Tag Archives: Abandon Ship

What Happened on the Prinsendam



The Greatest High-Seas Rescue in Coast Guard History

Imagine alarm bells startling you from a peaceful sleep aboard a luxury cruise ship at 1:00 a.m. You didn’t take the “abandon ship” drill seriously on your first afternoon on the boat, and now, you struggle to remember what to do in an emergency. You find your life jacket and open the door to your cabin. The passageway smells smoky, and you hear an explosion in the bowels of the large ship. You realize the boat is not moving, and you can’t hear the rumble of the engines. Your concern morphs into panic as you race after the other passengers fleeing their cabins.

The above scenario played out for passengers on the cruise liner Prinsendam in the early morning hours of October 4, 1980.

Sources

Day, Boswell. “The long blue line: Prinsendam – Coast Guard’s ‘Miracle Rescue’ over 40 years ago!” November 24, 2022. Commandant’s Bulletin Magazine.

Hartmeyer, Phil. Seascape Alaska 5: Gulf of Alaska remotely operated vehicle exploration and mapping: Search for Prinsendam.” September 5, 2023. NOAA Ocean Exploration.

McClear, Rich. “35th Anniversary of the Prinsendam, Part 1: The Rescue.” October 21, 2015. KTOO.

McClear, Rich. “35th Anniversary of the Prinsendam, Part 2: The Response.” October 21, 2015. KTOO.

McClear, Rich. “35th Anniversary of the Prinsendam, Part 3: The Reporting.” October 23, 2015. KTOO.

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Robin Barefield lives in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, where she and her husband own a remote lodge. She has a master’s degree in fish and wildlife biology and is a wildlife-viewing and fishing guide. Robin has published six novels: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, Karluk Bones, Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge, and The Ultimate Hunt. She has also published two non-fiction books: Kodiak Island Wildlife and Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. She draws on her love and appreciation of the Alaska wilderness as well as her scientific background when writing.

Robin invites you to join her at her website: https://robinbarefield.com, and while you are there, sign up for her free monthly newsletter about true crime in Alaska. Robin also narrates a podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. You can find it at: https://murder-in-the-last-frontier.blubrry.net

Subscribe to Robin’s free, monthly Murder and Mystery Newsletter for more stories about true crime and mystery from Alaska.
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Abandon Ship: The F/V St. Patrick Disaster



When crew members decide to abandon a floundering ship in the North Pacific in the winter in twenty-foot seas, they know they are unlikely to survive, even when they do everything right. If the captain can send out a May Day, everyone dons a pristine survival suit and seals it around their face, and they deploy and enter a life raft, they still face a long list of things that could and often do go wrong. Proper gear, training, and the captain’s strong, calm, logical voice significantly increase the crew’s chances of survival. The crew of the F/V Saint Patrick had none of these things, and they paid a horrible price for their decisions.

In the mid-1970s through the 1980s, the death rate for commercial fishermen soared to seventy-five times the U.S. national average for deaths on the job, and the mortality rate for fishing in Alaska in the winter peaked twenty-five times higher than the death toll for the rest of the commercial fishing industry.  It was nine times more dangerous for an individual to take a job fishing in the winter in Alaska than to become a miner or logger, the two following most hazardous jobs. Strict changes in government oversight of mandatory safety equipment and crew training brought these numbers down. Many commercial fishermen did not welcome new regulations in their industry, but the Saint Patrick disaster demonstrated the necessity of these safety measures.

Sources:

Moore, Anthony. “F/V St. Patrick that sunk in Women’s Bay, Kodiak in 1989 is leaking.” August 19, 2021. Radio Kenai.

Resneck, Jacob. “Kodiak’s ‘ghost ship’ Saint Patrick remains pollution hazard decades later.” September 2, 2021. KTOO.Org.

Sullivan, Toby. “The romance of the sea wears thin – The St. Patrick disaster, December 1981.” November 23, 2016. Kodiak Maritime Museum.

Walker, Spike. Nights of Ice. “Journey of no return.” 1997. New York, NY. St. Martin’s Press.

Walker, Spike. Working on the Edge. Part Four: “The deadliest season: fishing the Gulf of Alaska aboard the Elusive and watching as Tragedy strikes the Alaskan Fleet.” Chapter 8. 1993. New York, NY. St. Marten’s Press.

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IF YOU ENJOY LISTENING TO YOUR NOVELS, CHECK OUT THE AUDIOBOOK VERSION OF

MASSACRE AT BEAR CREEK LODGE

________________________________

Robin Barefield lives in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, where she and her husband own a remote lodge. She has a master’s degree in fish and wildlife biology and is a wildlife-viewing and fishing guide. Robin has published six novels: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, Karluk Bones, Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge, and The Ultimate Hunt. She has also published two non-fiction books: Kodiak Island Wildlife and Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. She draws on her love and appreciation of the Alaska wilderness as well as her scientific background when writing.

Robin invites you to join her at her website: https://robinbarefield.com, and while you are there, sign up for her free monthly newsletter about true crime in Alaska. Robin also narrates a podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. You can find it at: https://murder-in-the-last-frontier.blubrry.net

Subscribe to Robin’s free, monthly Murder and Mystery Newsletter for more stories about true crime and mystery from Alaska.
Join her on:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
Visit her website at http://robinbarefield.com
Check out her books at Author Masterminds

___________________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to support Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier? Become a patron and join The Last Frontier Club.
Each month Robin will provide one or more of the following to club members.
· An extra episode of Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier available only for club members.
Behind-the-scenes glimpses of life and wildlife in the Kodiak wilderness.
· Breaking news about ongoing murder cases and new crimes in Alaska

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Merchandise! Visit the Store