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‘Deadliest Catch’ Marks Father’s Day Early With New Dad Jake Anderson

‘Deadliest Catch’ Marks Father’s Day Early With New Dad Jake Anderson

Last updated on: June 16, 2015 at 10:12 am by Kate O'Hare

‘Deadliest Catch’ Marks Father’s Day Early With New Dad Jake Anderson 2015-06-16T10:12:18-08:00 Kate O'Hare

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In the episode of Discovery’s “Deadliest Catch” airing Tuesday, June 16, a 9 p.m. ET/PT, deckhand Jake Anderson of the F/V Northwestern, part of the Bering Sea crab fleet, marks two milestones — he becomes a new dad, and he finally gets a wheelhouse of his own.

It’s the culmination of a maturation process for Anderson, who began his adult life mired in drugs and alcohol. Then he had to maintain his cool and his sobriety through the early death of one of his sisters, and an unrealized quest to be captain of his own boat.

He left the Northwestern a couple of years ag0 — abandoning his mentor and father figure Sig Hansen — to pursue an opportunity on another boat. Unfortunately, that fizzled out, sending Anderson back to the Northwestern.

At the time he said:

I’m a religious guy. I believe in God, and that’s always helped to get me through. I keep following my heart and knowing that everything that happens is for a reason, and I keep plugging away.

Anderson has had to hold tight to that faith in even more difficult circumstances. In the summer of 2012, the skeletal remains of Anderson’s father, Keith A. Anderson, were found in the woods in Skagit County, Washington, two years after he vanished in 2010, reportedly while seeking to feed his own addiction.

As fans of the show took in the shock of the death of Capt. Phil Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie and the impact on his sons, Jake and Josh, Anderson was dealing with a staggering loss of his own, and a mystery to boot.

But after marrying Jenna Patterson and earning his masters license in 2012, Anderson put himself on the rocky road to manhood.

In Tuesday’s episode, Jenna gives birth to the couple’s first child.

Calling in just before heading out with the Northwestern to return to Alaska for tendering — using the large crab boat to transport smaller boats’ catches of fish to the processor — Anderson is beside himself with joy at being a father.

“It’s so awesome,” he said. “It’s hard for me to get to work sometimes. I’m snuggling with him, and it’s like, ‘Five more minutes, five more minutes.’ He’s like a drug. I can’t quit.”

The show airs several months after the events shown, so while Aiden Benn Arthur Anderson is a newborn on Tuesday night, in reality, says his father, “He’s four-and-a-half months now, almost five.”

Aboard the boat prior to the birth, Hansen — who has two daughters — teased Anderson about every freedom and luxury that would be “gone” from his life. Anderson’s learning what he meant.

“You don’t get a break,” he said. “He’s got to be changed; he’s got to be fed; you want to play with him. It’s totally rewarding, but it’s kind of a shock. I didn’t know, for me, it was going to be a bunch of work. It didn’t hit me until I came home, and I really want to take a nap, and I just can’t.

“It just keeps going, because you love the little guy so much, you want to spend time with him. Then after a couple of weeks you just crash out. Like all parents, you’re sitting there with a bunch of dirty clothes, and you just fall asleep, just go down. It’s so much fun, though.”

And as it turns out, he gets a wish expressed in 2014:

“[I want] definitely a boy. A girl would be nice, too, but I definitely don’t want to deal with a girl in her teenage years.

“Catch” viewers have watched Anderson mature from a fresh-faced Northwestern greenhorn, and he’s appreciative of the opportunities the show has given him.

“With people my age,” said the 34-year-old, “I see a lot of entitlement. I”m probably not innocent of that, either. There’s something in our generation. The difference is with me, I’m an earner. I’ve earned everything I’ve go. I’ve earned my job on the boat, to be a captain.

“Thanks to the show and the people I’ve met through it, I have gained a lot of opportunity. If it wasn’t for the television show, I wouldn’t have the opportunities to move up, I don’t think, just because it’s recognized more. Boat owners see me wanting to be a captain.”

Now he gets his chance, as Capt. Elliott Neese of the F/V Saga apparently has a relapse of the drug problems that sent him to rehab late last year.

“I will now be officially a captain,” said Anderson. “Next Tuesday, everybody’s going to see me have Aiden and try frantically to run the boat. It’s going to be pretty wild.”

Happy Father’s Day, Jake Anderson!

Image: Courtesy Discovery Channel

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