Previous
Christina (Chris) Cotter
Murph is a crew member on the Andrea Gail. He is 30 years old and from Bradenton Beach, Florida. His ex-wife is Debra, and he dotes on his three-year-old son, Dale. Buying his son toys is one of the last things he does before setting sail on the Andrea Gail’s last voyage. He disappears along with the rest of the crew during the storm.
Dale Murphy (Murph) Quotes in The Perfect Storm
The The Perfect Storm quotes below are all either spoken by Dale Murphy (Murph) or refer to Dale Murphy (Murph). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Barrel of the Gun Quotes
With all this catastrophe in his life Murph had two choices—decide either that he was blessed or that his death was only a matter of time. He decided it was only a matter of time. When he met his wife, Debra, he told her flat-out he wasn’t going to live past thirty; she married him anyway. […] And a few weeks before signing onto the Andrea Gail, Murph had stopped by his parents' house in Bradenton for a somewhat unsettling goodbye. His mother reminded him that he needed to keep up on his life insurance policy—which included burial coverage—and he just shrugged. Mom, I wish you'd quit worryin' about burying me, he said. I’m going to die at sea.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Andrea Gail crewman Murph, just in his 30s, has led a dangerous life so far—on previous fishing trips, he got attacked by a shark, got hooked and almost dragged to his death, and was nearly crushed to death by an errant submarine. After all this, Murph assumed that, given his chosen line of work, he wasn’t destined to live very long. His assumption turns out to be correct, and his rather prophetic comments to his mother are realized as well. This is an example of a melancholy undercurrent in The Perfect Storm—fishing sometimes attracts men who don’t have much to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mol
Graveyard of the Atlantic Quotes
The Andrea Gail crew, all experienced fishermen, are probably trying to shrug it off as just another storm—they’ve been through this before, they'll go through it again, and at least they're not puking. Billy's undoubtedly working too hard at the helm to give drowning much thought. Ernie Hazard claims it was the last thing on his mind. "There was no conversation, just real business-like," he says of going down off Georges Bank. "You know, 'Let’s just get this thing done.'” […]
Be that as it may, certain realities still must come crashing in. At some point Tyne, Shatford, Sullivan, Moran, Murphy, and Pierre must realize there's no way off this boat.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Ernie Hazard, a fisherman on another of Bob Brown’s boats, the Fair Wind, nearly died after his boat sank in the dangerous waters off Cape Cod known as Georges Bank. He ultimately survived by catching a life raft and drifting around the North Atlantic for days. Though it’s the perspective of just one man, Hazard’s experience gives another angle on what the men aboard the Andrea Gail might have gone through in their final hours. Fishermen would be used to working together to overcome problems encountered at sea, and most of the fishermen aboard the Andrea Gail would have faced Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Comm
The Zero-Moment Point Quotes
The body could be likened to a crew that resorts to increasingly desperate measures to keep their vessel afloat. Eventually the last wire has shorted out, the last bit of decking has settled under the water. Tyne, Pierre, Sullivan, Moran, Murphy, and Shatford are dead.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Though nobody knows the exact circumstances of the Andrea Gail’s sinking, Junger takes time to describe the process of drowning in order to give a sense of the men’s final moments. In the vast majority of drowning cases, a person’s lungs become filled with water, their bloodstream can no longer get oxygen, and their heartbeat becomes erratic until it ceases altogether. Even after this point, though, the brain remains alive, the central nervous system fighting to circulate messages. In an attempt to preserve oxygen and prolong the person’s life, the brain slows down the body’s metabolic processes. Depending on the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim n
Get the entire The Perfect Storm LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Dale Murphy (Murph) Character Timeline in The Perfect Storm
The timeline below shows where the character Dale Murphy (Murph) appears in The Perfect Storm. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Gloucester, Mass., 1991
...getting sunglasses to help with their hangovers. Later, they pick up a third crewmember, Dale Murphy, or “Murph.” The four go shopping for last-minute trip supplies and a cartful of toys...
(full context)
...and drove off. Sully, or David Sullivan, is called in to replace him. Sully and Murph are sent to the Cape Ann Market to buy $4,000 worth of groceries to supply...
(full context)
The Barrel of the Gun
...with giant waves simply dropping out from under the boat. Of the Andrea Gail crew, Murph had likely had the closest brushes with death in the past: getting bitten by a...
(full context)
The Dreams of the Dead
...Nest and people’s homes. The men just disappeared—saying goodbye to them takes a special effort. Murph’s three-year-old son, Dale, Jr., dreams of his father months later and can’t grasp his mother’s...
(full context)
