OVERLOOKED OVERLOADED: The Loss of FV Northern Belle

On Tuesday April 20, 2010 The Fishing Vessel Northern Belle sank suddenly in the Gulf of Alaska. The US Coast Guard, Kodiak Alaska received the Captain's Mayday call and were able to mount a harrowing rescue. Sadly, the Captain and his dog, Baxter were lost.

*Views presented are my own and the appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), NTSB & any other entities' visual information does not imply nor constitute their endorsement.

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▶Timestamps:
00:00 Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!
01:44 Northern Belle Vessel Origins
03:11 Incident Largely Overshadowed - April 20, 2010
04:45 The Aleutian Trade Act and "Grandfathered" Fishing Vessels Turned Freighters
06:48 Fishing Fleet Tenders & Northern Belle's Unique Configuration
09:20 Vessel Stability Overview
12:52 FV Northern Belle Gets Underway from Snopac Products - Seattle
15:18 The Northern Belle Transits the Gulf of Alaska - The Situation Deteriorates Rapidly
19:51 US Coast Guard Launches Air Assets Towards the Captain's Mayday Coordinates
23:15 US Coast Guard Findings, Recommendations and Discussion
31:32 Brick Immortar Op-Ed
35:09 In Memoriam...
35:22 End Credits

▶ A B O U T
Hey, I'm Sam! Full Time Parent & Creator. With a background in Workplace Safety Instruction, Logistics/Supply Chain Management & Industrial Robotics Programming/Engineering... Raising Awareness, Critical Thinking and Training are vital!

Your Safety Matters.

#Alaska #USCG #YourSafetyMatters

[rogerweaver]

As a former Bering Sea crab fisherman I have seen boats that were scary to even look at. I applauded the work the Coast Guard did in the 80's and 90's to bring fishing boats into compliance regarding safety while at the same time a lot of fishermen hated the Coast Guard for it. I was lucky to be on a vessel that stressed safety and made it a routine. The owners went so far as to send all crew to safety classes including medical emergencies, stability, firefighting, general watch standing and navigation. I never once felt unsafe during fishing operations even during the worst weather and conditions.

[tomhansen]

These shipwreck stories always make me a little emotional. My Dad was a crabber in Alaska. He went down in the Gulf of Alaska on the Pacific Surf in 77. They were unable to send a mayday and jumped Into survival suits and just piled into a life raft that soon began leaking. The next day they all jumped out to try and fix the raft and my Dad apparently had a heart attack and died. They tied his body to the raft but seas got rough and they had to cut him loose. He was 52. It was his fifth fishing accident. After drifting for 3 more days the survivors spotted a tanker and fired a flare. The Overseas Chicago saw the flare, took eight miles to stop, turn around and pick up the survivors.

[furiousstyles]

Coast guard rescue swimmers are hard-core, not very many people have the intestinal fortitude to do what they do. Much respect

[BlackKara]

That sign off of yours, "Your Safety Matters". Its so deeply impactful.

I heard a story once, of someone learning various labor laws for the first time. They had a chuckle at something like "Moving toxic materials is hazardous" or something of the like. An older co worker turned to them and said "These laws were written in blood".

And I think, after all this time, with protections being rolled back and times changing, now more than ever, everyone deserves to hear that their safety matters.

[JasonP]

Rest easy Baxter. You and the captain stayed together until the end.

[Chellz]

The Captain really helped save them, rest in peace to him.

Also you are absolutely right. I work in a field that is seen as a dangerous one but we don’t skimp on safety and making sure each of us gets back safely home at the end of our shift. We do all sorts of checks to make sure ever detail is spelled out to not take risk, even monitoring our rest schedules. So thank you for saying this, these men and women deserve to come home without that shrugging stigma. They have a right to safe passage and working equipment that can safe their lives. It’s outrageous how these feelings are normalized. Even to those of us who work in this industry. I’ve had to check coworkers at times for being complacent. We have these systems let’s all be safer and USE EM! I don’t care what work you do at the end of the day you have a life to live outside of that so make sure you’re doing what you need to to protect yourself and those around you. Complacency kills!

[KohalaKai]

Hey Sam, just feel a need to voice my love of the content you've been producing. I think its admirable how much effort you put into not only researching these video topics, but animating helpful visuals and delivering the information in a manner that gives respect to the gravity and seriousness of the matter at hand. Though I'm sure the YouTube algorithm would reward it, you don't sensationalize tragedy like so many other channels out there, you give the most informed, informative, and enlightening overview of a subject that you can and emphasize the significance of the things which could have been done to mitigate or prevent disasters in the case being studied as well as in the future.

I could (and would like to) go on about how amazing I find your channel and videos to be, but for the sake of brevity I'll just say this: While I'm not currently in a financial position to do so, once I am I will happily become a financial supporter of you and your videos. I know being a content creator for a fairly niche genre is difficult and not particularly well paying, but I cannot stress enough how much I believe you deserve the support required to continue. Please continue to make the content you want to see being made, I will happily be here to watch and support you as I can. Thank you for all your efforts!

[justinschmeisser]

As an Alaska mariner I really appreciate these videos. Thank you for shedding light on some of these disasters where most do not. 🙏

[cayman]

As a flag state surveyor, I use Northern Belle in my country as a case study on the importance of water tight divisions (especially in small craft), liferaft float free arrangements, EPIRBS on smaller craft, and the danger of fishing vessels moonlighting as add hock cargo ships when they are ultimately not fit for purpose. I may make use of your video here to save my voice next time I'm leading training. You closing remarks are very poignant, the amount of times I have had to sit down with owners and captains and explain how vessels stability works is shocking (or it was when I first started, now its par for the course). The responses are often the same "I know my boat and what it can take" or "well I have always done it this way and I've never gotten into any trouble out here", I now carry around a little binder with the examples of how these boats get loaded down with gear and modifications (like those stupid wings that guys think increase the boats stability when in actuality it makes it worse) and become unstable and are lost. They often end up saying "wait this can happen!?", yes and it happens all the time to people who think it will never happen to them.

The industry needs to shift away from this idea that suffering and high risk need to be part of the trade and that going out in unsafe craft should somehow be the norm. No getting yourself and your crew killed in way that are easily preventable doesn't make you a hero, it just makes you a statistic in my little book.

[Comnlink]

As someone who’s done marine emergency response, that last monologue you did hit deep. The sheer difference between the standards I’ve seen between our safety standards and those I’ve seen on other commercial vessels is staggering sometimes.

[Eseseso]

RIP to that captain (kudos to him sending out that distress signal before the ship sank) and Baxter.

[erikcharrier]

Former Bristol Bay fisherman here. Good video.

Good point about the lack of reserve buoyancy. Low freeboard tenders are spooky and can go down shockingly fast from lazaret leaks or equipment failures even in benign weather conditions.

An old family friend once rescued the crew of one unlucky (or very lucky) tender in Southeast Alaska that went down too fast to even get a distress call out. The tender was running in good conditions with the hold tanked down (flooded). It’s worth noting that fish are close to the density of water so it’s common for some vessels to almost always operate in a tanked down state for comfort/stability and therefore have very little reserve buoyancy aft. In this story, whatever failed happened so fast that the tender crew was in the water with no survival suits or radio transmission. Luckily for them, our friend was running his gillnetter through the same area, saw the tender flounder as it went down, and pulled the crew out of the water a few minutes later.

As a general comment, I understand the appeal of low working decks, but I’ve never really felt comfortable with how they’re implemented most of the time. Too many rapid sinkings. In contrast, the gillnet fleet doesn’t generally loose boats with no warning like that due to proportionally higher reserve boyancy.

[QuinnieMae]

Thank you for witnessing for Baxter. He may not have been human but he was a soul on board and obviously the Captain loved him. I've just discovered your channel tonight and the way you treat those that were lost is with thoughtfulness and dignity. Subscribed.

[shadowldrago]

May the Captain and Baxter rest in peace. May whatever comes next for them show them the kindness they deserve.

[ronaldstewart]

I grew up on my father's 85' long line sword boat ...he was adamant about the 24 hr inspection...bulk heads, door seals, bildge pumps, hydraulics, generator and main engine fuel filters and oil, life suits, raft, EPIRB, fresh water supplies...I thought he was a bit crazy about this...I didn't get it...until we were caught in a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico for 36 hours...40' seas.

[RT-qdyl]

Thank you for not leaving Baxter out of the memoriam. Sometimes in disasters like this people don't stop to think about the fact that pets are our family too and their loss hurts just as badly

[josephsager]

Something you said near the end struck me.
So many people forgo taking care of themselves because they think being selfless is the top priority for them.
My best friend, for example, always wants to do things for his coworkers, even if it's not in his job description or if they don't ask. He seriously burns himself out and gets nothing in return.
But you can't take care of others if you don't take care of yourself. Prioritize your own safety and well-being. For you, and for them.

[Maring]

I think about this event once in a while and how Baxter the dog was last seen hiding somewhere because he was scared by the commotion. It makes me sad to think about.

Once again a fantastic video, Sam. You're doing much needed work to protect workers from inexperience, complacancy, indifference and consequently potential death.

[msirrr]

I have an extreme fear of open water and won’t see myself on a boat anytime soon. But I really enjoy watching this kind of content. So happy I found your channel. One of the best!

[Turnip]

I've been following you for about a year now and I've been so incredibly happy seeing your growth and the direction you've taken the channel. Your content is without question the best in the genre on the platform because of the insane amount of work you put into it. Keep it up, I'm excited to see what's next!