Deadliest Catch: What Happened To The Cornelia Marie?
Did tragedy and scandal manage to sink the beloved Cornelia Marie? The Deadliest Catch fan favorite is no ghost ship — but it seems that its days in the spotlight might be over for good.
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00:00Did tragedy and scandal manage to sink the beloved Cornelia Marie? The Deadliest Catch
00:04fan favorites is no ghost ship, but it seems that its days in the spotlight might be over
00:08for good.
00:09The Cornelia Marie has appeared in almost every season of Deadliest Catch, though fans
00:13noted its absence from Season 19 of the Discovery reality series chronicling the dangerous crab
00:18fishing industry in the Bering Sea. This happened once before, in Season 13, with the boat returning
00:22the following season. Indicating the boat's popularity, a Twitter user uploaded a picture
00:27of the boat near Valdez, Alaska, claiming,
00:29So cool seeing a boat I've watched on TV for years wandering off into the harbor."
00:33While the Cornelia Marie also appeared in the Deadliest Catch spinoff Deadliest Catch
00:36Bloodline, as of 2023, its whereabouts are unknown, leaving many wondering what happened
00:42to it.
00:43Crab fishing is not a sport for the weak, nor the weak-minded.
00:49Starting in Season 2 of Deadliest Catch, the ship was captained by Phil Harris. But things
00:53took a tragic turn in Season 6, when Captain Harris suddenly passed away from an intracranial
00:57hemorrhage.
00:58The following year on the show, the Cornelia Marie came back skippered by new people, with
01:02the late Harris' son Josh becoming the captain four years later. However, by the time Season
01:0713 aired, the Cornelia Marie was, again, nowhere to be found. A 2016 Facebook post from Josh
01:12Harris explains his vessel's absence, claiming,
01:15Discovery has creative control over pretty much everything that airs in Deadliest Catch,
01:18and we respect that. We are fishermen, and we will be doing what we love to do this king
01:22crab season, but we'll be doing it alone."
01:25Audiences were happily surprised when the Cornelia Marie was back for Season 14, this
01:28time co-captained by Josh and Casey McManus. It was reported by Country Living that after
01:33the sudden death of the original Cornelia Marie captain Phil Harris, Josh and his brother
01:37Jake tried and failed to buy the boat. When the vessel appeared in Season 14, Josh, Jake,
01:41and Casey McManus shared ownership stakes.
01:44I kiss the boat when I see it. I think the boat's gonna be happy you're back, too. I'm
01:49tired of me whooping on it.
01:52This offered insight into the vessel's one-year break when speaking with Yahoo! Entertainment,
01:56asserting that during the break he had to contend with numerous family issues, such
01:59as the death of his grandfather, Captain Grant Harris, and the substance use issues and assault
02:04faced by his brother, Jake Harris. Josh also claimed,
02:06I had multiple people in ICU at the same time, and that put a kibosh on things. I had to
02:11be home. Going to visit everybody in ICU isn't exactly a fun time or stuff that necessarily
02:15needs to be filmed.
02:17Josh would also mention that he hoped that Jake might return to crabbing once his personal
02:20issues were dealt with, saying,
02:22Nobody wants to see this boat just disappear. They want to see the whole legacy keep going.
02:26We're definitely back, and we're ready to show the world what we can do at full force,
02:29a little bit smarter and with a lot better boat.
02:31Currently, there is little else publicly known about the status of the Cornelia Marie other
02:35than its absence from Season 19 of Deadliest Catch. In 2022, MarineTraffic.com recorded
02:40the Cornelia Marie moored in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, while Vessel Finder listed the vessel
02:44on the west coast of North America around that same time.
02:47Though it'll be missing from its normal place of prominence in the 19th season of Deadliest
02:51Catch, a Reddit user reportedly spotted it in the background of one scene, with its name
02:55on the side of the hull blurred out. According to Distractify, they wrote,
02:58Long-time fans will know the Cornelia Marie when they see her, blurred or not.
03:03Another user reportedly saw the boat in the season trailer, so it's very possible that
03:06the vessel may still be working in the area. But regardless if the ship is crabbing on
03:10or off camera, according to the U.S. Sun, Captain Josh Harris is also gone, embroiled
03:14in a sex abuse controversy from 1998.
03:17The Discovery Channel is similarly tight-lipped about Harris' departure, with a network representative
03:22claiming,
03:23We've been made aware of this issue. Josh will not appear in future episodes of this
03:26series.
03:27If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit
03:31the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's
03:35National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. 4357.