The Seafreeze Pacific and it's sister ship the Seafreeze Atlantic were built by American Stern Trawlers (a wholly owned subsidiary of American Export Isbrandtsen Company ). The boats were built at Maryland Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company and finished in 1968. The cost of the two 300-foot stern trawlers was approximately $10.5 million dollars, about the cost of a new Bering Sea crab boat today. Under a Marad loan, the US government subsidised about half the cost.
At the time, about half the fish consumed in the United States was caught by Japanese and Russian boats, much of it off the Pacific coast of the U.S. The Ships were built in hopes of establishing a U.S. trawl fleet. The boats produced individual quick frozen fillets. The waste and unmarketable fish were rendered into oil and meal.
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This is the Seafreeze Alaska, which started as the Seafreeze Atlantic. It was nearly identical to the Seafreeze Pacific and looks almost exactly like the boat I sailed on in 1969.
View of the stern
The fishing deck
At age 15, I was left in command of the largest U.S. fishing vessel while the captain and other officers worked on deck.
Trawl winches
Net reels
The factory
The freezer hold where I stacked my cardboard staircase to the ceiling
The fishing deck
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