in the next day or so, you align the fuel system so that the main is drawing from the best tank and you also probably go and change the filters on the racors and while you're down there also drain the bowls all around for the racors on the main and any generators you have aboard to make sure that there is as little chance of water getting to the engines and stalling them out as possible. Now for my theory, there is lots of stuff that is lashed all over the deck of a working boat like that and some of it is quite heavy. It wouldn't take much of a knock to snap off a vent or a fill that was already not in the best of shape, and with no record of her vents being repaired for her midships tanks in the previous 5 or so years there is very little reason to assume they were in good shape and a fair bit to recommend that they were in fact at least partially corroded at or around their junction with the deck plates. It is also very likely that something lashed to the deck or gunwales would come totally or partially adrift in the weather they were steaming through. Letting fairly small but continuous amounts of water into the tank, until it got to the point that the fuel/water separators and racor bowls could no longer keep the fuel to the engine clean enough for it to continue running. This would naturally cause it to stall out and necessitate the realignment of the fuel system to draw on a different tank and to have the fuel lines downstream of the racors or at the very very barest minimum downstream of the engine mounted fuel pump to need to be purged. Not an evolution they would have had time for. Now the best they could hope for is to have enough steerage way left to lay the boat onto the port tack and have heave to after a fashion, with the raised "wave wall" what you call her raised bulkhead on the port side offering some shelter to the deck. It's her most stable option at that point however it does mean that she will have been drifting beam to the seas, which you don't have to be to nautically inclined to figure is probably not ideal, but without power it would be the best option. Unfortunately before there was any chance of regaining powered, it is entirely probable that she took a coamer that knocked her down and she down flooded from there, likely going down in less than 3 minutes from that point. Main points of water ingress likely being through the fish hold hatch and through the wheel house door, as I am fairly certain at that point in time she was fitted with a partition door there instead of a true water tight door. But that's just my take on it. Two boats I've been on that had particularly bad fuel problems were the old Genesis and the old William Bowe. Genesis had the issue that her tanks were just flat out dirty as the day is long from years of bad ownership. you had to change the racors on an almost daily basis in good weather to keep the engine and generator going. On the Bowe it was a pure crap show, there was not only dirt and gunk in the tanks but algae and seawater a well, with known deck leaks on all 4 of her fuel tanks that would let water in. The Bowe also had a lot of other problems as well, not the least of which was centered around her generators. The #1 produced somewhat questionable voltage and the frequency was a bit wonky varying between 58 and 62 hz for not particular reason, which on its own not great, but the kicker was that the #2 gen would randomly kick off line. There being no mechanical backup for the steering pumps, and they not starting back up on their own after a loss of electrical power meant that they would have to be manually reset. I'd like to say that such issues are unique to those vessels but that would be a lie. As the fleet ages such problems only become more and more common, don't forget that most of the US boats that were around when the Andrea Gail was built are still fishing. It's a problem that needs to be addressed however I'll not be the one holding my breath for it to happen.

Another theory,based on a similar long liners sinking,is that the Andrea Gail stuffed her bow several times with such force that the hull compressed and her sides split.Kinda like stepping on a beer can that’s standing up .As the beer can compresses the sides split open.She was a steel hull and all that energy pushing on the bow has no place to go and she can’t displace all that energy by flexing.That energy has to go somewhere so it may have forced its way out the sides by splitting the sides of the hull.Ive been fishing commercially for Tuna for 38 seasons and have been caught it some extremely nautical conditions,where I could feel the entire boat flexing and torquing under the strain and they were fiberglass hulls that flexed.

I was on a 210 ft supply boat coming back from iceland when that storm came together. It was the worst storm I have ever been in. We had 42 containers on our back deck and it was the scarriest 24 hours of my life working offshore. We heard maydays from several vessels but in 80-90 ft seas there was nothing we could do even if we were closer to them.

Dang man you’ve added so much back story to Billy Tyne that we never got from “The Perfect Storm”

The Flemish Cap? Went there once... in '62. Lots of fish...and lots of weather...

fun fact: I lived in Gloucester during 99-00. When they were filming The perfect Storm. The Crow's nest pictured at 9:43 is not the real bar. That was a set built for the movie; at the end of the pier.

Major respect to the folk who work on ships like this one. Such hard, dangerous work - they definitely earn what they make

"Dont steam through a hurricane, you wont get paid if you are dead" Me.

I grew up in New Jersey, right on the water. I remember that storm, and, how bad the flooding from the surge was. Half my town was uner 4 feet of water.

Kosko's remarks about the dying swordfish kinda got to me, I won't lie.

Compassion and empathy saved one crewman. kudos.

I'm on the West Coast. Fuel tanks above the waterline are shunned; and I've never seen fuel drums loaded on the bow. It sounds like they needed a bigger boat to long line that area.

Definitely my favourite maritime channel. I bet that guy that looked into the swordfish's eye, and gave the game away will remember that sword fish for the rest of his life.

The side about the former cook’s reasons for leaving was fascinating. Great story-telling instincts to have included that!

Usually it’s hubris, poor planning, or lack of regard for safety that causes these kinds of accidents. This is just plain awful luck. RIP.

This story could make a great movie!

Took my Motorcycle to Nova Scotia on the Scotia Prince, a 470-foot-long ferry that would take passengers, vehicles and cargo from Portland Maine to Yarmouth Nova Scotia. Kind of like a mini cruise ship with food, gambling and cabins. Made the trip around 5 or 6 times in my life but during one of the first few we went through a pretty bad Nor'easter . Every so often you could hear the explosion of the Bow crashing into a huge wave and then view out the cabin window would be obscured by water and then clear. Scared the hell out of me. Can't imagine being in something like that storm in a little vessel like the Andrea Gale. RIP Boys

This is gonna be hard on my little boy! John C Reilly The Perfect Storm

I lived right in the ocean in 1991 with my gf, when you opened the sliding glass door to the deck, the deck butted right up against the seawall, when the waves started crashing up on the deck it was beautiful, high tide was still hours away, then the waves started crashing up over the roof, dark green ocean water running down the windows, it was awesome, my gf kept saying we gotta go but I loved it, then a wave brought a boulder and smashed through the sliding glass door, by the time we left both sides street were flooded, i backed the car across the street, we had front row seats to waves ripping the house apart, washing it out to sea, in the morning the only thing left was the foundation and us in the car. 1991 Marshfield, Mass. The perfect storm.

I saw the movie in the theater when it came out and I wasn't expecting much but I was very pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the movie, the story and the acting. I actually shed a few tears towards the end and that's not something I do often without good reason.