Sailor Speak Part 2

Hello Fishies!

Start Over with a Clean Slate A slate tablet was kept near the helm on which the watch keeper would record the speeds, distances, headings and tacks during the watch. If there were no problems during the watch, the slate would be wiped clean so that the new watch could start over with a clean slate.

Taken Aback A dangerous situation where the wind is on the wrong side of the sails pressing them back against the mast and forcing the ship astern.

At Loggerheads An iron ball attached to a long handle is a loggerhead. It was heated and used to seal the pitch in deck seams. Quarrelling crewmen were known to have used it as a weapon.

Fly-by-Night A large sail used only for sailing downwind and requiring rather little attention.

No Great Shakes When a cask became empty it was "shaken" (taken apart) so the pieces, called shakes, could be stored in a small space. Shakes had very little value.

Give (someone) a Wide Berth To anchor ships far enough away from each other so that they did not hit each other when they swung on their anchor with the wind or tide.

Garbled Garbling was the practice of mixing rubbish with the cargo.

Press Into Service Many vessels filled their ships' crew quotas by kidnapping men off the streets and forcing them into service. This was called Impressment and was done by Press Gangs. You might also know it as Shanghaied.

Touch and Go - This referred to a ship's keel touching the bottom and getting off again. Often during navigating shallow waters or those with many sand bars, the ship would touch and go.

Scuttlebutt A butt is a barrel. Scuttle means to put a hole in something. The scuttlebutt was a water barrel with a hole cut into it so that sailors could reach in and dip out drinking water. The scuttlebutt was the place where the ship's gossip was exchanged.

Under the Weather If a crewman is standing watch on the weather side of the bow, he will be subject to the constant beating of the ocean and spray. He is under the weather.

Overreach Should a ship hold its tack course too long, it will overreach its turning point and then it must travel much further to reach its next tack point.

Above Board Anything on or above the deck. If something is open and in plain view, it is above board.

Overwhelm Old English for capsize or founder.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea The devil seam was the curved seam in the deck planking closest to the side of the ship and next to the scupper gutters. If a sailor slipped on the deck, he could find himself between the devil and the deep blue sea.

The Devil to Pay - To “pay” the deck seams meant to seal them with tar. The devil seam was the hardest to pay because it was curved and intersected with the straight deck planking. Some sources define the "devil" as the seam below the waterline, between the keel and the adjoining planking. Paying the Devil was considered to be a most difficult and unpleasant task.

Rummage Sale From the French word "arrimage" meaning ship's cargo. Damaged cargo was sold at a rummage sale.

A Square Meal In good weather, the crew was fed a warm meal served on square wooden platters.

Son of a Gun When in port, and with the crew restricted to the ship for any extended period of time, wives and ladies of easy virtue often were allowed to live aboard along with the crew. Upon occasion, children were born on board, and one convenient place for this was between guns on the gun deck. If the child's father was unknown, they were entered in the ship's log as "son of a gun".

Taking the wind out of his sails Sailing in a manner so as to steal or divert wind from another ship's sails.

Let the Cat Out of the Bag In the Royal Navy the punishment prescribed for most serious crimes was flogging. This was administered by the Bosun's Mate using a whip called a cat o' nine tails. The "cat" was kept in a leather or baize bag. Obviously it was not a good thing when the cat was let out of the bag.

No Room to Swing a Cat The entire ship's company was required to witness the flogging. Often the crew would crowd around so closely that the Bosun's Mate might not have enough room to swing his cat o' nine tails.

Stay tuned!

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Sailor Speak Part 1

Hello Fishies!

I thought some of you might find the following interesting as well as educational.

Leeway The weather side of a ship is the side that the wind hits. The “lee side” is the side of the ship that is sheltered from the wind. A lee shore is land that is downwind of a ship. If a ship does not have enough "leeway" it is in danger of being driven onto the shore.

Over a Barrel The most common method of punishment on board a ship was flogging. The unfortunate sailor was tied to a grating, a mast or over the barrel of a deck cannon.

Know the Ropes There were miles and miles of cordage in the rigging of a ship. The only way of keeping track of and knowing the function of all of these lines was to know where they were located. It took an experienced seaman to “know the ropes.”

Dressing Down Sails that had become thin and worn were often treated with oil or wax to renew their effectiveness. This was called "dressing down". An officer or sailor who was reprimanded or scolded received a dressing down.

Footloose The bottom portion of a sail is called the foot. If it is not secured, it is footloose and it flaps in the wind.

Booby Hatch Aboard ship, the booby hatch is a sliding cover or hatch that must be pushed away to allow access or passage.

First Rate Implies excellence. From the 16th century, until steam powered ships took over, British naval ships were rated as to the number of heavy cannon they carried. A ship of 100 or more guns was a First Rate line-of-battle ship. Second rates carried 90 to 98 guns; Third Rates, 64 to 89 guns; Fourth Rates, 50 to 60 guns. Frigates carrying 48 to 20 guns were fifth and sixth rated.

Pipe Down Means stop talking and be quiet. The Pipe Down was the last signal from the Bosun's pipe each day which meant "lights out" and "quiet".

Chock-a-Block Meaning something is filled to capacity or over loaded. If two blocks of rigging tackle were so hard together they couldn't be tightened further, it was said they were "Chock-a-Block".

Windfall A sudden unexpected rush of wind from a mountainous shore.

Groggy In 1740, British Admiral Vernon (whose nickname was "Old Grogram" for the cloak of grogram which he wore) ordered that the sailors' daily ration of rum be watered down. The men called the mixture "grog". A sailor who drank too much grog was "groggy".

Three Sheets to the Wind A sheet is a rope line which controls the tension on the downwind side of a square sail. If, on a three masted fully rigged ship, the sheets of the three lower course sails are loose, the sails will flap and flutter and are said to be "in the wind". A ship in this condition would stagger and wander aimlessly downwind.

Pooped The poop is the rear or stern section of a ship. To be pooped is to be swamped by a following sea.



As the Crow Flies When lost or unsure of their position in coastal waters, a ship would release a caged crow. The crow would fly straight towards the nearest land thus giving the vessel some sort of a navigational fix. The tallest lookout platform on a ship came to be known as the crow's nest.

By and Large By meaning into the wind and large meaning with the wind: as in, "By and Large the ship handled very well."

Cut and Run - If a captain of a smaller ship encountered a larger enemy vessel, he might decide that discretion is the better part of valor, and so he would order the crew to cut the lashings on all the sails and run away before the wind. Other sources indicate "Cut and Run" meant to cut the anchor cable and sail off in a hurry.

In the Offing - From the 16th century usage meaning a good distance from shore, barely visible from land, as in - "We sighted a ship in the offing."

Skyscraper - A small triangular sail set above the skysail in order to maximize effect in a light wind.

The Bitter End - The end of an anchor cable is fastened to the bitts at the ship's bow. If all of the anchor cable has been played out you have come to the bitter end.

Toe the Line - When called to attention, the ship's crew would form up in a line with their toes touching a seam in the deck planking.

Back and Fill - A technique of tacking when the tide is with the ship but the wind is against it.

Overhaul To prevent the buntline ropes from chaffing the sails, crew were sent aloft to haul them over the sails. This was called overhauling.

Slush Fund A slushy slurry of fat was obtained by boiling or scraping the empty salted meat storage barrels. This stuff called "slush" was often sold ashore by the ship's cook for the benefit of himself or the crew. The money so derived became known as a slush fund.

Bear Down To sail downwind rapidly towards another ship or landmark.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

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Mayday Hoaxes

Mayday!

The word every member of the boating community is familiar with, but also a word they almost dread to hear.

Tragic when it is a true call, appalling when it’s a hoax.

When a mayday is called it stuns the fishing community. “Oh my God. Who? Where? How? Why?” Every nearby vessel immediately joins the search. Personnel are stood up –paramedics, emergency rooms, law enforcement, etc.

Right now, the U.S. Coast Guard is investigating a hoax call that wasted up to $100,000 in taxpayers' money and many hours of rescuers' time early this past week-end.

Bob Coster, a Coast Guard civilian search and rescue controller said that a hoax caller, using a handheld radio, claimed his boat, the "Chum Bucket," was disabled by Buoy 10 at the entrance to the Columbia River.

"For the next three hours he sank, then he made it to shore and was the only survivor, then he said he was going to swim back out, because he could see his boat still partially afloat, and then he changed his mind," Coster said. "We pinned him down to the vicinity of Hammond, but he quit transmitting before we could really pin him down."

The Coast Guard searched for hours in the dark of night with helicopters from Air Station Astoria and motor lifeboats from Station Cape Disappointment, in Ilwaco, Wash., said Coster, only to determine the mayday was false.

"We even put the air crew into fatigue status," he said. Fatigue status is standby mode for a second shift. The Coast Guard investigates many false alarms each year, but only a handful are later classified as hoaxes, he said.

The idiots that call in hoaxes endanger all boaters by reducing the agency's ability to respond to real distress cases. They risk the lives of Coast Guard crews and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in wasted resources. Law enforcement and medical personnel are made ready instead of going about their normal jobs. Time and money are wasted by people who join in the effort, putting their own lives at risk and on hold.

Intelligence specialists investigating the Saturday hoax have a decent chance of catching the caller, because search and rescue coordinators traced his signal to a Hammond neighborhood, Coster said.

If caught convicted, he could face serious time in prison, fines of thousands of dollars and might have to reimburse the agency for the cost of its response.

Then there are the false flare sightings. Well intentioned people will often call in a vessel in distress when in fact it was fireworks. Regardless of the situation, the Coast Guard launches its search and rescue.

Before locking gates, improved lighting and port patrols, vessel break-ins were a fairly common occurrence. Almost every boat owner I know had their boat broken into on multiple occasions. As a rule the perps were teen-age boys and their favorite item to steal? Flares and smoke canisters. Go figure.

Here is a recent press release from the Coast Guard about tracking the callers:

COAST GUARD UNITS IN WASHINGTON STATE USING NEW COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

On December 22, 2006, Coast Guard units in Puget Sound and along the Washington coast took operational acceptance of a new maritime communications system known as Rescue 21. This system harnesses global positioning and cutting edge communications technology enabling the Coast Guard to perform all its missions with greater agility and efficiency.

This advanced command, control and communications (C3) system provides coverage in the Puget Sound, the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and the west coast of Washington, north of the Quinault Indian Reservation. This maritime "911 "system replaces a 30-year-old legacy communications system and improves the Coast Guard's search and rescue mission capabilities.

Components of the system include advanced direction-finding technology, which helps the Coast Guard identify hoax callers, saving time and taxpayer money and helping prioritize real emergencies. Rescue 21 technology also helps close coverage gaps and will narrow search areas, speeding rescues.

The new C3 system also improves interoperability with local, state and federal agencies as well as with first responders.

Boat Tossed Like Clothes in a Washer

After a season of late starts, spotty catches and lousy weather, the four-man crew of the Starrigavan was returning to port with more than 5,000 pounds of crab. "We were starving, and we finally got crab" said Sam Johnson, a crew member. "After all this season, we were finally catching crab." "And we were actually going to get paid," added Gregory Phillips. Phillips was called "Green," short for greenhorn, because this was his first season at sea.

It was at about 9 p.m. that the Starrigavan started across the bar. The news media has described it as: “the notoriously dangerous stretch of water at the entrance to the jetties where bay waters meet head-on with the churning ocean. At that place, sand tends to build up, making the area shallow and even more volatile.” In the last 3 years there has been a total of 14 lives lost on that bar. In 2004, the charter fishing boat Taki-Tooo went down there, killing 11. And in February 2006, the commercial fishing vessel Catherine M, floundered while heading in, killing three fishermen. Both of these were deemed operator error in the subsequent investigations.

The U.S. Coast Guard closed the bar to recreational and small vessels on Thursday, due to 11-foot seas and 17-mph winds. But that should not have been a problem for the Starrigavan. "It should have been safe enough for a vessel of that size to get through unless something went wrong on the boat," said Shawn Eggert, a Coast Guard spokesman. "That they closed the bar at all indicates the weather was a little rough."

The first of several 25-foot waves set the boat rocking, Phillips said. Then, as the skipper struggled to right the boat and get back out to safer waters, Johnson saw a second wave coming and yelled for his mates to brace themselves. "I was looking it right in the eye," Johnson said. "It was like it was coming after us."

There was just enough time for Opheim to radio one mayday before the wave hit. "Ever see a wave control a 92-ton vessel?" Phillips asked. "Look inside a washing machine and watch the clothing tumble over and over and over."

The third wave sent the Starrigavan over. It has been said that the vessel rolled three times before the waves slammed it up against the south jetty's rocks. Inside the wheelhouse, it was chaos. "Skinny was pinned," Johnson recalled. "Greg and me pushed him out the door."

On deck the men struggled with their survival suits while the ocean kept them pressed against the deck railing. "Skinny was against the rail trying to put his on, and it just sucked it off of him," Johnson said of the waves. "Mine, I was tied up across my chest, just tangled in this mess of wires."

The men managed to get off the rails and up against the wheelhouse bulkhead, which offered some protection from the seas. But the boat was shattered, and the upper deck was slamming into them, Phillips said.

The Coast Guard arrived by boat within a half hour of the call, but reaching the Starrigavan by water was far too dangerous. Waiting for the rescue helicopter en route from Astoria was all that they could do.

Until he was lowered onto the pitching, nearly vertical deck of the crab boat, U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer Rob Emley had never saved anyone. But on Thursday night, the lives of the four men aboard the Starrigavan rested squarely in the hands of the 22-year-old newlywed from Southern California.

The rescue team first lowered a radio to the boat and wanted to lower a basket to the men and have them climb into it themselves, but crew member Kenneth "Skinny" Venard was too badly injured. With a cable attached to the harness he wore, Emley was dropped to the deck, fighting breaking waves and 80 mph winds whipped up by the helicopter rotor.

By then, the men, wearing only shirts and jeans, were suffering from hypothermia, and Venard's condition was deteriorating. Both the crew members and rescue swimmer began working to get Venard into the basket. "I had Skinny by the legs," Johnson said. "The diver had him by the arms. We didn't see the wave coming. It ripped Skinny right out of my hands. He smashed into the other side of the boat. When I saw him again, Skinny was in bad shape. I thought if we could just get Skinny out first, we were all going to make it."

The waves kept pounding the boat, but the rescue swimmer just wouldn't quit. "He took a beating like I've never seen before," Johnson said. "He just wouldn't give up. He kept telling us, 'You guys are going to be OK. I'm here, you are going to make it.' He did an amazing job," said Johnson. "To get on the deck of the boat itself, with those waves beating at us, that was a feat in itself. That took a man with braveness like a lion. I am shocked it was his first save."

Currently the boat is on the south side of the south jetty at the bar entrance, about 500 yards from shore. It sits upright in about 12 feet of water. Divers have checked the boat. While there is some fuel leakage, no environmental impact is feared.

As Johnson recalled the events that claimed his buddy, his voice gave way to emotion. "He was a good spirit, always willing to offer his shirt off his back," Johnson said. "On New Year's Eve, we were on the boat. No one had any money. He spent his last $5 to get me a calling card to call my wife."

Debra Burrus, owner of a boat Venard had worked aboard for 11/2 years says friends in Newport have started a collection for Venard's three children in Colorado. "He was the most awesome kind of guy," she said. "He was the kind of guy who put all his friends first. He gave all and took nothing."

Greenhorn Gregory Phillips wants to go back out fishing. Johnson isn't so sure. "To tell you the truth, at this moment I'm afraid to even step on a dock," Johnson said. "I'm tired of walking by benches and seeing my friend's names on them. I thought I was next. Skinny didn't deserve that. I wish it would have been me."

Stay tuned.

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F/V Starrigavan Wrecked on Tillamook Jetty

Sad news today Fishies.

From various news accounts:

50-year-old fisherman, Kenneth Venard of Newport, died after the F/V Starrigavan wrecked on the south jetty of Tillamook Bay near Garibaldi on the Oregon Coast. The three other crew members had hypothermia but were in good condition early today. The survivors are the skipper, Kirk Opheim, 23, of Burlington, Wash., and crew members Gregory Phillips, 23, of Siletz, and Sam Johnson, 39, of Seattle.

The boat was trying to cross the Tillamook bar about 9:30 p.m. Thursday. A witness saw it list heavily and its lights go out. A survivor reported the vessel was hit by three 20-foot waves and rolled three times, said Petty Officer Shawn Eggert.

The witness called 911, and at about the same time an emergency signal was transmitted from the EPIRB aboard the Starrigavan to the Coast Guard. “All of a sudden a big wave hit his boat and the lights went out and that’s when we called 911. And didn’t hear anything else until the chopper got here and found them,” said Josh Cravenho, a witness.

A helicopter lifted the injured Venard from the boat. He was taken to the hospital, where he went into cardiac arrest and died. Early reports stated that Venard was in his 70’s and had suffered severe head and chest injuries.

According to Coast Guard records, the steel-hulled vessel is homeported in Garibaldi. It's owned by Fire Island Fisheries Corp. out of Kirkland, Wash. You may also remember this boat and its skipper from an earlier blog. The 23 year old skipper was arrested for operating the vessel under the influence of intoxicants last month.

A survivor reported the vessel was hit by three 20-foot waves and rolled three times, said Petty Officer Shawn Eggert of the Coast Guard. Eggert said the winds at the time were reported at about 17 miles an hour, waves at 11 feet. "It's possible they were hit by rogue waves," he said. Eggert said that at the time of the wreck, the bar was closed to recreational boaters and uninspected passenger vessels, but open to commercial fishing vessels such as the Starrigavan.

Bars are buildups of sediment where a river slows as it meets the ocean, often creating treacherous conditions for skippers.

Deputies and investigators from the Coast Guard were interviewing the survivors, said Lt. Adam Birst, the senior investigative officer in Portland.

A Coast Guard environmental team that planned to inspect the vessel found Friday that it had apparently broken loose from the jetty and sunk, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Chris Buehl of Astoria. "They did locate some debris," he said, and a helicopter was to be dispatched to investigate.

When it was hit Thursday night, the boat was returning to port at about low tide. When the water rose toward high tide on Friday morning, it might have gotten high enough to free the boat from the jetty. It isn't surprising that a steel-hulled vessel the size of the Starrigavan could be tossed about. "You get sideways and get hit by a couple of waves, and that's all it takes,” said Tillamook Co. Sheriff Anderson.

From the US Coast Guard Press Release:

Coast Guard Station Tillamook Bay has dispatched a 47-foot motor lifeboat crew and Air Station Astoria has launched an HH-60 helicopter crew to respond to the emergency. Station Tillamook Bay is located on the north side of Tillamook Bay in the town of Garibaldi, Ore. Tillamook Bay is home to a moderate size fishing fleet and has a tricky entrance bar that breaks frequently.

The station has five search and rescue boats, including: two 47-foot motor lifeboats , a 25-foot response boat, a 23-foot utility boat and an 18-foot flood response skiff. The 47-foot motor lifeboats have been designed for operations in heavy surf conditions and are capable of being rolled over by breaking swells and re-right themselves with minimal damage.

Air Station Astoria is co-located at the Astoria Regional Airport in Warrenton, Ore. The missions of the Air Station include Search and Rescue, Law Enforcement, Aids to Navigation Support, and Environmental Protection.

The HH-60 "Jayhawk" is a twin-engine, medium-range recovery helicopter capable of reaching a top speed of 180 knots. In addition to its use in search and rescue operations, this highly versatile aircraft is used to perform law enforcement, military readiness, and marine environmental protection missions.

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Farmed Fish Bait

Hello Fishies!

The dungeness crab fleet gave it a whirl as bait - the crab would not touch it. Now we all know what scavengers crab are. Crab are Mother Nature's garbage men, they are notorious for eating anything and everything. But farmed salmon was left untouched in the pots.

What does that tell you?


Stay tuned!


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F/V Early Dawn & F/V Fierce Allegiance

Hello Fishies!

The Central Bering Sea Fisherman Association is yet another of those irritating CDQs.

Here is a bit of news, from the CBFA website, regarding Deadliest Catch boats past and present:

In June 2003, CBSV LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of CBSFA, purchased interest in four fishing vessels. CBSV LLC now owns 30% in each of the F/V Fierce Allegiance and F/V Early Dawn. CBSV LLC also owns 40% in each of the F/V Shishaldin and F/V Ballyhoo. These vessels have a diversified fishing history, which was one of the main reasons the CBSFA BOD and management approved investing in these vessels. In addition to having a good fishing history in opilio and Bristol Bay red king crab fisheries, the Early Dawn, Shishaldin and Ballyhoo also have fishing histories in the Aleutian Islands brown king crab fisheries.

Besides having an excellent crab history, the Fierce Allegiance is also an American Fisheries Act (AFA) approved pollock catcher vessel with its own share of onshore pollock.

Stay tuned!

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All Geared Up & No Place to Go

Hello Fishies!

This just in from a wheel house in Dutch Harbor:

The people who own the seafood processing plant in St. Paul decided to raise the lease fee - sky high. The company that leased it said – no thanks, too rich for our blood, we will use the floating processors instead.

Well just as the boys were untying their boats to head out to the crab grounds they got some bad news. Yep, you guessed it. The Stellar Sea had been en route to process the northern shares of the opilio catch when she caught fire.

So there they sit, still tied to the dock in Dutch. There are some boats that are fishing the southern shares, and some that are cod fishing. At least they have something to do!

Wouldn’t it be nice if they were allowed to deliver their catch where they wanted to? Again, thanks a lot for the processor allocation Sen. Stevens…..

From Trident Seafoods website:

Trident's impressive St. Paul operation is the largest crab production facility in the world. St. Paul is one of two Pribilof Islands which sit in the middle of the Bering Sea, approximately 600 miles southwest of Anchorage. The St. Paul plant concentrates production on a variety of Alaska crab species including king crab, snow crab and hair crab. Its capacity is a half-million pounds of crab per day. The plant also processes halibut, cod, and other available species. Generally the facility remains open for four months out of the year and employs between 20 and 400 people.

From the Anchorage Daily News:

With the Stellar Sea sidelined, the Bering Sea seafood industry faces an uncertain season -- particularly in the opilio crab harvest.

"If they can turn it around in two weeks, I don't think it's going to have any major impact," seafood analyst John Sackton said. "But if it's out for longer than that, that will have an impact, and there will have to be some adjustment."

The vessel is under contract with Seattle-based processor Peter Pan Seafoods Inc. and was supposed to process most of the crab from the northern area of the fishery this year. Seattle-based Trident Seafoods Corp. has a floating processor working in the Bering Sea, but that vessel is currently processing cod.

Stay tuned!

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F/V Ocean Challenger, Part 3

Sand Point, population 940, is in the Aleutian Island chain, 570 miles southwest of Anchorage. Residents there said the weather had been severe with unpredictable hurricane-like winds. The Aleuts call the general area "The Mother of Winds”. According to Trident Seafood cannery manager Armand Audette, “The weather has been day to day a moving target. On Tuesday, it changed very radically. Right now our harbor is chock-full with boats because of the weather.”

“It’s come as kind of a shock to us, we are all affected by this kind of thing. We are pretty tight-knit group here. I do think they were caught off guard by the weather," continued Audette, "I guess everyone knows there are risks. There is peril whenever you go out in rolling seas," he said. The close-knit fishing town is devastated at the loss. "There is the feeling that there but for the grace of God go I."

The boat, a longliner home-ported out of Adak, had been fishing for black cod near the Sanak Islands and was traveling back to the Aleutian fishing town of Sand Point when it disappeared.said vessel owner, Barry McKee. The 50-ton fishing vessel’s home port was Westport until 2005. It was sold that year to Barry McKee of Seattle, whose company is called the Omega Boat Co.

What happened? Until the Coast Guard releases their findings (which could be as long as a year or more), or the survivor, Kevin Ferrell feels up to speaking of it, we can not be certain. We do know the boat was headed for port, possibly “running with the seas.” She could have taken a rogue wave. Depending on the distance between the waves - and that can be critical, she could have taken water across her bow and had a following sea come over her stern, all at about the same time. This could have caused her to founder, her load of fish to shift, the hatch cover come off and took water into her hold. She could have been riding up a swell when her stern was hammered with a following sea, causing her bow to dig into the swell. Her scuppers could have clogged and the deck held the water. Anything is possible.

God bless them and their loved ones.

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F/V Ocean Challenger Part 2

From The Seattle Times

They called the crew the "Virginia Boys" because they were known for their Southern charm and for peppering their conversations with "yes ma'ams" during the years the Ocean Challenger sailed from Westport.

Many of the Virginia Boys had already left, said Bobbi Foland. Two of them — Kevin Ferrell, 28, of Lynchburg, Va., and Walter Foster, 26, originally of Tennessee but who had been living in Westport, remained on.

While most of the Virginia Boys came and went around Westport over the years, Foster was the exception. Several years ago he met Laurie Cowell, fell in love and moved into a little house in Westport. It was home when he wasn't at sea or visiting his family in Tennessee.

"He was a super guy," said Dalie Morgan, bartender at the Knotty Pine. "Just a nice young man."

"He was a real Southern gentleman, a great guy with a big heart," said Valerie Bender, housekeeper at the Islander Resort. "He liked going out on the boat, the water, the salt air, the waves. He just loved to fish. He'll be greatly missed."

The survivor, Kevin Ferrell, 28, of Lynchburg, Va., had worked on the boat for about four years, including a period of time when it was based in Westport.

Foster was a “a trusted sailor” brought on board by the skipper, Hasselquist, who was pretty picky when it came to hiring, Foland said. “Cowboy had worked off and on for us for several years. He was a good skipper, a good fisherman and he always had a great crew,” she said.

From The Dutch Harbor Fisherman

Once in a great while, someone comes along who leaves a lasting impression on those who are lucky enough to cross paths with them.

And so it was with Cowboy, who lost his life Oct. 18 with two other crewmen, when the Ocean Challenger sank off Sanak Island, while fishing their last black cod trip for the year.

Cowboy, born David R. Hasselquist in Omaha, Nebr., in 1955, came to Alaska after high school, arriving in Ketchikan. He landed his first commercial fishing job aboard the Ocean Storm, owned by Dobbs Miller, who nicknamed him “Cowboy” because of the out-of-place cowboy boots and large belt buckle he wore.

That first job earned him $10,000. He was hooked and never looked back.

In those early years, Cowboy fished the Southeast coast on various boats including the Specter, the Gem and others, visiting ports from Hydaburg to Pelican. From 1986 through 1997, he worked for Alaska Sablefish aboard the

IUDI B as a deckhand and until 1991 moved up the ranks to alternate skipper, fishing the Aleutians and Bering Sea.

In 1987, Cowboy met and married the love of his life and soul mate, Robin. He adopted Robin’s son, Rooney, and daughter Kana, feeling his family was now complete.

In 2002, Cowboy took Robin fishing for the first time aboard the Misconception, in 2003 on the Zenith and on the Melissa Lynn in 2005. He would often say, “I have the best of both worlds when I can fish and have my wife aboard.”

Together, they purchased the Eclipse in 2004 and fished halibut. Son Rooney fished his first season alongside his father and mother on the Ocean Challenger in January and February of 2006.

It would be the last time they fished together as a family.

Fishing was good this last season; he delivered 260,000 pounds of halibut to the Pribilofs for owner, Barry McKee. “Nothing to it but to do it,” was his favorite saying, and were words he lived by. Full of knowledge and wisdom, there wasn’t much he couldn’t fix or figure out. Courage, respect, resourcefulness, dedication, loyalty, self-reliance, discipline, fairness, hard work, a caring heart, and love of family and fellow man, speak of this man we knew as Cowboy.

So long, Cowboy, we’ll miss you forever and keep you in our hearts. From all of us whose lives you touched.

Cowboy leaves behind his wife, Robin of Hoonah, daughter Kana of Anchorage, son Rooney and his wife, Jamiann, of Juneau, and numerous brothers and sisters in-law from Pennsylvania and Missouri.

I have not been able to gather information on the missing crewman, Steven Esparza. Please, if you can, send it my way so that I may honor him as well.

Stay tuned.

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