Satoshi Konno, a fishmaster aboard the Alaskan Ranger, has angered the American skipper by his act of speed up through ice. Ryan Shuck, one of the crew members of Alaskan Ranger, told that they were yelling and screaming at each other about going fast through the ice. It ended up with them chest to chest, huffing and puffing at each other. He added that this resulted in the vessel slowing down.
It was reported that the Alaskan Ranger has landed in accident in the Bering Sea that killed Konno and four others among the 47 crew, which include then-skipper Captain Eric Peter Jacobsen. In the testimony the Coast Guard heard about the pecking order aboard the Alaska Ranger during the winter months leading up to the accident, when an unusual amount of ice had formed in the fishing grounds.
In herring the Coast Guard officials sought to get a better understanding of the size of the floating pans and blocks of ice, and whether they might have somehow weakened the vessel that ultimately sprung a major leak. According to Shuck most of the time the vessel traveled slowly through the ice. But on the night of the dispute, he said, the ship felt like a pinball as it bounced through the ice pans.
Jeremy Freitag, another crewman who testified, said he repeatedly found empty cans of beer and liquor bottles in Konno’s room. He added that after going through the ice, he noticed a small amount of standing water in a below-deck area where he had not seen it before.
