CRABBER #5

Limited Edition print by Alaskan artist, Tom Crestodina. Edition size 500

Cutaway drawing of a Dungeness crab boat heading out on “dump day”, the first day on which pots can be set for the season in an area. In order to travel to the fishing grounds the boat must cross the harbor bar where the ocean swells meet the outgoing current of the rivers that empty out of the mouth of the bay. This makes the boats vulnerable to the bar’s unpredictable and often steep waves – especially when loade with hundreds of crab traps, called “pots”.

Details include the stacked pots, crew and captain, head, engine room, drive train, fo’c’sle, galley, captain’s stateroom and rigging.

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.