Of all the people in Mark Coulthurst’s life, it was Roy Tussing who knew him best. Roy had worked for him since the days of the Kit, Mark’s first seine boat. Roy was there when they were still scraping to make the boat run. He was there when they were still struggling to have a good season. He was there when Mark decided to take his nets north for the first time. Was there when the net ripped or the engine broke or the price of salmon plummeted, as it had in 1981, when the botulism scare overtook Alaska canned salmon.
Roy Tussing was the “old man” on the Investor. He had some real life stories to tell. He remembered with fondness some of the wild times on the Kit.
Roy chuckled when he thought about the time when, almost home from their Alaska season, Mark decided to fish one set in Puget Sound before heading in to port. How they’d caught so many fish the boat was filled to the gunnels. And how Irene was mad as hell when they finally hit shore. She had dragged everyone down to Blaine harbor and put out a “Welcome Home” banner. The thing was, they didn’t make it to port until twelve hours later.
And Tussing remembered how crazy they’d been. Who didn’t get a little crazy, he wondered, after being cooped up on a boat for months on end? He recalled the time, near the end of the season, when they’d decided to play a joke on Mark Coulthurst. Mark had either been tired, or had a few beers, but it was the end of the season anyway. And while Mark was sleeping, the crew got out a tape recorder. They made a party tape.
They said some fairly outrageous things. They said, for example, that Mark had passed out. That he’d just shot up some cocaine. That the needle was still in his arm. And then they laughed. Years later, when that tape turned up again, no one was laughing.
Excerpts from the unpublished original manuscript, “Sailor Take Warning,” by Leland E. Hale. That manuscript, started in 1992 and based on court records from the Alaska State Archive, served as the basis for “What Happened in Craig.”
Copyright Leland E. Hale (2019). All rights reserved.
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