Captain Phil Harris: The Legendary Crab Fisherman, Our Hero, Our Dad Hardcover by Harris Josh

Author:Harris, Josh [Harris, Josh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781451666045
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2013-04-23T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

DEADLIEST VOYAGES

Crab fishing is not a job, it’s a mentality. You can get past the physical pain. What we endure, you could train a monkey to do. It’s when you deal with your own demons, dwelling on them because you have all that time to think at sea, that’s when you crack up.

When I get panic attacks, and I’ve had my share, I try to think about home. But if I focus too much on stuff back on land, I might make a mistake and kill somebody. Or kill myself.

It can be really fucked-up out there. So why do I keep getting back on that boat? Because it’s the only thing I know how to do. You get addicted to the lifestyle. You earn fast money and then you come home, party your ass off, forget what you had to do to earn the money, then go back and do it all over again because you ran out of cash. You’ve got bills to pay and there’s no other way you can make money like that except perhaps dealing drugs.

For every full pot of crab we pull up, there are fifteen blank ones. On the show, fans see us bring in all that crab, but they don’t see how long it really takes to get it. People think we are out there for a couple of weeks. No, it’s more like nine months.

You work thirty-six hours and get four off. It’s not real good for your health, screws with your emotions, and you become coldhearted and arrogant. There’s no pain in the world like the pain you feel up there in the Bering Sea.

You never know what’s coming. You can go from calm conditions with a little overcast to, thirty-five minutes later, ninety-mile-an-hour winds and thirty-five-foot swells. You get slapped in the face by Mother Nature, your face freezes, and layers of your skin just start falling off.

People meet me and say I look a lot bigger on TV. It’s not my size they see on the screen. It’s the size of my job.

—Josh

In 1983, Phil was scheduled to leave on the Golden Viking in search of blue crab. While the boat was being loaded at the dock, Mary, on hand for her husband’s departure, experienced a weird vision unlike anything she had ever seen. The Golden Viking suddenly appeared to her as a black silhouette, no longer three-dimensional.

“It looked like a death ship,” Mary later recalled, still shuddering at the image.

She told Phil of her vision and begged him not to go.

“Why don’t you just say you want to spend another night with me,” he said, “instead of lying about it.”

He was grinning, but his wife had ignited an old fear. Phil was a product of a fishing culture that had adhered to superstitions for centuries. Considering the ever-present threats fishermen face, it’s not surprising that their desperate desire for a safe voyage causes them to latch on to anything that can give them hope, false though it might be.

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