Sinking victim's son recalls a final phone call

Daniel Cook called San Diego home, and lived there for decades with his son. But he rarely spent more than a few months on shore, constantly heading back out to sea to pursue a career as a shipboard engineer.

On Saturday, it seemed like another routine farewell when Cook, 58, called from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to check in with his son, Tim Cook, about a fishing trip to the Bering Sea aboard the Alaska Ranger.

Late Sunday morning, Tim Cook got another call — telling him his father had died.

"I was devastated and I couldn't believe what I was hearing because I had just talked with him the day before," said Tim Cook, who works as a police officer in San Diego County.

Cook was told about his father's death by his uncle, Edward Cook, who worked as chief engineer on a sister ship, the Alaska Warrior, that aided the rescue. He learned that his father had helped many others off the Alaska Ranger, which sank in an accident that killed five of the 47 crew.

Tim Cook said his father relished his work and was respected throughout the maritime industry. Their message machine back in California still has calls from vessel owners seeking his father's services.

Tim Cook also briefly tried life at sea as a tuna fisherman. But his father advised him that maritime life was too hard on families, and Tim Cook took up a shoreside profession.

Later this week, Cook plans to fly up to Dutch Harbor with two brothers, Daniel Cook Jr. and Sean Cook, to retrieve his father's body.

Dutch Harbor is the port for the city of Unalaska, which is the hub of operations for Bering Sea fisheries. Over the years, many lives have been lost as the fleets pursue crab and fish in the biggest harvest in North America.

With each new tragedy, the community pitches in to help the survivors, said Unalaska Mayor Shirley Marquardt. Care packages containing clothing and other essentials — all donated by local merchants — are stockpiled in town for distribution to survivors. Pastors open their churches and hotel operators ready rooms.

"Things are just wacky here," Marquardt said Tuesday. The survivors "look like they've been struck on the head — they're in shock. ... They're heartbroken, they're confused, they don't know what to do."

Some of the survivors have talked about having to cut their comrades' bodies out of waterlogged survival suits in order to pull them on board the Ranger's sister ship, the Alaska Warrior, Marquardt said.

"It's a horrible, shocking sight, and it's really hard on people," she said.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com; Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com