Twilight_Scribe
patreon
Chapter 13: Life as a Greenhorn
🕑 Added 2025-06-08 09:41:31 +0000 UTC
On the Annie II, nobody called him Henry.
From day one, the crew followed Captain George's lead and gave him a new name—Greenie.
Short for greenhorn. New guy. Rookie.
Or in plainer terms: the guy who knows nothing and has to earn everything.
There's an old saying:
Old hands give orders, mid-timers wait their turn, greenhorns shut up and survive.
And on this boat, Henry was the greenest of them all.
The other men? Even the "least experienced" had sailed with George last season. Henry didn't even know how to tie a proper knot when he came aboard.
But he wasn't here to prove how strong he was. That would've been easy. Too easy.
Sure, he could lift a steel crab pot one-handed or crush a frozen latch without blinking—but why? To make people suspicious? Draw attention?
If he wanted an easy life, he would've stayed back in the bar.
This was the real world.
And here, respect had to be earned.
Captain George didn't tolerate hazing—but he didn't coddle, either. That first day, during the calm sail toward the Bering Sea, was the last moment of peace anyone would get.
After that?
It was hell on water.
---
Twenty-one-hour workdays.
That was the average. And no, that didn't mean a straight three-hour break to sleep. Those three hours? Scattered across the day in five- or ten-minute slices.
Maybe an hour and change, if you were lucky.
Work ran in shifts—two or three hours per rotation, with tiny breathers in between. Enough time to piss, wolf down cold food, and collapse on whatever flat surface you could find.
Lunch and dinner? Those were the only two "real" breaks—maybe twenty, thirty minutes tops. If the cook was feeling generous, you got hot stew. Otherwise? Crackers, jerky, and hope.
---
The work? Brutal. Dangerous. Nonstop.
Each steel crab pot weighed over 750 pounds. Henry's job was to stuff bait sacks—usually bloody chunks of meat—into the cages, then help haul and prep them for drop.
And once a pot hit the water? No break.
Because there wasn't just one pot.
There were dozens.
As soon as one dropped, it was time to winch up the next. Rinse, repeat, reset the bait, and send it back into the freezing black below.
Then came the ice.
The sea spray didn't just soak the deck—it froze on contact. Every surface became slick, deadly, and top-heavy with jagged ice buildup.
If too much ice collected?
The boat would list.
And then capsize.
So even when the pots were in the water and the lines coiled... no rest.
Out came the sledgehammers.
Time to smash ice.
Again.
---
Greenie didn't get near the winches—those were for seasoned crew only.
He worked the deck. Helped prep the gear. Helped sort and haul the catch.
And when they finally winched the cages back up?
Well, those crabs didn't come out politely.
King crabs were armored nightmares—giant, spiky bastards with claws like bolt cutters. Even hauled from deep sea, they were fast, aggressive, and damn near weapons-grade.
The claws could take a finger if you got sloppy.
So everyone wore gloves.
Even Henry.
Sure, his skin could probably tank the damage—but he wasn't out here to be Superman. He was out here to be a man.
Just one of the crew.
---
But none of that—not the workload, not the danger—was as bad as the weather.
The Bering Sea in October wasn't just cold.
It was lethal.
Freezing salt wind ripped straight down from the Arctic, laced with sleet or snow, often slamming into the boat like a freight train.
Waves towered over ten meters high. Wind gusted over sixteen miles an hour.
And the Annie II was not a cruise ship.
Every step was a fight for balance.
A wrong move could send you flying off the deck and into the ocean.
And while this wasn't the Navy—George would order a rescue if someone fell overboard—nobody was under any illusions.
In seas like this, going overboard meant maybe a 60-second survival window.
If someone didn't spot you fast enough, you were just gone.
---
The real test for greenhorns wasn't guts.
It was whether or not you puked your soul out.
Seasickness wasn't optional—it was a rite of passage. But if you couldn't get it under control?
You were useless.
Every crab season, dozens of boats lost crew to "dock walk"—newbies who bailed after a single day, puking their guts out and begging to go home.
That's why so many boats were always hiring.
Henry had considered pacing himself. Taking it easy. Saving energy.
Then he lived through one full shift.
Between the ice, the crabs, the constant movement, and the hellish cold... he got it.
Nobody here worked slow because it was a choice.
You worked fast because the faster you worked, the sooner you went home.
Every hour on deck was gambling with death.
Better to be done in five days than risk dying on day nine.
---
That's why a good captain was everything.
And George? George knew the sea.
He couldn't see the crabs on sonar, but he knew how to find them. Years of instinct. Gut feeling. Maybe luck, too.
When he dropped the first set of pots, they came up full.
Again and again.
With a lesser captain, you'd be out there for two weeks praying for a half-load.
With George?
Five days in, they were halfway to full.
---
And Greenie?
The crew loved him.
Sure, he didn't know a damn thing at first.
But once he learned something—he never had to be told twice.
No ego. No whining. No slacking.
He took orders, worked fast, asked smart questions, and never, ever complained.
When he made a mistake, he fixed it.
Fast.
Hell, even the old hands were impressed.
And best of all?
He wasn't trying to show off.
No posturing. No macho bullshit. No "look what I can lift" nonsense.
Just a guy doing his job—better and better, every shift.
Five days in, he was already helping with advanced tasks.
Only thing he hadn't touched was the helm.
But everything else?
From gear maintenance to crab sorting?
He was in the rotation.
And no one had a bad word to say about him.
