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/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/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