[Public-List] "The Perfect Storm"

[Gordon Laco]

Hello Gang…

I’m home from the office and re-watching ‘The Perfect Storm’ while having lunch… two things about that film that bugged me when I first saw it are still bugging me.

1. The Flemish Cap.

A huge plot line in the movie, and according to the book (which I’ve read) in the real story, is the issue of being so far from Gloucester, out on the Flemish Cap… and the loss of their ice making machine meaning they had to try to rush back before they lost their bumper haul of fish.  Then when they know the storm is coming… their distance out is depicted as an issue of great peril.

Well, I have to wonder why they never seem to have even considered putting in to St John’s Newfoundland.  They’d have been there in a day or so at 10 knots… it’s actually on the way home for them, particularly because they were already on their way back when the issues developed.  They would have found more services there than at home in Gloucester… and wouldn’t have had to face the storm at all.  Why didn’t they go there?  They could have, easily. 

2. The Yacht Story.

The yacht disaster component of this film, and the book as well, is dramatically misrepresented.  The owner/skipper wasn’t a fool, as shown and written… the problem was the two inexperienced crew members he had aboard who panicked and sent an unauthorized mayday call to the USCG.  And because the USCG was called out, and forced the abandonment of the fully seaworthy yacht, the men from the helicopter died after it fell into the sea after running out of fuel.  Brave men, but basically murdered by the circumstance created by the needless mayday that they were responding to.   The yacht was later recovered in fine condition.  The owner was furious with the USCG for forcing him to abandon it, thereby exposing the rescuers, himself and his crew to needless peril.  He’s written his own book, and has a website on the story.

Anyone else had these thoughts?

Gordon Laco
www.gordonlaco.com
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