Ålesund

"At the end of 1979 came the turning point in Kjell Inge Røkke's life. The two Ålesund shipowners, Erik Breivik and John K. Sjong, bought a decommissioned supply boat from the Gulf of Mexico and transformed it into the state-of-the-art trawler "Arctic Trawler." They wanted to try their hand at cod fishing along the Pacific coast northward from Seattle. It was quite a daring venture, but the reason the shipowners took the chance was that they had no competitors. In Seattle, there were no major trawlers to speak of, so the two sunnmørings bet that they could make a catch. The problem, however, was that it was almost impossible to find proper professionals in Seattle. Sjong was big on crab fishing, and his people could not be used. Therefore, they agreed that Breivik should try to scrape together the best he could find in Ålesund. There, there were plenty of youths who would eagerly jump at this opportunity, they rightly assumed."

"Røkke wanted to rise and succeed, eagerly seizing the opportunity when he heard that Breivik was looking for people with trawling experience. It was summer, and Gjelsten was home in Norway. Thus, he had his friend drive him to Ålesund for an interview with the fishing boat owner, and it was an optimistic pair of friends who jumped into Gjelsten's red Ford Capri and drove cheerfully over Ørskogsfjellet. However, the return was done in silence. The interview had gone south, Røkke believed. He had gotten worked up about the American dream, and now it was just to let it go. It didn't help that Gjelsten did everything he could to lighten his spirits."