Deadliest Sea (15 page)

The
Alaska Ranger
was one of seven ships owned by the Fishing Company of Alaska (FCA). The boat was originally built as an oil-rig supply vessel in the early 1970s. In the late 1980s, it was converted to a factory fishing trawler.
Photograph by Ed Cook

To catch fish, the trawlers lower a huge net off the stern and drag it across the ocean floor for miles at a time. Then the fishermen behead, gut, and freeze the fish in a factory one level below the ship’s trawl deck.
Photograph by Ed Cook

The view from the deck of the
Alaska Ranger
in February 2008, as the ship fished in ice near the Pribilof Islands.
Photograph by David Hull

The crew of the Coast Guard’s 6007 Jayhawk helicopter was the first to reach the sinking site on the morning of March 23, 2008.
(Left to right:)
Aircraft Commander Brian McLaughlin, pilot Steve Bonn, rescue swimmer O’Brien Starr-Hollow, and flight mechanic Rob DeBolt.
Photograph by Byron Cross/USCG

The Coast Guard’s Hercules C-130 number 1705 took off from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage within half an hour of getting the report of the sinking ship. It would take the search plane several hours to reach the disaster site.
Photograph by Evan Isenstein-Brand

The Coast Guard’s 378-foot cutter
Munro
raced toward the
Alaska Ranger
on its turbine engines at close to 30 knots.
Photograph by Kurt Fredrickson/USCG

Like all Coast Guard air crew members operating over cold water, Jayhawk pilot Brian McLaughlin wore an orange drysuit with a snug rubber seal at the neck and a lightweight personal floatation device (PFD), which inflates with the tug of a drawstring. The pilot’s helmet is equipped with night-vision goggles and an audio system that allows the rescuers to communicate over the deafening thud of the helicopter rotors.
Photograph by Henry Leutwyler

Helicopter crews can use a metal rescue basket to pull up victims from the water. Though the basket is rated to 600 pounds, it is extremely rare to lift more than one person at a time.
Photograph by Henry Leutwyler

Rescue swimmer O’Brien Starr-Hollow saved the lives of more than a dozen of the
Alaska Ranger
’s crew members. He wore a neoprene hoodie under his reflective helmet, as well as a mask, snorkel, and fins. The yellow arms and reflective tape on his drysuit allowed Starr-Hollow to communicate in the dark with his flight mechanic in the helicopter above.
Photograph by Henry Leutwyler

Captain Eric Peter Jacobsen had been working for the FCA since the mid-1980s, but he had only been the captain of the
Alaska Ranger
for a few weeks.
Photograph courtesy of Karen Jacobsen

Like all FCA ships, the
Alaska Ranger
had a Japanese fish master, Satoshi Konno, whose official job was to direct the trawler to the best fishing grounds.
Photograph courtesy of Richard Canty