Watch the Coast Guard's response to the Scandies Rose on "Deadliest Catch." The episode airs Tuesday, June 2, at 8 p.m. It was a hell of a boat and had a hell of a crew."
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That, plus the experience of the captain and the crew, makes it amazing that the boat was lost. Oilers from World War II, shrimp boats from China. "There are a lot of ships up there that are converted. "The Scandies Rose was built as a crabber," he said. He expressed his continued disbelief that he'd lost his boat and two crew members in the 2019 tragedy. "There's times we're just outside their helping hands." Or they're too far away," said Wild Bill. "Those guys will do anything and everything they can, but there are times when the Coast Guard can't get out there. While that help was there for the Scandies Rose, there are some things that even the Coast Guard can't do. Coast Guard/Petty Officer 3rd Class Blaize Potts) They hung up on a reef and, although they didn't lose anyone, it's a reminder that there's someone there for them.Ī Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Kodiak is pictured flying over the fishing vessel Bering Star in the Bering Sea.
Wild Bill hasn't been without his own close calls, and has been rescued from a reef by the Coast Guard after his ship lost its steering rudder at St. I remember one Sunday where six ships went down that day alone." "In the early days, fear was a motivational technique. But in the boats, we're out there working in it," he said. "In the Navy, we'd batten everything down and then go hide out in the bunks. When he first joined the boats, the crabbing industry would lose five or six ships every season, according to Wild Bill. I got to see a lot of the world's ocean, and it gave me the groundwork to be on the crab boats."īut the crab boats are nothing like the Navy. "But after that I did a it was pretty amazing. "I spent a lot of time in school and back then, if you wanted to go to school, they sent you to school," he recalls. They needed someone who could fix whatever went wrong. Out at sea, they can't just call in a repairman. Plus, he had mechanical skills to be the ship's engineer. His Navy training and experience taught him to be invaluable to a crabber's crew. To go from Navy E-5 to $47,000 was a real eye-opener." "The money was really good, and you had to pretty much be a lifelong friend or family member to be on the boats because the money was ridiculously good. "It was really hard to get a job back then," he recalled. But without his Navy service, Wild Bill might not ever have made it onto a boat. Wild Bill's first paycheck on the boats was $47,000 - which equals almost $166,000 in 2020 money - a far cry from the $600 he pulled in every month in the Navy. "I thought to myself, 'It's time for all my training, schooling and background to kick in.' I landed in Alaska and that was the beginning. They also had a pocketful of cash and new cars," he said.
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"They were so full of life and excitement. "Wild Bill" Wichrowski, fresh from the Navy, early in his crabbing career.