Scrap The Old Girl?

In 1992, I crewed upon a vessel flagged P/V Bering Star. Icicle Seafoods, out of Seattle owned and operated her. She was a "barge." That is: "Not under her own power" and had to be towed from fishing grounds to fishing grounds. We left The Ballard Locks on January 6th, I think. Towed up through the Inside Passage and into Prince William Sound. We hid from a storm in Yakutat along the way. A very small, depressing little cove with some boats in it. The tow vessel's (M/V Impala) Skipper, a good sailor and Captain, determined that it was was too risky to continue farther. The decision was a good one. We all hung out, doing busy work and in our bunks, reading, lolling around the Movie Room or drinking coffee and swapping lies in the Galley. The Kid, one of my "crew" guys, turning into The Big Yak Monster. We took photo's but, they got lost along the way. Our first Fishery was a test for Pacific Cod, which was a dismal failure. I did get to make a "P-Cod Snowman" with a cigarette hanging out of his mug...

ALL of my photo's from that 6 months were lost in transit in Bellingham, Washington. About 50 rolls of film. I could be sad about that but, it's water under the keel.

It was somewhere around this time that it was also decided that I would, because of my previous experiences, both at sea and on land, and age (I was 38 years old at the time) that I would take over running the Box House. The Box House was where all of the "fish coffins" were made in a rather large hydraulic mandrel press with hot glue and pressure to be stacked by the 1,000's and then stuffed down a vertical chute that fed the Production Line. As Head Maker of Fish Coffins, I acquired the moniker, "The Fish Mortician." Hell, it was collective. We were ALL "Fish Morticians." "We didn't kill 'em, we just put them to bed, frozen."

The Bering Star had a sauna. A fucking sauna on a Processing Barge. Go figure. It came in real handy when your muscles were all sore and you were dirty/smelly. I never had to touch a single dead fish during the 6 months I was aboard that scow. Still, sweating out dust and waxy cardboard fibers was a nice way to spend an hour or so. It was a "wet" sauna. Water poured over hot rocks. Showers, "real showers," were rationed, rather irrationally. The Turd that was my Immediate Superior was responsible, in part, for that. His Majesty was worried about exceeding our alloted use of fresh water, which was, decidedly, finite.

Before we continue what promises to be a long, breezy, possibly two day entry/account of the '92 P/V Bering Star Tour: A photo of what the Port side looked like:

It is important to note that: The M/V Impala is 120' long, powered by two GIANT V-12 Diesel engines and "gen-sets" while the P/V Bering Star was 240' long, generator power for machinery, to push hydraulics, and line power only. Six decks tall, including the stuff you can't see, below the waterline and about 60' wide at top roof. I don't know "where" this photo was shot but, The Aleutians is a good guess. Or, hiding in a small bay somewhere. The two vessels don't seems to be underway. This photo shows the "off-load side" of the B'Star, where pallets of flash frozen fish were ramped onto a tramp freighter bound for Japan, in the case of Herring, which was my main fishery while I was on her. The Japanese wanted the eggs, as they're a "delicacy" item and we got the Herring carcasses back later to be used as crab bait.

Bow shot:

Note the Bald Eagle sitting on top of the "office." Helicopters could land on that structure. I know. I took off in one, a little Hughes Air "Loach?" in June of '92 while giving my Boss "The Finger" as soon as the skids left the deck. Off the boat, no longer employed by said Company. I grew to really hate my Boss, who had, over the years, turned into a raging: "A.A./N.A. Nazi and General Buzzkill of a Human Remnant." I still want to punch him. Right in the balls. My Old 400 pound Hawai'ian Pal, "Baa-Baa" (as in "Black Sheep") used to call it the "Scoop 'Em" punch.

My "Window On Alaska" was just forward of the middle landing of the staircase on the "Starboard" side of the barge. If you look really hard, you can see two square windows forward of the top of that staircase@ photo's Left. The aft one was "mine." Top bunk, all curtained off for both privacy (a relative term) and another curtain on the window (it wasn't a port hole) to block the light, when there was any. I spent allot of time to myself to avoid any of the Rah-rah-sis-boom-bah Team Spirit Games that Management cooked up to keep people's minds occupied. James Michener, William Faulkner, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins were busy occupying my mind, thank you. That and a large volume of cassette tapes, about 200, I made before I got on board. A Sony Sports Walkman with Mega Bass is your friend when there's noise you don't want to hear around you.

I think this photo was taken in either Seward, Ak. or Dutch Harbor, Ak.. It's hard to read where the F/V Farrar Sea was flagged. It looks long enough to say: "Anchorage." Could be "Afognak" too. Who cares? It's not important anyway.

This is going to turn into two segments. I can feel it. I need to go find some more photo's.

What I had hoped to end up with in the story is: The other day, I discovered that the B'Star was retired and will be turned into scrap. I had called the Home Office in Seattle and that's how I heard the yarn. My reason for calling them was to find out if I could get a sweatshirt with the Bering Star designation below the logo you see in the photo above. I used to refer to the logo as "The Romantic Ideal" and, in a two panel cartoon I drew while aboard, the "Dismal Reality" was a floating shoe box obscured by sleet and rain in the middle of nothing but dark water. I gave it to the Gal that was the "Barge Manager" (equal to Barge "Captain," sort of. The Chief Engineer actually was Top Kick on this thing.) when she commented about how much she liked it. ("Hi, Amy!") I also discovered, out of sheer boredom and a fondness for puzzles and games, that I could take an adhesive backed sticker and re-arrange the letters to read "Frozen Testicles" instead of  "Icicle Seafoods" as an add-on to my deck hat (hardhat to you). Had to do some serious cut and paste work to make it look good. What else are ya' gonna' do while waiting to be towed to the next grounds? Ya' don't want to tell all of your stories at one sitting. You'll run out of Overstatements and Jokes.

Listening to Jethro Tull this morning. I got to witness Jethro Tull blow Led Zeppelin off the stage in about '69 or '70. Tull was "fired" as the Opening Act after that night. Jimmy Page/Robert Plant, you fucking WANKERS! The first Jethro Tull recording I owned was "Stand Up," which was released in September of 1969, which was perfect. I was a Sophomore in High School. I was also: "Already Working In The Business," albeit, the low-rent-trailer-park-end of The Music Biz at that time. I would have seen Jethro Tull that year, to update my earlier foggy memory. You know what they say about the 60's, right? "If you remember the 60's, you weren't there." Right on, Far Out and Groovy, Baby!

Some groovy Tull, MSG, 1978:

Mudhead: "What are YOU going to do when you graduate, Porgy?"

Porgy: "I'm going to cut the soles off of my shoes, sit in a tree and learn to play the flute."

Love and a 12" Crescent Wrench,
-Doc