Merchant Marine Tugboat adventures in Alaska
Welcome to the Merchant Marine Tugboat adventures in Alaska
Bow near Anacapa Island
I flew to Anchorage then on to a tiny airport to a place called King Salmon in which I and the other AB Nick Bertman on the boat were picked up by the Capt Jeff Morrison and Chief Mate Dave Whitemarsh. Both with a good sense of humor and quite pleasant, the short drive to the boat which was in Naknek was sitting in an ugly shipping yard full of refrigerated 40ft containers. This place exists to collect, process, freeze or can and ship fish. Mostly Herring, Salmon & Crab. Out in the middle of nowhere and desolate as hell! Not too many nice sights and no town to speak of, Population 400! We were given a safety briefing and orientation of the vessel. Also met the 2nd mate Andrew Schmitt who was fresh out of Maine Maritime Academy and Chief Engineer Scott who was sick and had to be discharged 2 days later. There are 2 ways to get started in Tugboats both requiring you are first qualified as an able seaman; one AB does the cleaning, chipping & painting. The other is a designated cook in charge of all meals, provisioning, cleaning of the galley and food inventory. Both do ALL deckwork and cargo work which mostly are performed on the barge and some on the tug itself. There is zero training; you are thrown into the fire right from the get-go. The work is long and hard as all lines, chains and hardware (shackles, turnbuckles ect.) are of large diameter and heavy. You work in all weathers and you do not stop until it is done, 16 hr days are not uncommon. You are rarely allowed ashore and there is no provision for fun, personal space, comfort or individual desires. The days of drunken nights in the bars and cathouses are long gone, as now there is a zero tolerance policy and one infraction is cause for immediate issue of discharge papers. Welcome to the Merchant Marine!
The places we go all have cannery operations which process Salmon, Herring, and Halibut in cans or vacuum bagged, frozen, packaged then packed in 20 or 40ft containers. Onboard we have to sustain for months and be completely self sufficient. It is funny that my whole life I have never worked in a restaurant of any kind and now I am ships cook with NO training??? A steep learning curve for sure. I have never used a cookbook in my life and I go though them like a priest reads a bible now! Nick, our other AB is in charge of painting and cleaning and works the opposite watch. No one has an “easy job” and the Capt himself does not hesitate to help haul lines when need be. Tugboats are really in a realm of there own in the maritime world and I must say I have never known anything about it before now but I was in for a lot of learning and a lot of hard work in a very hostile place! You never stop moving and you are always pushed for time. The work can be very dangerous as well. The very next day not only did I have to cook but also had to do “cargo” which entails lashing down all the containers stacked 4 high on this huge barge (240ft) with heavy chain and turnbuckles. Dragging gear all over the deck all the while working next to these huge fork lifts or a 250 ton crane that lift these mammoth boxes 50 ft into the air. Dirt, dust, fumes, mud, rain, wind hot or cold everything moves and nothing is delayed. I did not envision this I can assure you! This business is a serious affair and a lot can go wrong and people can be killed. When we “make tow” we have to connect our tow wire to the barges bridle.
The chain weighs several tons and is secured with a “Swede Wire” to retrieve the massive tow shackle at the end of the 4 ton chain “pig tail & bridle”.
When we first get underway the barge is towed “on the hip” or secured on the side of the tug. When we are clear of confined waters we can release lines and tow from behind. This requires us to do it manually and climb up on the huge barge then climb down to the tug when you have “cast off”. The lines are huge and weigh hundreds of pounds so 3 crew are required for each line. Once we get going we can attend to ships business and I cook 3 meals for all 6 crew members. I am getting better and stick to every cook book we have! Crews come and go as they are discharged after there “Hitch” is over. A rotation based on seniority, assignment, time of season, position, availability and demand. Our Master Jeff was discharged and immediately replaced by Capt Mark, a gruff & tuff 60 Yr old with about 40 years of experience mostly all on fishing and commercial vessels and a man who (as we would find out) does not hold what he is thinking to himself. He was described to us as “a nice guy” Jeff was actually my age and was quite pleasant most of the time. Mark did not say too much when he first came on board…… Hey Cap’n can I fix ya something to eat? I said. No not right now. What do you usually eat? Regular shit. He says Ah… ok let me know if you are hungry later. Don’t worry I will he said! Later he would tell what, when, how much and with what sauce, side and it had to be on time! There was hell to be had if it wasn’t. Before dinner he liked to “hover” in the galley to keep an eye on me. Outside of these small ugly working towns Alaska is a beautiful place where there are flocks of birds in the millions, whales, dolphins, orcas, fish, bears, elk, deer, birds, sea lions, bears, foxes ect. But little time to enjoy that for there is always work to be done. There is a very rigid schedule on board and all crew follow duties with precision. It is necessary when onboard for 2 months and when you never know what to expect and when to expect it. I do important engine checks monitoring the powerful 16 cylinder Caterpillar diesels and generators (2 each). The noise never stops, the gen sets are like jackhammers that run 24/7. They provide shipboard power to the tug and massive yellow containers contain gen sets to keep the barge containers or “refers” (refrigerated containers) 40ft long packed full of a million dollars of Alaskan King Crab and there are over 120 on the barge.
Many things you must become desensitized to like bitter cold, hammering noise, dust, fumes, sore muscles and hours of concentrated labor, dangerous operations and hostile Captains. In between all this are some amazing sights too, once we saw pods of humpback whales (like we sighted on the Double Dolphin in Santa Barbara) among an endless flock of tens of thousands of sea pigeons then an hour later I saw for the first time in my life, Orcas in the wild! It is so rare to be in a place so untouched and wild. We are in some pretty ugly places and the next day we will be piloting through some very beautiful places with huge tidal rips bringing marine nutrients to the animals and mammals who need it. As we go through some of these small passages, too small for ships, we have to bring the barge closer to the tug “shorten the tow” as the water gets more shallow. The strong tide makes the barge go sideways and the mate has to correct the helm appropriately.
Soon it will be time to get back on the barge when we “flop the barge” to “tow on the hip” this is called, “call out” and it is many times at an ungodly hour, freezing, dark, windy, raining fume filled and noisy.
Once again we bring the barge in to the wharf to “make fast” (tie up the barge) unlash, break chain & turnbuckles, drag chain, stack gear then load, attach locking cones, sort & drag chain, insert dogs on chain, lash, shackle, tighten turnbuckles all under the watchful eye of the Stevedore up on the pier who will loudly tell some one when things are not to his liking or when someone does not work hard enough. Once we receive our cargo documents, off we go again! But first the Capt must join us on the barge to “call her in” he will give commands to the Chief Mate who cant see a damn thing on the other side of the barge. He will also affectionately give commands to us as he is looking right over your shoulder and has freedom to move about as he wishes. AB’s what are you waiting for? Don’t fiddlefuck around and get up on that fuckin barge! When the tug is secured tightly to the barge we go to the “inboard” side of the barge to prepare lines. Being very heavy the 2nd mate and 2 AB’s work together to “fake” the lines on deck and prepare the heaving line to toss to the longshoremen waiting on the wharf to assist. Sometimes we tie the barge to a large ships mooring and use a “grappling hook” or “pike pole” to grab the “tag line” which is attached to the heavy mooring line.
Being away from family is hard and I miss them very much. It is such a nice homecoming walking in the door having the dogs jumping up licking my face and Blaise come running into my arms, Sierra kissing me. These are things that are valued the most up North miles from nowhere. I would get this on a nightly basis as a coastal operator but now as an offshore seaman it is a very different life. As I write the boat is pitching into a heavy head sea and the tow wire strain reverberates through Mololo’s steel hull. Power is never a problem as we run one of the large generators 24/7 for 120 volts throughout the 105ft of the ship. We get DVD’s to watch on our laptops or in the crew mess in our off watch times when we are not dead tired and we actually have a few days of transit time. How this nature of work is respected I can easily see as it is a challenge every day and the men and women who work up here all work extremely hard. They are a tough group and the work never ends. Sitting at home watching “world’s most deadly catch” beer in hand you cannot accurately imagine how it actually is like in this maritime atmosphere, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month until you come up here and work it. They do not hire anyone as the turnover is great and it takes a serious mariner with ambition and dedication to stick with it.
-Barry Bourdon
