How do you non-fiction where the protagonists died at sea without a trace? With very careful analogies and circumventing interviews. The October 1991 Atlantic storm was a meteorological freak that threatened ships across the North Atlantic. The 72' steel swordfishing boat Andrea Gail was lost at sea with all hands, other ships capsized, a National Guard helicopter went down with one fatality.

Junger reconstructs the gritty lives and deaths of the crew of the Andrea Gail. He's at his best with the history and present reality of the North Atlantic fisheries, back breaking industrial labor, and big paydays that never seem to be quite enough to lift this fishermen and their towns out of poverty (and that's pre collapse of the fisheries). Storms build fast and deadly, and well, a ship can only last so long before the ways break it down, swamping the water-tight compartments that give it buoyancy and sending it to the bottom. Junger's book cemented his reputation, and is one of the canons of modern non-fiction literature.