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In the winter months it is general practice for smaller vessels to follow the inside passage as far north as possible to avoid the huge storms that come roaring across the Gulf of Alaska. Depending on the latitude the storms are tracking across the the Gulf, one can choose to enter the Gulf at any of a number of openings along the inside passage. In general the worse the weather, the farther north most captains would go, until they reached Cape Spencer, where they would either make the dash across the Gulf when the weather allowed, or else they anchored and waited for a weather window to open before committing themselves to the crossing.
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They decided they needed to secure the cargo. The chief mate roused the rest of the deck crew and the captain ordered me to bring the ship about in order to give the crew a lee out on the deck. He had to wait for a pause in the rhythm of the waves to have us come about without laying the ship on her beam-ends. Then I gave her hard left rudder and he gave full power on the starboard engine and we rolled heavily and came about headed down seas.
Now we were in real danger as we were headed with the seas and the seas were huge and moving much faster than we were and threatened to overpower the rudder and the engines and cause us to broach and capsize. The mate and deckhands were scrambling across the deck cargo, slinging chains and binders and doing their best to re-secure the pipes. The captain was at the throttles and I was at the wheel. I would call out when I lost steerage and he would twist the ship with engines, full ahead on the port, backing the starboard until I regained control. Every now and again a particularly huge wave would pick up our stern and we could feel the ship careening like a 220 foot long out of control surfboard, rushing down the wave, until it overtook us and then we fell back over the crest of the wave, back into the deep trough below, until the next oncoming monster flung itself upon out stern sweeping me out of control off to the left or the right. So we struggled to keep control of the ship while the men scrambled precariously on wet slippery containers and pipes, lashing the cargo.
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Finally the cargo was re-lashed and we were able to come back around and head into the seas. The seas were unbelievably huge and the air was filled with spray and foam. The wind was gusting over 100 knots and never went below 85. Abruptly, we noticed the night sky clearing and we could see stars in the sky and the wind became variable, dropping down to 25 knots and veering about. It was a very strange and eerie thing. We realized the eye of the storm was passing directly over us. We didn't have long. After about 20 minutes, the opposite wall of the eye arrived and slammed into us with full force ... sustained winds of 90 knots, gusting over 120knots. Our anemometer only reached 120 and it was pegged for minutes at a time.
On 2182 kHz we heard other vessels in trouble. Far to the north of us, near Yakutat Bay, the Tug Taurus with two barges astern, was being swept toward a lee shore and had to cut it's barges loose in order to save their lives. One barge capsized and both were washed up onto the shores of Yakutat Bay.
Gradually the weather subsided and we continued on our way, having survived and been given the gift of experiencing the true awe of natures force. The storm we survived was exactly 8 years to the day after the grounding, distress, and rescue of the Jarvis.
This was to be the last voyage of the Pribilof as a freighter. The company went bankrupt and the vessel was later sold and became a fish processor.
A week later, while offloading freight to landing craft late at night, off of St. Paul Island, I watched as Bob Underhill lost his balance, reached out and grabbed a cargo strap. It came loose in his hand and in slow motion, he toppled to his left and fell 35 feet, down into an open hold. He fell on his side in between a pallet of Rainier Beer and a forklift.
Bob was medevaced first to the island in a landing craft, and the next day to Anchorage by plane. He sustained 8 broken ribs, a smashed pelvis and a fractured skull. He didn't remember anything from noon the day of the accident, until 10 days later. Bob slowed down a lot after that, and never really returned to sailing. Last I heard he and his wife had moved to the Florida Keys and we lost touch....
An interactive Google map of the Inside Passage is available at: www.davidcmartin.com/map.htm
You're jogging my memory; mentioning Bob
ReplyDeleteUnderhill. I remember him after the accident; getting around with a cane, but in good spirits.
didn't he sail for Northland Marine Lines later?
Bob was a great guy. I recall him taking some short term tug jobs for a few years after the accident and then he and Marilyn sold their house in Magnolia and moved to the Keys.
ReplyDeleteVery nice article for sure much enjoyed thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteMaster Mariner
Jeffrey Allan Sousa
http://sites.google.com/site/mastermarinerjeffreyallansousa/