Linda Greenlaw is captain of the Hannah Boden, a one-hundred-foot-long swordfishing boat. She describes herself as a woman, a fisherman, "a thirty-seven-year-old tomboy" who, after a wonderful childhood, "took seriously the assertions of my parents that I could do whatever I liked with my life, become anything I wanted!" Being a professional fisherman is not what they had in mind, but her success in her chosen profession is legendary. Greenlaw says she has never experienced a problem because of her sex and is surprised others would wonder about gender as a potential issue.

She speculates that perhaps she has been "too busy working to worry about what others might think." Fishing is a childhood love, reinforced by her first experience with professional fishing during her college years.

At first she was assigned cooking chores, which she hated. When the deck was a hand short, she got the opportunity...