Meet the River Crew, Part III: The Captains
Tennessee River, Mile 172
Saltillo, TN
Log Entry by Program Manager Tatiana Dalton
Sunday, October 30, 2022
17:07
Welcome back to Meet the River Crew, in which I will take the liberty of introducing you to each member of our crew, in no particular order. Here’s the rules:
Hometown Where did you grow up? Where do you call home?
First Boat What was the first boat you can remember sailing/motoring/paddling on? What was the first boat you joined as a crew member?
Best Wildlife What was the best wildlife you’ve ever seen on a boat?
Best Food What was the best food you’ve ever eaten on a boat?
Not Boats What is something you do or have done in your life that isn’t boat-related? Something that you care about, a hobby, a past job or experience…
Boat Pet If you could have any boat pet, what would it be and what would you name it?
Here we go!
Captain Sam Hill and Captain Christopher Flansburg
Christopher Flansburg
Senior Captain
Capt. Flansburg has been part of the World Ocean School team since 2017.
Hometown Long Beach, California
Best Wildlife Grizzly bears in Alaska or blue whales in Monterey Bay
Best Food Various Thanksgivings on various boats, because everybody on board pitches in
Not Boats Capt. Flansburg was an army paratrooper before he started working on boats
Boat Pet A cat named Oakum
First Boat Captain Flansburg’s first time on a boat was fishing with his father on the Kai Aku out of Portland, OR, but his maritime career began far from home. While traveling in London after the end of his army service, he met a South African man who wanted to travel to Israel. Capt. had been there during his time in the Army, and so they made the trip to Eliat, Israel together.
They soon ran out of money, but heard that you could make some cash working on boats on the Red Sea. The two of them walked the docks looking for work, but their most promising lead was on a boat where the hiring manager wasn’t in that day. So they spent the evening in the Peace Cafe, where Capt. Flansburg had a choice to make: he could use his last five shekels to buy a bag of pita bread to eat for a few days, or he could buy two Gold Star beers. He chose the beers.
The next day, he and his buddy returned to the boat, the Gali and learned that the hiring manager still hadn’t arrived. Determined, the two simply set to work along with the rest of the crew, and when the manager arrived, he agreed to hire them, for 200 shekels (about $200) per month in pay.
Seven months later, Capt. Flansburg departed the Gali for Turkey, where he took his first job on a sailing vessel—a Swedish barkentine named Amorina. After a stint on one yacht, which took him to San Tropez, and another, which brought him to Palma, Spain, he flew home, his introduction to the maritime industry complete.
Sam Hill
Pilot Captain
This is Capt. Hill’s first time working with World Ocean School.
Hometown Sanibel Island, Florida
First Boat Capt. Hill was practically born on a boat; his grandfather had a shrimp boat called the Columbus, which was his first boat both as a passenger and as crew
Best Wildlife Swimming bears on the Apalachicola River in Florida
Best Food “Tuna that was still wiggling.” He’s eaten this just about every time he catches a tuna, which is probably more than a thousand times, mostly in the straits of Florida
Not Boats He raced in the Baja 1000—a world-famous offroad desert race in Baja California, Mexico
Boat Pet Capt. Hill had a yellow lab named Skipper; he said he’s had a lot of yellow labs, but Skipper was the best
Capt. Hill’s current career in boat deliveries and pilot captain work comes after he retired early. In his previous lives, he was an active duty member of the Coast Guard and a civilian captain in the Army Corps of Engineers.
When asked which waterways he’s most familiar with, he answered, “Earth”—after the breadth of experience he’s had, he can take a boat just about anywhere. But the older he gets, the more inshore he wants to stay—as he says, “I’m tired of getting beat up offshore.”
Capt. Hill prefers sailing to motorboating in his leisure time—a small fraction of all the time he spends on boats, but he’s still done quite a bit of sailing. His father had a sailboat when he was growing up, and he has one now that he uses frequently.
“Diesel propulsion is where it’s at”
His maritime career has taken him all over the map—from San Francisco Bay and Alameda, CA to Panama City, FL and Key West, to Maine. His time in the Army Corps of Engineers was spend largely in the Mobile, Alabama district, so he’s particularly at home in the Gulf of Mexico area.
Capt. Hill has a college degree and says that university taught him how to learn and how to communicate with others. However, he says, most of his most important training happened on the job. “Driving a boat is easy, but driving people is hard,” he says, “Being a leader is hard, and it takes a leader to get folks working together.”
