‘Deadliest Catch’ Death: What Happened to Jeff Hathaway and the F/V Destination?

Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch Season 19 continues to show the fisherman navigating the Bering Sea — and it certainly isn’t easy. Throughout all 19 seasons of the show, viewers have seen boats capsize and fishermen die due to unfortunate accidents at sea. So, what happened to Jeff Hathaway and the F/V Destination? Here’s what to know.

What happened to Jeff Hathaway and the F/V Destination from ‘Deadliest Catch’?

Captain Jeff Hathaway and the F/V Destination were once featured on Deadliest Catch. Unfortunately, Jeff and the rest of the crew died while aboard the Destination when it sank on Feb. 11, 2017.

So, what happened? The Destination sank while in the Bering Sea, and it seems the boat’s owner and captain didn’t ensure the vessel was prepared for the waters. Captain Lee Boone, director of investigations for the Coast Guard, said the Destination was “in a vulnerable condition” when it sank, according to the Seattle Times. “It just wasn’t one thing,” Boone added.

According to a report, the Destination was overloaded and didn’t meet stability standards when it left port. The boat held over 200 crab pots that were too heavy. Captain Hathaway added to the issue by adding bait to the pots. The Destination was also reportedly coated with freezing spray that added significant weight to the top of the vessel.

Additionally, the vessel’s hatch was likely left open, causing rapid flooding when the boat entered the difficult waters. The Destination reportedly capsized “within a matter of minutes,” leaving the crew — which included Jeff — no time to save the boat or themselves.

“It would be a challenge for any crewmember or fisherman to conduct emergency broadcast radio calls, don a survival/immersion suit and deploy the liferaft in this short period of time,” the report added.

Jeff went down with the Destination after serving on the ship for 23 years. The seasoned veteran wasn’t a newcomer to the difficulties of crab fishing, making the tragedy all the more surprising.

Sue Hathaway, Jeff Hathaway’s wife, nearly died in the Bering Sea

Jeff Hathaway’s wife, Sue Hathaway, wasn’t on the F/V Destination when it sank, and she’s not on Deadliest Catch now. But she nearly lost her life while out on the Bering Sea.

When Sue met Jeff, she was the cook in a galley of the boat he fished on. Sue narrowly avoided death when she almost signed up to cook on the F/V Americus in 1983. Thankfully, she didn’t sign up. The Americus and the Altair both went down on Feb. 14, 1983, killing all 14 crew members aboard.

Sue then decided to spend her fifth year aboard the F/V Karin Lynn, and she then went aboard the Arctic Dreamer. At just 24 years old, Sue went down with the Arctic Dreamer when it sank in March 1983. Thankfully, she was able to pull on an insulated survival suit before heading into the water, where she floated for three hours. After she was rescued, she knew her days in the Bering Sea were numbered.

“I have a fishing pole. I’ll stick to trout,” she told the Seattle Times, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Multiple ‘Deadliest Catch’ deaths show the dangers of crab fishing

Crab fishing remains deadly well into 2023, and Deadliest Catch Season 19 shows the dangers. Aside from Jeff Hathaway, many other captains and crew members have died from boat capsizing, crab pot injuries, medical emergencies aboard the boat, or drug abuse. Captain Sig Hansen spoke about the dangers.

“I don’t know the numbers off the top of my head, but it seems like there is always a fatality,” Hansen told New Zealand Fishing News. “Every year there is something that goes wrong – it is fishing, and they are extreme conditions. A lot of it is due to the weather. A problem with Alaska is that you have this shallow shelf that drops off to a couple of thousand fathoms. This forms very tall, close-together waves on the shelf, and these are the problem – they do so much damage because they are so close together. A lot of the times the boats are loaded with crab pots, so they are already top-heavy.”

Deadliest Catch Season 19 airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Discovery Channel.

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