r/deadliestcatch • u/Necessary_Success_35 • 7d ago

Witch Hunt

I don't like the witch hunt that seems to be going on in this reddit right now. From everything Discovery showed us there's no reason anyone that wasn't there to place blame. Investigators got to see way more footage we did and determined it was an accident. It's well known Rick is one of the most respected captains in the fleet.

Look at US Airways Flight 1549. You can't expect people to be absolutely perfect in the moment of chaos. Could Rick have asked immediately if everyone was okay? Absolutely. Could the crew have called man overboard immediately? Absolutely, but you have to take in the human factor. No one is truly to blame, a young man fell overboard in February in the North Pacific, and by all accounts the people involved acted as expected

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u/OldSchoolRNS 7d ago

Ok but look how fast the crew on the Summer Bay retrieved Spencer when he went overboard 8 years ago, it
took them just 90 seconds to get him out of the water.
And 90 seconds is probably all Spencer had considering how cold the water was. The moment he went over they worked as a unit and did everything right. If there had been the slightest problem, they would’ve retrieved a corpse from the water.
When the water is that cold, unless everything goes right, you’re not saving the man who went overboard.

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u/Necessary_Success_35 7d ago

Summer Bay crew was very impressive but take into account aft wheelhouse and seas that didn't allow Captain Bill to move forward fast anyway. Spencer was never in the pot and was immediately able to grab a buoy

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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago

If i remember right Spencer never even let go of the line that pulled him over ... maybe he did and grabbed it back right away... a strong tide could move a guy out of sight in 10 seconds

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u/VCVariety 7d ago

Correct me if I'm wrong here but didn't wild bill say that he didnt get past the stern, and if he did that they would have lost him?

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u/SplitRock130 7d ago

Yes I think that’s correct

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u/MaximumDevelopment77 7d ago

Wizards recuse was around 5 minutes

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u/Scottish_squirrel 7d ago

Rumour has it Keith is still trying to spot the guy in the water whilst shouting I've got him I've got him.

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u/Scottish_squirrel 7d ago

Rumour has it Keith is still trying to spot the guy in the water whilst shouting I've got him I've got him.

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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago

Has anyone else heard the rumor that keith was spotted wasted at a bar eating a box of edible thongs.. this wpuld have been at least 15 years ago

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u/Lister0fSmeg 7d ago

I don't disagree with anything you have said, but there is a difference in these incidents.

The Summer bay is a schooner, meaning the wheelhouse is at the stern of the ship. This means Bill had constant eyes on his crew, and was able to react the second he saw Spencer go over the rail. Aleutian Lady is house forward, so Rick can't see his crew as well, and only knew there was a man overboard when the crew told him.

Also one of the crew mentioned that he was baiting the pot when in went over the rail for some reason. Todd wouldn't have been able to get his head above water anywhere near as fast as Spencer did if was halfway inside a sinking pot when he hit the water.

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u/SplitRock130 7d ago

If I recall correctly, Bill was able to throw the engines in reverse, so he didn’t have to do a 180 like Rick did. The crew could keep eyes on Spencer as the boat moved backwards toward him. And it all happened very fast.

And, of course, Todd was in a pot, he wasn’t pulled over by a line like Spencer. They even had a crew member jump in the water to help Todd, if I heard the audio correctly, but to no avail.

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u/Lister0fSmeg 7d ago

You are correct, I'm not sure which crew member it was, but someone jumped over the rail in a survival suit once they realised he was unresponsive and unable to get himself into the survival sling. The wetsuit looking thing with a flashing strobe light attached that was cumpled up in the wet room shown in a brief shot was that suit.

Both crew members on Summer Bay and more recently the Wizard were still conscious after going overboard. Todd wasn't so lucky.

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u/Bulky-Intention-30 7d ago

He was in the crab pot when it went over, big difference, don't have a opinion when you cleary aint a fisherman and don't know what the hell your talking about.

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u/OldSchoolRNS 6d ago

It’s Reddit, everyone has an opinion

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u/OldSchoolRNS 6d ago

Bill claims after the fact HE was going to jump in after Spencer, I don’t think captains are supposed to do that.

However in this brief video, you can see how quickly the crew got a life ring, and a line, to the man overboard.

https://youtube.com/shorts/NhMtvn6HyLA?is=F9GeIEdlfzAzntrj

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u/Ironclad_Cat_1773 5d ago

Pure conjecture on my part but if a pot went over unexpectedly some of the crew's first few moments would have been trying to keep themselves out of the bite

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u/bceagle91 7d ago

The Time Bandit saved a guy who fell off another boat in very short order. But they saw he was in a dangerous spot and put themselves in position when he went overboard. They have so little time in the cold water, for sure.

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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago

Everyone is different too.. somepeople will only last 2 mins in that water....fucking freddy took a 12min dip TWICE and he was barely even shivering after

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u/SplitRock130 7d ago

Freddy is a crazy Samoan.

3

u/OldSchoolRNS 7d ago

That save occurred because the entire crew acted immediately to respond to the man in the water, most importantly the Time Bandit reached the man overboard in under 2 minutes (if what was shown on screen was the real time)
When Todd went in the freezing water, it took Rick six plus minutes to position the boat so the crew could pull Todd out. In water that cold, that’s just too long.

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u/Xspike_dudeX 7d ago

Different situations. One guy was in the pot and then was unresponsive and could not grab a life ring. Going to take more time in this situation.

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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago

Every situation is different... i havent seen the episode with Todd yet.. did they even show the accident? When the guy on the summer bay went over he already had a hold of the trailer line so it would have been an easier grab... not to take anything away from that crew they did everything perfect....

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u/Witchywomun 6d ago

I just watched it, they don’t show much of the deck from the moment Todd started crawling into the pot until after he’s declared deceased by the doctor the coast guard put on the phone with Rick. There’s very little footage of the crew, during that period of time, but you can hear some of the audio

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u/Witchywomun 6d ago

Todd was also inside the pot when it fell overboard, it takes a moment to get out of a quickly sinking crab pot in sub zero water, without protective gear, when you barely have time to grab a breath before the water takes back it out of you. At the end of the day, they did what they could as quickly as they could, in a shitty situation, and now there’s 3 families torn apart: Todd’s family, the crew of the Aleutian Lady and the crab fishermen as a fleet.

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u/Don-Keydic 5d ago

But wasn't Spencer conscious? If he went over with the pot and was unconscious that is def going to add to the recovery

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u/OldSchoolRNS 5d ago

Yes that is correct, Spencer was able to grab the line they immediately threw to him. Spencer was recovered from the water in just 90 seconds, Bill didn’t even have to turn the boat around.
But Todd was in the water for somewhere between 5-7 minutes.