[deckhand] come on, boys! Whoo!
[johnathan] first time in 25 years there hasn't bee a king crab season.
Right now we're doing everything by trial and fire.
Just keep trying new things, till we find something that works.
[casey] holy [bleep].
-Wave! -Wave, wave, wave, wave.
[deckhand] whoa, whoa!
[narrator] gut punched by the lose of their prized catch, red king crab
they're starting to build boys.
This one right here, watch out, watch out.
[deckhand] whoa!
[narrator] the fleet hunts new species on new grounds.
Directly in the path of a 980 millibar low pressure system.
[jake] I would not do this if I didn't have to.
But I don't have that choice right now.
[narrator] the 250 mile wide storm
barrels out of the arctic and onto the bering sea.
Colliding with warmer water spawned in the south
fueling the gales powerful 60 knot winds and 20 foot seas.
That is red sky in the morning sailor take warning.
So we got some big weather coming.
[deckhand] ahhh!
[bleep] about ready to hit the fan around here.
-[deckhand] whoo! -[deckhand 2] argh!
Watch out, watch out!
-Wow! -[man speaking]
hey! Let me know what's going on!
[rip] that ocean is an unforgiving place.
All it takes is one second.
[bleep]
big wave!
-Big wave! -[deckhand] hey!
[bleep] whoa, whoa!
-[bleep] -get him inside.
[narrator] 175 miles northwe of dutch harbor.
[deckhand] whoo-hoo!
[johnathan] owie.
Ah, yeah ,yeah, yeah. Sorry, man. I got my hands full here guys.
This storms come up fast and hard.
Already got 20 foot seas and it's blowing like 60.
Fine mess we've gotten ourselves into.
I never stressed more than this season.
Trick to golden crab is, they're deeper than I've ever fished.
220 fathoms, about 300 pound of line on it.
We have many kinds of seas out here and all just gets really dangerous.
God help us.
[narrator] to fill the financial hole left by the loss of red crab,
captain johnathan hillstran ventures four times as deep
to search for the elusive golden king.
All in teeth of the arctic lull.
It use to be $3.25 a pound now it's worth 14 bucks a pound.
It changes the whole demission, it changes everything.
Here we go.
'kay guys, be careful.
[deckhand] yeah, baby!
Whoo!
Dance!
Hopefully today's the day. Big numbers.
[deckhand] come on, boy. Count it off.
[deckhand 2] whoo-eee!
[deckhand] yeah!
Come on, baby!
[johnathan] oh! We got, like, one crab in that pod.
Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.
Watch out guys.
This is a mess.
Pretty nasty out today. It's kinda sketchy dangerous.
Tough enough job as it is.
Come on, baby. Show us some crab. Come on crab legs.
[deckhand] come on, baby.
This ain't going our way, that's for sure.
Stack this one, neal. I'm stacking these until I see something.
[neal] yeah.
[deckhand] whoo!
Come to papa!
Uh-oh, look at that wave.
Watch out, watch out.
Watch out.
Wow! Oh, my god!
Holy [bleep], that was a big wave.
[deckhand] whoa, whoa!
Get the life ring. Line up.
What'd you see?
[deckhand] life ring overboard!
[johnathan] holy moly, pull it!
That wave ripped our life ring right off.
Good eyes!
That was a good hit.
Okay. I'm stressing over here.
There's a lot of things that can cost me a season here.
So I gotta really watch out.
It's very critical I find something.
If we don't find nothing, we gotta just lays.
[narrator] 272 miles southwest.
Just make sure you're careful and keep your eyes open, okay.
Don't turn your back to the ocean, please.
[narrator] the southern most tendril of the tempest
swings over the aleutian chain.
[rip] it's suppose to gust 40-50, you guys got that?
-Keep your head on a swivel. -[deckhand] roger.
[narrator] unleashing all hell,
right on top of captain rip carlton and the patricia lee.
I don't need any close calls in my life right now.
I just need simple, easy, and calm.
[narrator] just eight month after the death of deckhand todd kochutin.
[todd] try to do what I can and...
Try to keep fishing, keep the boat fishing.
[rip] it's so devastating, about losing todd.
But, if you're gonna operate in the aleutian islands,
in as high level as we do,
there's no take it easy and go slow.
It's just be careful and let's go fast.
[deckhand] whoo!
Here it comes. Wait for it, baby!
[rip] we got a lot of good guys on this boat, right now.
As good as I've ever had.
We've got francis on the hook, and that dude is really good.
You can tell who wants it, right?
He wants to be a good deckhand.
[deckhand] whoo! Come on.
-[rip] here we go. -[deckhand] come on crab!
Oh, my god! Here we go.
First one up and...
[deckhand] whoo!
Oh! And here they are.
-[deckhand] yeah. Whoo! -[rip] that looks pretty good. Like it.
[deckhands laughing]
[deckhands cheering]
right on.
Sweet.
[deckhand] whoo!
Yeah, how's that rip?
[rip] oh, [bleep].
Whoa, whoa, watch out!
Big one, big one, big one. Watch out!
[bleep] damn it.
Guys, watch your ass down there, okay? Careful.
That was a big wave.
I just took that wave right to the face.
I got real lucky on that, you know?
[rip] that's a lot of water.
I mean, if we didn't haul in this weather,
we'd still be fishing for last year's crab, this year.
We're up to the challenge. We've never failed, and we won't.
We'll do it.
But, sometimes it's not pretty.
[narrator] 3800 miles northwest of dutch harbor,
on the bering sea.
[sig] watch your head.
What's up? Are we ready?
-[deckhand] always. -[sig] good.
[narrator] aboard the norwegian coast guard cutter turned crabber,
the 193 foot stalbas.
-[sig] happy? -[woman] yes.
-Motivated? -[jarle] yes.
Let's catch some crab.
Somebody forgot one thing, that is biting the head off a herring.
What are you? [laughing] no.
I'm supposed to present that to you.
You're a step ahead of me?
-[jarle] no, no, no, no. -That's mine?
That's yours.
-[deckhand] don't trust me? -[woman] ugh!
[retching]
bah!
[coughs]
it's in my teeth.
Okay. In.
Yes?
Good luck.
Nobody gets hurt.
[jarle] hopefully it's gonna get some king down there.
And load up the boat.
And make some money.
It's weird, everything on my boat is, like, this.
This thing...
You're steering here, but you're operating here.
So, we gotta go easy here.
We've got an unfamiliar crew, on an unfamiliar boat.
[narrator] captain sig hanse bets on the old country.
As he tries to plug $800,00
in lost alaskan king crab revenue with norwegian reds
[deckhands laughing]
[sig] you know, you've got the whole coastline of norway.
But, we really wanna see what's going on out west.
Because the rumor is, they're migrating from east to west.
You just have to go by your gut.
And get them in the water.
Are you gonna set shots by hand?
Or are you gonna let the line go by itself?
I would like to let the line go by itself, you know.
All right. Now, I brought jarle on board.
When he was in alaska in the 80s and 90s, we were very good friends.
He basically said he would come out of retirement and that's great.
We needed a deck boss and that's jarle.
[sig]
-[deckhand] harder. -[deckhand 2] all right.
Hard work.
When you hear the horn then you set.
[jarle] we hear the horn and we set, yeah, okay.
67, 66.
All right, let's try one on the bottom.
[horn honking]
is she going?
[yelling] what's the deal!
There ya go.
All right, so they're feeding it out, the lines frozen.
So, let's pray to god that we don't get a snarl here.
Come on, fellas.
[deckhands cheering]
[sig laughing]
okay, just the first pod.
We'll see what happens.
Yeah. [chuckles]
[sig continues laughing]
what the...
Oh!
[deckhand yelling] flashlights!
Is this engine running?
I don't understand what...
[alarm beeping]
jarle! Hey!
Let me know what's going on!
[jarle] I'm going down in the engine room.
To fire those lights back on!
[narrator] on the stalb.
[sig] what the...
Oh [bleep]!
[deckhand yelling] flashlights!
Jarle! Hey!
Let me know what's going on!
Go see if the engineer needs help.
We've gotta go down. I'm going down in the engine room.
To find how long it's out.
[alarm beeping]
the hell is this?
Nothing's here.
That's a panel.
There's nothing there. That's dead.
[speaking norwegian]
the gps, that's got a battery on it,
how long that lasts? I don't know.
And we've got a manual steering wheel.
Got no power, hydro.
Oh!
This is on because this must be battery.
The hell was that?
That was dark out there. Those guys are lucky.
[narrator] after scrambling in the shadows,
power is restored.
I mean, the problem is, when you lose power like that, you got no hydraulics.
So now, your pod's hanging free.
You're got a dark deck.
People out there and if it pops out of the block
somebody can get in the bite [snaps fingers] and you're gone.
That's the problem.
I'm just glad we had that pod on board when it did.
Those guys are damn lucky that that pod was on the rack, that's all I can say.
Okay then?
It's as okay as it can be right now.
We knew this boat was never used for this type of activity.
And, you know, we knew what we were getting into when we did this.
This is gonna be rough, man.
I gotta stay positive.
That's all I can do.
[narrator] 3600 miles southeast.
Back on the bering sea.
[deckhand] whoo! Yeah.
It's just coming up so fast right now.
Look at that flag. It's gone.
This is blowing like 60, a solid 60. The seas are building.
I mean, it's some serious waves coming in.
And the wind's just [bleep] strong. Look at this [bleep].
[narrator] almost doubling in size over the course of mere hours.
[deckhand] watch out!
Hold on!
[deckhand 2] we need to get down.
20 foot seas on the side.
This is not long lining weather.
[narrator] the arctic low intensifies
as it tracks southwest, fueled by warmer waters.
[jake] oh, hang on.
-Watch out. -[deckhand] big wave, big wave.
Whoa, whoa!
[crew laughing]
there some big [bleep] seas here.
Just watch out for me, because you guys can see them coming better than I can.
These waves are big now, but they're only gonna get bigger.
This storm is massive.
There's big enough seas, kinda slowing us down, so be advised.
We may have some water coming over somewhere.
Like that.
[narrator] while on the patricia lee,
yeah, weather really picked up. You can feel it got cold.
[narrator] with temperature' plummeting and seas building
captain rip carlton works a 23 average through his golden king pods
[rip] don't be dumb!
[rip] last string we had 900 crab.
That'll do the job.
So we're gonna set this right up here,
around this corner, around this pinnacle.
We gotta get this in the water,
and get to the next string, and start hauling.
We gotta turn gear.
[deckhand] ahhh!
[rip] going into the weather, unless you're gonna carry that speed,
you know, end up with instead of a four mile string it'll be two miles.
And we wanna get it four miles.
[narrator] to cover his 1.5 million pound quota.
[rip] we might make about seven and a half knots,
but those pods are gonna be freaking winging.
[narrator] ...Rip spreads his gear over 25 miles.
Testing depths and varied underwater contou to hunt his prey.
Uh, we setting a full speed against the tide.
Could be a little hairy. Kinda rough out.
[rip] we're at 1,000 rpms.
These things will go to 1,200 rpm.
Come on.
She's up to 6.5 now, she'll get there.
Oh, there we go, seven knots we did it. Success story.
These pods are gonna go flying off the side.
[deckhand] party time.
[rip] gotta get it on.
Big wave!
-Big wave! -[deckhand] hey! Hey!
[francis screaming]
[deckhand] get him out. [bleep].
Here, put it on clean.
[francis moaning]
[deckhand] just breathe, buddy.
Just breathe. Deep breath. Deep breath.
Get him inside.
[narrator] on the patricia lee.
[deckhand] oh, yeah.
Big wave!
-Big wave! -[deckhand] hey! Hey!
[francis screaming]
[deckhand] get him out. [bleep].
Here, put it on clean.
[francis moaning]
[deckhand] just breathe, buddy.
Just beathe. Deep breath. Deep breath.
[bleep] guys, is he okay?
[francis] oh, [bleep].
[francis moaning]
un-[bleep]-believable.
God damn it.
Son of a bitch.
-[francis moaning] -[producer] is he all right?
[francis groans]
[cameron] hang on, buddy.
It ain't anything. We got you.
[bleep], man.
What the [bleep] do I do?
-Do I get up? -[cameron] no.
Just stay still and take big breaths, dude.
In your nose, out your mouth.
[bleep]
[rip] what happened, man?
[francis speaking]
[narrator] while setting, a rogue wave ambushes the patricia lee
on the starboard stern...
[men scream]
[narrator] ...Ejecting the anchor pot out of the ramp,
crushing 29-year-old deckhan francis katungin, against the stack.
[rip speaking]
yeah, probably.
Yeah, comm state kodiak. This is the fishing vessel, patricia lee.
We've got a serious injury.
I wanna let them know what's going on and see what the situation is.
And he got hit between two pots right in the head.
It's over 24 hours without chopper for us.
It actually just happened. I wanted to notify you.
You're gonna be okay, frankie.
[francis groans]
roger that. Okay. Thank you very much, sir.
Okay, thank you.
I'm devastated.
Completely [bleep] devastated.
[man on radio]
[deckhand] whoo!
[man on radio]
[johnathan] hey, casey.
Coast guard's working a cas on the patricia lee.
What?
Are you [bleep] kidding me?
I heard, uh, somebody's, uh, hurt on the patricia lee
they got crushed.
[bleep] please no one get hurt on my boat.
[deckhand] whoo-hoo!
[johnathan] cross our fingers.
Patricia's a tough one but this weather's been no joke.
Last year, todd was killed on that boat.
Now he's having another guy get crushed.
This is just...
I mean...
[man on radio]
horrible.
Unreal.
It's no different than a car crash.
What you don't know is internal bleeding and internal damage.
It ain't pretty.
[james] you got something to check his pulse with?
Like, a...
[rip] use your finger and count.
Got you.
[bleep], yes.
[producer] it's been a while but
[rip] when you're on a boat in a situation like this,
anybody that can help helps.
Grateful to have it.
[narrator] offering his medical assistance...
[narrator] ...Veteran deadliest catch producer and cameraman, todd stanley
[todd] so let's get a blanket in here.
We need a blanket.
-Can you steady that door? -[man] yeah.
[todd] we need to keep him warm.
I'm gonna cut this open. Are you all right?
-[man] grab those scissors. -[todd] are you okay here?
Don't... Don't... Don't move.
Don't move. Don't move.
We don't want him moving around. We don't want him moving around.
We want to immobilize him.
-Internal bleeding's what I'm worried about. -Yeah.
I gotta get a hold of the doctor right now.
Let's work together here, cameron, real quick.
-[cameron] just for a second, frankie. -Load up the support
-right under his knees, right here. -Under his knees? Okay.
-[todd] ready? -[cameron] okay.
[todd] ready, set, go.
[todd] not too much.
-[francis cries] -[todd] not too much. No, no. Little less.
Here. Are you okay?
Yeah, I'm good it just...
It... It hurts.
[todd] okay. Relax.
[cameron] you'll be okay, frankie.
My name is robert carlton.
I am.
He got hit between two pots right in the hip.
His pain level is 10 out of 10.
Um...
His level of consciousness is five.
We are at, uh, 52-27-172-21.
I am 64 miles away from atka.
Bucking into it.
Should I got for atka?
[todd speaking]
[rip] okay, legs are elevate
[james] just keep with your breathing, bro.
You're doing a good job.
[todd] what's he saying?
[rip speaking]
it's only eight hours away,
it's a little village with an airstrip
and we might be able to get a medevac in there.
They gotta give me the go for it but I'm gonna head that way.
We've got to beat this storm.
It is bearing down on us.
[narrator] 3,800 miles northwest...
[sig] we got a little intel earlier on.
[narrator] ...On the bering sea.
[sig] we discovered some depths out here.
It's the best that we can do.
So who knows?
You know, you find a little school. That's all it takes.
That's what we're looking for.
[narrator] captain sig hauls his first red king crab stri
since arriving in norway.
[sig on intercom] first pot coming up.
Safety first.
Yeah, hopefully we're gonna have a good day.
I think so. We're gonna see something.
So... Well, we've never been here before, so who knows?
We've travelled, uh, halfway across the globe to...
To just pull some pots here.
We have a new crew.
Different boat.
So it's very exciting.
But if it hits, uh, that... That'd be amazing.
Take it nice and slow. Once we get the crab.
[sig] okay, first pot coming up.
Here it comes.
Here we go.
[narrator] on the stalbas.
[sig] here it comes.
Here we go.
I don't know. Does it feel heavy?
I can't hear like I can on my boat.
I know if a pot is heavy.
I know when there's crab in it 'cause I can hear the tension on the line.
[bleep]
zero [bleep] crabs.
[sighs]
that's not gonna work.
Next one's coming up.
Come on! Pray to the crab gods!
[sig] zero.
There's nothing. There's no crab in that pot
this is gonna be a real slow go.
We started from scratch.
Bottom line is we gotta find crab.
[narrator] 3,600 miles southeast...
[deckhand] watch out for that wave.
[man groans]
[narrator] ...On the time bandit.
[exhales]
[laughs] [bleep]
ay yai yai yai yai yai.
Okay, well, this arctic low is hitting us hard and fast
this is 200 fathoms.
We're gonna go out a little deeper.
Golden king crab, it's like 14 bucks a pound, that's crazy.
If we can get them pulled.
[narrator] defying the storm's fury...
18-foot seas. I mean, there's some serious waves coming in.
[deckhand] whoo!
[narrator] ...Captain johnathan battles his way to pots
soaking 1,200 feet below the breakers.
Yep. Roger. Go ahead, guys.
Pretty nasty out.
We're working our way out a little deeper.
Bound to have some golden crab.
Probably worth a lot of mone
the weather's just so violen
whoo!
[johnathan] freddy's having fun though.
[freddy exclaims]
[freddy] we've got this, baby! Whoo!
Here it is.
I only need 25 average.
[freddy] come on, baby.
Come on, baby.
Big, big, big, big, big, big!
[freddy] oh, yeah.
Whoo!
Yeah, there we go.
We got something here.
[johnathan on radio] not a flop.
Oh, yeah. Look at that.
Whoo!
Looks really good.
[freddy] yeah, baby.
Survey says...
Twenty-one!
Whoo-hoo!
[mimics horn]
whoo-hoo!
Oh, my god! Yeah! [exclaims]
that's crab, baby!
[johnathan on intercom] thirty-three.
-Thirty-three. Wow! -Whoo!
I thank you, god.
You're so nice, god.
There's our best pot.
We're adapting and we're learning real quic
that's what we gotta do or else we ain't gonna be around,
and we ain't gonna make no money.
It just gets better and better.
Watch out, it's getting rough out.
[on intercom] it's gonna get ugly.
Ay yai yai.
Good, freddy. Just be careful.
[groans]
[exhales]
[deckhand] whoo-hoo!
This is dangerous.
[deckhand] whoo!
Too dangerous.
I don't need this.
We're close to st. George island.
I can hide behind that islan
don't wanna call nobody's mother up.
Okay, guys, be careful.
[on intercom]
[deckhand] oh!
[johnathan] it's only 18 miles.
So we're gonna go use an island to hide for about 12 hours.
We're running to the island
[narrator] as the arctic low intensifie over the fishing grounds...
[jake] it's 15-foot seas, steady, with an occasional 20-footer
my props just came out of the water.
I'm gonna set these two pot and I'm done for the day.
I mean, that was enough stress for me.
[narrator] survival now outweighs production.
[josh] Thursday it turns all purple.
I mean, it's supposed to blow 44 knots into Friday morning.
It's only gonna get worse, too.
[narrator] and captains shut down their operations,
fearing the storm's wrath.
-[radar beeping] -[casey] don't wanna take any more chances today.
We're gonna run up and hide up behind st. George.
These waves are just too big to hang out in all night.
[narrator] 261 miles from dutch harbor...
...And 64 miles out from the airstrip on atka island...
...On the patricia lee.
[james] frankie, keep your eyes open. Stay awake.
[cameron] stay with your breathing.
Ooh, [bleep].
Hey.
I was standing right next to him.
Getting ready to start running the hook.
That wave about knocked me over.
And I ran over and looked over and he was [bleep] pinned in
between the upright pots and the anchor.
Got into a pinch point.
Bad spot to be.
-[groans] okay. -[cameron] relax.
[phone ringing]
[rip] patricia lee.
West 35. Sharply up against the sea.
Rain squalls through the are
no, I understand. I completely understand what you're saying.
You know, I've never flown into atka
and I don't know what the situation is
but if the weather does keep deteriorating,
and if they can't get in, then we're in a real hard one.
You know, I wonder if my best bet is to just he
for dutch harbor to make sure I get there.
Well, I just... If we get stuck in atka
and they can't get a plane in there,
you know, that could be... That could be worse.
Ah, [bleep], man. What do we do?
[narrator] the skipper's choice:
Push through the 50 knot win to nearby atka,
or steam towards dutch harbo and us coast guard helicopter range.
Neither's a guarantee.
If we go 8 hours to atka and that plane can't make it in 'cause of the storm,
that puts us even farther aw from dutch harbor.
And I gotta drive it back 8 hours, plus the 24 hours to dutch,
we lose 16 hours and we can't do that.
We need attention for francis now.
It's just a [bleep] up situation.
[kyle speaking]
[bleep], man.
[kyle speaking]
[deckhand speaking]
[kyle speaking]
[narrator] on the patricia lee...
I gotta figure out an evac plan and fast.
I gotta francis some help right now.
[james] there you go, man.
Squeeze this thing. There you go.
Gotta try not to move.
[rip] that storm's already in atka
that's not gonna work.
Yeah, that's not gonna work. We can't do that.
[dialing on phone]
[coast guard on phone]
it's the, uh, fishing vessel patricia lee.
[coast guard on phone]
[rip] well, we are asking for an evac, we are heading to dutch.
I want to make sure he doesn't have some internal injuries
or something we can't see.
[coast guard on phone]
[rip] you know, we've been monitoring the weather closely.
I can't take that chance of getting in there and not having a plane.
That would be terrible.
[coast guard on phone]
[rip] yeah, roger that. I'll be standing by.
Get a course to dutch. We're going west. East, yes
okay, we're headed to dutch.
[rip on intercom] let's just start setting.
[deckhand] roger.
[narrator] with atka a no-go rip turns his bow
for the 260 mile steam to dutch harbor,
still 16 hours out from a coast guard rescue chopper,
if they're able to fly in the storm.
All right, francis. We gotta go set.
You take this one off, buddy.
We'll put a sad face next to your name.
[rip] I talked to the coast guard.
Now we're making our speed to dutch harbor.
We're clearing the deck so we can get within 100 miles.
They're gonna bring a halo out.
[radio static]
go ahead, if you're ready.
[indistinct shouting]
come on, everybody, let's go! Let's go!
[rip] we're all still a bit in shock.
I mean, if I thought there was any chance
of anybody getting hurt, I wouldn't have sat.
But I'm the captain and it falls on me.
[johnathan on intercom] okay, guys, flood the deck out.
I'm not the kind of guy that runs and hides
but the island's right there, so...
That's what we gotta do.
[sig] any captain of any fishing boat will tell you,
we'll do whatever it takes to keep going.
Whatever it takes.
[phone ringing]
[bill] hello.
[sig on phone]
sig, what's going on?
I gotta tell you, there might be some opportunity my way.
[rip] you gotta do the best job you can.
My best job is to get this boat to a safe spot
for the coast guard to get francis off,
which is not gonna be easy.
[coast guard on radio]
all right, believe me. There is no quit in this crew, or this boat, or in me.
[coast guard on radio]
[narrator] next week on deadliest catch...
[coast guard on radio] there's just a lot of water on the deck.
Whoo!
Wow, this is crazy.
Whoa.
-[johnathan] watch your fingers! -Head's up, heads up!
You can't throw the anchor like that!
[deckhand] watch out!
[sig] oh, my god.
Galley's full of water.
[coast guard on radio]
they left.
I don't know if they're gonna be able to save him.
[francis groans]
[james speaking]
[cameron speaking]