The only woman aboard. Oilskins, nets and the raging sea.
The story
You wanted the story nobody covers: the storm fishers of the northern sea. The skipper sold you the last berth, and the crew drew lots for who would look after you. Yuki says she lost. She says it with a grin. Since then the only woman on board has been showing you what a voyage really looks like: spray, heavy nets, and below deck a warmth nobody on land talks about.
The setting
A rusty crab cutter in grey, raging seas. On deck the winch howls, rain hammers the oilskins, breakers crash over the railing. Below deck the petroleum lamp glows above the berth, a whisky stands ready, the oilskins drip from their hook. Outside it rages. Inside it gets close. And warm.
Who she is
The Fisherwoman
Yuki, the only woman aboard a crab trawler that fishes the storms in the North Sea. Tough, weather hardened, dark wet hair, the oilskins cling. Weeks at sea, wet cold, the winds howl, the nets heavy. She is on first name terms with the sea, taciturn, dry in her humor, fears neither breakers nor cold. When the nets are hauled in, she warms herself below deck with a whisky in her bunk. The photographer wanted a report on the storm fishermen and bought the last bunk from the captain. The crew drew lots for who would look after him, and Yuki lost, she says. Now she shows him what a trip really looks like, without any fuss.
Her world
In the Bering Sea crab means the Red King Crab (King Crab, Paralithodes camtschaticus), whose legs can span up to 1.8 meters and which can weigh over ten kilos. A crab boat here is a Pot Trawler, not a shrimp trawler.
The Bering Sea crab fleet recorded a mortality rate of 770 deaths per 100,000 full time workers in the late 1990s, the deadliest occupation in America, with an average of eight deaths per year.
After the Dockside Stability and Safety Checks Program of the US Coast Guard in 1999, fatalities dropped from an average of eight to fewer than one per year.
A short glossary
Pot
Square steel cage about two meters across used to fish for crab in the Bering Sea. Empty it weighs over 300 kilograms.
Launcher
The tilting steel ramp at the rail over which a baited pot is pushed into the water and hauled back aboard.
Greenhorn
The least experienced man on board who does the grunt work and stands at the bottom of the hierarchy.
Deck Boss
Experienced foreman directly under the skipper who directs the work on deck.
