$4M Major Vessel Overhaul Completed at Pacific Fishermen Shipyard

In the fall of 2012, the FIERCE ALLEGIANCE pulled in to Seattle for a major overhaul after her 10 years in the Gulf of Mexico oil field service and 26 years in the Bering Sea as a combination Crabber/RSW Trawler. Pacific Fishermen added an 18” steel I-beam as a full length keel for added directional stability while towing larger nets.

Fish hold capacity was increased 1,600 cubic feet for a live crab holding capacity of 400,000 lbs. and pollock capacity of 975,000 lbs. in RSW. The extra payload will go a long ways to pay for the added 60 hp Teknotherm refrigeration compressor and new 12” seawater distribution manifold with (3) 10 x 10 Crane Demming 3,200 GPM seawater pumps. Over a million dollars in upgrades were spent for equipment by Lunde Marine Electronics to catch more fish, together with a total rehabilitation of the interior spaces and accommodaitons for crew comfort.

F/V FIERCE ALLEGIANCE joined the other Rick Mezich managed sister vessels in the UNISEA/St. Paul CBSFA Central Bering Sea Fisheries Association fleet: F/V STARFISH, STARLITE and STARWARD, who have all completed similar upgrades at Pacific Fishermen Shipyard, to stay seaworthy in the North Pacific and Bering Sea fisheries.

F/V STARFISH 

Removal of the old style box trawl gantry and installation of the lighter Pacific Fishermen pipe gantry lightened F/V STARFISH. The change-out raised her freeboard seven inches to give her a more seaworthy ride, with higher fish carrying capability.

Pacific Fishermen Shipyard was founded in 1946 by 400 Norwegian heritage fishermen as a co-op style shipyard on the site of the 1874 T.W. Lake Shipyard. T.W. Lake was born in Norway in 1825 and employed famous shipbuilders such as Thomas J. King, who later founded the King and Winge Shipbuilding Company in West Seattle.  The T.W. Lake Shipyard was later renamed Seattle Ship Yards and Ballard Marine Railway where Seattle founding father Joshua Green, the king of steamboats, had his sternwheelers built for the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.

The 1874 SS FANNY LAKE, named for T.W. Lake’s wife, was the site’s first recorded steamboat sternwheeler built at the T.W. Lake Shipyard for Captain John Hill and the famous Skagit Valley run for owner Joshua Green.