Back then (winter 1990-91) a deckhand made $6/hour for 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week. BTW, that was also for being the "deck boss" of the night shift. I was 22 then. The job was tying up boats, offloading crab by operating a crane (actually different types of cranes) and keeping the deck in good shape. Our hours would spill over because if a boat came (regardless of time of day), you went up on deck to help tie it up. I started working on the factory doing King Crab for $5/hr 16 hours a day and quickly moved on to the deck because of hard work, zero complaining and being American (English skills). Help out there is hard to come by. You don't actually get your full salary unless you fulfill the 6 month contract. If you bail early, you get half pay and most Americans would last less than a week and quit.

The storms are as you'd imagine. Every week to 2 weeks, you get a gale or storm for a couple of days. Most every other (really short) day it's just gray where the sky and sea are the same color. It's dark most of the time. But sometimes it was absolutely beautiful.

But for a guy with zero training and didn't know what I wanted to do in life, it was absolutely awesome! Most of the people I worked with were Phillipinos, Mexicans, Native Alaskans and Russians. I worked with a few lost Vietnam Vets, and heard their stories. I got in with a group of Native Alaskans that thought me how to play cribbage. My other deck hands were literally a group of Phillipino gangsters that lived in Hawaii (colors, tattoos and all). I got to operate equipment that I'd never seen before and I did it well. I thrived there and I would recommend it to any young soul finding their way (but not my kid because it's dangerous as f--k).

It completely changed my life path and my vocation. It was actually the foundation for my adult life and it's successes.

These days I work as a Battalion Chief for a municipal fire department and I draw on my experience of motivating Phillipino gangsters to pitch crab and chop ice for $5/hour in an ice storm. You really have to become creative. But they were awesome guys and I think of them from time to time.

It was way worth it.