Fish Processor Sinks; Five Crew Lost

[iambecomelife]

http://alaskareport.com/news31/z51127_boat_ranger_alaska.htm


http://alaskareport.com/images31/alaska_fishing_boat.jpg

Picture courtesy of alaskareport.com


The "Alaska Ranger" was reported sunk off Dutch Harbor, with five crewmembers dead or missing.

Several days old, but I didn't see a post about it.

I read in another report that the captain and one of his officers, in accordance with tradition, refused to leave the ship until everyone else had escaped. Unfortunately they were not rescued.

[FIREWALL]

Very sad. It's beautiful but also can be very treachorous up there.

[sonar732]

One of my favorite shows on Discovery is Deadliest Catch. It's amazing how dangerous it is.

[CCIP]

The captain and the chief went down with their ship it seems. They must've been fighting hard to save her :(

[SUBMAN1]

Happens. I did a couple tours up there in my younger years. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone though since you come close to either death or getting maimed about once a week up there. We had a name for the stare and lack of emotion one gets (Though anger always still remains) from lack of sleep - we called it the Aluetian stare, named after the survivors of the Aluetian Enterprise. They all had the same stare. These men also will have the same stare for many moons too. No fun.

-S

[iambecomelife]

Happens. I did a couple tours up there in my younger years. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone though since you come close to either death or getting maimed about once a week up there. We had a name for the stare and lack of emotion one gets (Though anger always still remains) from lack of sleep - we called it the Aluetian stare, named after the survivors of the Aluetian Enterprise. They all had the same stare. These men also will have the same stare for many moons too. No fun.

-S

That's exactly what I've read - this one author described how the entire time people were either apathetic or at each other's throats.

It's strange how the fish processors seem to keep getting it, despite being so large. There's this latest vessel, the "Enterprise", and I think there was a third one that burned out several years ago (although most of the crew escaped). Reader's Digest ran a story on it, but I just can't remember the boat's name.

[SUBMAN1]

Well, it is not pleasant I can tell you. No happyness, no sadness, no nothing. What is even worse is, you have no cares either - nothing matters. Family, friends, nothing. You feel like a zombie, and you know whats wrong with you, but there is nothing you can do about it. You just stare off into space when not working.

It takes about 1.5 to 2 months to firmly set in, but you are not going to escape it. No fun. 72 hours on an offload once without sleeping before getting 6 hours rest and then back on the job. That was the worst. In that 6 hours, you have to brush your teeth, eat twice, and if you feel up to it, take a shower.

Hard work, but I made about 2x to 3x I could have made by working a normal job for the same amount of time. I wish I had the luxury of a larger boat too (150' or greater), but nope - only a small boat and I was a cork in the middle of the bearing sea. Did I forget to mention that we had record bad weather those years up there? Nice. Puked my guts out.

-S