Linda Greenlaw Returns to the Sea: Seaworthy and a Controversial Voyage

In the autumn of 2008, when Linda Greenlaw received an invitation to captain a swordfishing vessel from Cape Cod to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, she treated it as a decisive, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The passage, which began on September 11 and ended on November 5, marked Greenlaw’s return to swordboat captaining after a ten-year break and became the subject of her memoir Seaworthy: A Swordboat Captain Returns to the Sea (Viking, 2010).

Known to many as America’s only female swordfish captain, Greenlaw spoke with Soundings about the voyage aboard the 67-foot steel longline vessel Seahawk, and about the incidents that followed, including her arrest and short jail stint in Canada. Greenlaw first rose to wider public recognition through Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm and the 2000 film based on that book. Since then she has authored several books, appeared on television, and continued to work in commercial fisheries.

Petite and tanned, Greenlaw carries an easy smile and the calm demeanor of someone who spends long stretches at sea. “Friends and pretty much anyone who has met me or heard me speak say they read the book in my voice,” she said. “I guess I write the same way I talk.” For Greenlaw, sailing back to the Grand Banks was both an emotional and practical choice: a chance to reclaim an identity she had wrapped around being a sword-boat captain, and an opportunity to earn money doing what she does best.

Greenlaw took the job while lobstering near her home on Isle au Haut, Maine. “Going back to swordfishing was a combination of exciting and terrifying,” she recalled. The fear was not so much about weather; it was about answering the question of who she was if she did not return to the work she had long considered central to her life. After a decade away, the chance to captain Seahawk felt like a necessary test of that identity.

The voyage was tested early and often by mechanical failures. Less than 48 hours after departing, the main engine failed and the ship required towing into Nova Scotia for repairs. “Then there was the hydraulic steering,” Greenlaw said—“so I couldn’t steer the ship, which was a big problem.” Electrical troubles, watermaker failures and a steady stream of smaller breakdowns kept the crew busy and challenged Greenlaw’s leadership as captain. Her most difficult responsibility was keeping four crewmembers focused and in good spirits while the boat’s systems faltered.

Complications continued when the Seahawk crossed into Canadian waters. Greenlaw uses pelagic longlines—a surface set of baited hooks attached to a longline with short snoods and tracked by radio beacon so the lines can be hauled in later. She believes that during the night an unknown vessel crossed and dragged one of her longlines into Canadian waters. Unaware that the line had been dragged across the boundary, the Seahawk followed the line the next morning and entered Canadian jurisdiction.

On September 23, 2008, Greenlaw was arrested and charged with illegal entry and illegal fishing in Canadian waters; her crew was not detained. “The judge didn’t question whether it was unintentional,” she said. “I was four miles on the other side of the line. No one had ever been acquitted for those charges in Canada, and I was not to be the first.” The episode left her feeling humbled and embarrassed. “I wasn’t mad, I was sad,” Greenlaw said, reflecting on the emotional toll of the arrest and the public scrutiny that followed.

Writing about the voyage and the legal fallout presented its own challenges. Greenlaw said the hardest part was portraying the crew and events honestly without needlessly hurting people’s feelings. She worked to remain faithful to what occurred while offering enough context to give readers a clear sense of life aboard a commercial swordboat. “I would have no credibility at all with my audience if I told them I loved everyone every second of the trip,” she said. “I hope my crew reads the book and is thick-skinned about some things that are said because it’s honest. I also hope by the end of the book they realize I really liked these guys.”

Greenlaw’s earlier association with The Perfect Storm brought broad public attention that she has used to help inform audiences about the realities of commercial fishing—its risks, rewards and routines. At the time of the interview she was scheduled to return to the Grand Banks on August 1, captaining a vessel she had helmed in 1991, and she had plans to write a follow-up to her 2002 book, The Lobster Chronicles. Her writing continues to bridge a public appetite for maritime stories with an authentic practitioner’s perspective.

For more about Linda Greenlaw’s books and work, see her official website at www.lindagreenlawbooks.com.

This article originally appeared in the New England Home Waters section of the August 2010 issue.