I was unfamiliar with the Discovery Channel show, ‘Deadliest Catch’ which features among others, the crew of Time Bandit the Fishing Vessel of Andy & Johnathan Hillstrand. However, I recently caught a doco on one of the local free-to-air stations here called ‘The World’s Deadliest Jobs’ which is about the Bering Sea Crab Fishermen. Shortly afterward I noticed the book, Time Bandit in a bookstore and grabbed it – it is fascinating.
Quoting Andy in chapter 5:
“When [most guys] meet someone like Johnathan and me, no matter what walk of life they come from, something in them responds. It’s like they are saying, “My God, you are doing something I’d die to do.”
Also from chapter 5, Chelsey, Andy’s daughter notes:
Fishermen live with the notion they can be erased at any moment; they are forced into a camaraderie of survival. On a boat, they know that they have to work together to survive. Alone, they will die. Crabbing is the extreme version of fishing. … They know that they lay their lives on the line every time they get on a boat, but they can be reassured that their crew will rush to their rescue. This forms a brotherhood. Other men respect them for what they do. They defer to them in some instinctual way. They envy this brotherhood for its exclusivity. It is very primal, this overcoming of obstacles again and again. It runs in a fisherman’s blood. He lives and breathes to that. More than anything, it is a way of life.
Filed under: General | Tagged: Bering Sea, Crab Fishing, Deadliest Catch, Time Bandit
