Chapter 9: Into the Abyss - Part 1

     Back in the town of Gloucester, it is finally acknowledged that there is something wrong with the Andrea Gail because its crew is not responding to the calls from the Coast Guard. Bobby Shatford’s girlfriend, Chrstina Cotter, is dismayed by this news and is hoping that the ship did not sink. The author then tells the rescue story of a Japanese sailor named Mikado Tomizawa. The District One Command Center in Boston receives a distress call from Mikado and the Coast Guard deploys a C-130 tanker plane to help save him. Also, the Air National Guard has to dispatch an H-60 helicopter because it can be refueled in midflight. Refueling in midflight is necessary because the rescue is far off the coast and a helicopter cannot hold enough fuel to make it there on one tank. The two aircrafts fly out to Mikado and decide that they cannot save him because the seas are too violent, but they leave two life rafts in case the ship he is on goes under. On their way back to base, the visibility of the sky is terrible and the H-60 cannot refuel properly because it cannot see the C-130 clearly. Without getting fuel from the C-130 tanker plane, the H-60 is on the verge of running out of fuel and the crew has to ditch the helicopter. Before ditching the helicopter, Ruvola, the pilot of the helicopter, calls into a nearby tanker ship named the Tamaroa and tells the captain to come rescue the helicopter’s crew.

     This half of the chapter shows that the community back in Gloucester finally receives news of the misfortunes of the Andrea Gail. The rumors that the Andrea Gail has sunk or that it has just lost its VHF are some possible endings to the novel and might even be a form of foreshadowing. Also, the fact that the rescue crew is willing to go so far out into the violent seas just for one human being shows the priority that human life has over everything else. The rescue crew knows that the mission will be a very dangerous one, but they are putting their primary need for safety in jeopardy in order to save the life of another individual. Lastly, their need for safety is being under satisfied because of their loyalty to the group of the Air National Guard and to the idea that anything that has the potential to save human life must be done.