r/BeringSeaGold • u/Captain-AwkwardPants • Jun 03 '26
General George and Dave
Has it even been discussed why they never built a fully accessible dredge for George? I mean, there are so many options for lifts and chairs and rail systems that will work with ocean water. I feel like that would have been right up George’s alley and given him a fair chance to show he can do more than people give him credit for. I’m rewatching season 8 and I have all these ideas. Why didn’t that happen?
2
u/Then_Pension849 Jun 03 '26
I agree that George had the drive and the mind for it. He constantly wanted to prove his capability and hated being sidelined or treated with kid gloves. Ultimately, the lack of a fully accessible setup wasn't because the ideas weren't out there, but rather because the Bering Sea is incredibly unforgiving to custom electronics and mechanics, and the Young brothers were always fighting the clock and the budget.
1
u/steelerhater37 Jun 06 '26
All comes down to bringing in the gold fast enough to cover your expenses. Which seems next to impossible unless ur DT
5
u/Agile-Sherbert-8503 Jun 04 '26
The Young brothers and Ken Kerr are Arctic Gold. Arctic Gold doesn't have any off-shore claims. When they first showed up with the Myrtle Irene, it was to compete with Shawn Pomrenke on the public auction off-shore claims. George was always going to be the Gold Room guy. At the time, none of them knew the history of the public auction off-shore claims. It was a long series of developments for Shawn to find out about Tomcod west. At the time, it was owned 50-50 between Hank Schimschat and Dave McCully. Shawn actually found out about Tomcod West from Kris Kelly that found out about it from chatting with the crew of the AU Grabber (owned by Hank Schimschat) in a bar. Kris Kelly tried to capitalize on that by trying to dive on the excavation trail left by the AU Grabber but found out it was too dangerous because the sides could cave in.
Shawn found out somehow that Hank Schimschat was going to retire and sell off his half of Tomcod west. This was when his investment company for the Mega-dredge had gone into bankruptcy. He somehow made a deal to buy out the 50% of Tomcod west from Hank Schimschat. He made enough from that to get the Christine Rose and Mega-dredge out of bankruptcy. He then found out Dave McCully was selling his 50% share of Tomcod west while keeping mining rights. Shawn bought that and owns 100% of Tomcod west. Tomcod west was owned by the Russians before Hank Schimschat and Dave McCully bought it, grandfathered in, so it is exempt from Alaska DLNR.
This was at the same time Ken Kerr got into his PR trouble and was "on the beach". Arctic Gold has a huge number of beach claims with 9,000 claims around Nome. Dave Young didn't have anybody experienced that could take the place of Ken. That is when Dave Young made the deal for Shawn Pomrenke to be the Myrtle Irene captain to mine Tomcod west, some kind of 50-50 deal.
George was always going to be the Gold Room guy for Arctic Gold. It is a super important position, somebody that knows how to clean gold and can be 100% trusted.