Linda Greenlaw

Linda Greenlaw (born December 22, 1960) is an American author of books with maritime themes and the only female swordfishing boat captain on the East Coast of the United States. She was featured in the 1997 book The Perfect Storm and the film The Perfect Storm.

Greenlaw wrote three best-selling books about life as a commercial fisher: The Hungry Ocean in 1999, The Lobster Chronicles in 2002 and All Fishermen Are Liars in 2002.

Her books have climbed as high as No. 2 on The New York Times Best Seller list, with The Hungry Ocean remaining on the list for three months.

Greenlaw lives on Isle au Haut, Maine, and was the first female sword-fishing boat captain on the American East Coast.

Early life Greenlaw was born in Connecticut, the daughter of Jim and Martha Greenlaw. Her father was an information systems manager for Bath Iron Works. She was raised in Topsham, Maine, and her family spent their summers in Isle au Haut, a village of 71 people off the coast of Maine. Greenlaw attended Colby College, where she majored in both English and government. To help pay her way through college, Linda worked as a cook and deckhand aboard the sword-fishing boat Walter Leeman during her summers. She continued working on the boat during free time and vacations and, after her graduation in 1983, continued working for the boat's owner, Alden Leeman, who installed Greenlaw as a swordfish captain in 1986 when he acquired a second vessel.

Greenlaw wrote in The Hungry Ocean: "Being a woman hasn't been a big deal. I never anticipated problems stemming from being female, and never encountered any. I have been surprised, even embarrassed, by the number of people who are genuinely amazed that a woman might be capable of running a fishing boat."

Writer

Greenlaw's first book, The Hungry Ocean (1999), described a one-month swordfishing voyage, entailing, "among other things, treacherous weather, uncooperative fish, wildly entertaining shipmates, and the exhausting, mind-bending pressure of ten consecutive 21-hour days."

Greenlaw also was on Discovery's Swords Life on the Line that spanned for three seasons where she Captained the Seahawk, Bjorn II, and the Hannah Boden.

Awards Greenlaw was the winner of the American Library Association's Alex Award in 2000, United States Maritime Literature Award in 2003, and the New England Book Award for nonfiction in 2004.