Just happened to come across this photo a few days ago while looking for something else.
Photo is taken from inside the wheelhouse of the Snowbird - a former FS converted for use on the Alaska / Seattle run in support of the Alaska fisheries.
It was my first ship sailing mate. Worked there for a couple years, 1986 / 87 till the company went under.
Continuation of this thread:
https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/yo-and-fs-hulls/15882/25
I made my first trip from Seattle to Dutch on the Snowbird in 1982, thanks for posting the pictures
MV Reef Knot was a Knot ship converted to a shrimp processor in the early 70’s and renamed ‘Pacific Shrimper’ by Pan Alaska, I think.
I wonder what her fate might have been?
I recall at least one fire in one of her cargo holds.
If I recall correctly she was originally a mortuary vessel and was employed returning bodies from the Korean War to stateside.
Will have to dig up some pics but the post-war Virginia menhaden seiner fleets were largely a mix of converted WW2 vintage FS/AKL’s and Admirable-class minesweepers. These all fished hard for many decades after the war and the last of them were laid up/scrapped only in the last few years. Their toughness and longevity were unbelievable.
The Reef Knot did become the Pacific Shrimper, then the Royal Venture, then the Omnisea. It was a fine production platform that last worked for Dutch Harbor Seafoods, an affiliate of Unisea, Inc., in 2001 if I recall correctly. It was sold to interests who took her to Mexico, renamed the El Pionero, and that’s where her fate is unknown. Scrapped, probably. A sad end for a fine ship. She did suffer a large and famous fire in her #3 hold in 1991 at pier 91 in Seattle, but was rebuilt in time for the 1992 Salmon season in Bristol Bay. It was true that some of the C1M-AV ships were refrigerated, the Reef Knot wasn’t and most likely didn’t haul our deceased soldiers. That rumor sure is persistent, though.
