by John S.
Mickman
In Part II of 'The Pacific Pearl', Dick the
skipper, Tony, and me were traveling toward the fishing grounds with high hopes
of filling our hold with over 50,000 pounds of shrimp!
We 'ran'
through the night, as Tony and Dick took turns 'watching the wheel'. Of course
as an inexperienced crewman, I wasn't able to take a turn at the wheel and
slept through the trip until we reached the outside of the 3 Sisters Islands,
Northeast of Kodiak Island. We arrived at about 2:00 AM in the dark and I made
breakfast. By 4:00, we were lined up on the spot for our first 'tow'.
Although there
was only a slight Northwesterly breeze, the Pacific Pearl was rolling from side
to side and pitching to and fro. Unfortunately, I had gotten pretty queasy in
the stuffy galley while cooking and eating, with sea-sickness. By the time I
went out on deck I was in poor shape; it was an awful feeling - and now I knew
I needed to work, and work hard!
Tony explained
the process of operating the huge winches (as I leaned against them for
support!), one for each side of the large shrimp net. Dick got the boat up to
the right speed and announced over the intercom to run the cables out to put
the net down to the ocean floor. With Tony's guidance, the process went
smoothly; we were fishing!
After about two
hours, Dick told us it was time to lift the net up and see what we caught. This
went well too, and although I was still nauseous from sea sickness - I was
working. When we got the net to the surface, the 'caught end' of the net was
dragging straight down into the water, loaded with shrimp. It took us 3 - 4
'splits' to get the 8,000 pounds of shrimp onboard and onto the deck. This
done, we lowered the net back into the water for the second ‘tow’ of the day and
began washing the mud out of the shrimp and throwing the crushed, unwanted fish
that were mixed in with the shrimp, overboard.
That done, Tony
opened one of the small, round 'manhole cover' hatches, and we lowered
ourselves into the dark, dank hold. "OK Hip Boot, you're going to be the
Ice Man. This is a very important job, and if it isn't done right our whole
load could rot", he explained. "What you need to do is to take this
maddox and chop this ice that has frozen into one large ice cube, into flakes
again. Then you'll use the snow shovel to mix it into the shrimp as they come
through the aft manhole hatches. I'll be shoveling the shrimp down through the
aft manholes. If I'm going too fast, tell me to wait."
"OK",
I said. "Got it. I'll yell up when I'm ready". I hadn't told Tony I
was sea sick, but I'm pretty sure he knew; I'm sure I looked green. Down in the
hold, I became even more nauseous. After chopping up a bunch of ice, I yelled
up to Tony that I was ready. Tony started shoveling shrimp through the manholes
as I chopped and shoveled ice onto the shrimp as they poured through the
portside, aft manhole.
Tony's timing
was pretty good as I worked hard to keep up. However, my sea sickness was
getting the best of me. Finally I yelled up, "Tony, stop for a
minute!" just before I vomited all over the fresh, clean ice and rosy pink
shrimp. I had to brace myself as the
boat rolled from side to side. I was dizzy, sick, weak and sweating profusely;
I had never felt worse in my life.
"Are you
OK down there Hip Boot? Do you need any help?", Tony yelled down through
the hatch.
'Do I need help? I can hardly stand up!', I thought to myself. But, I couldn't give
up. "No, I've got 'er Tony, just give me a minute more down here. I'll let
you know when I'm ready." I was barely able to yell this up to Tony when I
threw-up again. 'Gawd, this is awful',
but I stood up, chopped through the now messy ice, and started dispersing it on
the nice, clean, pink shrimp. "OK Tony, I'm ready. Let 'em fly", I
yelled up with all my effort.
It took the
better part of an hour to get all the shrimp into the hold and iced - one of
the worse hours of my life. When I emerged into the bright sunshine through the
small round manhole, I was exhausted. Tony placed the hatch-cover back on and
secured it as I sat down and rested. Back on deck, everything seemed a lot
better, and the fresh, salty air kind of revived me.
By the time we
lifted the net up after our second tow, my sea sickness had gone away
completely and I felt great and was starting to have fun. We fished all morning
and into the afternoon, putting about 5 'tows' on deck and into the hold. We
were really doing well and Dick was pleased. He invited me up into the
Wheelhouse and explained the radar, depth finder, charts, etc. This was really
interesting stuff.
Late in the
afternoon, disaster struck; the thick cable which held the port side of the net,
snapped apart as we were bringing the net to the surface. It took over an hour to
finally get the net up and the shrimp on deck. This was hard, dangerous work,
as all of us were worried about the strength of the starboard side cable; if
that one snapped, we would lose the net and the broken cable could snap back
and kill one of as we worked with it off of the starboard side, stern davit of
the Pacific Pearl.
After much
effort, we finally got the net on board, the shrimp in the hold and iced down.
Unfortunately, neither Tony nor Dick knew how to splice cable, and of course I
was completely clueless. "Can't we use some big cable clamps Dick?",
I offered.
"No
way", he said. "We're out of business. We have to go back to Kodiak, unload,
and get this cable fixed. This trip is over". We were all disappointed. Me,
because my learning experience was being cut short, and Dick and Tony because
we didn't have a full load yet.
But, we did have close to a full load and
besides the broken cable, the rest of the systems aboard the Pacific Pearl had worked
perfectly. "Next trip we're going to knock 'em dead John", Tony said
as we steamed back to Kodiak. "We must have about 40,000 pounds of shrimp.
That's a pretty good payday for just one day of fishing!" He explained
that since I was working for free, he and Dick would split my share. That meant
he would make about 20% of $2,000 - 400 bucks! Tony continued. "The good
news for you is that now you can say you have experience when you're looking
for a job, which is the difference between night and day. You're sure to get a
job on a boat now."
I knew he was
right, and I was extremely happy that Tony and gotten me on the Pacific Pearl.
Although I didn't have very much experience, I could honestly say to the
skipper of any shrimp boat in the fleet, "Oh yeah, I have experience. I've
fished with Dick on the Pacific Pearl!" - I could just image myself confidently
announcing to anyone that asked. This was the big break I had needed.
We arrived back
in Kodiak late that night and I slept on the boat. The next morning, Tony
invited me up to Sollies Bar & Grill for breakfast and he treated me.
"You did good Hip Boot", he said. I know a lot of guys, and I'll help
you find a boat whenever we're back in town. I think Dick might help too",
he said.
I enjoyed the
free breakfast immensely. I was a fisherman!
At the end of that season, Dick sold the
Pacific Pearl and Tony and Chris went with their dad, Captain Harold Jones to
Mobile, Alabama where Harold had contracted a shipyard to build a brand new
fishing boat - The Marcy J.
The very next season, the Pacific Pearl
sunk in Shelikof Straights and 2 men were lost at sea; two more survived.
Fleetingly I realized that if I had been aboard, I might have been one of the
lost fishermen. But, I was young and strong; I'd never get hurt, I'd never
die...
John Mickman
(Hip Boot)
Deckhand
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