Perils At Sea: Junger Helps Raise Money To Benefit Jada Samitt Fund

CHATHAM – When the fishing vessel Lily Jean went down as it headed for its home port of Gloucester Jan. 30, the seven people on board had little chance of survival. The air temperature was 17 degrees, the water 39 degrees. Among those lost was 22-year-old Jada Samitt, a fisheries observer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

 It’s a scenario that was only too familiar to author Sebastian Junger. His 1997 book “The Perfect Storm” chronicled the story of the Andrea Gail, another Gloucester fishing boat that was lost at sea in 1991 during what came to be known as “the Perfect Storm.”

 Such losses are difficult to grapple with, Junger said at the Chatham Orpheum Theater last Thursday during “The Boundless Tide of Legacy: Life Beyond the Horizon,” a fundraiser for a University of Vermont scholarship established in Jada Samitt’s honor. After his book was published, he had dreams that he had caused the Andrae Gail to sink.

 “We try to figure out how to make it our fault,” Junger said. “But that’s a lie. That is not why people pass away, why they die in tragic ways…I felt very, very guilty, finding out about these men and writing about their deaths.”

 Commercial fishing is among the most dangerous jobs in the country, and yet Jada became a fisheries observer after graduating from the University of Vermont. 

 “What an act of nerve,” Junger said. “What an act of trust.”

 Junger did not know Jada, but seeing her photograph with her in her fishing gear, he said he was struck by the spirit he could see in her eyes.

 “She was getting absolutely everything out of life,” he said. “I wished I knew her.”

 Julie Guild-Samitt, Jada’s mother, said her daughter told her that when she was on a fishing trip, she slept better than she ever did. 

 The benefit was organized by Kim Roderiques, who connected with Guild-Samitt during a showing of her documentary about the local commercial fishing industry, “The Hand That Holds The Line.” Roderiques said she decided to organize a benefit for the Jada Fund at UVM, and cold-called Junger to ask him to speak at the event. He agreed immediately.

 The fund supports students at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, where Jada graduated with a degree in natural resources in May 2025. The fund will help students get out into the community and build relationships, said Dr. Peter Newman, dean of the Rubenstein School. 

 “It’s not just the science,” he said of the school’s mission, “it’s building relationships. Jada did this naturally.”

 “She knew how to connect with people, which is a neat skill set for environmental leaders,” he said.

 The benefit also included a monologue that playwright Elizabeth Coplan created out of interviews with Jada’s brother John, performed by Orleans actor Izaak Van Der Wende. The sold-out evening concluded with an original song inspired by Jada by Isabeau Miller, chair of songwriting at the Berklee School of Music.