Kenny Hendricks
Editors Note: Kenny is a rare gem among fishermen. If you have seen the “Deadliest” shows, you have seen how hard and dangerous crab fishing is. Many strong young men – my estimate is around 80% - don’t last one trip. And maybe 10% make it though their first season. To work on a crab boat deck until you are 60 years old takes rare courage, stamina and tenacity. Either that or Kenny is just totally insane. Just kidding! Ask Kenny a question. It’s free to ask – and it is a rare opportunity. Whether he wants to answer or not is up to him but take a chance. Ask a good question and maybe he will surprise you.
Ken’s Bio:
I was born January 3, 1948 in the Ballard area of Seattle. Fishing was in my family. My father owned the schooner “Pioneer”. The summer I was twelve years old I went shrimp fishing with my Dad, working out of Seward, Alaska. I was just out of the seventh grade.
The next summer we moved to Seward and I fished every summer. At the time of the 1964 Alaskan earthquake I was a sophomore in High School. The earthquake destroyed the canneries so fishing was real slow. In 1965, Dad installed tanks in the boat and we started fishing for King Crab also. I fished two King Crab seasons before having to go in the Navy.
While in the Navy I made three West Pac cruises on the USS Samuel Gompers (AD-37), which is a repair ship – basically a floating shipyard. I was a Machinery Repairman 3rd Class.
In 1968 we did a “Highline Medivac” (passing an injured or sick person between two vessels using a wire stretched between them) at sea from the USS Pueblo – and then a few days later the Pueblo was captured and held hostage by the North Koreans.
I got out of the Navy on September 10, 1970 and early in October was on my way to Adak (one of the more westerly of the Aleutian Islands) to fish crab. I was on a boat called the “Americana”. The crew consisted of Terry Scates, Terry Shultze, Gary Stewart and myself – all of us were pioneer crab fisherman who helped shape the fishery.
In January of 1971 I went back to shrimping with my Dad on the F/V Joann, fishing out of Kodiak, AK.
Then in 1972 there was a price war between Dutch Harbor and Kodiak. It got pretty crazy but the result was that I thought I should get on a boat working out of Dutch Harbor.
In the spring of 1973 I got a job as a cook on the F/V Sea Star. I have been here ever since. 2007 marks my 34th year on the Sea Star. Over the years I have been cook, deckhand, engineer, and relief Captain.
We have fished for Black Cod, Grey Cod, King and Snow crab, Golden King Crab – and we have done a lot of Salmon packing (taking salmon from the salmon fishing boats to a processing facility).
I have fished in Alaskan waters from Ketchikan to Adak and north to the Pribilof and St. Matthews Islands.
It has been a good life.
