Comments on: How not to be safe while commercial fishing

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 18:39:42 +0000

Tim W:

Good points in that article you linked to. It seems to have been a point of pride not to take those simple precautions, plus perhaps people relax about the risks if they’ve been doing this a long time without incident. Probably seems wimpy to do it.

By: Tim W

Tim W — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 10:43:13 +0000

I thought this article provided some desperately-needed context — which was completely glossed over in the NY Times coverage:

http://gcaptain.com/trying-very-hard-to-die/

By: JKB

JKB — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 03:35:41 +0000

What they leave out is that most MOB have their fly unzipped. Hips above the rail, both hands occupied.

By: JimBobElrod

JimBobElrod — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 23:38:34 +0000

Aldridge’s story reminded me that I recently watched “Captains Courageous” on TMC. I believe one of the last scenes was filmed at the fisherman’s memorial in Gloucester.

By: Mr. Xyz

Mr. Xyz — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 17:25:23 +0000

There are some additions to the memorial at Gloucester, perhaps on account of the movie “The Perfect Storm” that was filmed there. There are now plaques of the names of those lost and an absolutely stunning statue of a woman looking out to sea with her children. This second statue at least is known as “The Fisherman’s Wives’s Memorial”. This is one of the better images I’ve seen of it.

http://otrwjam.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/gloucester-ma-5368-men-lost-at-sea-from-this-port/

If you’re moved, check out the one at night with the full moon on Google Images.

By: J.J.

J.J. — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 16:24:55 +0000

A great story of courage and the will to survive. I wonder if he will ever work alone on deck at night again. If so, a life line or tether might be a sensible precaution.

The basic industries – agriculture, fishing, logging, mining, oil/gas drilling, construction (the dirty hands jobs) – are where so much of our wealth is created. The government, through all it’s tedious, and for the most part, unnecessary environmental rules/regs, is strangling the goose that lays the golden eggs.

By: Mr. Xyz

Mr. Xyz — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 14:49:17 +0000

Truly one of the great survival stories, even if I had to go to the NYT website, and I do add a comment about the story at the end of this comment; but the sight of the Gloucester statue which I saw many times while watching the annual “Horribles Parade”, reminds me of another great survival story out of Gloucester from the late 1800’s about Howard Blackburn a fisherman who was fishing on a dory away from the mother ship when a squall came up.

The story is better told in the book “Lone Voyager”. He was not alone at first, but lost eight fingers and two half thumbs, and then went on to make spectacular lone voyages across the Atlantic as well as circumnavigating the eastern USA as a lone sailor. hxxp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Blackburn

He must have become the most famous resident of Gloucester and owned a Tavern there which is now a restaurant with memorabilia. Oddly, another famous Gloucester character, Mason Walton, was a hermit who wrote nature articles and also a book. It’s a very charming book in which he describes his relationship with the animals that came to visit him. At one point he says he would take his pet raccoon for walks like a dog.

I had thought this book rare and perhaps only still available in the Gloucester Library, but I see now that an edition came out in 2008 and you could buy it on Amazon through Neo’s site!

http://www.amazon.com/Hermits-Friends-Eighteen-Years-Woods/dp/0548989842

A more epic survival story, if you don’t mind the gruesomeness, is “In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex”. This describes the incident which inspired “Moby Dick. They did sail out of New England, but the real story is off the Pacific coast of South America.

The one thing that nagged me about the Montauk story is: I don’t think they tell you why the lobster trap lines always run east-west, perhaps it has something to do with prevailing tidally induced currents? I think the author has simplified the story and that lobster traps are not literally “always laid out along an east-west line”.

By: parker

parker — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 07:20:13 +0000

The salt of the earth – those who put food on the table, and put fuel in the engines, and build the shelter, and protect the (mostly) undeserving ‘innocents’ – are the real heroes. We have forgotten where we came from and what made us a truly great nation, a society never before seen upon the earth. This will not end well.

By: Jenk

Jenk — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 04:54:13 +0000

Yeah, I knew about the Mohawks but never knew why–helluva way to make a living, even if it was the “family business”. But that’s also how it is with the fishermen and quite a few other trades and occupations–one is expected to carry on the family tradition even if not necessarily so inclined. Just ask any mummer after he’s frozen his butt off….

By: Artfldgr

Artfldgr — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 02:12:39 +0000

unlike the marines you cant change realities settings for pullups or screwups… so there arent many women in any of those stats… the disparate impact in terms of occupational deaths is, to say the least, gargantuan

though i hear from time that men are obsolete…