Post by Steve Sinclair on Jul 10, 2016 12:47:39 GMT
Dutch Harbor, Alaska…..
The name might sound familiar to you if have been watching the Discovery channel TV hit The Deadliest Catch for the last ten plus year. This is the place where the fleet gathers and gets ready for the upcoming crabbing season and is the backdrop to the show. You’ll see that it is referred to it’s nickname, Dutch. “We’re heading to Dutch.”
Well they aren’t alone. Nanook is also heading to Dutch. His old stomping grounds……
Yes Nanook, the manager to Joe, Billy, Racing Tyme, The Bad Ass James Kelloggs and hopefully Bester who himself was a former wrestler out on the West Coast got his start in of all places, Alaska. The place he was born and raised. His dad was a crabber. He grew up on the docks. He spent two season on a crab boat…..and hated every blasted second of it. Hazed unmercifully as a “green horn”. He caught hell for being too slow baiting the pots. Never having enough bait ground up, not cutting the cod right. He even got hell for not tying the door to the pot tight when it wasn’t even his job. One time as a 17 year old not as chubby version of himself, he got punched in the face and his nose broken for not counting right during sorting. But the biggest abuse he used to get came over his name and how he looked.
His Dad wanted a baby girl in the worst way. Nanook was the fourth child born in about as many years in the mid seventies and the three that came before him, were all boys. Dad wanted a girl and kept trying till he got a girl, on try number twelve. Nanook was born during Red Crab season and just like his brothers before him, and after him, His dad missed his birth. Now crabbers miss allot while out at sea and he’s not the first guy to miss the birth of a child and he wasn’t the first and unlike most couples, who didn’t know what the sex was of the unborn child, they agreed to name the child no matter of the sex Kim. It’s a name that in theory could go either way but they hoped it was a girl above all things so let’s give the kid a name that really is a girls name.
Kim was born November 15th 1974 and has been a big disappointment ever since.
As a teenager he had no desire to get into the crabbing business despite the fact that his dad mortgaged everything they had to buy a boat. Crabbing wasn’t in his blood. It also didn’t help that he was six foot ten and 290ish pounds when he was 16 either. By the time he turned 18 he was seven foot one and 340 pounds. And no where’s coordinated enough to keep his balance on the deck of a crab boat in the Bering Sea getting tossed around. Kim fell down….a lot. Like, all the time. On and off land. He’s knees hurt, his hip hurt. He had a hard time keeping his balance, for someone who was 300 plus pounds a light breeze would send him tumbling. He was the biggest mark in high school. Everyone picked on him. Physically and verbally. The worst abuse came from his own father. Especially when Kim told his old man he didn’t want to work on the boat but rather go to school and study economics and become a commerical real estate agent. As a kid, Kim would study the stock market and track the local housing market. He was Zillow for Dutch Harbor before there was a internet. He would buy stocks, on paper with fake money he made from other “deals” he made and before he would look at the paper’s stock section, he would buy and sell his stocks and check that’s day market, which was really yesterday’s market to see how he did. On paper, he had a million dollars. But then again he was running a day behind everyone else. Upon telling his Dad what he had planned for his life after he graduated, his dad wasn’t very pleased.
“I need you on the deck!” he barked. “Baitin’ them pots! Catching crab!”
“And not pay me like you don’t pay my brothers. That’s how you you’re the most profitable ship in the fleet Dad! You keep all of the money! And that ship is a death trap! You need to put money into that ship!” A defiant Kim said as he stood his ground….which he didn’t have for long as his old man knocked him down to the ground, stood over him and told him point blank.
“If you don’t work on that damn boat! I have no need for you and can’t stay here. Everyone does their share on that boat to keep a roof over our heads. To keep the lights on, food on the table! If you don’t want to pitch in then you need to leave.”
Kim tried to “pitch in” killing himself getting all sorts abuse and bruises for no pay. Meanwhile he was scared to death that he was going to die out at sea. During strings he would sit on the stairs in the front of the ship that everyone called the tool shed and look at all of the rust on the rivets on the bow of the ship. Rivets that held the ship together. He worried about the engines staying running because as far as Kim could remember, they have never been rebuilt let alone replaced. He would look up at the white smoke coming from the one stack and wonder how much longer it would hold together. After two season Kim couldn’t do anymore.
“Dad! I’m leaving. I’m going to California. I’m going to Berkeley and going back to school.”
“Oh so you going to be one of them fancy ass educated guys huh?”
“You might want to send Tim (his brother after him) to mechanic's school so he can rebuild them engines in the engine rooms!”
“Oh so you’re an engineer now?”
“If I was at least you’d have one!”
“Is that a fact?”
“You’re all going to die on this boat! Mark my words, you’ll have trouble at sea and you’re all goners. That boat needs a overhaul and you know it! New engines, hydros…”
“And where does that money come from?”
“Seriously?” Kim fired right back. 18 years old and the first of his brothers and only sister to stand up to him. His older brother Scott, he was just as stupid as his old man. Just as strong headed too. Travis and Henry were alcoholics before they turned 21 and the only thing they knew was crabbing. Tim, his first younger brother, wanted to fix old cars and work on boats. He wanted to work in the shipyard himself but Dad forbid it and Tim just agreed and worked on the deck without saying a word. “You caught half million pounds between King Crab, Oppies and Bairdi plus you got paid to go out and catch cod for the fishery! Even if you only got 2 dollars a pound, that’s a million bucks! I saw the receipts for bait and fuel, you still have 900 grand left over and all of that went into your pocket seeing how you DON’T PAY THE HELP!”
That’s when Kim’s old man, a chiseled old gritty man that he was, had salt water running through his veins, who cheated his family from money earned out on sea, who would get drunk and beat mom, and his kids, if they weren’t hiding, realized that he had a son who could do math and had a head on him.
And he had to go.
He picked up his pack of smokes. Sat down in his and only his captain chair. Fired up his unfiltered camels and stared out the window of the wheel house and calmly told his son, the fourth of his name.
“Get the fuck off my ship and don’t bother going home either. Find your own way down to the lower 48 and go to that fancy school of yours. You’re not wanted around here no more.”
That was 1992 and the last time Kim, aka Nanook talked to his Dad and four of his brothers.
Nanook would make his way to Fairbanks, discover wrestling and worked his way into Canada and Washington scraping pennies together while he played the role of the “White Basketball player who can’t dunk” “Drunken Alaskan” “Andre’s retarded love child” “Mesmar, the cow god” “Baba Ganoush” and finally “Nanook, the irate eskimo” He played many roles to help put guys over. He never won a title in his “wrestling career” but he did learn of fine arts of being a manager, and a agent in today’s pro wrestling. He also had a good eye in spotting raw talent and getting them trained and setting them on the path of being a star in the sport.
He did go Berkley.
He did get into real estate and does pretty good for himself flipping commercial property.
And he eventually did make a million dollars on Wall Street for reals.
In 1995 the family crabbing ship was lost at sea during a bad storm. The ship was never found and all aboard was lost.
Nanook’s mother, blamed him for the tragedy. “You disrespected your father and broke his heart.” she said. “Don’t you ever come home. Do you hear me?” She demanded. ”Yes mother”
A month later, Sally his only sister, the daughter he was meant to be, wrote him and in the letter she said “Mom was cleaning out Dad’s shop…..” A old storage container behind the house that was made into a workshop. “Mom found two old trunks full of money. There is so much money. What do we do with it?”
”Don’t buy a crab boat.” was Nanook’s reply…………
The name might sound familiar to you if have been watching the Discovery channel TV hit The Deadliest Catch for the last ten plus year. This is the place where the fleet gathers and gets ready for the upcoming crabbing season and is the backdrop to the show. You’ll see that it is referred to it’s nickname, Dutch. “We’re heading to Dutch.”
Well they aren’t alone. Nanook is also heading to Dutch. His old stomping grounds……
Yes Nanook, the manager to Joe, Billy, Racing Tyme, The Bad Ass James Kelloggs and hopefully Bester who himself was a former wrestler out on the West Coast got his start in of all places, Alaska. The place he was born and raised. His dad was a crabber. He grew up on the docks. He spent two season on a crab boat…..and hated every blasted second of it. Hazed unmercifully as a “green horn”. He caught hell for being too slow baiting the pots. Never having enough bait ground up, not cutting the cod right. He even got hell for not tying the door to the pot tight when it wasn’t even his job. One time as a 17 year old not as chubby version of himself, he got punched in the face and his nose broken for not counting right during sorting. But the biggest abuse he used to get came over his name and how he looked.
His Dad wanted a baby girl in the worst way. Nanook was the fourth child born in about as many years in the mid seventies and the three that came before him, were all boys. Dad wanted a girl and kept trying till he got a girl, on try number twelve. Nanook was born during Red Crab season and just like his brothers before him, and after him, His dad missed his birth. Now crabbers miss allot while out at sea and he’s not the first guy to miss the birth of a child and he wasn’t the first and unlike most couples, who didn’t know what the sex was of the unborn child, they agreed to name the child no matter of the sex Kim. It’s a name that in theory could go either way but they hoped it was a girl above all things so let’s give the kid a name that really is a girls name.
Kim was born November 15th 1974 and has been a big disappointment ever since.
As a teenager he had no desire to get into the crabbing business despite the fact that his dad mortgaged everything they had to buy a boat. Crabbing wasn’t in his blood. It also didn’t help that he was six foot ten and 290ish pounds when he was 16 either. By the time he turned 18 he was seven foot one and 340 pounds. And no where’s coordinated enough to keep his balance on the deck of a crab boat in the Bering Sea getting tossed around. Kim fell down….a lot. Like, all the time. On and off land. He’s knees hurt, his hip hurt. He had a hard time keeping his balance, for someone who was 300 plus pounds a light breeze would send him tumbling. He was the biggest mark in high school. Everyone picked on him. Physically and verbally. The worst abuse came from his own father. Especially when Kim told his old man he didn’t want to work on the boat but rather go to school and study economics and become a commerical real estate agent. As a kid, Kim would study the stock market and track the local housing market. He was Zillow for Dutch Harbor before there was a internet. He would buy stocks, on paper with fake money he made from other “deals” he made and before he would look at the paper’s stock section, he would buy and sell his stocks and check that’s day market, which was really yesterday’s market to see how he did. On paper, he had a million dollars. But then again he was running a day behind everyone else. Upon telling his Dad what he had planned for his life after he graduated, his dad wasn’t very pleased.
“I need you on the deck!” he barked. “Baitin’ them pots! Catching crab!”
“And not pay me like you don’t pay my brothers. That’s how you you’re the most profitable ship in the fleet Dad! You keep all of the money! And that ship is a death trap! You need to put money into that ship!” A defiant Kim said as he stood his ground….which he didn’t have for long as his old man knocked him down to the ground, stood over him and told him point blank.
“If you don’t work on that damn boat! I have no need for you and can’t stay here. Everyone does their share on that boat to keep a roof over our heads. To keep the lights on, food on the table! If you don’t want to pitch in then you need to leave.”
Kim tried to “pitch in” killing himself getting all sorts abuse and bruises for no pay. Meanwhile he was scared to death that he was going to die out at sea. During strings he would sit on the stairs in the front of the ship that everyone called the tool shed and look at all of the rust on the rivets on the bow of the ship. Rivets that held the ship together. He worried about the engines staying running because as far as Kim could remember, they have never been rebuilt let alone replaced. He would look up at the white smoke coming from the one stack and wonder how much longer it would hold together. After two season Kim couldn’t do anymore.
“Dad! I’m leaving. I’m going to California. I’m going to Berkeley and going back to school.”
“Oh so you going to be one of them fancy ass educated guys huh?”
“You might want to send Tim (his brother after him) to mechanic's school so he can rebuild them engines in the engine rooms!”
“Oh so you’re an engineer now?”
“If I was at least you’d have one!”
“Is that a fact?”
“You’re all going to die on this boat! Mark my words, you’ll have trouble at sea and you’re all goners. That boat needs a overhaul and you know it! New engines, hydros…”
“And where does that money come from?”
“Seriously?” Kim fired right back. 18 years old and the first of his brothers and only sister to stand up to him. His older brother Scott, he was just as stupid as his old man. Just as strong headed too. Travis and Henry were alcoholics before they turned 21 and the only thing they knew was crabbing. Tim, his first younger brother, wanted to fix old cars and work on boats. He wanted to work in the shipyard himself but Dad forbid it and Tim just agreed and worked on the deck without saying a word. “You caught half million pounds between King Crab, Oppies and Bairdi plus you got paid to go out and catch cod for the fishery! Even if you only got 2 dollars a pound, that’s a million bucks! I saw the receipts for bait and fuel, you still have 900 grand left over and all of that went into your pocket seeing how you DON’T PAY THE HELP!”
That’s when Kim’s old man, a chiseled old gritty man that he was, had salt water running through his veins, who cheated his family from money earned out on sea, who would get drunk and beat mom, and his kids, if they weren’t hiding, realized that he had a son who could do math and had a head on him.
And he had to go.
He picked up his pack of smokes. Sat down in his and only his captain chair. Fired up his unfiltered camels and stared out the window of the wheel house and calmly told his son, the fourth of his name.
“Get the fuck off my ship and don’t bother going home either. Find your own way down to the lower 48 and go to that fancy school of yours. You’re not wanted around here no more.”
That was 1992 and the last time Kim, aka Nanook talked to his Dad and four of his brothers.
Nanook would make his way to Fairbanks, discover wrestling and worked his way into Canada and Washington scraping pennies together while he played the role of the “White Basketball player who can’t dunk” “Drunken Alaskan” “Andre’s retarded love child” “Mesmar, the cow god” “Baba Ganoush” and finally “Nanook, the irate eskimo” He played many roles to help put guys over. He never won a title in his “wrestling career” but he did learn of fine arts of being a manager, and a agent in today’s pro wrestling. He also had a good eye in spotting raw talent and getting them trained and setting them on the path of being a star in the sport.
He did go Berkley.
He did get into real estate and does pretty good for himself flipping commercial property.
And he eventually did make a million dollars on Wall Street for reals.
In 1995 the family crabbing ship was lost at sea during a bad storm. The ship was never found and all aboard was lost.
Nanook’s mother, blamed him for the tragedy. “You disrespected your father and broke his heart.” she said. “Don’t you ever come home. Do you hear me?” She demanded. ”Yes mother”
A month later, Sally his only sister, the daughter he was meant to be, wrote him and in the letter she said “Mom was cleaning out Dad’s shop…..” A old storage container behind the house that was made into a workshop. “Mom found two old trunks full of money. There is so much money. What do we do with it?”
”Don’t buy a crab boat.” was Nanook’s reply…………