It was the middle of the summer and a huge storm blew across the Gulf of Alaska forcing the commercial troll fleet to either take cover in some anchorage or race to town and tie to a dock. Most of the fleet opted for the town run and a nice time fellow shipping in town.
The harbors were packed with boats and activity was non stop. Boats were being repaired, restocked with food, and even some trading deck hands for a fresh go the last half of the season.
I had decided on making my storm tie up in the little board walk town of Pelican. By the time I arrived most of the good stalls were filled, but the harbor master found me a spot way on the inside and near the ramp, easy access to the store and gym. Not bad at all for me.
When the entire fishing fleet is forced in at one time it jams the unloading at the one cold storage and a waiting list is made. When you are in sight of town you can then call the cold storage on the radio to get your boat name on the list. You then tie to the dock and just wait for your turn. When enough boats are in it can mean a wait of several days.
Each boat unloads its catch of salmon, the deck hand then shovels the tons of dirty ice out of the fish hold into the ocean, then scrubs the hold completely, and tons of new ice is blown back into the clean hold.
Most times the hold up in the unloading is in the clean up and re-icing. If things tend to drag tempers flare and things can get a bit ugly. This late in the season, and with the weather calling for days of blow, no one is in a hurry.
I had gone to one of the town's two restaurants to eat a burger ( a $20 ordeal in the 80's), and then back to the boat to listen for my name to be called for unloading.
I was pleasantly surprised to find live music on the dock as I neared my boat. A group of young people were playing guitars and singing. They were lined along the dock in a straight line to allow the fishermen to pass by. Near where they were playing and singing was an open slip. No one seemed to pay attention the reason for the open slip.
I sat down to listen to the impromptu group, enjoying the rare entertainment. These youngsters were pretty good. Others were stopping to listen as well.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge troller approaching the empty slip. The boat was owned by a good friend of mine so I decided to put my things on my boat and then help him tie up once he got into his slip.
The singing group was on the far side of the little dock just doing their thing.
As the captain eased the huge boat into the slip he throttled back shifted from forward to neutral, then into reverse. As the bow of the boat was about five feet from the dock he throttled hard in reverse to bring the massive boat to a stop. The deck hands were ready to jump off with tie up lines.
Instead of reverse, the massive boat lurched forward and drove straight into the dock. It was not going very fast but with tons and tons of weight it hit the dock like a battering ram.
"Crash!"
The singers and guitar players were mowed down like pulling a blanked out from under their feet!
I could see it like slow motion as the entire group toppled over backwards.
The big boat was still racing its engine and still in forward instead of reverse!
The Captain quickly shut down the engine and the deck hand secured it tight with the tie up lines.
The poor captain hopped off the boat and raced to the pile of singers. He was red in the face and apologizing profusely.
It seems his boat used a hydrostatic shifter and a link in the line had chosen that moment to come apart.
He had shifted the boat into reverse but the broken link kept the transmission in forward causing the boat to ram the dock.
Everyone was laughing like crazy. No one had been inured, except the captain's pride.
We all laughed about it for days to come.
To me standing a bit away it looked like a boat bowling ball hitting a strike, knocking down every standing pin!
