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Captain Fred Bartlett pulled me closer to the boat. All hope vanished when I noticed I was on the starboard side of the boat - the trawl table side. I looked at Fred, he looked at me, I was dead and we both knew it.
Joseph C. Smith
A Tribute To All Commercial Fishermen!About two years ago I was in Barnes & Noble bookstore snooping around. I stumbled upon a book titled 'The Perfect Storm' by Sabastion Junger, this was long before the motion picture came out. My first thought on picking up the book was, who the hell is Sabastion Junger? And what does this guy know about perfect storms, squalls, drowning and commercial fishing?
I knew the owner of the Andrea Gail, the late Mr. Bob Brown (he died in an accident on the wharf not at sea). Just like the movie portrayed he was a very hard man but here's what the movie didn't tell you; Mr. Bob Brown was a past 'high-liner' himself, and one of the very best. Reader, your entering hallowed ground here. In commercial fishing circles Bob Brown, like Charlie Raymond, was a legend long before he sent others out to sea on his boats.
As I recall they used to call him Suicide Bob Brown, not for killing himself but for taking big chances fishing in very rough waters... stormy waters if you will.
Bob and Charlie used to come visit Captain Fred Bartlett at our wharf, the Ponderosa. Captain Fred is now in his late 70's and is LOWERED by chain hoist into his fishing boat every morning by his sons. I should know, I still drive by the Ponderosa every day and have watched this show in absolute awe and disbelief. More on this character later.
After reading a few pages of Sebastion Junger's book I bought the dam thing and read the whole story. I immediately knew the Gloucester Fishermen took Sebastion Junger under their wings and trusted him (no small feat). He wrote a great book and true story.
When you travel to the United States come visit Boston, MA, see Nantucket Island, Martha's Vineyard, Rockport and Gloucester. Enjoy our rich history, elegant scenery, wonderful beaches and seafood (the best in the world). But don't ask those Gloucester Fishermen too many questions, they are usually very busy.
Hence, soon came the motion picture 'The Perfect Storm'.
Today I'm a heating/air-conditioning mechanic. I get e-mails from folks asking me questions about commercial fishing (7 years). I'll be blunt, my time is limited so I will very briefly address this issue right here. There are certainly many hazardous professions, we all respect jobs like policemen, firemen, steel workers and many others (they are risking their lives). Commercial fishing (outside of actual warfare) is the most dangerous job in the world. It is the #1 most dangerous job to your health, I saw this very same statement two months ago on America Online's news section, front page.
If you are that curious about commercial fishing, which has been around for ages, my best advice is for you to go see the movie 'The Perfect Storm' and purchase a copy of 'The Hungry Ocean' by Linda Greenlaw - all your questions will be answered. I would only add that commercial fishing (I miss it very much) is like rolling dice, if you keep throwing them long enough (fishing) some day you may not roll seven's. I have lost friends out there, they were very good people just like you.
A special thank you to my Captain, Fred Bartlett, who was desperately trying to put the gaff hook through my ear (when I finally did make it back to the surface) and he is every bit as responsible for saving my life as I am.
It was December and I remember it well, kind of stormy and very cold. We were fishing out by old Boston Light. I was so confident in my own ability I never carried a knife (without confidence out there your not out of a job - your dead). Not wearing a very sharp knife was a foolish error on my part and I almost paid for it with my life. I got wrapped up in the lines and hauled off the boat into the water, I was being pulled under very fast.
By the time I got unraveled from those lines and kicked my boots off I was very deep down, out of air and breathing water. It was a race against time to make it back up to the surface and I gave it all I had, and then some.
I remember being consciously aware that I could black out, due to lack of oxygen, at any moment. If I reached that point, it was over. It was a strange and quiet feeling of desperation. On reaching the surface the next stage of my battle had just begun. I was spitting up water and, at the same time, now breathing air. It completely sapped what little energy I had left. To compound matters, the wind was blowing strong and the waters were very rough.
I went down again and fought to get back up to the surface and did. I tried to reach the long gaff hook Fred was reaching out to me with, but I couldn't. Fred was trapped in the stern of the boat and wrapped up in the lines, from the mess that was created by me going overboard, and was in danger of being pulled overboard himself. He was, to say the least, in some trouble of his own because Fred Bartlett can't swim!
I went under water a third time and knew I was done. Out of desperation and a last ditch effort to save my life, when my head went under water, I threw my right arm out of the water as far as I could and Captain Fred Bartlett, God bless him, laid that gaff hook on my index finger and saved my life.
As I previously mentioned Fred couldn't move, he was holding on for his own life with one arm while holding the long gaff hook, with me on it, with his other arm. Captain Fred pulled me closer to the boat. All hope vanished when I noticed I was on the starboard side of the boat, the trawl table side. I looked at Fred, he looked at me, I was dead and we both knew it. It's virtually impossible to pull yourself up into the boat from this side, there is absolutely nothing to grab onto.
Fred didn't quit on me, he stretched himself across the trawl table, grabbed my arm and would not let go. I told him I was finished and to let me go (I was full of water, a beaten rag doll and nearly unconscious). At this point Fred made my eyes stay strictly focused on his and he kept yelling at me, through that wind, in a very controlled (no panic) manner.
"Smitty - hold on your gonna make it!" I wanted to believe him but I knew it was hopeless. Fred didn't quit and kept yelling at me louder. Hearing his voice and looking into his eyes I actually started to believe him and continued coughing up water, choking on air and holding on (that's what drowning is folks, it's not pretty).
After a period of time, I caught a lucky break, actually a life-saving break. I caught a wave lifting me up just as the boat was going down. Fred being the high-liner he is knew this might be our only shot and he YANKED MY ARM as hard as he could (he gave his ALL for me) and he got me back into the boat, belly up! I shot across that trawl table like a Goddam tuna fish! An exhausted, but very happy tuna fish.
Two weeks later his son Tommy, also a great fisherman, along with his brothers Jimmy and Billy, said to me...
"Smitty, Freddy NEVER thought you were going to make it, he thought you were dead".
For more information about Commercial fishing, I would like to refer you to Miss Linda Greenlaw's excellent book The Hungry Ocean (A New York Times National Bestseller).
Miss Greenlaw was the Captain of the sword fishing boat, Hannah Boden and portrayed by actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in the motion picture The Perfect Storm.
The worst storm and most gigantic wave I ever personally saw was not when I was commercial fishing but serving aboard the USS Charles P. Cecil, a Navy Destroyer stationed out of Newport Rhode Island. It happened out in the Indian Ocean and we lost a man overboard.
Note: Commercial fishing captains and their crews do not make a big deal out of rough sea's and nasty storms. Simply put, you have utmost faith in your captain and your boat to bring you home safe. You have done this many times before and you have no reason to believe the next storm will be any different.
But yes, it can get hairy and sometimes scary. You don't get these kind of rides at Disneyland or any amusement park I ever saw.
Visitor, in the movie The Perfect Storm (at least the movies version) I could at least see the top of that wave, out in the Indian Ocean this wave only about 75 to 100 feet from my ship...I couldn't see the sky?
That's a true story my friend.Great Lakes, Illinois US Naval Training Center: Bootcamp for me was a breeze. Previous to my enlistment I had worked several months in concrete foundations, next to commercial fishing, concrete foundations is the most physically demanding job I've ever done.
Right after graduation ceremonies my company commander handed each of us recruits our new orders. Opening my envelope I was stunned! Actually, damn confused is more the word for it. I had volunteered in Salem, Massachusetts with my father standing beside me for the United States Navy Sea Bee's (construction division) and a tour of duty in Vietnam.
I had graduated from Claude H Pattern Trade school as a carpenter and wanted a chance to further my career in this field, also my buddy who graduated from trade school a year ahead of me was already in the Navy Sea Bee's stationed in Vietnam and I was anxious to join him.
My orders said BT not Sea Bee's and I asked my company commander what all this meant, he just laughed and told me, "You're going to be a "snipe" (boilerman technician) on a Destroyer stationed out of Newport, Rhode Island. Ironically, my draft number was so high, I didn't even have to enlist. To say the least, I was not very thrilled with this assignment.
Navy warships are no different than other vessels out at sea, depending on the severity of the storm, they can take a tremendous beating. On our good will tour around the world we had gone through storms before, basically you tie everything down, button up all your outside hatches and sweat it out.
During severe storm conditions no-one's doing regular ships work but you do have to stand your watch. The bad news, 75% to as high as 90% of your crew will be getting sea sick, it's close quarters and there is no escape. Most guys just strap themselves into their bunks. My bunk was the worst one, the bottom one with two sailors above me. What this meant was, every time someone had to get into their locker, they had to lift up my bunk. Sometimes I felt like a goddam yo-yo.
The good news, and I always loved this part, there is no-one (and I do mean no-one) in the mess deck eating chow during these bad storms. It's all yours if you can just find a way to stand up, hold on and eat all that chow.
During the storm we faced out in the Indian Ocean, I was not eating chow but getting rather scared and a little bit nervous. This storm was so rough, and the waves so huge, we were taking in water and it was everywhere, including our ships corridor and even running down into our bunk room area.
Earlier that day we had a man over board alarm - "this is no-drill". I still don't know the full details about what actually happened, everyone took their assigned stations and my ship did not turn around to attempt the pick-up. It's a dead feeling inside you when that happens, even if you didn't know the guy, it's just a dead feeling. Later we were informed that turning our ship broadside in this storm could risk capsizing her and possibly losing the ship and our entire crew.
I don't remember the exact moment, our ship is going up and down and slamming so hard you could actually hear metal grinding noises that I knew was the backbone of our ship. I had had enough of this shit and decided it was time for me to take a visual look at this storm that was kicking the shit out of a US Navy destroyer (something I previously thought was impossible). I climbed the ladder and got out of our sleeping quarters and landed on our ships corridor, water everywhere and no-one in sight. It's against regulations to do what I did but I had to look outside and see this storm.
Timing the waves (and failing miserably), I made my way down the corridor to an outside hatch. It took many attempts but I finally got that hatch to open.
What I saw took my breath away, I've been on the ocean all my life and since I was a little boy, stormy waters, high winds and big waves were nothing knew to me. All I saw was a wall of blue heading for us, I looked but could not see the top of this monster. Fear is a funny thing, one second you realize your actually seeing a phenomenon few people are ever witness too, the next second you realize you yourself may not be around too much longer to ever tell the story.
I had seen enough, the force of more than just gale winds easily slammed the hatch shut. My ship went through that wave just like all the other waves in that storm. We had a great quartermaster (the ships steerer), his name was Wolfe. You love your quartermaster during moments like this and right now I was REALLY loving Wolfe.
Back to the motion picture The Perfect Storm and those brave commercial fishermen of the Andrea Gail. They were hit by a monster wave (and many others) and there is no doubt in my mind, they were all dead before any of them could say the words....I love you.
Don't pee your pants, it's only Asroc Missiles & Espionage!
If you're reading this and a teenager like I was back then, you may learn something very valuable here.
On a US warship way out in the middle of the ocean, you have only five things to look forward to and that's it!
I'll list them in the order of my own personal preference, other sailors might list them differently.
1) Liberty
2) Chow
3) Ships Mail Call (delivered by helicopter). This is always an adventure and on many occasions all those Dear John letters go right in the drink.
4) The Box & Smoke This is basically two guys with something to settle and it's done fair and square on the Asroc deck with boxing gloves. All sailors love the box and smoke, if your not on watch you get ringside seats and everyone is taking bets. If you're the lucky one wearing the gloves, this is exciting too, your adrenaline is pumped and all your buddies are rooting for you. In the US military the box and smoke is a great release of tensions for everyone.
5) The ships nightly movie.
Port of call, dry dock and the O.O.D. (Officer on deck). In a nutshell, when you walk up the gang ramp to any US Navy vessel you will meet the O.O.D. He is armed and unless he immediately recognizes you as a fellow crew mate, you're not getting on the ship without very good reason and proper identification.
The General Quarters Alarm can be given at any time and whenever the Captain deems fit. You will do this over and over again and this drill never ceases. In mere seconds your ship is ready to defend itself or go on the attack with missiles, high explosive shells or whatever.
The Asroc Missile Alarm is another matter indeed.
Asroc missiles are fired from the ship and enter the water - plain and simple they are submarine killers. Among other things, Destroyers kill submarines. No-one talked about it, but Asroc is also nuclear capable and very serious stuff in anyone's book. When your ship is dry docked on US Naval bases anywhere in the world, if you hear the Asroc Alarm go off, you freeze and I mean YOU DON'T MOVE. If you're on your way to the head (bathroom), you stop dead in your tracks and will piss or shit in your pants - you gladly do this rather then get shot.
The Asroc Alarm is breech of security, someone un-authorized has gained entry on your ship and is trying to steal top secret information (espionage). Quicker than you can blink, fully armed outside security forces storm your ship and hunt down the intruder. All sailors are well drilled on this and know the ramifications of screwing up - you can get shot.
On this particular day, I used poor judgment and screwed up bigtime. Right now, many readers of this website are saying: "Joe, it's seems you've used poor judgment and screwed up a real lot." To this I will only say, I most certainly did.
If my memory serves me correct, I believe we were at dock in Norfolk, Virginia. The Asroc Alarm went off, I was my on way to chow and only about 25 to 35 feet away from the mess deck hatch. Incredibly, there was no line of sailors (in the military you're always standing in lines). I made a run for that hatch but I didn't get far. A security officer yelled at me to halt, I ignored him and kept going, I didn't get a second warning. He cocked his weapon, I heard it and froze. Statues don't stand as still as I was now standing. He approached and went through me top to bottom, when he saw my military ID he got bullshit, basically this guy reamed me a new asshole.
Back to you teenagers that may be reading this, when your 18 years old, break the rules and screw up, you not only effect your own life but the lives of others.
The security officer was angry at me not only because I ran and didn't obey his halt warning, but because he was close to blowing me away and rightfully so - doing his job. However, all his life he would remember, he shot and killed, not an enemy of the United States (espionage agent), but an 18 year old sailor trying to beat the bullet for a plate of chow.
