Anyone spend anytime on or familiar with the processing ship All Alaskan? Was a mainstay amongst processing ships in the Dutch / St. Paul area for yrs....
The one that caught fire was the galaxy or if your talking about the one they turned into a cannery it's called the star of kodiak and was owned by tyson until trident bought it but it was originaly an all alaskan cannery
The All Alaskan caught fire in July 1994 while doing processing in the Bristol Bay salmon fishery. Everyone was rescued, but one fireman was killed while fighting the fire. Electrical problems caused the fire.
Fortunately, they had just done an abandon ship drill the day before. A passing tug boat pushed the ship to keep everyone upwind of the smoke, and they all acted as trained. The Captian of the tug received awards for his heroism in rescuing 131 people!
I don't know what ever became of the ship--whether they rebuilt it or not.
Anyone have any info on a few guys that worked for All Alaskan in 1989-90? Would like to check in on some guys I worked with.....Gary Cobb, Sean Hickey, Warren Hubbard, Scott Schrimsher, Vic Valente or Bob Kirks....anyone have any info or have ran across them when in Dutch or Kodiak let me know, would be much appreciated.
Originally posted by akraven: The All Alaskan caught fire in July 1994 while doing processing in the Bristol Bay salmon fishery. Everyone was rescued, but one fireman was killed while fighting the fire. Electrical problems caused the fire.
Fortunately, they had just done an abandon ship drill the day before. A passing tug boat pushed the ship to keep everyone upwind of the smoke, and they all acted as trained. The Captian of the tug received awards for his heroism in rescuing 131 people!
I don't know what ever became of the ship--whether they rebuilt it or not.
Salmon season had ended and they were travelling from the bay to Dutch. Two guys were doing firewatch, when they smelled smoke coming from the hold. They were down on the 'tween decks at the stairs going to the after freezer hold (this was on the "new ship")
The guy who died did not do so fighting the fire... he panicked and turned INTO the fire, rather than going the other (safe) way with his co-worker.
They did not rebuild this vessel, but scrapped it out.
Originally posted by pribilofgal: My brother was on there for awhile, he got off the day before it ran aground in st. paul
The one that ran aground was the first M/V All Alaskan... a knot ship like the Yard Arm Knot. If went aground off of St. Paul Island during opie season in 1987. There was a large salvage operation that went out to scrap it during salmon season 87 or 88... can't remember which year. It was replaced by the modified knot ship in '89... also named "M/V All Alaskan" This had a 40 foot extension, plus sponsons.
This "new" AA was the one that caught fire on it's way to Dutch... but I also believe the Star of Kodiak had a fire too... but I wasn't around then.
Originally posted by akraven: The All Alaskan caught fire in July 1994 while doing processing in the Bristol Bay salmon fishery. Everyone was rescued, but one fireman was killed while fighting the fire. Electrical problems caused the fire.
Fortunately, they had just done an abandon ship drill the day before. A passing tug boat pushed the ship to keep everyone upwind of the smoke, and they all acted as trained. The Captian of the tug received awards for his heroism in rescuing 131 people!
I don't know what ever became of the ship--whether they rebuilt it or not.
Salmon season had ended and they were travelling from the bay to Dutch. Two guys were doing firewatch, when they smelled smoke coming from the hold. They were down on the 'tween decks at the stairs going to the after freezer hold (this was on the "new ship")
The guy who died did not do so fighting the fire... he panicked and turned INTO the fire, rather than going the other (safe) way with his co-worker.
They did not rebuild this vessel, but scrapped it out.
I'll confirm that. I was one of the 131 on it that day. Found this posting while trying to digg up a photo of it.
We got double lucky. We had already dropped off nearly all of the salmon and over half of the workers and were headed from King Salmon to Dutch Harbor.
templegault...I was on the M/V All Alaskan in 1990 crab season. I remember some of the people you mentioned...not heard from anyone. My name is Tony Shimmin, perhaps you remember me.
I worked On the All Alaskan for two contracts. 1989. I worked King crab, opelio, king salmon, polock. A buddy of mine joined the crew after hearing my stories. He was on the AA when it caught fire, and ran aground. I heard the fire was in the machine shop. The guy that died was an engineer on the ship. Curious to connect with anyone I knew then. The captain was named Tom. The night foreman was Al, and the day foreman was Mitch ( I think). It was an experience that I think about regularly still. Glad to have found this forum.
yea tom was the master's name. Thomas Marshall, i have the coastgaurd video of the fire aboard the all alaskan,tons of pictures ,jackets postcards pictures of the wheelhouse and captain. i have all this because hes my dad. how bout that for info. and I remember sean hickey the cutter jarvis was the first response.
Originally posted by akraven: The All Alaskan caught fire in July 1994 while doing processing in the Bristol Bay salmon fishery. Everyone was rescued, but one fireman was killed while fighting the fire. Electrical problems caused the fire.
Fortunately, they had just done an abandon ship drill the day before. A passing tug boat pushed the ship to keep everyone upwind of the smoke, and they all acted as trained. The Captian of the tug received awards for his heroism in rescuing 131 people!
I don't know what ever became of the ship--whether they rebuilt it or not.
Salmon season had ended and they were travelling from the bay to Dutch. Two guys were doing firewatch, when they smelled smoke coming from the hold. They were down on the 'tween decks at the stairs going to the after freezer hold (this was on the "new ship")
The guy who died did not do so fighting the fire... he panicked and turned INTO the fire, rather than going the other (safe) way with his co-worker.
They did not rebuild this vessel, but scrapped it out.
I'll confirm that. I was one of the 131 on it that day. Found this posting while trying to digg up a photo of it.
We got double lucky. We had already dropped off nearly all of the salmon and over half of the workers and were headed from King Salmon to Dutch Harbor.
I was also on All Alaskan that day.
The crew had multiple abandoned ship drills but there hadn't been one for weeks. The last drill took place prior to the start of salmon season. (I bet that post that stated otherwise was authored by a lawyer or someone with rose colored glasses.)
On day of the incident, while working on the second deck with Sparky (I can't recall his given name) I notice thick heavy black smoke coming up from the stairwell and soon after Sparky went to sound the alarm. No others, to my knowledge, were working in the forward compartment and lower deck areas. The majority of the crew was in the aft of the ship in separated living quarters.
During the initial alarm, after everyone made there way to the upper aft deck, I clearly remember seeing confusion and panic in eyes of many of the crew as compressed gas canisters were going off like rockets leaving huge fire-balls in their wake.
During the evacuation, I and my crew, from the sorting/freezing area, and a bunk mate took charge of launching the life rafts. It was not our assigned task but there was an obvious gap that needed filling so I told the captain that we would launch the rafts on his order. We had a front row view, short of the half-a-dozen deck hands, that manned a few fire nozzles aimed at the flames on the forward decks. We launched ahead of orders.
Of the total All Alaskan crew, one member died, and the rest of us were picked-up by tug, passed to another processing vessel, and ultimately delivered to Dutch Harbor…
I was one of last to get off of that ship. I remember passing the Captains' full brief case from one raft to another over-turned raft, less than 5-minutes before we climbed onto the deck of near-by tug. Some of the crew was able to climb directly onto the deck of the tug; however, the tug backed away as the flames and explosions worsened. The captain of that tug deserved an "award for his heroism" and I applaud him and his crew for coming in close enough to get us away from the burning All Alaskan..
There is a lot more to this story but I’ve got to go… I wish all my best to the surviving crew and a special warm smile to Naomi.
Nice to find this. I was also onboard during the fire and one of the guys helping with the life rafts.
The man who died was named Kyle K. Smith, but everyone on the ship knew him as "Corndog." He was a gentle kid who was the butt of a lot of teasing during the fishing season. I think he was only about 20 years old. He DID die fighting the fire, so I want to give the man his respect. Captain Tom ordered him to gear up and fight the fire as part of the team.
This is what I heard from his fire-fighting partner; they tried to get to the freezer where the fire started, but when they opened the freezer hatch there was a backdraft of flame. Kyle panicked and ran. Even on the weather deck, the smoke was so thick that we couldn't see from port to starboard. Down below decks, it would have been nearly impossible to find a way out on ones own. No one could find him either.
We didn't completely abandon ship until well after Corndog's oxygen would have ran out. He died alone, probably terrified. He did die doing the job he was ordered to do and deserves respect for that.
I was also there that day and I concur with all that was said above I have a scrapbook with photo's of the fire that day and other news articles that have I have kept over the years so if anyonr is interested contact me at my email address roger-7734@hotmail.com
Hi! I did a summer contract with All Alaskan in 1991.. or was it 1990..hmmm..anyway, I was a processor and I worked as the housekeeper/dr assitant/store helper/laundrey assistant for 2 months. The cook/ship dr.s name was "Duke" but don't remember his real name. I tell coworkers stories of life "on the boat" and they can't believe it! One "All Alaskan" story: One of the "Freezer guys" developed big pain in his side. Being that we were all pretty young, Duke thought he might have appendicitis. Duke went up to the wheel house to beg the Coast Guard to send a helicopter to pick up the young (large) guy. We were anchored off of Kodiak. The CG wouldn't risk the flight out b/c it was foggy..I sat with the guy in the medic bay and read about how to perform an emergency appendectomy while he begged me to give him a morphine shot..for hours! I really thought we would have to perform surgery on the boat. If his app burst, he would die of shock before he would get to the hospital. If I gave him morphine, it might kill him too!! He was suffering so much, he was crying and sweating but I didn't want him to die b/c of me!! Finally, the CG came and got him. They folded up that 6'-5" 280lb guy to fit in that tiny basket and flew him away to the hospital where they discovered...he had a gall bladder attack! I could have given him the morphine b/c he was never in any danger of dying but I'll always remember feeling the responsibility of someone's life. By the way, I don't have any medical training. I had only worked for a Veterinarian...ha,ha Also, I remember one of the ships engineers..he was a young guy who was also an artist who painted ducks/mallards etc...what a crazy time. I'll always remember (most) of it..anyone who wants to share stories drop me a line...grace.
