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Posted on February 27, 2010 - by Morgan

The Future of the Cornelia Marie

The season premiere of “Deadliest Catch” will be April 13, 2010. This will be the sixth season of the “Deadliest Catch” and the fifth season that the “Cornelia Marie” has been featured on the show. The television crew from Original Productions boards our boat during the fall for King Crab season and then in January to videotape the Opilio Season. They videotaped the King Crab season on board with Capt. Phil and the crew. In fact, the King Crab season included a “near collision” of the F/V Cornelia Marie and the chase boat.

Up to and through the passing of our skipper, the Discovery Channel cameras have been rolling.  The cameras were present in the hospital with Capt. Phil and up to the end.  The cameras then accompanied much of the activity in the weeks following, up to the private memorial for Capt. Phil on February 21st.  We don’t know how Discovery will choose to edit the show.  It’s true that Phil allowed the cameras into his hospital room after surgery.  While still recovering from surgery, Phil was unable to talk so he wrote a note to keep shooting, because “we need a great finish to this story”.  I actually thought one week after the stroke that he indeed was going to make a great recovery.  As a boy coming of age on Alaska fishing boats, I always thought of skippers as rather indestructible.

According to the show producer Thom Beers, whether any of the hospital footage will air will be a decision made later with Phil’s family.  I think that is the right decision and really the only appropriate way to go.

Most likely the cameras will be present at the beginning of the next King Crab opening in October to videotape Phil’s ashes being scattered into the Bering Sea.  Whether the Discovery Channel wishes to follow the Cornelia Marie through the remainder of the King Crab season and the Opilio season will be up to them.  Of course, the F/V Cornelia Marie is a fishing boat and needs to keep on working.  Appearing on the TV show doesn’t pay the bills, only bringing crab aboard does that.  We were fishing before the TV show and we’ll be fishing after the TV show.

Many have asked us if Jake and Josh will continue fishing.  It’s too soon to tell.  As part owners of the boat, they would always have that choice.  Many have also asked if Josh or Jake will now take over as Captain.  The job of skipper and deckhand are two different worlds.  Many great deckhands never become skippers for very good reasons.  Being a skipper is one the most stressful jobs in the world.  Things will become more clear as the months go by and we get closer to King Crab in October.

The F/V Cornelia Marie will finish Opilio fishing in a few weeks.  Our current skipper, Derrick Ray has done his best to finish off this tough season.  As stated earlier, Derrick is an old family friend who started his career earlier on the precursor to the Cornelia Marie – the F/V Milky Way.  The Milky Way was one of the boats owned by Ralph Collins who owned and built the F/V Cornelia Marie.

We are grateful to all the fans of the Cornelia Marie and Capt. Phil.  Thank you for the many nice words left here and other places on the internet.  I hope this blog entry answers some questions.  Capt. Phil was one of a kind and is missed by everyone.  I look forward to the new season with apprehension.  It will be strange to see Phil brought back to life on videotape only to face what we all know happened.  Yet, I also assume the camera captured new joyful and humorous moments too – so that will be good.

Posted on February 21, 2010 - by Morgan

Capt. Phil: A Celebration of Life

Discovery Channel hosted a memorial service for Capt. Phil’s family and friends today.  It was an event most agreed Phil would have loved.  F/V Cornelia Marie crew members flew in from the Bering Sea to join former crew members and other Bering Sea captains.  Many of the “Deadliest Catch” boat captains were in attendance to pay their respects to their friend and fellow fisherman.  The Alaska Crab fishing fleet is close knit and many fishermen know each other.

Everyone always said Phil enjoyed “playing with his toys”, so it was fitting to have a beautiful Harley Davidson in the corner.  On the walls hung many images of Capt. Phil and the Cornelia Marie crew.

After some words from Josh, Jake and other close friends and family, Discovery showed a specially edited video highlighting the best of Capt. Phil.  The video was very well done, narrated by Mike Rowe himself.

One of the most emotional speeches was from Todd Stanley, long time Cornelia Marie camera person.  Todd spent “hundreds of hours” and “hundreds of days” side by side in the wheelhouse with Phil.  During that time, Todd and Phil became very close friends.  Crew members even described their relationship like “an old married couple”.  When Phil had to leave because of a blood clot two years ago, Todd was there.  When Phil had a stroke and was medivacked to Anchorage, Todd was again there by his side.  Todd was assigned to cover the Skipper as his job, but came away with a good friend and years of great memories.

Thank you to Todd and all the other “Deadliest Catch” camera operators.  It’s a difficult job with little recognition.  Learn more about Todd here.

This was a private memorial for friends and family, but many of you have followed Capt. Phil and the Cornelia Marie since the beginning and are like extended family… so I wanted to share a little of this day with you.  Thank you to everyone who has sent in beautiful letters, emails and comments.

A public memorial will most likely be held during the annual “CatchCon” hosted by Discovery.

Posted on February 20, 2010 - by Morgan

Mike Rowe says goodbye to Capt. Phil

(The following is an excerpt from mikeroweworks.com) A few years ago I was in Seattle, preparing to film the first round of After the Catch. For those of you unfamiliar with the program, After the Catch is a talk show in a bar, where The Captains and crew from Deadliest Catch gather to chat about this and that. I impersonate a moderator, and do my best to keep things on the rails. (Think Charlie Rose with cigarettes and whiskey.)

Anyway, on that first day of shooting, I arrived a few hours before filming began, and observed the kind of chaos that one can only find around a TV production. We were going to be shooting in a style called “Live to Tape,” which means we’d record the show in real time, as though it were a live production, but edit later for content. (Can you imagine filming the Captains with no time delay?) Consequently, there were at least 7 cameras positioned around the big table, and all kinds of lights hanging from the ceiling and poking through the windows. The plan was to record two shows in one afternoon. Producers and directors and cameramen and all manner of production personnel were milling about, and there was a real sense that no one actually knew what the hell was going on. Which was indeed the case.

As the Captains took their places around the table, it was clear they were not entirely sure what to expect. I can’t say they were nervous, but I can assure you that ambiguity does not sit well with men who are accustomed to being in charge. This kind of filming is the opposite of what goes on aboard their boats, and they had lots of questions about how the day would unfold. Unfortunately, I had no answers for them. (Unlike Captains, I actually prefer confusion and ambiguity – especially in television – and I told them as much. I also suggested that, being in a bar, there were any number of remedies nearby capable of taking the edge off – a completely unnecessary piece of advice, given my audience and setting.)

The only one who appeared completely at ease was Phil. He arrived at the last minute, and did so in style – cruising into the parking lot aboard a brand new motorcycle. He walked into the bar with a big smile, said hello to the gang, and then glanced at me with an amused expression. We then had the following exchange.  (Please click here to finish reading the article on Mike’s personal website.  Thanks Mike, great job)

Posted on February 19, 2010 - by Morgan

The Brave Last Days of Capt. Phil

This article comes from People magazine
Before his death on Feb. 9 at 53, Phil Harris, the tough and colorful captain of the Cornelia Marie on Discovery’s Deadliest Catch, fought against all odds, came out of a medically-induced coma following lengthy surgery, spent a few more days with friends and family – and set his two sons on a course for a strong future.

“I think that miraculous recovery that happened so rapidly and blew the doctors’ minds away was so that he could say the things that he had to say to the people he had to say them to,” says Dan Mittman, Harris’s best friend for 36 years.

As Harris recovered from his recent stroke at an Anchorage hospital, “I got five days to actually talk with him,” says son Josh, 26. “We had nine days total that we were there to enjoy a few moments with him. We had our closest people there and it was awesome. ”

Coping with Pain

Phil Harris began this January’s opilio crab-fishing season dealing with injury and concerns about his health on the high seas, according to friends and family. “You talk about pain,” says Josh, “but my dad had four crushed disks in his back, so he had been in pain the whole trip and that affected his fishing, too.”

According to Todd Stanley, the Catch producer and cameraman who’d spent years with Harris, “he seemed like he’d just gotten tireder and tireder. I mean, his pulmonary embolism [in 2008] really did it in for him.”

After hurricane-force winds knocked Harris from his bunk to a desk two years ago, and Stanley and the men on the boat forced Harris back to port to address his blood clot and bad health, the man who had an on-the-job habit of smoking cigarettes, eating high-calorie diets with his crew, drinking cases of Red Bull and downing pots of coffee knew he had to alter his lifestyle.

“He did cut back on energy drinks, quite a bit from what he’d usually do,” says Josh, “but [doctors] have determined that smoking was the cause of this, and that was always his biggest habit. He had changed a lot of his habits but just could never kick the smoking. He started working with that electronic cigarette but, not used to it, he didn’t know how to charge it. He just kept smoking.”

‘Just Paralyzed’
While off-loading crab in Alaska on Jan. 29, Cornelia Marie engineer Steve Ward found Phil Harris on the floor of his room, unable to move. Harris called for son Josh, who in turn, got Todd Stanley to stay with him while Josh called 911.

“The whole left side of his face was in paralysis, and that was hard,” Josh says. “He couldn’t move his arms or anything, he was just paralyzed on the floor.”

After being treated “damn near two years to the day,” says Josh, at the same St. Paul Sound clinic that helped him with his blood clot, Phil was medivacked to a hospital in Anchorage and underwent a long operation.
Crucial Days in Anchorage
A few days after Jan. 31, Phil Harris came out of a medically induced coma and right away started asking for friends to spend time with him.

“Phil and I have sat up and had many arguments about what it is to produce a good story,” says cameraman Stanley. “When he called me into the room that day, after 20 minutes of trying to understand what he was saying, because he could barely talk, he scribbled on a piece of paper, ‘Got to get the ending, ending to the story.’ I said, ‘Do you want me filming?’ He just looked at me with those blue eyes, man, and he was shaking his head yes, and shaking his hand with excitement.”
‘So He Could Be at Peace’
In the four days prior to his death, “he was Phil,” says Mittman. “We sat up and talked until midnight, not constantly because of catnaps, but that was our quiet time away from the cameras. We talked in detail, and he had regrets, and he shared them with me and he probably shared them with his sons. He accomplished what he needed to get done so he could be at peace.”

Harris talked to younger son Jake, 24, whom he told PEOPLE in 2008 “has fishing in his blood,” about the business. “I’m going to be looking at that [captain's] chair in a different way,” Jake says. “We definitely talked about it, but I just didn’t expect this to happen so soon. That’s definitely something where I would take over and take the responsibility.”

As for his older son, “he told me to get out of fishing,” Josh says. “I do love fishing, don’t get me wrong, but it was one of those deals where he wanted to see me do something better. He gave me the encouragement. My life goal was to show him I could be a man, you know, and I could fish, and I did the best job that I could, and he recognized that as being a good job and gave me kudos.”

But on Feb. 9, after walking for a bit and working on physical therapy, Phil Harris sat down in his bed next to best friend Dan Mittman to take a break. “He said, ‘Danny, I don’t feel as good as I did yesterday,’ ” Mittman recalls. “They rolled about five doctors through there and they said, ‘You can stay here,’ but, I understood, though.”

Later that day, Phil died with his closest family and friends surrounding him.

Posted on February 17, 2010 - by Morgan

Dutch Harbor Mourns Capt. Phil

The following article is by ROSE COX of The Dutch Harbor Fisherman (rcox@alaskanewspapers.com)

To fans of the “Deadliest Catch,” he was captain Phil Harris, the famous crab-killing rider of the wild Bering Sea.

But to those living at the tip of the Aleutian chain, he was just plain Phil, one of the most endearing, demanding – and sometimes downright irritating – men Dutch Harbor ever loved.

Harris, 53, suffered a stroke Jan. 29 while the fishing boat he captained, the Cornelia Marie, was in port at St. Paul Island near Dutch Harbor. He was medevacked to Anchorage and appeared to be on the mend Feb. 3, according to reports on the “Deadliest Catch” Web site.

He died Feb. 9, spurring thousands of online comments from fans of the Discovery Channel show that depicts the crab fishing industry in the dangerous waters off Alaska.

News spread quickly between fishermen, the docks, bars and businesses of Dutch Harbor and Unalaska.

“God bless him, he lived life to the extreme,” said Walt Dauderis.

He and Harris go way back. They worked together two decades ago on the Sea Ern, and before that in rubber boots and rain gear on the decks of the Alaska Monarch. More recently, Dauderis spent a few seasons as engineer and cook on the Cornelia Marie.

“People who tried to be like him, you’d watch them fail by his side. No one could keep up with him.”

Dauderis gave up crabbing for a job with the Alaska Marine Highway System, but he and Harris are practically neighbors in Lake Stevens, Wash., where they rode motorcycles together and yukked it up over fishing, Harleys and life in general.

Dauderis has lots of stories. But none of them are printable.

“I’m going to miss him. I just painted a motorcycle and was going to go by his house to show it to him and he was going to give me a bunch of s— because it wasn’t macho enough.”

Their pain is so new that people in Dutch Harbor talk about Harris in the present tense, like he’s about to walk through the door any minute amid a cloud of cigarette smoke and colorful language.

He was “friendly,” “honest,” “strong,” “hardworking” “caring.” He was the kind of guy who took “Deadliest Catch” T-shirts to sick children in the hospital.

“He was a one-of-a-kind person,” said Al Mendoza, fleet manager for Unisea, where the Cornelia Marie landed millions of pounds of crab over the years. “I don’t think he had an enemy over the years I knew him. Not one enemy, ever.”

All say he loved his sons, Josh and Jake Harris, more than life itself.

Then they tell how he used to joke about why lions eat their cubs. The words “brash,” “macho,” “loud” and “impatient” pop up. By all accounts, he could be a pain in the patoot, but that doesn’t mean they loved him less.

“We’re devastated,” said Veda Webb. And in the next breath, “I can’t count the times I told him to get out and never come back.”

When Webb started her business, Unalaska Advertiser, a few years back, Harris stopped in to welcome her, then made sure the other fishermen gave her their business.

The first week in February, she was working on getting Harris a mini computer for Internet and e-mail onboard the boat. She had a couple on order, but they got stalled in the mail.

“He’d hound me if he wanted something until he got it. He called me every night, ‘Are they here? Are they here?’ ”

His last call was the night before he left for St. Paul Island. The computers were in.

“He said, ‘Well, try to get me a Gateway with Windows 7, for when I get back.’ ”

Typical Harris behavior.

When he wanted something done, yesterday was too late, said Don Knoblauch, superintendent for Magone Marine Services, the shop that fixed the Cornelia Marie for the past eight years.

“Extremely pushy, boisterous expedience, that’s how he was,” Knoblauch said. “If he was off the boat and not pressured by the fishing, he was a pretty decent guy. I’d see him in the bar and he seemed like a relatively normal person.”

Crabbers tend to get into town, gear up, go fishing, unload and repeat until the season is over. But there’s always time to visit the bar, and Harris made all the stops over the years.

The first time bartender Danielle Williams met Harris, she served him his signature drink – a double duck fart.

“He and his two sons, one had just turned 21, and a crew member came in. His crew guy and he got into an argument, and his crew guy knocked him into the corner of the bar.”

She was about to boot them all out, but they started laughing.

“They got over it really fast. They ended up closing the bar.”

Lionel Silva, chief engineer on the pollock catcher Morning Star, said Harris’ death is a blow to the crabbing industry as well as a personal loss for him.

“He was a terrific captain, and one of the most outstanding people I know.”

There was far more to Harris than “Deadliest Catch” fame, Silva said.

“I understand he was on the show and stuff, but they’re all going to go away. When everybody forgets about ‘Deadliest Catch,’ we’re still going to be remembering Phil and everything about him.”

Rose Cox can be reached at rcox@alaskanewspapers.com, or by phone at (907) 348-2419

Posted on February 13, 2010 - by Morgan

Cornelia Marie thanks you for your support

My mother Cornelia Marie and I wish to thank everyone for your support on behalf of Josh, Jake and the rest of the family.  During this most difficult time you have expressed your sadness and offered your prayers and good wishes.  Many of you have also shared your concern for Phil’s boys.  Many nice of words have been written in emails and comments – we appreciate them all.

Many of you have asked if the “family has a charity, group or cause they would like donations to be made in Capt. Phil’s memory”.  Capt. Phil supported certain causes and something will be setup shortly.  Once it is, we’ll post it here.

Anything sent to the address below, will be hand-delivered to Jake, Josh and Phil’s dad by a close family friend.

Captain Phil Harris

PO Box 32466

Amarillo, TX 79120-2466

Thank you so much for all the kind words.  We will post more later.

Posted on February 10, 2010 - by Morgan

We mourn the loss of Capt. Phil Harris

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dad – Captain Phil Harris. Dad has always been a fighter and continued to be until the end. For us and the crew, he was someone who never backed down. We will remember and celebrate that strength. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers. – Jake and Josh Harris

It is with tremendous sadness that I say goodbye to Phil Harris. Phil and I have been business partners and friends for nearly 20 years.  We have been through a lot of ups and downs together with the F/V Cornelia Marie. As a skipper, he was a great fisherman. He loved his family and cared for his crew. We will all miss him. – Cornelia Marie Devlin

Statement from Discovery – Discovery mourns the loss of dear friend and colleague Captain Phil Harris. He was more than someone on our television screen. Phil was a devoted father and loyal friend to all who knew him. We will miss his straightforward honesty, wicked sense of humor and enormous heart. We share our tremendous sadness over this loss with the millions of viewers who followed Phil’s every move. We send our thoughts and prayers to Phil’s sons Josh and Jake and the Cornelia Marie crew.

Posted on February 6, 2010 - by Morgan

Capt. Phil makes progress toward recovery

Capt. Phil was talking to friends and family today; showing his greatest progress since he suffered a massive stroke one week ago.  It’s been a long and difficult week for friends and family as Phil was medivaced from St. Paul Island and under went surgery.

Capt. Phil’s sons Josh and Jake have been at this hospital and continue to stay by their father’s side.  Some Bering Sea fishermen have also come by to pay Phil a visit.

Meanwhile, the F/V Cornelia Marie has been back fishing for Opilios.  The season has really just begun, so there’s much more fishing to do.

Great folks from around the world have sent their messages of encouragement and get-well soon greetings – for this, we will always be thankful.  Many cards have been sent and they will all get to Phil as he recovers.

Posted on February 3, 2010 - by Morgan

THANK YOU FROM CORNELIAMARIE.COM

Thank you to everyone who has shared their concern for Capt. Phil, his family and crew.   We have received thousands of emails and comments from everywhere.   We know many of you have met Capt. Phil and his boys during one of their public appearances or have spent many hours with him through watching the  “Deadliest Catch”.  We appreciate all who have sent good thoughts and  prayers… It is a meaningful act and we really appreciate it during this  difficult time.

As we said in the last post, we will let you know when we have any substantial news about Capt. Phil. He continues to be supported by Jake and Josh and other family and friends.

We’ve heard many folks asking where they can send get well cards.  Please send correspondence to:

Captain Phil Harris
PO Box 32466
Amarillo, TX   79120-2466

From there, they will be handled by Phil’s good friend and then delivered to him later.

Once again, we thank you for your  support.

Posted on January 31, 2010 - by Morgan

Capt. Phil recovering from surgery

Last night Capt. Phil underwent surgery.  Both of his sons, Josh and Jake were at his side.  Josh flew in from St. Paul to join his brother.  It may be some time before we know anything substantial about Phil’s condition.

Thank you to everyone who has sent good wishes and prayers for Phil, his family and the Cornelia Marie crew.

An old family friend of the F/V Cornelia Marie, Derrick Ray flew to St. Paul to take on the role of relief skipper for the rest of the Opilio season.