FV Scandies Rose (Fishing Vessel Scandies Rose) was a crab fishing vessel built in 1978 by Bender Shipbuilding out of Mobile, Alabama. Originally named Enterprise, she was registered in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. She mainly fished for king crabs, opilio crabs, and Pacific cod, in both the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. The sinking of the vessel became more widely known due to its relation to the reality TV-show Deadliest Catch.
On 31 December 2019, at approximately 22:00 Alaska Standard Time, the United States Coast Guard received a distress call from the crab fishing vessel Scandies Rose. The vessel was on its way from Kodiak, Alaska to the Bering Sea to fish crabs. At this point the vessel was around from Sutwik Island. Only minutes later, the vessel sank. Only two out of the seven crew members survived and were found by the coast guard. According to the two survivors, Scandies Rose began accumulating ice on her starboard side between roughly 02:00 and 08:00. By 20:37 the boat had accumulated so much ice that it was traveling with a 20-degree list. In an attempt to find shelter from the hostile weather, the captain changed course, but the list worsened. The route that Scandies Rose was following, close to the Aleutian Islands, is notorious for local katabatic winds caused by the unique geography, called williwaws. As the williwaws blew against the starboard side of the vessel, the winds were in actuality stabilizing the vessel. When the course was altered to find shelter, the ship instead faced winds from the port side, worsening the list. This, in combination with the asymmetrical ice buildup resulted in instability to such an extent that the vessel capsized.
Background
Scandies Rose was a crab fishing vessel built in 1978 by Bender Shipbuilding in Mobile, Alabama. The vessel was constructed specifically for use with pots. The boat was considered a work of "extraordinary craftsmanship" in a 2019 inspection, with construction materials and design rivaling the finest fishing vessels from the west coast. In the summer, she fished for Pacific cod in both the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, with crab fishing occurring during the winter months of the year. It was bought in 2008 by the Scandies Rose Fishing Company, out of Bremerton, Washington. Following this, the vessel was rechristened as the Scandies Rose. The vessel took part in the United States Coast Guard's safety evaluation program in 2018, as it was mandatory biannually. During this process, no faults or comments were noted. Fishing vessels are also more isolated than before, as efforts to relieve strained fishing grounds have led to fewer ships out at sea at any one time.
The captain of the vessel, Gary Cobban Jr., was according to crew members formerly employed on the vessel a "good captain" and "surprisingly safety conscious". Safety drills on the Scandies Rose were considered more thorough than on other vessels they had worked on. The vessel also had a strict alcohol and substance policy, forbidding the use of it on board. A crew member who previously worked on the Scandies Rose described it as a "tank", a nickname the vessel also went by, due to its ability to manage tough weather conditions. Another crew member described the vessel as a "large boat" that could "push through" tough weather conditions that other vessels couldn't manage. An investigation report by the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the abilities of the captain was not a reason for the capsizing, but a report from the Coast Guard described the accident as "preventable".