BALLARD, Wash. -- The hit show Deadliest Catch has made stars out of local crabbers like Jake Anderson. We caught up with him during a rare stint at home in Seattle.
"Right now we're in Ballard at Pacific Fisherman, the home of the mighty Northwestern. It has been my home for 8 years, and the pride and joy of the Hansen family since 1977," said Anderson, on the docks where the crab boat is currently in for maintenance before heading out to be a salmon tender this summer. This ship may be the show's biggest star.
"When it goes up on the blocks, which is behind us right here, to get stripped and painted? The paint chips fall, and you get random people, fans, that'll walk into the yard, they're not supposed to, and they'll steal the paint chips!" laughed Anderson. "And they want 'em signed!"
So, we decided to have Jake show us around the real star of the show: the Northwestern.
First thing we learned -- she's got some home-team shout outs: 'Beast Mode' and 'Go Hawks' spray painted in various spots on deck.
"As a part of the Northwestern being a Seattle boat, it has to root for the Seattle team, and that's the Seahawks," explained Anderson.
Inside, it's classic crab boat decor. with 'Grace' hanging next to Miss April, and a quick vocab lesson from Anderson:
"So this is actually considered the mess, which is dining room. And that's the galley. Which is the kitchen. And it's not a bedroom. It's a stateroom," he explained, climbing up into his bunk.
"It gets pretty small, pretty fast. Especially when you're tired, angry, hungry, lonely, and homesick."
We even got Jake to show us the boss's office.
"And this is the Northwestern's wheelhouse," he said, heading up the narrow stairs and sitting in a new captain's chair.
"This is it, pretty simple. A jog stick and a throttle, to move a two hundred ton vessel."
Anderson aspires to be a captain himself -- which is a long way from where he's been -- a journey he chronicled in his book Relapse.
"I was homeless by choice before I got on here. And I was drug addicted and an alcoholic. And Sig, and Norman and Edgar, they took me in and trained me up, and gave me a home and a place to be useful in my life." Anderson said, referring to the Hansens, the family that owns and operates the Northwestern.
"This boat was the reason that helped me change, and it saved my life."
There's one more thing you should know about the Northwestern: She's high maintenance.
"She will run so much better if you make sure she has her lipstick and her makeup on. You have to keep her done up every couple days or she just won't run right. If you make sure she's clean and you make sure she's painted and you make sure she's fixed she will run for you phenomenally. But once you take the makeup off her, she'll get mad and she'll dump on you."
So this deckhand does his best to do right by this boat. Because he knows the Northwestern, and its crew, will be here for him long after the cameras have gone away.
"It's pretty phenomenal, I think it's great, and it won't last forever. So I try to take if for what it's worth, and I'm very grateful that I get to be a part of something like the Northwestern."
