CRABBER # 4

19" x 13" Limited Edition print by Alaskan artist, Tom Crestodina Edition size 500

This drawing of a crab boat shows the crew and machinery at work on the Bering Sea, hauling pots and stacking them. The hold is nearly filled with king crab, and the spaces shown include the bait locker, hydraulics and refrigeration room, crew accommodations, galley, wheelhouse, head, steering gear room, engine room, and fuel and water tanks.

The vessel is loosely based on the F/V Cornelia Marie of Kodiak Alaska. The Cornelia Marie was built in 1989 in Bayou La Batre, Alabama by Horton Boats. She has appeared on nearly every season of the Discovery Channel's reality fishing show, The Deadliest Catch.

Tom Crestodina, an Alaskan fisherman, began making cutaway drawings in 2011 to connect with his young son, Franio, while he was out at sea. " I missed my family so much it was like physical pain. Making these drawings was my way of  reaching out to my little boy."

Tom's drawings are intended to educate and amuse. In part, they are made so that seafarers can hang them on their wall and use them to explain their work to aunts and uncles from far away places. Some are diagrams that explain fishing methods and other aspects of the maritime trades. Many of them contain inside jokes for fishermen and sailors. Some contain silly jokes for kids.