Deadliest Catch's 5 Worst Disasters, Ranked

Fishing on the ice-coated open ocean during crabbing season is a dangerous enough occupation. When you're accompanied by a bunch of camera-bearing civilians with boom mics, a fleet of greenhorns, and the unpredictable fury of Mother Nature, then it can easily become a disaster. The captains who keep their vessels ship-shape on "Deadliest Catch" know from experience that it's not easy making your quotas, keeping your ship from foundering aground, and making sure your crew's not at each other's throats. A disaster — man-made or natural — is never a welcome thing.

But the bitter and the sweet in life often intermingle, and so it is for "Deadliest Catch." Skippers have faced down illness, crab-killing hardships, lost deckhands, and horrifyingly dangerous weather during their time on the briny blue. Their ships refuse to cooperate with their plans and leak, shatter, and even sink. Fortunately, the show's captains have never suffered the catastrophe of losing their own boat with Discovery's cameras rolling. But they have seen a lot of scary things go down over the past 20-plus seasons, and some of those incidents were very close calls. Here are the top five disasters faced by captains on "Deadliest Catch."

Boat fires are a harrowing experience that can kill a crew and ruin a ship in a matter of seconds; in the middle of the Bering Sea, it becomes all the more precarious. Captain Keith Colburn had to face such a disaster during Season 19, and it all happened just as he was celebrating a huge catch. Interrupted by cries of 'fire' in the middle of a phone call, Colburn rushed to the engine room only to be met with thick smoke.

The culprit proved to be a split in the break line, which spewed toxic fumes all over the place and left Colburn gagging and coughing. A deckhand had to don a protective breathing apparatus to get in and fix the split. Thankfully, the fire was put out, and the crew managed to put the incident behind them and get their record catch in port. But it was a hair-raising incident that definitely set everyone on edge.

Amazingly, this isn't the only time a "Deadliest Catch" captain has been forced to battle flames during an ocean voyage. The Wizard again caught fire during Season 20 and so did the Northwestern during Season 12, causing a blackout. Sig Hansen even experienced a fire during his first episode and Season 1's trip to The Norwegian. Thankfully no one was hurt during any of these incidents.

A busted window is bad news for any crab fisherman — one doesn't want to be exposed to the frigid ocean wind or well-chilled seawater. A storm just makes conditions even more dangerous and unpredictable. And danger is what Jake Anderson of the Saga had to deal with when the soft start mechanism on his ship's crane malfunctioned during Season 19 and sent a piece of metal sailing through his wheelhouse window.

The severity of the storm the ship was in and the fact that the wheelhouse was filled with expensive navigational and steering equipment meant a replacement window had to be installed ASAP. The crew welded a new window into place in the middle of a storm while Discovery's cameras looked on.

Amazingly enough, something similar happened to Keith Colburn during Season 19 when a crab cage swung loose and smashed right into the window of his cabin. Fortunately, he and the crew were able to fix the shattered glass with some wood and get on with their day.

The Saga has been through a lot of disasters during its time on the ocean — it's been attacked by seagulls and dealt with all matter of natural disaster. But the time Jake Anderson had to switch out a burst pipe in the middle of a power outage after his ship's engine room had flooded remains a highlight of "Deadliest Catch" history.

It all went down during Season 18. Anderson had just laid down to sleep for the night when greenhorn Shayanne  — at the helm during Jake's nap — noted that the bilge was taking on water thanks to an alarm going off. She woke Jake and he quickly discovered that a pipe used to circulate water to the crab tanks had burst. The water had already flooded the engine room up to his hips when he dove in and began to pull the rusted joint free with a large wrench. Mac took the helm and Mason and Shayanne assisted Jake in getting the engine room dried out. Jake got the pipe and its coupling screwed into place, with Shayanne welding the coupler together. The power went out in the process, causing Mac to radio out for help.

Everything worked out in the end, and the pipe was replaced, but it's an absolutely harrowing moment that's still an enervating, pulse-pounding situation to witness secondhand.

Multiple captains have dealt with men going overboard during the show's lifespan, whether it was Freddy diving into the water shirtless to grab a walrus corpse for The Wizard to use as bait or Wild Bill nearly losing his deckhand, Spencer, to the freezing waters. And then there was the time the Time Bandit pulled a deckhand from another boat to safety after he fell into the ocean. Series veteran Sig Hansen experienced the horror of watching one of his crewmen go overboard during Season 24 — and he accidentally takes one of the show's cameramen with him. 

The incident occurs when deckhand Clark climbs on top of the pile of crabbing pots to loosen the chain tying them together. The rope unexpectedly lets go, and he and a cameraman fall into the water. Both men were rescued via slings and then sent below deck to warm up.

The pulse-pounding moment is a shocker no matter how you slice it. As Sig declared in the wake of the incident, emotional and teary-eyed, "This isn't supposed to happen on this boat." When he embraces Clark, you understand the enormity of the situation.

One of the worst things that can ever happen to a captain is to suffer through a sinking. While none of the shipwrights have ever had the misfortune of experiencing the horror of having to go down with their vessels, they've absolutely lost friends to maritime tragedies documented on "Deadliest Catch," and their grief and horror have been captured on camera more than once.

Memorably, the sinking of the V/F Destination in Season 15 affected Sig Hansen deeply. He was close friends with the captain of the Destination, and audiences watched in real time as he learned that his friend's boat had sunk without a single trace. "I know you probably want me to say something," he said. "But maybe just give me a little bit and I'll tell you what I think, okay?" 

Then there was the loss of the V/F Scandies Rose, to which multiple captains reacted when it disappeared in 2019 on-camera. There's nothing more real than the stakes of life and death, and no bigger disaster than the horror of sudden loss. These sinkings capture just what's at risk for these men and women — and why following their disasters and their triumphs are so compelling.