Our Sympathy

Commercial fishing is the most hazardous job in the world. Those working in this field face myriad dangers to life, including drowning, machinery-related accidents, and hypothermia. Commercial fishers, and the communities in which they live, are well-acquainted with death. This co-existence with the end of life prompts commercial fishing communities to adopt rituals designed to understand the water and wring mercy from the force controlling it. Some communities place statues of mariners at the harbor channel to stand as sentries guarding the coming and going of the local fleet. Some erect likenesses of the Virgin Mary cradling fishing boats in place of the infant Jesus. Superstitions abound on any open-water vessel; rules apply to avert disaster like refraining from bringing certain fruits aboard as fruit seeks the earth and will drag a vessel down with it, or a refusal to leave port on a Friday, the unluckiest day of the week. In Dillingham, we hold an annual Blessing of the Fleet to seek protection and guardianship for our local salmon fishing fleet and to honor those who have lost their lives in the dangerous way we choose to make a living.

The Blessing of the Fleet is held in May or June, late enough to make fishing the foremost thought of town residents and early enough to seek blessing before many fishers have launched their 32 foot-long Bristol Bay commercial salmon vessels. The Blessing of the Fleet ceremony is multi-denominational and includes the participation of all religious leaders in town from the Moravian Church pastor to the Catholic and Russian Orthodox priests. In this, all town residents are represented.

The first part of the Blessing of the Fleet is comprised of the singing of hymns, recitation of Bible verses are recited, and lifting of prayers for a good season and the safe return of our people. We give thanks for the life we are given and seek for it to continue amid the dangers we face through our fishing lifestyles.

The second part of the ceremony features the reading of the names belonging to those lost to the water and the ringing of a ship’s bell to commemorate each one. For some of the names on the list, this is the only remembrance as the sea does not always return the bodies she claims. During the reading of the names and ringing of the bell, all of Bristol Bay is a cemetery. Some shed tears at the loss of their loved ones and for lack of any physical place to grieve. Some listen to the reading of the names with trepidation for if a family name is not already on the list, it means the family still owes a life-debt. Most, however, listen solemnly to honor the lost.

The last part of the Blessing of the Fleet ceremony requires that a wreath be placed on the water in the name of the dead and for the hope of the living. In this action, the ceremony is closed in the attitude our community takes toward the end of life: we mourn, we accept, we seek strength, and then we simply continue to live according to our ways and traditions.

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