LYNNWOOD — The knock on the door came while Easter dinner was in the oven.
A woman from the fishing company where Capt. Eric Peter “Pete” Jacobsen worked had come to his family’s Lynnwood home.
At first, Scott Jacobsen, the captain’s son, thought the company was delivering a holiday ham.
Instead, it was word that Pete Jacobsen had died earlier Easter morning in the Bering Sea.
The factory fishing trawler Alaska Ranger sank about 100 miles west of Dutch Harbor, in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Jacobsen and four other men died.
Now, amid the official inquest into the sinking, Jacobsen’s family is grief-stricken.
“There’s been lots of tears, lots of sorrow,” Scott Jacobsen, 33, of Bothell, said.
Patty Jacobsen, 55, said she never thought the word “widow” would be placed next to her name.
“I want the world to know that my husband was a hero,” she said. “He saved 42 lives.”
A memorial service for Jacobsen, 65, is scheduled for Saturday. He died waiting to be rescued, his wife said.
“He was just in the water too long,” she said.
The sinking has captured national headlines. A federal investigation has probed allegations of alcohol aboard the Alaska Ranger and poor maintenance of the ship.
Had the captain known of problems, he would have taken swift action, his daughter, Erica Jacobsen, 24, of Lynnwood said.
“You have no idea how strict my dad was,” she said.
The U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board have opened a Marine Board of Investigation to determine what caused the 184-foot fishing ship to sink.
The inquest began in Alaska on March 28. By mid-April, officials plan to move the proceedings to Seattle, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Sara Francis.
Patty Jacobsen said she plans to attend.
“Even if I just sit like a mouse in the back and don’t understand what they’re saying, I just want to be there,” she said. “I just want the answers.”
She hopes there can be lessons from her husband’s death.
“My fondest wish is that nothing like this has to happen again,” she said.
A native of the Boston area, Pete Jacobsen moved to the West Coast around 30 years ago, his son said.
He worked for a while on tug boats before joining the Seattle-based Fishing Co. of Alaska about 20 years ago. He was the second employee hired by the company, his family said.
“He worked for a demanding company and he never said no,” Scott Jacobsen said.
The captain often spent months away from family working. Fishing schedules forced him to leave the day after Christmas to return to Alaska.
“He always wanted to make sure we had enough,” Erica Jacobsen said. “Fishing was his way of providing.”
Pete Jacobsen told his family he planned to retire at the end of this year’s season to spend more time at home.
When he wasn’t at sea, the captain rose with the sun, walked his dog and then played with his grandchildren.
He loved to play the lottery and during good weather rode his motorcycle. He was partial to warm Coke and vodka and knew everybody in Lynnwood, Patty Jacobsen said.
At the grocery store, the post office and other places where they ran errands, the captain was the man who would hold open a door, help a lady off with her coat or take someone’s arm.
“What a gentleman, what a hero,” his wife said.
Now, the family can’t shake the feeling that maybe Pete Jacobson is still at sea.
“It just seems like he’s going to come home from fishing and somehow this all was a big mistake,” Scott Jacobsen said.
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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