The final sections of the book deal with strategies for heavy weather seamanship and emergency procedures.

This book is both an engaging compendium of nautical knowledge and a random accounting of the ways of the sea. It is the product of Peter H. Spectre's lifelong fascination with the sea, a guide to the good, the bad, and the ugly of a way of life that is as old as civilization.

Having survived Borneo, Amazonia, and the Congo, the indefatigable Redmond O’Hanlon sets off on his next adventure: his own perfect storm, in the wild waters off the northern tip of Scotland. Equipped with a fancy Nikon, an excessive supply of socks, and no seamanship whatsoever, O’Hanlon joins the commercial fishing crew of the Norlantean, a deep-sea trawler, to stock a bottomless hull with their catch, even as a hurricane roars around them. Rich in oceanography, marine biology, and uproarious humor, Trawler is Redmond O’Hanlon at his finest.