Saw this on Reddit.
Man I saw that too, whole situation looks like a nightmare that might not make it through a storm. Not exactly comforting for weather in AK, but hey, gotta love the uninspected part of “Uninspected Fishing Vessel”.
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Wow… hopefully they follow through and report that to the coast guard. Just the general condition of that boat looks horrific…
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I liked the soft patch on the decades-of-rust pipe. Probably the strongest thing on that whole run of pipe.
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I believe that’s called “Structural Rust”!
If I understood that correctly I’ll give the capt credit for running him back in to get the heck off that boat…but that’s about all he gets credit for.
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Those power scows were built for World War 2, and not expected to be functioning in 2025. There are quite a few still up in AK working, and some are kept up pretty well. Others, not so much.
Don’t take a job engineering on an old boat if you don’t want to learn how to do old boat shit.
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The captain took him back to the dock to get rid of him because he was a liability, not an asset.
“Fuel is running toward the keel cooler.” So what? Does he think thats going to cause an explosion?
The captain probably went down to the engine room himself and solved the fuel problem with a little Splash Zone and a few absorbent pads.
The Bristol Bay salmon season is only one month long. Most of it is in shallow well protected waters in nice weather. There are literally hundreds of other boats around.
I don’t know that boat. Maybe it is a complete POS. Maybe it’s just old and tired with a few problems, but not really too bad. I don’t know.
Until the Subchapter M dry dock inspections kicked in there were a lot of similar tugs.
There still are a few tugs that aren’t much better. I cannot believe some of the stuff that the USCG misses or lets slide, especially piping and wiring.
Wait, you’re saying the crew member is a liability? For being concerned with a rusted through fuel tank, actively leaking fuel onto a paint tray, spilling on to a absorbent pad, into the bilge, and the bilge showing further neglect with disintegrating pipes so rusted and held together with damage control clamps it looks like actuating that ball valve might just shear the pipe off, and some mild copper corrosion for good measure? For a one month voyage? I don’t think explosion is the concern so much as the general seaworthiness of the vessel.
The captain is the liability here, who, per your comment, had 11 months to repair his boat and clearly gives no shits about maintenance, seaworthiness, or obviously the chance of some light pollution. Couple of guesses where that bilge gets pumped to in transit. Based on your comment I’d hate to see what you consider acceptable maintenance on your vessel!! Just because the USCG misses it or doesn’t ever see it doesn’t mean one can’t have some baseline standards of pride and seamanship.
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No time to waste now. The Bristol Bay salmon run typically peaks about the 4th of July. Got to go and get there in time.
There are a bunch of small boat fishermen depending on that tender.
The captain was probably just hired a couple weeks ago.
I can recall 40 years ago using JB Weld (epoxy) to repair a crack in a tug fuel tank.
I also recall getting an older wooden fishing boat ready for the season, getting the crew and grub aboard and going to the fuel dock on the way out of the harbor.
When a relatively small fuel tank was filled it leaked through the rusted out top. We pumped a barrel of fuel out of it and went fishing. We burned the rest of that fuel on the way to the fishing grounds and discontinued use of that tank. The tank was replaced at the end of the season.
Sounds to me like this so-called engineer freaked out about a minor problem (on a WW II era wooden boat) that was easy enough to work around.
Worse than that, he appears to be some kid who doesn’t know any better than to be posting on the internet about it.
That’s not a rusted out fuel tank, that’s probably a very small hairline crack at the worst but more likely a decades old small section of porosity in a weld that corroded open and is weeping a small amount of fuel. I’ve seen clean, fresh, nice looking fuel tanks that audiogauged perilously thin and were an extreme hazard of catastrophically rupturing in moderate weather. They looked great though.
He was hired despite his lack of experience because the vessel lacked an engineer. That explains the whimsical nature of that repair. He could choose to look at it as an adventure and carry forth the pride, experience and know how that comes with nursing a decrepit old boat through a tough season or he can choose to bitch on Reddit and go to the dock. He made his choice.
Calm waters never made good sailors and perfectly maintained engine rooms do not make good engineers. Fishing vessels are unique in offering the opportunity of learning how to take a poorly maintained messy disorganized shit heap of a vessel and turning it into a sharp operation through grit and determination on a shoestring budget. I once took over a vessel whose engine room was an abhorrent mess with 27 wooden plugs below the waterline and around 50 soft patches ( I stopped counting) and turned into a sharp looking organized shit heap ready for anything. With 44 wooden plugs and over a 100 soft patches. Those lessons stay with me for life and so does the pride.
He had an opportunity he will never get again. Insurance and class inspections will prohibit it. And he’ll be a worse engineer for it.
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I agree in part, regarding the learning. I learned a lot of basic engineering troubleshooting and repair skills on older ships where things broke. To be fair though, I also learned a lot of advanced skills on brand new ships where things broke. But we still endeavored to keep her looking fresh.
Perhaps my beef is with the vessel owner. It just sounded to me like you and tugsailor were defending the boat being in “shit heap” condition in the first place because that’s the way it’s always been. I don’t think it should be. Someone let it get that way and everyone thereafter let it stay that way. That to me is an unacceptable standard for an industry.
Ha! Now that sounds like a commentary on the USMM in general…
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Exactly. That vessel shouldn’t be putting to sea in that condition.
The question is, if it’s a “tender” then is it actually a fishing vessel exempted from proceedings on unseaworthiness? Or can a claim be made per USC?
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