'Deadliest Catch': Capt. Sig Hansen, colleagues remember fallen comrade
Capt. Sig Hansen
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If you're an ardent fan of Discovery Channel's crab-fishing reality series "Deadliest Catch," then you know the fleet has lost a captain, not to the merciless waters of the Bering Sea but to the ravages of ill health.
On Jan. 29, 53-year-old Capt. Phil Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie suffered a stroke while offloading crab and had to be helicoptered to a hospital in Anchorage, Alaska.
His 20-something sons, Josh and Jake, were at his side, and while he appeared to rally briefly, he died on Feb. 9. Fans had been worried about Harris' health for a while, after a blood clot sent him to the hospital during the fishing season in 2008.
In the world of Alaskan crab fishing, king crab are harvested in the late fall, and opilio crab right after the beginning of the year. So Harris had already participated in much of the 2009-10 season.
Therefore, when the sixth season of "Deadliest Catch" launches on Tuesday, April 13, Harris will be there, and he will continue to be there until sometime around or after episode 13, when the show deals with his health crisis and death (exact details of that are pending).
According to a March 12 post at the Cornelia Marie Web site, the boat -- co-owned by Harris and its namesake, Cornelia Marie Devlin -- has been undergoing repairs, and the crew has been out of work since Harris' Feb. 21 memorial.
But the crew is heading back to Alaska to fish the remainder of the boat's quota, but without the Harris sons, who have left the deck to deal with grief and family business.
On hand to help them is Capt. Sig Hansen of the F/V Northwestern, Harris' longtime friend and fellow crab fisherman.
"I was amazed that he made it back, number one," he says of Harris' return after his first health scare. "I was relieved. It was a roller-coaster ride for everybody that knew him, so the fact that he made it back was impressive. But he's a tough old bird.
"He's one of those old codgers that you'd figure would never die. Then, all of a sudden, you hear that he had this stroke, and you figured, well, here we go again."
On Jan. 29, 53-year-old Capt. Phil Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie suffered a stroke while offloading crab and had to be helicoptered to a hospital in Anchorage, Alaska.
His 20-something sons, Josh and Jake, were at his side, and while he appeared to rally briefly, he died on Feb. 9. Fans had been worried about Harris' health for a while, after a blood clot sent him to the hospital during the fishing season in 2008.
In the world of Alaskan crab fishing, king crab are harvested in the late fall, and opilio crab right after the beginning of the year. So Harris had already participated in much of the 2009-10 season.
Therefore, when the sixth season of "Deadliest Catch" launches on Tuesday, April 13, Harris will be there, and he will continue to be there until sometime around or after episode 13, when the show deals with his health crisis and death (exact details of that are pending).
According to a March 12 post at the Cornelia Marie Web site, the boat -- co-owned by Harris and its namesake, Cornelia Marie Devlin -- has been undergoing repairs, and the crew has been out of work since Harris' Feb. 21 memorial.
But the crew is heading back to Alaska to fish the remainder of the boat's quota, but without the Harris sons, who have left the deck to deal with grief and family business.
On hand to help them is Capt. Sig Hansen of the F/V Northwestern, Harris' longtime friend and fellow crab fisherman.
"I was amazed that he made it back, number one," he says of Harris' return after his first health scare. "I was relieved. It was a roller-coaster ride for everybody that knew him, so the fact that he made it back was impressive. But he's a tough old bird.
"He's one of those old codgers that you'd figure would never die. Then, all of a sudden, you hear that he had this stroke, and you figured, well, here we go again."
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