Nightmare on the Scottie: The Maiden Voyage of a Doomed King Crabber

by Stephen D. Orsini

Although Mobile, Alabama's Bender Shipyard built shrimp boats and oil rig supply vessels for the Gulf of Mexico, until they finished the Scottie in December 1969, they had never constructed a vessel destined for the rigors of winter crabbing in the Bering Sea. Two college students with summer commercial fishing experience learned the Scottie 's owner planned to have a small crew deliver the boat to Seattle via the Panama Canal. Dreaming of a tropical cruise through sun-drenched Caribbean waters, they signed on. With their long Christmas break, they naively expected to be back to the West Coast in time for January classes. "What could possibly go wrong?" they reasoned. The "Everything!" With an inept, hard-partying captain and faulty mechanics, Scottie sailed into a massive Caribbean storm. They barely escaped the nightmare with their lives--and one outrageous, thrilling sea story.

158 pages, Paperback

Published June 23, 2022

Reviews

[Terry Steinborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fascinating book narrates the experience of the author while serving as crew on a 91-ft. boat built for Bering Sea king crab fishing. The boat was built in Mobile Alabama by a company with no experience in boats of this type for use in the dangerous and extreme conditions of the Bering Sea. To make things worse, the captain of the boat for this delivery cruise did not perform his pre-departure duties competently, and in fact was drunk for this period. As a a result pre-departure tests were done perfunctorily, if at all. With departure of the boat toward the Panama Canal, the "fun" really began as they immediately ran into a very large storm. The bulk of the book covers what went on during and after that storm. It makes for fascinating reading.

[Sherry Tamone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written by my friends father who lives on the same island I do. I knew he had fishing experience in Alaska, but I had not heard of this adventure. What an experience with initial hopes of a Caribbean vacation that turned life threatening in the hands of an unstable captain and newly built boat.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoiler alert: if you are not a fan of books of sea adventures this might not be for you.

My dad’s reading passions were for Louie L’Amour and stories of sea journeys, challenges and disasters. Perhaps I would not have experienced these reading genres except that I was enthralled with how my dad would light up when talking about his books.

With that in mind I picked this book up wondering if Charles (Charlie) Brown would have liked it. Yes, he would have loved it!

“Nightmare on the Scottie” is well written, great descriptions of the voyage, both the characters as well as technicalities regarding a crab fishing vessel & its specialized build.

Coming into this I knew little or nothing regarding the requirements of a crabbing vessel as opposed to a commercial fishing boat. The specifics of the build and outfitting is something my dad would have wanted to deep dive analyze.

This was an engaging quick read, an enthralling modern day story of “they that go down to the sea in ships.”

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because I read about it in my local newspaper and because I was a college classmate of the author and his then-girlfriend. At the beginning of my read, I would have said it wasn't very well written, but then the adventure started to unfold - and I was hooked (line & sinker, no pun intended). I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in adventures on the seas. It is amazing to me that anyone survived. I am glad they did.