Junger mentions in the foreword that he wanted to write a fictional account of the last moments of the six crew members aboard the Andrea Gail and the events leading up to it. He uses secondary sources because very few primary sources exist, as the crew of the Andrea Gail are not alive. The purpose of using the secondary source information is to effectively make the last moments of the Andrea Gail crew seem more real to the reader who is reading it. Second source information is reliant on someone else’s information or account on something. The sources of information that he has included are weather charts, radio contact/conversation, interviews, research, historical precedents, factual information, statistics, shipping logs, anecdotes and survival stories.

Weather charts are a secondary source used by Junger to effectively show the highs and lows of pressure in the atmosphere. This allows the reader to follow on with the weather pattern progress throughout the text. On page 123 and 132 Junger has used weather charts to note the movement of Hurricane Grace, how strong the winds are and how much sea it is pulling. By using weather charts it makes the last moments of the Andrea Gail seem more real as it explain how powerful the winds are so the reader can imagine what it was like and compare what the Andrea Gail may have had to deal with.

Junger also uses radio contact/conversation as a secondary source in this text. It is used for various reasons such as distress calls or check up’s between ships. For example on page 119 there is a radio conversation between Linda Greenlaw and Billy Tyne. They check up on each other, talk about the storm and decide to talk later about supplies. Junger has effectively used radio contact/conversation as communication between boats and also so the reader can understand the events that lead the last days of the Andrea Gail. This makes the last moments of the crew members on the Andrea Gail seem real as it portrays how carefree they were and their normal routine on board since when Billy got off the phone to Linda he appointed Murphy with his position and he had dinner downstairs. On page 134 it shows the last communication Billy Tyne had, which was with Tommy Barrie. Tommy wanted to know how much fishing gear he should bring and what the conditions were. At that point Billy Tyne was 130 miles east of Sable Island, the wind was ‘blowing between fifty to eighty and the seas are thirty feet’. Once again Junger has effectively used this radio contact/conversation for communication between boats and as understanding of events leading up to the last days of the Andrea Gail. This portrays the Andrea Gail’s last moments, as it was their last communication they had and it is also evident that weather conditions were starting to get bad.

Junger relies heavily on interviews as a main secondary source. He has used interviews from the crewmembers that did not go aboard the Andrea Gail, other fishermen, friends and family of Andrea Gail’s crew, coast guards and people who were in similar situations that he discusses. Interviews are very helpful because it gives accounts and point of views of actual event, ideas and particular people from individuals who know a lot about a certain things or certain people. Junger uses interviews from friends and family of the Andrea Gail’s crewmembers to reveal the crewmembers personalities and the lives they had in Gloucester. On page 15, Charlie Reed who is the former captain of the Andrea Gail explains how the fishermen spend their last night on land, “most of them are single kids with no better thing to do than spend a lot of dough”. This reveals the relationship between the fishermen and money. The fishermen receive exceeded amount of money on the sword ship and when they get back on land they spend it all at once, usually drinking alcohol, so that when they go back, they end up still being poor. Charlie Reeds also explains the type of routines and positions they had on board, which reveals what life was like for them on aboard the ship. For example, they have to check if there was anything that has to be repaired and ‘then the engine has to be overhauled…there’s the endless task of maintaining the deck gear…blocks have to be greased, ropes have to be spliced [and] chains and cables have to be replaced…’ (page 15). On page 9, Christina Cotter recalls her first moments at the Crow’s Nest and the first time she met Bobby Shatford. On page 12-13, Christina Cotter explains a day when she had not seen Bobby Shatford for at least thirty days and she sees the Andrea Gail boarding in. She says ‘I flew across the street and the door opens and it was Bobby … he picked me up in the air and I had my legs wrapped around his waist and we must’ve been there twenty minutes like that…’(page 13). This reveals how shy Bobby and Christina were at the bar the night they saw each other and how much they like drinking alcohol. It also reveals the love Christina and Bobby had for each other. This effectively gives the reader some insight into their lives before Bobby headed on to the Andrea Gail for the last time. This does not really create the last moments of the Andrea Gail but it gives the reader an understanding of what the crew’s lives were like and who their loved ones were. Junger also uses interviews from people who have been in similar situations that he discusses to compare it to the Andrea Gail’s experiences. For example, on page 97, Junger writes about a man from Gloucester called Chris and his experience when a wave took over his boat, Junger also explains what may have happened to the boat at that moment such as ‘a tool could have gotten loose and knock out the machinery’ (page 98) or ‘the wheelhouse window could have exploded’ (page 98). The effect this has is an understanding of the dangers and power the sea has, and also the impacts it could have on the ship. By using this kind of information Junger can speculate what may have happened on board the Andrea Gail, therefore creating its last moments.

Junger has also used research on historical information, weather and scientific and technical information as secondary sources. On page 144-145 Junger explains what could happen to the Andrea Gail when it loses her antennas. If the Andrea Gail lost her antennas ‘it would mean they’d lost their GPS, radio, weather fax and loran’ (page 145), it could also mean the lost of their radar, lights, and floodlights if a wave had ruined the antenna. This would mean that Billy Tyne would not be able to communicate. This gives the reader an understanding of what is on the boat and the functions of the antenna and some of its consequences if they lose it. This makes the last moments of the Andrea Gail crew seem more real as it obvious that without the antenna they are clearly alone and battling the harsh sea by themselves.

Junger uses historical precedents as secondary sources to give the readers background information or uses it as examples of ideas that he had developed. On pages 25-30 he gives the reader background information on the history of fishing in Gloucester to give the reader an idea of how the technology has changed and what it was like throughout the years. Another example is on page 129 when Junger talks about how powerful hurricanes are and gives examples of events in history such as ‘the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 [when] winds surpassed 200 miles an hour and people caught outside were sandblasted to death’ and also ‘in 1970, a hurricane drowned half a million people in what is now Bangladesh’. The effect of this is the acknowledgement of how powerful a hurricane really is. This does not necessarily create the last moments of the Andrea Gail but we know that we cannot underestimate a hurricane’s power.

Junger uses factual information and statistics as secondary sources to effectively give the reader knowledge about people, events or particular things. For example ‘the crew is still suppose to show up at the dock every morning for work’ (page 15). Another example is ‘Bugsy, Murphy and Billy have spent the most time at sea’ (page 138). Another example is on page 4, ‘on the corner of Haskell Street is an elegant brick house built by the famous Boston architect, Charles Bulfinch’ (page 4). Examples of statistics is on page 14 when he writes about how much each crew member gets paid according to their positions, these were ‘…$20,000 to Captain Billy Tyne, $6,453 to Pierre and Murphy, $5,495 to Moran, and $4,537 each to Statford and Kosco’. Also on page 30 he says ‘there were 1,800 hooks to a dory, ten dories to a schooner, and several hundred ships in the fleet’. Though factual and statistical information this does not create the last moments of the Andrea Gail, it does effectively add to the reader’s knowledge and gives understanding about people, events and things.

Junger includes shipping logs as a secondary source of information for the reader to follow a ships progress with the weather conditions. For example on page 145, Junger uses a shipping log of the Contship Holland that got hit by the hurricane and suffered a lot of damage. This does not necessary make the last moments of the Andrea Gail seem more real but the reader can compare Contship Holland’s experience as being less severe than the Andrea Gail’s experience because the Contship Holland was stronger and twice the size of the Andrea Gail and suffered an exceeded amount of damage, so the reader can assume the Andrea Gail’s experience would have been worst.

Junger has also used anecdotes as a secondary source by using interviews of certain people about particular events that are relevant to the events leading up to the last moments of the Andrea Gail. For example on page 273, Debra who is Murph’s ex-wife explains that she had a dream about Murph apologising that he would not be able to make it for her birthday and when she wakes up the next morning she hears about the news that the Andrea Gail has not been heard from for a few days. She tells Murph’s parents and they are shocked. She also explains how Murph’s absences has affected their son Dale Jnr as he has a hard time acknowledging the fact that his father is gone as at one time he wakes up from a dream screaming that he saw his father and that he told him what had happened on the ship the night it went down. He also has days when he feels very depressed and thinks of his father. This is relevant as it gives the reader the aftershock and the affect the friends and family of the Andrea Gail crew felt when they had to accept that they were gone. The last moments of the Andrea Gail are not really portrayed but they represent the impact of their deaths on the family and friends of the Andrea Gail’s crew. Though this anecdote may give hints of what happened to them for example in Dale Jnr’s dream we do not know for sure what exactly happened to them that night. Junger also uses survival stories as a type of anecdote in the text of those who were in similar situations and survived. This gives the reader an understanding of what it would be like in certain circumstance. For example, Junger uses a drowning account on pages 182-184. This accounts talks about a doctor called James Lowson who survived when a typhoon hit their steamship. James Lowson explains about his thoughts and feelings as he was nearly close to drowning and being unconscious. He believes that larynogospasm is what ‘prevented water from entering his lungs when he was unconscious’ (page 184). This effectively gives the reader is an idea of what it may be like to drown and what you may think or how you may react. This account can be compared to the last moments of the Andrea Gail because it is presumed the ship sunk and that they drowned because they are not present in the living world anymore.

Junger’s last secondary source of information is references from literary books such as Moby Dick and the Bible. For example, on page 68 he describes the dawn at sea by using the book of Genesis: ‘the earth was without form and darkness was upon the face of the deep’. This effectively gives the reader an image of what it would be like for a fisherman with the sea surrounding him as he watches the sunrise. This would create the last moments of the crew on the Andrea Gail as fishermen work from the early hours of the morning to late at night, so they would have the opportunity to see the dawn.

In conclusion Junger’s use of secondary sources have helped enhanced the closest account of what may happened to the Andrea Gail when it was hit by the three weather systems. By including the secondary sources, Junger has effectively made the last moments seem more real