October 1991, the Andrea Gail, a seventy-two foot long fishing boat, with a 365 horsepower turbo-charged diesel engine, leaves a New England port headed for the Atlantic Ocean. It is going on what was supposed to be another routine fishing trip. But it was to be her last voyage.

Why? Because she ran into the most powerful and dangerous force on earth—a full-blown hurricane on the open seas. An ocean hurricane is so powerful that the combined nuclear arsenals of the United States and the former Soviet Union, do not contain enough energy to keep that hurricane going for one day. One average hurricane encompasses a million cubic miles of atmosphere, and could provide all of the electrical power needed by the United States for up to four years.

Winds can be so high that when they hit the coa…