The F/V Andrea Gail was a commercial fishing vessel which was lost at sea during The Perfect Storm of 1991.

The Andrea Gail was a 72' (22 m) long "longliner" commercial sword fishing boat constructed by Eastern Marina Inc., of Panama City, Florida in 1978.

The boat was based in Marblehead, Massachusetts but typically went out from Gloucester, Massachusetts where it would offload its catch.

The vessel began its final voyage departing from Gloucester on September 20, 1991 bound for the Grand Banks. After poor results fishing in the Grand Banks, Captain Billy Tyne apparently decided to try fishing near the Flemish Cap.

The ship began its return voyage on October 26, 1991. The last reported transmission from the Andrea Gail was at about 6:00 PM on the evening of October 28, 1991. Billy Tyne's reported her coordinates as 44° north, 56.4° west, or about 180 miles (290 km) northeast of Sable Island. He also gave a weather report indicating 30 foot (9 m) seas and wind gusts up to 80 knots (148 km/h). His final words were, "She's comin' on boys, and she's comin' on strong!"

No further messages were heard from the vessel and no other ships reported hearing a distress call. On October 30, 1991, the vessel was reported overdue. An extensive air and sea search was launched by the U.S. Coast Guard and Canadian Coast Guard forces. The search would eventually cover over 116,000 square miles (300,000 km²).

On November 8, 1991, the boat's Emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) was discovered washed up on the shore of Sable Island. The EPIRB was designed to automatically send out a distress signal upon contact with sea water, but the Coast Guard personnel who found the beacon indicated that it had not been properly armed rendering it useless. That same day, authorities called off the search for the missing vessel.

All six crewmembers, Captain Billy Tyne, Robert "Bobby" Shatford, Dale "Murph" Murphey, David "Sully" Sullivan, Michael "Bugsy" Moran and Alfred Pierre were presumed lost. The ship and crew have never been found. A few fuel drums, a fuel tank, the EPIRB, an empty life raft, and some other flotsam are the only wreckage that has ever been found.

The story of the Andrea Gail and her crew was documented in Sebastian Junger's 1997 book "The Perfect Storm" and the 2000 movie of the same name distributed by Warner Brothers. The Andrea Gail's sister ship, the Lady Grace was used during the filming of the movie.

Credit: en.wikipedia.org