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Four Thousand Hooks: A True Story of Fishing and Coming of Age on the High Seas of Alaska
As Four Thousand Hooks opens, an Alaskan fishing schooner is sinking. It is the summer of 1972, and the sixteen-year-old narrator is at the helm. Backtracking from the gripping prologue, Dean Adams tells how he came to be a crew member on the Grant and unfolds a tale of adventure that reads like a novel--with drama, conflict, and resonant portrayals of halibut fishing, his ragtag shipmates, maritime Alaska, and the ambiguities of family life.
At sea, the Grant 's crew teach Dean the daily tasks of baiting thousands of longline hooks and handling the catch, and on shore they lead him through the seedy bars and guilty pleasures of Kodiak. Exhausted by twenty-hour workdays and awed by the ocean's raw power, he observes examples of human courage and vulnerability and emerges with a deeper knowledge of himself and the world.
Four Thousand Hooks is both an absorbing adventure story and a rich ethnography of a way of life and work that has sustained Northwest families for generations. This coming of age story will appeal to readers-including young adults-interested in ocean adventures, commercial fishing, maritime life, and the Northwest Coast.
At sea, the Grant 's crew teach Dean the daily tasks of baiting thousands of longline hooks and handling the catch, and on shore they lead him through the seedy bars and guilty pleasures of Kodiak. Exhausted by twenty-hour workdays and awed by the ocean's raw power, he observes examples of human courage and vulnerability and emerges with a deeper knowledge of himself and the world.
Four Thousand Hooks is both an absorbing adventure story and a rich ethnography of a way of life and work that has sustained Northwest families for generations. This coming of age story will appeal to readers-including young adults-interested in ocean adventures, commercial fishing, maritime life, and the Northwest Coast.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2012
7 people are currently reading
139 people want to read
About the author
Dean Adams
24 books3 followersDean Adams (1956 - ) was born in Seattle and grew up on the shores of Lake Meridian near Kent, Washington. In 1972, he began his commercial fishing career at the age of 15, working on his uncle's schooner, the GRANT, and went on to become the owner and captain of the QUEST in 1979 at 22. In the 1990's, Dean returned to the University of Washington to finish a B.S. in Fisheries Science (1994) and completed his M.S. in 1998. He retired from Alaska commercial fishing in 2007 and is now working on the second book in the FOUR THOUSAND HOOKS story.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 13, 2016
Four Thousand Hooks: A True Story of Fishing and Coming of Age on the High Seas of Alaska by Dean Adams (University of Washington Press 2012) (Biography) is a great snapshot of seven summer weeks in a fifteen year old boy's life when he worked on a halibut fishing boat off the coast of Alaska in the 1970's. He writes much in the vein of Linda Greenlaw of The Perfect Storm fame. My rating: 7/10, finished 4/9/13.
October 22, 2012
I received this book from one of the giveaway contests and I was happily surprised. This book did not disappoint and was literally like one really long, amazing episode of deadliest catch. awesome! I would recommend this to anyone who has any interest in the outdoors, fishing and an interest in the Northwest.
February 12, 2019
Although I am just slightly biased because my dad wrote this book, I think that this is a well formulated story with a wonderful, engaging plot. The characters are the typical Alaskan fishermen, and the reader can easily get to know the lifestyle intimately - from the perspective of a true greenhorn.
I highly recommend this book to any reader who wants a great story.
I highly recommend this book to any reader who wants a great story.
January 8, 2018
Outstanding read
Starts out with a slam and keeps you engaged all the way through. Educational for anyone interested in boats and the sea
Starts out with a slam and keeps you engaged all the way through. Educational for anyone interested in boats and the sea
August 15, 2021
This is a teenage boy's coming-of-age story of working his uncle's fishing schooner in Alaska, longlining for halibut. Set in 1972, it captures a world of fishing that is familiar to those who know commercial fishing, but is different in some ways. (They could legally shoot sea lions who were gorging on the fish they caught.)
The writing is simple, plain, but infused with an earnestness that is identified with being young and thrown into an unfamiliar, challenging situation.
You can learn a lot about commercial fishing, and especially the details of a working longliner. It's hard, dangerous work with long hours of toil. The title refers to the number of fishhooks they have to bait every time they set out their lines.
The writing is simple, plain, but infused with an earnestness that is identified with being young and thrown into an unfamiliar, challenging situation.
You can learn a lot about commercial fishing, and especially the details of a working longliner. It's hard, dangerous work with long hours of toil. The title refers to the number of fishhooks they have to bait every time they set out their lines.
October 8, 2023
Entertaining and in depth detail and feel of what it's like to live/work on a small Alaskan fishing boat with a captain and crew of 4. Dean captures a lot of the experiences as a memoir as a 15 year old, sent from Seattle to experience the grueling and exhilarating work on his uncle's boat one summer in 1972 off the coast of Kodiak. You feel like you are right there with him.
I especially appreciated his Afterword encouragement to young 8th grade boys with poor grades in English class (like himself), to continue to write journals for themselves if not for the teacher. He clearly found it a worthy pursuit in his maturing years.
I especially appreciated his Afterword encouragement to young 8th grade boys with poor grades in English class (like himself), to continue to write journals for themselves if not for the teacher. He clearly found it a worthy pursuit in his maturing years.
February 1, 2019
As a child of Petersburg, Alaska, who spent my summers on a crab fishing boat, this book was a nice trip down memory lane.
April 20, 2021
Great read, captivating, reality, adventurous.
March 17, 2015
Surprisingly few modern books speak about what it's like to live and work at sea. Of course it begs the question of how could an area of the planet so vast be forgotten? After all people have been living on it for thousands of years. But the answer is simple. In an era when most people ride the fiber-optic cables of the internet, and ships are for vacation cruises, work boats like trains are related in the mind of many to a salty, romantic yarn that includes tacking sail boats and walking the seashore to watch the tide come in.
Of course there have been a few interesting movies and I'm not speaking of Waterworld. Though it wasn't about work boats, All Is Lost was quite good. One never thought: Is this fiction or not? Captain Phillips, which at first appeared to be an accurate recounting of the facts, soon began to suffer from fictionitis; members of the crew have called into question Phillips version of the story. It was a good movie that purported to be a truthful recounting of piracy at sea, and it remains a good movie about the merchant marine. Let the conflicting versions of events speak for themselves, but know it isn't non-fiction for many of the sailors who were there.
Of course the best book on tragedy and commercial fishing was A Perfect Storm. I wasn't in love with Sebastian Junger's prose style but it's a gripping story--a real page turner. Junger did his homework and it shows. Though Junger does a good job of putting the reader in the boots of the doomed fishermen, Dean Adams does Junger one better: He worked at sea and lived to tell about a near tragic incident on the boat he was fishing on, the Grant.
But Four Thousand Hooks is no more the story of a boat almost sinking than Moby Dick is about a whale. Adams seeks to educate the reader into the way of life a longline fisherman from Seattle as Melville sought to teach the reader the whaling industry of New England.
I don't mean to suggest that these two books are comparable. One is the great American novel of the 19th century and the other a modest tale of a greenhorn learning his trade during his first season. But Four Thousand Hook is the rare modern sea story told by someone who worked as a commercial fisherman for over 30 years.
Hence the weak point of the book. Adams sometimes gets bogged down in the minutiae of the fishing boat. He knows how important it is to "keep on the gear", but how well will the reader with a lack of technical knowledge about the fishery be able to follow this part of the story? Perhaps an appendix that illustrated the process of recovering and setting gear might have been helpful. Also, the Author Dean too often has the greenhorn Dean bait his questions so Author Dean can use them to explain--though the voice of the crewman Greenhorn Dean is speaking with--how the operation of the fishing boat works.
But if I weight these small flaws against the general mood, tone and style and construction of the book,I must say I very much enjoyed it. Having been a commercial fisherman--I did not stay in the industry as long as Dean did, nor was I as successful--I am impressed with his loving rendering of his reprobate Scandinavian crewmen and the industry he obviously loves and takes pride in.
This is the best book on the longline fishery since Captain Courageous and In Alaskan Waters. Four Thousand Hooks gets four stars because Dean Adams is not Kipling or Melville. He was a successful captain from a family of successful captains, a fishermen who burned with a desire to write his story. He's done that, and all things considered, he's done a fine job. Anyone who has lived or worked on the sea should thank him for his hard work.
Of course there have been a few interesting movies and I'm not speaking of Waterworld. Though it wasn't about work boats, All Is Lost was quite good. One never thought: Is this fiction or not? Captain Phillips, which at first appeared to be an accurate recounting of the facts, soon began to suffer from fictionitis; members of the crew have called into question Phillips version of the story. It was a good movie that purported to be a truthful recounting of piracy at sea, and it remains a good movie about the merchant marine. Let the conflicting versions of events speak for themselves, but know it isn't non-fiction for many of the sailors who were there.
Of course the best book on tragedy and commercial fishing was A Perfect Storm. I wasn't in love with Sebastian Junger's prose style but it's a gripping story--a real page turner. Junger did his homework and it shows. Though Junger does a good job of putting the reader in the boots of the doomed fishermen, Dean Adams does Junger one better: He worked at sea and lived to tell about a near tragic incident on the boat he was fishing on, the Grant.
But Four Thousand Hooks is no more the story of a boat almost sinking than Moby Dick is about a whale. Adams seeks to educate the reader into the way of life a longline fisherman from Seattle as Melville sought to teach the reader the whaling industry of New England.
I don't mean to suggest that these two books are comparable. One is the great American novel of the 19th century and the other a modest tale of a greenhorn learning his trade during his first season. But Four Thousand Hook is the rare modern sea story told by someone who worked as a commercial fisherman for over 30 years.
Hence the weak point of the book. Adams sometimes gets bogged down in the minutiae of the fishing boat. He knows how important it is to "keep on the gear", but how well will the reader with a lack of technical knowledge about the fishery be able to follow this part of the story? Perhaps an appendix that illustrated the process of recovering and setting gear might have been helpful. Also, the Author Dean too often has the greenhorn Dean bait his questions so Author Dean can use them to explain--though the voice of the crewman Greenhorn Dean is speaking with--how the operation of the fishing boat works.
But if I weight these small flaws against the general mood, tone and style and construction of the book,I must say I very much enjoyed it. Having been a commercial fisherman--I did not stay in the industry as long as Dean did, nor was I as successful--I am impressed with his loving rendering of his reprobate Scandinavian crewmen and the industry he obviously loves and takes pride in.
This is the best book on the longline fishery since Captain Courageous and In Alaskan Waters. Four Thousand Hooks gets four stars because Dean Adams is not Kipling or Melville. He was a successful captain from a family of successful captains, a fishermen who burned with a desire to write his story. He's done that, and all things considered, he's done a fine job. Anyone who has lived or worked on the sea should thank him for his hard work.
December 18, 2013
An interesting story but it really dragged. I found myself skimming the last quarter or so.
September 25, 2014
This book took me on an adventure. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the way it was told.
January 13, 2016
Interesting read about fishing. Good read as well.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews