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Funter Bay History: Fish Buying Station

May 17, 2013

Independent fishermen in Funter Bay needed a place to sell their catch and buy supplies (fuel, fresh water, and ice). The local cannery would sometimes buy troll-caught fish, but probably paid a low low price since their own traps produced fish nearly free. Trollers were better off selling salmon which would go iced and fresh to Juneau grocery stores and markets. However, the range of the small fishing boats, and the distance from town where the fish were most often found, usually prevented the fishermen from running directly to Juneau to sell.

To support these markets, various fish sellers and middlemen operated buying stations in locations near the fishing grounds. The station at Funter Bay was probably associated with the Juneau Cold Storage, where they brought fish for storage and sale, and procured ice for sale to fishermen. Packers would run the fish in to the cold storage on a regular basis to keep them fresh.

Unloading fish at the Juneau Cold Storage, 1930s:

Courtesy of Alaska State Library, Elite Studio collections, P294-020

Another reason for third-party buyers was fish piracy; fishermen would sometimes steal fish from the cannery traps. Canneries banded together to boycott fish from certain “known pirates”, but independent buyers with their own scows and packers quickly sprang up who would take fish from anyone.

Salmon buyers also operated from floating scows (barges). Today, salmon buying stations usually operate (probably with fewer pirates) from scows, packer boats, and occasionally from docks at small communities like Elfin Cove.

Scow (barge with structure on it) and cannery tender at the Thlinket Packing Co dock, 1942:

Courtesy of Alaska State Library, Butler/Dale collection, P306-1093.

Funter Bay residents Gunner and Lazette Ohman operated a fish buying scow in the area during the 1950s and 60s, buying fish for Art Berthold of the Fern II.

The land-based fish buying station at Funter Bay was located on Highwater Island, which is only an island when high tide covers the sandbar to it (apparently it is called Crab Island in some govt. docs, although I’ve never heard it called that locally). The station had several buildings on the shore, and a long dock with two ramps, circled in the 1948 aerial photo below:

This location would not have been completely ideal, as it had no streams or running water, but it was in a very sheltered location that protected the dock from most winds. Trollers would fill up on fresh water from a hose running to a stream elsewhere in the bay.

Another aerial from 1948 (on a different date), showing a boat approaching the fish buying dock (the V-shaped wake in the lower right quarter of the image):

More recently, here is a collapsing shed at the station:

A small outboard motor abandoned in the woods (I always laugh when I go to some yuppie antique store in the Midwest and they’re selling rusty stuff like this for $300, but now I’m a little worried that someone will go nab the thing and stick it on their yuppie wall):

The outhouse pit, apparently bears think the spot is a great bathroom as well, as seen by the dark pile to the right:

More “junk” in the woods, bottles and trash from the 40s and 50s:

As mentioned before, there is a wrecked boat on the island adjacent to where the dock was sited. It’s locally known as a steam tug, assumed to be a cannery tender, although I’ve not yet been able to find any details on it.

Coil of cable on the beach, either from the wrecked tug or the fish buying dock:

1 Comment | Funter Bay History, Funter Bay People | Tagged: Alaska, Boats, Cannery, Fish Trap, fishing, Funter Bay, Funter Bay History, History, Southeast Alaska | Permalink
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Funter Bay Fishermen

May 15, 2013

As mentioned once or twice before, my Dad, Phil Emerson, began hand trolling in Southeast Alaska in the early 1970s, after building a small boat at Funter Bay. Donna, my Mom, fished with him for a few years (he had upgraded to a larger boat by then). Dad’s uncle Robert Emerson also lived at Funter Bay and fished for many years, as did his son Joe. Dr. Joe Riederer also fished around Funter and built a cabin there when I was younger. Our Neighbor Joe Giefer also trolled.

Compiling a full list of people who fished commercially in and around Funter Bay over the past decades is likely impossible, but there are a few fishermen I’ve been able to find reference to. One great source are the notecards left by Captain Lloyd “Kinky” Bayers. His extensive material on SE Alaska marine history fills multiple collections at the Alaska State Library, some of them can be found here. My parents also provided some of the information, passed on from other residents of Funter Bay at the time they moved there. The Merchant Vessel registration lists are again helpful in determining vessel and ownership details.

Funter Bay serves as a convenient harbor for fishing the junction of Lynn Canal, Chatham Strait, and Stevens Passage. Geologist John Mertie reported around 1919 that Funter Bay was a busy harbor where many fishing boats took refuge during the sudden gales and heavy fogs characteristic of the area. Capt. Bayers himself took shelter at Funter on occasion while working on the Estabeth and later while running the mail boat Forester. Hand trollers who fished from small open boats in the summer would often stay in tents or small cabins on the beach in Funter Bay. Those with larger boats would live on board, anchoring or tying to one of the docks during bad weather.

Salmon troller at Funter around 1920 (Winter & Pond):

Some of the people listed below lived at Funter permanently. Some may have been part time or summer residents, and some may have merely passed through. Hand trollers are especially hard to find, because their small boats often had only numbers like T-105, rather than names, and did not have commerce dept. registry numbers. I have provided what details I can find.

Alvin Weathers fished around Funter before 1920 and through the mid 1930s. I believe this was the same Al Weathers I previously mentioned, who was arrested for fish piracy with his brother Ike Weathers in 1919.

The “Weathers Boys” came to work in the Treadwell mines around 1915, and a 1916 article in the Daily Alaska Dispatch mentioned that they were looking for an island to homestead and trap. They seem to have turned to piracy soon afterward. In July of 1918 Al and Ike were charged with robbing a trap south of Point Retreat. The trap watchman, F.C. Wright, was accused of aiding them, but was cleared. The brothers managed to get off that time due to lack of evidence. After being convicted of the July 1919 cannery tender attack, Al and Ike were sentenced to 4 years in Washington state. Their boat in 1919 was the 37′ Diana, it was purchased by Chas Goldstein after their conviction. Ironically, by September the Diana was being used as a cannery tender.

In 1934, Al had the 32ft vessel Ace. In 1935 he bought the Al Jr, a brand new (built 1935) 40′ fishing boat with a 35hp diesel and a crew of 3 (per Merchant Vessel registry). Al may have owned a house on Fritz Cove Rd around 1935.

Another local fisherman and occasional fish pirate was “Humpy Nils” Landin, who had the 41ft vessel North Shore in 1935, fishing between Juneau and Hoonah. He and Nels Ludvigson of the vessel Pilgrim were sent before a grand jury for fish piracy in July of 1919.

The trial transcripts and appeals court documents from some of these cases are a wealth of information. In a 1920 appeals case, the US attorney cross-examines O.E. Bennett, a local fish buyer accused of aiding pirates. Bennett admitted that he had moored his fish buying scow at “Pirate Cove” near Swanson Harbor, but denied that he was specifically buying from pirate boats or that he knew which boats were pirates. Some of the commonly known pirate boats listed by the attorney were; The Diana, the Thalia, the Juneau, the May, and the Pilgrim.

Kinky Bayers’ notes mention many other names of pirates operating in the Juneau area, as late as 1940. Much of the information implies that convictions were hard to get, except in extreme cases like the Weathers’ where shots were fired at cannery personnel. He mentions that in 1924, at least 30 boats were known to be pirates, and multiple canneries had agreed not to buy fish from any of them.

In September of 1919 a 40′ gas boat named Sandy sank in Juneau, the owner was reported to be at Funter Bay (As previously mentioned, there was another Sandy built at Funter in 1919, which also sank in Juneau while smuggling moonshine in 1928). One of these may have been a fishing boat.

In October of 1924, Peter Hobson of the Myrtle pulled two trollers off the rocks outside Funter Bay; The Skip Jack, with Matsu Samato, his wife and 5 children, and the T-115, with two unnamed men. Damage to the boats was minor.

J. Kikuchi, a Japanese fisherman, was reported missing and feared drowned in July 1926, after his troller was found circling aimlessly off Funter Bay and towed in by other fishermen.

In December of 1927, many Juneau boats were reported storm-bound at Funter for 9 days, including the Pacific and the Alpha. The T-203, also known as the Buster, drifted into Funter Bay with owner A. Waara missing. (A different Buster than the cannery tender which sank the previous year at Funter).

The troller Gloria (probably a 39′ boat from Sitka) was operating around Funter Bay in 1928, when the crew rescued Dr. W.F. Good of the Anna Helen (a traveling dentist’s office, which caught fire outside the bay).

Emil Samuelson of the halibut boat Dixon operated around Funter Bay. He rescued the crew of the cannery tender Anna Barron when she sank at Point Couverden in 1930, and brought them back to Funter Bay.

Fred Patrick of the vessel Fearless lived in Funter Bay in the 1930s. He was a fairly unlucky fellow.

Harold Tipton may have been a Funter Bay fisherman, he has the distinction of being shot in the foot by Fred Patrick in 1931. He may be the same person mentioned here.

“Funter Bay Pete” (Pete Brynoff or Brynolf), owned the troller T-3802. In August of 1934 his boat broke down off Rocky Island, and Al Weathers towed him to Swanson Harbor. In the 1940 census there is a 72 year old Peter Brynolf listed as living at Fritz Cove Rd in Juneau, born about 1868 in Sweeden. He died in 1943.

The Fremont was listed as fishing around Funter Bay in the winter of 1936.

Geo Ford had a troller which sank at Funter Bay in 1938.

A.F. Bixby homesteaded at Funter Bay in the 1930s. This may have been Al F. Bixby whose family is mentioned in the Bayers notecards, his wife died in July of 1939. I am not sure if they fished or not.

Hal Hibbs lived at Funter Bay in the 1940s, and owned the F/V Mary Ann.

Elmer P Loose who owned the Nimrod and the Sally Ann, lived at Funter in the 1960s.

Ray Martin fished out of Funter Bay in the 1960s with the vessel Vermont, he and his wife Marge were the prior owner of our house.

Wilfred A “Bill” Young. owned the troller Lollypop in the 60s and early 70s. He and his wife Wanda lived next door to our house, and my Dad originally came to Funter to help work on Bill’s house.

Harold Hargrave owned the vessels Janet, Merry Fortune, and Selig No. 1 in 1955. He later had the Mattie W. He was also the postmaster at Funter for some time, and lived near the cannery with his wife Mary. I will probably detail them more later.

James Hay had the vessel Janet and lived at Funter in 1945. From 1948 to 1951 the boat was listed as belonging to Anna Hargrave, then Harold Hargrave in 1952.

Gunner Ohman and wife Lazzette lived on the East shore of Funter in a log cabin that Gunner had built. He worked various jobs around the bay, including hand trolling (more on them later).

“Screaming Jack Lee” was a Funter Bay fisherman (probably a hand troller) who lived in a tent or vacant buildings in various places around Funter Bay. Harvey Smith’s description of him (via my Dad) was that he talked to himself a lot and you could hear him yelling all over the bay, screaming at his tools or his firewood for “fighting” him. A 1945 National Geographic article mentions some nicknames of Alaskan fishermen, and describes a “Screaming Jack” who got the nickname because he was always mad.

A fellow nicknamed “Shorty” had a log cabin and was supposedly building a fishing boat at Funter Bay, but forgot to leave room for the propeller shaft and left when someone pointed this out (photos of his cabin are in this post).

The Keelers (Floyd and George?), possibly an uncle and nephew, had a cabin near Clear Point. There were apparently several cabins here which were used by hand trollers. The Keelers might also have had a cabin near Hawk Inlet, and were also involved with logging. Part of one cabin by Clear Point was still standing in the late 90s and still showed some of the red paint.

Excerpt from a 1947 National Geographic article mentioning Funter Bay:

I may come across more information in the future and make an additional post or update this one. As always, if I have omitted or mistaken anything, please feel free to email me and let me know!

3 Comments | Funter Bay History, Funter Bay People | Tagged: Alaska, Boats, fishing, Funter Bay, Funter Bay History, Southeast Alaska, trolling | Permalink
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Funter Bay History: Shorty’s Cabin

May 14, 2013

Hiding in the woods near Second Creek is this tiny log cabin, locally known as “Shorty’s Cabin”

Obviously “Shorty” was a smaller fellow, the cabin is barely 6′ high. It had a single window (now boarded up), a door, a stove, and the remains of a bed. Between the stove and the bed, nearly the entire floor space would have been taken up.

The cabin had a layer of tarpaper over the wooden roof, which helped waterproof it, but tarpaper is easily torn by falling branches or hail, so it would not have been a very permanent solution. The roof is already half gone.

Window, bedframe (on floor), and tarpaper:

Some more views of the cabin:

Close-up showing the axe and saw work on the logs:

Closer close-up showing worm trails in the logs where the bark has fallen off:

As the story goes, Shorty was a cook at Hawk Inlet (either the mine or cannery there), got tired of his job, and quit to become a fisherman. He moved to Funter Bay and built the cabin, then began constructing a boat. He was well along in the boat building, when a visitor stopped by and remarked that the boat had no shaft alley (the trough or groove where the tail shaft would run from the engine to the propeller). Shorty gave up in disgust at his shoddy design, jumped on the next mail boat to Juneau, and was never heard from again.

What appears to be part of a boat hull, perhaps Shorty’s failed project:

Other artifacts and debris scattered around include some metal drums, one may have been a barrel stove:

Shorty’s kettle:

Shorty’s boots:

Here’s Dad in front of Shorty’s cabin in the ’70s, when the roof was in better condition!

I am not sure who “Shorty” really was, there were a number of people with that nickname in the area in the early-mid 20th century, including a dairy farmer, a butcher, and a suspected bank robber. So far I’ve been unable to find anything more on the “Shorty” of Funter Bay.

3 Comments | Boatbuilding, Funter Bay History, Funter Bay People | Tagged: Alaska, Boats, Funter Bay, Funter Bay History, History, Southeast Alaska | Permalink
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Funter Bay History – Even More Ships; Passengers, Mail, & Freight

April 30, 2013

Travel and shipping to Funter Bay in the late 19th and early 20th century required owning a boat, hitching a ride on a boat, or paying for passage on one of the occasional commercial vessels to stop at the bay.

Below is a ticket stub from 1928. Funter Bay is listed as one of many possible destinations, including various small towns, lighthouses, canneries, fox farms, mines, etc. Fare in 1928 from Juneau to Funter was $5.50.

Freight service was irregular, arriving whenever there was a large load of something (lumber, machinery, workers, etc) to deliver. This is the case today as well, freight is often brought in companies such as John Gitkov’s Southeast Alaska Lighterage, using rebuilt military landing craft. Households at Funter Bay would often go together on a load once or twice a year, including fuel, building materials, ATVs, etc.

Freight delivery at Funter Bay in the 1990s:

During the industrial years of canning and mining, Funter Bay had semi-regular mail service (at least during the summer). Cannery owner J.T. Barron occasionally served as Fourth Class Postmaster, although when the cannery started in 1902, James Largan is listed as Postmaster. In 1921, William N Williams is listed as Postmaster. Commonly the storekeeper in a small town would hold this position on the side, although it also included several hundred dollars a year in government salary and sometimes kept very small stores in the black. Although the Rural Free Delivery service eliminated many 4th-class postmaster positions, they persisted in Alaska for some time (Harold Hargrave was Postmaster at Funter Bay in 1954).

Here’s a photo of the Funter Bay post office (date unknown).

From the early 1920s to late 1940s, mail was delivered by chartered vessels such as the Estebeth (sometimes spelled Estabeth), a 55ft wood diesel boat which made semi-regular mail and passenger runs all over Southeast Alaska. The boat was owned by the Davis Transportation Co under captain James V Davis (who later organized Marine Airways and served as a state legislator).

The Estebeth at Sitka, courtesy of Jim Dangel, used with permission:

Above ad from the 1920 Issue of Pacific Motorboat. In 1920 the Estebeth had a crew of 3.

A few more photos of the Estebeth.

The Estebeth (Reg # 216559) is indeed listed in 1920 as having an 80hp gas engine, but despite the “Reliability of Frisco Standard Gas engines” described above, the boat is listed in 1925 as having switched to a 90hp diesel engine. By 1945 the boat had upgraded to a 100hp diesel, added a radio (call sign WNOL) , and had a crew of 5.

According to various wreck reports, the Estebeth either went aground near Swanson Harbor, or burned near Point Couverden on March 31, 1948. A local resident recalls that the Estabeth burned in Crab Cove at Funter Bay. I’m trying to verify which was which. Either way, this was not the first accident the boat had suffered, BOEM Shipwreck lists mention that she hit a shoal near Kosciusko island in 1927, stranded twice in 1929 at Zimovia Strait and Port Alexander, and scraped a rock in Tabenkof Bay in 1929 (I wonder if they fired the 1929 crew!). The boat is also mentioned in various history texts as being present to rescue various stranded mariners and assist disabled vessels all over Southeast.

Another vessel used for mail and freight service in Southeast Alaska was the Margnita, operated by the Coastwise Transportation Co of Alaska (there was also a Coastwise Transportation Co of Maine). The Margnita was an 83ft boat built in 1926, with a 200hp gas engine and a crew of 8. The boat was sold in 1931 and renamed the Polar Bear, and the Coastwise Transportation Co of Alaska seems to have vanished, one record mentions that captain H.M. Peterson was arrested for fraud relating to some mining claims in the Nome area, and an article mentions that the vessel sat idle for several years before being purchased by the Kodiak Guides Association.

“WOLD COMMANDS “POLAR BEAR” Capt. Peter Wold… in August assumed command of the yacht “Polar Bear“. This vessel, as the “Margnita”, was long well known as a passenger and freight boat in Alaska waters.” (From Pacific Fisherman Journal, 1931)

The Polar Bear sank near Kodiak in 1935, and was raised for salvage by divers in 1937.

(From New York Post, July 20 1935)

Another mail boat serving the area after the 1940s was the Forester, (Reg 209556). Owned by Lloyd “Kinky” Bayers and later by James Colo, the Forester was a 63′ boat built in 1912 in Seattle. In 1945 it had a 60hp diesel engine and a crew of 2. By 1965 it was listed as having a 200hp diesel and owned by John Gallagher. The vessel was still active as of 1989, owned by Bluewater Farms, a fish farm in Port Townsend. It is no longer listed as an active vessel with the USCG.

By the 1930s, reliable aircraft service began supplementing mail boats (although there was still mail boat service through the ’70s for larger items). In the 1980s – early 2000s, Funter Bay had weekly year-round mail delivery by seaplane, paid for by a federal mail contract. Ward Air of Juneau, known for their safety and punctuality, had a long-running contract for mail delivery. Ward Air was much more dependable than the Postal Service itself, the feds were constantly trying to cut service to small towns, and at various times Funter Bay’s “delivery location” included a box under someone’s desk at the Juneau post office, which would get dumped at Ward Air if and when the post office happened to remember. We also frequently got mail for other small Southeast towns, as they got our mail. It was usually a good bet that anything mailed or mail-ordered would be a few weeks or a month to show up (next-day and two-day letter delivery in the Lower 48 still weirds me out).

Much of rural Alaska shared the 5-digit 99850, Funter Bay’s full zip code was 99850-0140.

The mail box at Funter Bay. Mail came once a week via seaplane when I was growing up.

As mentioned in a previous post, the number and variety of commercial vessels calling at Funter Bay would make for a very extensive list. Further confusing the issue is that many of the shipping companies mentioned here were merged, consolidated, or otherwise interwoven to some extent during the mid 20th century. I’ll try to document a few that I’ve been able to find references to.

In 1904, Funter Bay was designated by the US Treasury Dept. as a “Special Landing Place” for vessels to be under the supervision of a customs inspector. This was “for landing coal, salt, railroad iron, and other like articles in bulk”.

Steamship service was on the flag stop principle. Steamers regularly passed Funter Bay on the way to and from Juneau and Skagway, and companies could request that a ship make a stop at Funter along the way. Irregular stops like Funter were not listed on the larger companies’ official route maps and were not typically factored into the printed timetables, although an 1896 timetable from the Pacific Steamship Co notes that

“These dates so far as they relate to ports in Alaska, are purely approximate. In case of steamers calling at other ports (which they are liable to) or in case of fogs or other unfavorable weather, tides, etc, these dates cannot be relied on. “

Alaska Steamship Co route map, 1936. Funter Bay is visible just to the SW of Juneau:

A reference in Barry Roderick’s Preliminary History of Admiralty Island mentions the Steamer Al-Ki delivering materials and workmen to Funter Bay in 1895. There were several vessels with this name in the Pacific Northwest, but I believe this was the 200ft steamship out of San Francisco which called at many small towns, mines, and canneries in Southeast Alaska. The Al-Ki was wrecked at Point Agusta in 1917. More information on the wreck is available here (scroll down).

The Admiral Goodrich is listed as delivering sawmill equipment to Funter in 1918. This was a cargo vessel owned by the Pacific Steamship Company. Formerly the SS Aroline, and later the Noyo, this ship was wrecked at Point Arena, CA in 1935.

Admiral Goodrich in 1918:

The vessel Driva, owned by Juneau Lumber mills (and previously mentioned as assisting the burning Buster at Funter Bay in 1926) occasionally called at Funter to deliver lumber for construction (and possibly to pick up cut logs). Driva was a 56ft gas towboat. It seems to have been wrecked near Douglas Island sometime between 1935 (when it is listed in the Merchant Vessel Registry) and 1937, when the wreck was photographed.

Juneau Lumber Mills also had a vessel called the Virginia IV. Here’s a photo of it at the dock in Juneau, along with the ferry Teddy, probably the same Teddy which was reported abandoned at Funter Bay in 1959. The Virginia IV is seen on the right in the above link, in it was a 97′ boat built in Tacoma in 1904 as the steam vessel Tyrus, registry 200681. By the 1920s it had a diesel engine and had additional superstructure added aft of the wheelhouse.

The 1905 book “A Trip to Alaska” mentions the Steamship Cottage City (233ft long, built 1890) stopping at Funter Bay on the way north to deliver salt for the cannery (described in the book as the largest in Alaska), and then again on the southbound trip to pick up six thousand cases of canned salmon (each case holding 48 2-pound cans).

More information on the Cottage City. and what became of the ship.

A 1915 issue of The Timberman magazine reports the steamship City of Seattle bound for Funter Bay with a cargo of 3,000 wood shingles.

Funter Bay History IV – More Boat Details

April 25, 2013

Here are a few more details of the marine and boating history of Funter Bay. With the number of steamships, fishing boats, tugs, barges, etc that have used Funter Bay, posts on this topic could likely continue for a while!

To follow up on the cannery tenders, I’ve tracked down the Thlinket Packing’ Co’s Barron F (seen in a previous post).In the 1940s and 50s it was owned by the Nakat Packing Corp. out of Ketchikan. In was renamed the Frank F (same registry number) sometime between 1950 and 1965, and became a fishing vessel based out of Oregon. Currently it is listed in the USCG database as based in San Diego. Here’s a photo of the boat from 2007 compared to the 1919 photo:

ShipSpotting.com

© John Kohnen	Barron F in 1919

Another photo from 2007.

And this appears to be the same boat in 2010, described as a squid boat from San Pedro CA. It’s looking somewhat modified with trolling poles and a new paint job:

Another photo from 2010.

The Frank F seems to be a popular boat with local artists as well!

Frank F Painting #1, by Tony Podue.

Frank F Painting #2, by Gina McLagan.

And to be extra stalkerish (can one stalk a boat?) Here is the Frank F viewed on Google and Bing maps (as of spring 2013… imagery may change over time).

The former Barron F looks a lot like the Morzhovoi, which I believe is the wreck at Coot Cove. Both were built in Seattle in 1917, probably by the same company (date on photo below is wrong):

Another cannery tender, the Robert Barron, was listed as belonging to Albert Kookesk (Kookesh) of Killisnoo (Angoon) in 1925, and by Matthew Kookesh of Juneau in 1950. As of April 10, 1950 it is listed as abandoned in Angoon.

In addition to boats named after the Barron family, other cannery tenders previously alluded to include some named after the Thlinket Packing Co’s product lines, the Tepee, Peasant, and Sea Rose, and the previously mentioned Buster. I could not find a record of a boat named after the Arctic Belle brand. None of these seem large enough to be the wreck on Highwater Island.

–Peasant, a 46ft 60hp gas boat built in 1926, crew of 6, registry 225554. Owned by Alaska Pacific Salmon Corp in 1930. Owned by PE Harris Co in 1945. Listed as callsign WD5837, owned by Van Baker of Blaine WA in 1965.

Tepee, a 29′, 12hp gas boat, registry 210208. Owned by Alaska Pacific Salmon Corp in 1930. Owned by PE Harris in 1945. In 1965 it was listed as owned by the US govt. in trust for the village of Kake, and used for freight.

–Sea Rose, registry 213376, 7 tons, 29′ gas fishing boat, built 1915 in Seattle. listed as abandoned in 1925.

And coming back to the Nimrod, the wreck at Nimrod Creek, here is some information on that vessel. According to the Merchant Vessel registry, the Nimrod was a 53ft wood-hulled tugboat, built in 1903 in Chuckanut Washington. It is listed at various times as having either a diesel or gas engine, of around 135hp.

Remains of the Nimrod at Funter Bay.

The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest mentions the Nimrod: “At Seattle, Capt. C.W. Waterman…. later adding the 53-foot gas tug Nimrod of 1903, and forming the Waterman towing Co, which also remained active on Puget Sound for some years”

Here’s a classified ad run in the June 2, 1918 Sunday Oregonian by Capt. Waterman:

“WANTED Gas tow boat about 50 to 65 ft.. with 40 to 75 H. P.; would consider pleasure boat if power enough and boat could be converted to suit; price must be right. Address C. W. Waterman, 2210 47th av s. S. W.. Seattle, Wash.”

The Nimrod is listed in the 1963 registry as being “dismantled”. Owner Elmer P. Loose Jr. was listed as a Funter Bay resident in 1965, and also owned the Sally Ann. An Elmer Palm Loose is recorded as having passed away March 1962 at Funter Bay (some of these dates would appear to be inaccurate).

When I show people the Nimrod, they ask, “who would name their boat that?” Lots of people, it turns out! The British navy had six ships with that name, and Ernest Shackelton had a ship named the Nimrod. The USCG documentation database lists 9 boats currently with that name. Several others are listed in the historic Merchant Vessel registry.

Here is another local wreck:

-Feb 15, 1959, a 42 foot, 14 ton, 91hp gas boat, the Teddy, was abandoned at Funter. Registry 207218, built 1910 in Astoria OR and listed as a passenger boat in 1911. Listed as a fishing boat owned by Teddy Preston Childers of Funter Bay in 1958, callsign WB7995. (per Merchant Vessels of the United States: Vessels Lost). According to this document, The Teddy was being used as a ferry, and had engine trouble near Pt. Retreat in 1953. The boat was abandoned at the AAGMC mine at Funter (across the bay from the cannery).

I’m still working on tracking down the Highwater Island wreck, and I also have some commercial steamship history to investigate, so stay tuned for more boat-related posts!

5 Comments | Funter Bay History | Tagged: Alaska, Boats, Cannery, Funter Bay, Funter Bay History, History, Southeast Alaska | Permalink
Posted by saveitforparts

Funter Bay History II – Ships and Shipwrecks

April 11, 2013

As mentioned in my prior post, the Thlinket Packing Co had a cannery tender named the Anna Barron based at Funter Bay, named after James and Elizabeth Barron’s daughter Anna. The cannery also owned a number of other vessels, many named after people in the Barron family, but the Anna is best known (for such an obscure topic as Southeast AK cannery tender vessels), since it appears in numerous publicity photos and postcards of the cannery.

The October 1920 issue of Pacific Motorboat mentions that the Anna Barron had three engines which were overhauled that year. The HW McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest describes her as being 77ft long, built in Astoria in 1902 for the Thlinket Packing Co, fitted with a compound (9 1/2, 20×20) engine developing 130hp. Her merchant vessel registry number was 107759.

Today in Funter Bay, there are two wrecks of midsize boats (or parts of them) visible on the beaches. Both of these are locally referred to as “tugboats”, and I had always heard they were cannery boats. One is located in Scow Bay (AKA Coot Cove), and one is on Highwater Island (also called Crab Island on some state survey maps, although I’ve never heard it called that).

The three photos above show the Coot Cove wreck. There’s not much left aside from the keel, some ribs, and the large Atlas-Imperial diesel engine. As this page notes, the vessel seems to have fire damage. It seems to be about 70-80ft in length, but estimation is difficult due to the condition of the wreck. Here is a photo of a similar (but larger) engine in another cannery tender.

The two photos above show the Highwater Island wreck. There is even less remaining than at the other site. You can still find some cylindrical tanks and the rudder, a few wood and metal bits showing the rough outline of the hull, and a few interior items like plates and glassware. This one seems shorter than the other wreck, maybe 50-60ft, but again, estimation is difficult.

The hollow steel boiler from the Highwater Island wreck appears to have floated across to a small peninsula known locally as “The Point”, where it rests at extreme-tide level slowly rusting away.

The propeller from this wreck was also removed by a prior resident of my family’s property, and dropped in the front yard. The story goes that the person believed it was brass, and planned to sell it for scrap, but when they began cutting into it, they realized it was cast iron. You can still see a cut section on one of the flukes.

Is one of these wrecks the Anna Barron? I found a small snippet from a 1931 Google document claiming the Anna Barron sank at Point Couverden across Icy Strait, still with its original steam engines. Unfortunately the full text is not available.

“The “Anna Barron”, owned by the Alaska Pacific Salmon Corporation, believed to be the last remaining steam tender in the fleet, struck a rock and sank in Icy Strait July 22. Built many years ago by the former Thlinket Packing company, she was still valued at about $20,000 …”

This page contains some additional information, sourced from US Customs wreck reports. According to the report, The wood steam tender Anna Barron hit the rocks at Ansley Point (Near Point Couverden) after departing Funter Bay the night of Tuesday, July 22 1930. Captain George D. Black was carrying a half scow load of fish and was attempting to offload to scows tied to a dolphin (piling structure) between two reefs off Port Ansley (now known as Swanson Harbor). The wind and tide in the narrow passage proved too much for the vessel, and it was forced onto the rocks in the darkness while maneuvering to reach the dolphin. The captain was quoted as saying the Anna Barron might be raised in the future.

Some of the dolphins and other pilings are still visible in Swanson Harbor, and appear on nautical charts of the area.

In addition to the Anna Barron, the cannery also owned a 75′ boat named the Barron F. (From UW Freshwater and Marine Image Bank)

According to McCurdy there was an 85′ cannery tender named the Barron F built in 1917 for the Nooksack Packing Co. The US Merchant Vessel Registry lists a 65′ Barron F built in 1917, registry number 214967. I am not sure if these are all the same boat with errors in the published length, or different boats. It seems unlikely there would be so many vessels named after the Barron family in exactly the same way at the same time.

The cannery also seems to have owned a 53′ gas boat named the Buster, registry number 14481, built in 1889 in San Francisco. This boat caught fire and sank in Funter Bay in July of 1926, as mentioned here. The boat had left the cannery dock and suffered engine trouble, then a fire broke out in the gas engine during repairs. The vessel was assisted by the Anna Barron and the Driva (a 56ft gas towboat belonging to Juneau Lumber Mills), and towed to a dolphin. The mooring line burned and the boat drifted around the bay, burning all night, before sinking “in deep water”. I do not know where this wreck is located precisely. The cannery had just been purchased by the Sunny Point Packing Company in this year.

The Buster was probably either named after J.T. Barron himself (who sports the Nickname “Buster” scrawled on a portrait printed in the 1906 Pacific Fishermen Annual Review), or his son Robert, who was the model for the company’s “Buster Brand” logo. Robert was also featured on the cover of the May 1907 issue of Pacific Fisherman.

As mentioned previously, Robert died in 1917 while trying to save fellow airmen from an accident in Philadelphia. Mount Robert Barron in Funter Bay was named for him.

Robert also appears to have had a cannery boat named after him, the Robert Barron, a 44ft gas vessel built in 1901 (perhaps for J.T. Barron’s earlier cannery near Wrangell), registry 111335.

So, back to the wrecks on the beaches. Which boats are they? Digging through alaskashipwreck.com I find the following listed for Funter Bay:

Vernia, 6 ton 28ft sloop, blown onto a rock at or near the Kitten islands and sank in Lynn Canal Jan 4 1904. Cargo of fish and gear worth $200, boat worth $150. No casualties, but the boat was a total loss. Master was William Beckler of Juneau.

This one is interesting because it was listed as built at Funter Bay in 1919. The 38ft gas screw Sandy, owned by LF Morris of Juneau, caught fire and sank in Auke Bay in 1928, while carrying an illicit cargo of liquor in kegs. All but 6 kegs were destroyed, the rest were confiscated by prohibition officers.

Tiny Boy, 46ft wooden oil (diesel) freighter owned by WH Bowman sank near Funter Bay Oct 11, 1940. All 6 crewmen escaped.

Reliance No 3, a 32ft wooden fishing vessel owned by WJ Smith, burned and sank off Naked Island near Funter Bay in 1953.

Morzhovoi, an 80ft wooden oil screw (diesel) boat, burned in Funter Bay on June 10, 1955. Reported as having a 165hp engine, being built in Seattle in 1917, and being used for freight service. Owned by the PE Harris Company, registry 214789.

PE Harris (which later became Peter Pan seafoods) purchased the Funter Bay cannery from the Sunny Point Packing Co around 1941. Morzohovoi Bay was another location where PE Harris co owned a cannery.

The Morzhovoi seems like the best candidate for the Coot Cove wreck. Digging some more, I find a reference in McCurdy to Morzhovoi; 80ft, 110hp, first vessel built at the National Shipbuilding Co yard in Seattle. Built for the Sockeye Salmon Co of Morzohovoi Bay (who later leased their cannery to PE Harris)

The 1918 Merchant Vessels of the United States registry lists the following specs for the Morzhovoi: 81 tons, 80.2ft long, 18.9ft breadth, 7.6ft depth, Fish service, crew of 7, 110hp gas engine, home port Seattle. Its registry number appears on the rolls of merchant vessels until 1956, when it disappears. In the 1955 registry it’s listed as an Oil boat of 165hp, radio call sign WB4935, belonging to PE Harris of Juneau.

Here’s a photo of the Morzhovoi from the 1919 issue of Pacific Motorboat. It lists some slightly inconsistent info (original HP and owner are correct, but year and length are off. I would suspect that these are typos).

Obviously the 110hp Frisco gas engine must have been replaced with a 165hp Atlas-Imperial diesel during a later refit.

So there’s one wreck identified to a high probability!

Trolling (pun intended) through the merchant vessel registry, I find a few other boats which may have been associated with the Funter Bay cannery. In the mid 1920s these include the Peasant, a 46ft gas boat built in 1926, registry 225554 and the Tepee, a 29′ gas boat, registry 210208 (The Thlinket Packing Co had canned salmon brands called “Peasant” and “Tepee”).

While researching Funter Bay ships, I was surprised to learn that the Thlinket Packing Co owned a large sailing vessel, the General Fairchild. This clipper ship seems to have been converted into a cannery barge, hauling packaged product from the canneries to sales “Down South”. It appears to have been used at the “Shilkat” (Chilkat?) cannery, probably near Haines, but may have also served Funter Bay. The ship was taken out of service after only two years, and then sold to another company.

Prior to starting the Funter Bay cannery in 1902, the Thlinket Packing Co seems to have been active in Southern Southeast Alaska, using a leased steamer named the Baranoff and a 6 ton launch (gas boat) named the Perhaps, (per this article). The company (and later owners) also owned a number of other boats, used throughout Alaska, to the point where a complete list would take quite a bit of time to produce and would take this post wandering even further through Southeast maritime history! None of this helps me identify the other wreck at this time, but maybe I’ll find something as I continue digging.

Moving along to other shipwrecks around the bay…

The Funter Bay Cannery also had a number of scows, which were fairly standard among canneries of that era. These were basically open wooden-hulled barges with high sideboards, used to transport fish in bulk from the traps to the cannery. Some of these were also registered with the government, and had such imaginitive names as “Scow #1”, etc.

They were simple, rugged vessels which could be beached for storage over the winter. Scow Bay (AKA Coot Cove), around the corner from the main cannery dock, held the slipways and drydocks for scow storage. There are a number of scows still resting there, decaying into the rainforest.

Scows on the drydocks at Scow Bay.

Some of the scows had their own machinery on board, including what looks like a small steam engine. There was another steam engine in the woods that ran a winch for hauling the scows up wooden ramps (slipways) to their storage spot.

Port names listed on the side of a scow. Visible are “Seattle” and “Juneau”.

Slipways at Scow Bay.

Scow Bay also has the remains of a ~30ft fishing boat:

Wrecked fishing boats can be found in a few places around Funter Bay.

The Jolene M, a fishing boat which drug anchor and hit Highwater Island one night when I was young. The owner re-floated it and attempted to beach it for repairs, but never managed to get very much done with it. This is an old picture, there’s little visible of the wreck today aside from some metal bits in the mud at low tide.

The Jolene M looks more like this now. Wood decays very fast in tidal environments.

The Nimrod, a wooden boat (probably also a fishing boat) which was beached up “Nimrod Creek” (local name). There is also quite a bit less of this boat remaining intact today. (Update 4/23/13: This was originally a tugboat, I’ll add more details in a future post).

More recent Nimrod photo.

And just for fun, here are a few even smaller abandoned boats (skiffs). Maybe some of them are the lifeboats seen on the cannery tenders, or the small sailing boats mentioned in articles about the Barron family? Or they could simply be some of the many small skiffs that you find in any Southeast Alaska community, as common as the family cars down south.

Once again I have produced a stream of meandering research beyond all reason. And I still have plenty more to expand on things mentioned in this post… what happened to the Barron Family? How did they use legal loopholes to get their land? What was the later cannery history? What other fishing-related activities happened around the bay? Just a few things I hope to cover in the future!

10 Comments | Funter Bay History | Tagged: Alaska, Boats, Cannery, Fish Trap, fishing, Funter Bay, Funter Bay History, History, salmon, Shipwrecks, Southeast Alaska | Permalink
Posted by saveitforparts

Funter Bay History – Cannery Postcards and Leftovers

April 10, 2013

Thlinket Packing Co Cannery at Funter Bay (from Pacific Fisherman Annual Review 1908 via University of Washington Library Freshwater and Marine Image Bank, used as Public Domain per their policy.)

I came across a few old postcards that I’d purchased at an antique show in the Midwest, showing my hometown of Funter Bay, Alaska during the salmon cannery days. I’ve put together a little more information and back-story to these. I’ll try to add more photos and information on the history of Funter Bay as I have time.

The cannery tug Anna Barron, shown tending Fish Trap #6 in or near Funter Bay in 1907. As with most of these postcards, this is a colorized B&W photo by Case and Draper, a Southeast Alaskan photo studio that operated until 1908.

Here is an original B&W of this image with some additional information, courtesy of the Alaska Digital Archives. Here’s another photo of the Anna Barron approaching the cannery dock with two scow-loads of fish.

Here is a close-up of what the crew is up to in the first postcard shown above. The derrick onboard the Anna Barron is lifting a section of fish trap net (Brailing) to dump the salmon into a scow (barge).

And here are two versions (from two different postcards) showing the same operation from a different angle. I believe this is the same crew, although they’ve colorized Mr. Floppy Hat guy’s clothing differently:

And here are the salmon after being unloaded at the cannery, waiting to be sent through the processing equipment to be cleaned and packaged.

Just for fun, here’s the only postcard which was filled out and mailed, the rest were unused.

The Alaska Digital Archives have many more from this Case & Draper set, as well as photos of cannery operations from later years. All of them can be found here.

Here is another photo from the University of Washington Archives, showing salmon being brailed onboard the Anna Barron.:

Fish traps were hugely efficient at catching salmon, as they effectively blocked spawning streams and diverted all returning salmon into the nets, making the salmon do the work of catching themselves. They were often temporary structures maintained during the spawning season, usually being built from untreated driven pilings, floating logs cut locally, and nets. The nets and more expensive hardware were stored over the winter, and the trap structures would often require repair or rebuilding in the spring after winter storms and rot had taken their toll. Today you can still sometimes find “trap logs” on the beaches, identifiable by the rusty bolts and hardware that attached them to other parts of the structure.

A trap log in our yard (with an ermine on it). These are so massive that it’s easier just to leave them where they are and attach stuff to them. This one was the top end anchor of our outhaul.

The design of fish traps resulted in enormous early profits for the canneries, but quickly proved self-defeating, as the salmon runs for those streams were wiped out. In the 19th and early half of the 20th century there were few legal restrictions on fishing, although competition was fierce, the the point of nearing international incidents. In 1904, President Roosevelt dispatched the revenue cutter Perry to Funter Bay, where two Japanese fishing vessels were seized and the crews deported (source). (I hadn’t heard of this before, so I Googled around a bit and happened across this picture of the Perry’s eventual fate in 1910).

Native Alaskans and independent fishermen often opposed and sometimes sabotaged fish traps. There were even incidents of “Fish Piracy“, in which traps were raided before the company could empty them. This led to watchmen manning each trap, living on board the floating or driven-piling structure in small shacks during the fishing season, although the watchmen could sometimes be bribed.

Here’s a model of a fish trap, including the small watchman’s shack:

Part of the house I grew up in was a trap watchman’s shack that was moved up the beach. My Dad later added it to the house as an entry/mudroom.

An photo of our house soon after my Dad moved in. The structure to the left is the former trap watchman’s shack, which Dad moved up and to the right to attach to the main house.

The same house after Dad began adding to it. The fish trap shack is in the foreground surrounded by a new deck and awning.


The final house layout, the entry is on the right behind the small Alder tree.

Fish traps were eventually regulated and later banned entirely. More information on Fish Traps (PDF) can be found in this research paper from the University of Alaska, there’s also an HTML version.

And now, more information on the cannery itself.

The Thlinket Packing Company, owned by James T. Barron of Portland, Oregon, was begun in 1902. It operated until the 1960s when fish traps were effectively outlawed. I suspect that other fish packing operations at Funter predated this company (there was also a saltery less than a mile away on Highwater Island). During the later years, the cannery location became known as “Funter”, and is shown as a town on some maps. It had regular mail service by both boat and seaplane. Well-maintained trails connected the cannery to the gold mines at other locations around the bay, and the Bear Creek Trail ran over the top of Mansfield Peninsula through a pass to the other side of Admiralty Island (facing Juneau). Various pipelines connected the cannery to nearby streams, as operations required a large amount of fresh water. Scows were overwintered on an extensive slipway and drydock system in Coot Cove.

Mount Robert Barron, the highest peak near Funter Bay, was named in 1919 to honor J. T. Barron’s son Robert.

James Barron apparently also built an office building in Portland in 1921.

And to further wander from the original topic of postcards, here are some photos my Dad took of the Cannery’s appearance when he arrived in the 70s:

An overview of the cannery as seen from the water.

Here is a great survey map showing the layout of some of the buildings in 1964. This includes many additions, such as the Quonset huts brought in by the army during WWII to house “evacuated” Aleuts (more information on that unfortunate incident is available here).

The carpentry shop. That’s not a church, the cross at the top is a telephone pole. This is where Dad built his first wooden fishing boat:

I believe this was the power house:

Either the Chinese or Filipino bunkhouse:

Various cannery ruins on the beach:

When I was a kid, we still had a few of these buildings left, and a lot of leftover equipment and rusty “stuff” on the beach. Unfortunately, a lot of the old buildings were burned or bulldozed during various subdivision and redevelopment attempts (including some built from huge California Redwood planks, worth a fortune today)

Here are Megan and I on two of the stationary gas engines that drove the canning lines. These made great trains/cannons/spaceships!

These would have had a belt driving overhead rods, which drove the other equipment throughout the cannery building. Here’s a photo from the archives showing the overhead shafts and belt drives

This post is starting to get ridiculously long and wandering, so I’ll continue thing later. Next up: what happened to the Anna Barron? Stay tuned!

Edit: Gordon Harrison pointed out that the stationary engines were early Fairbanks-Morse gas engines, not steam as I had previously thought.

5 Comments | Funter Bay History | Tagged: Alaska, Alaska Life, Boats, Cannery, Fish Trap, fishing, Funter Bay, Funter Bay History, History, salmon, Southeast Alaska | Permalink
Posted by saveitforparts

Boatbuilding

March 22, 2013

I found a few more photos in the old album scans that are relevant to the topic of boat building. Long-time readers of this site will recall some of my boat projects like the S/V Pagoo, plywood kayaks, and the Craigslist sailboat (update: I sold the small sailboat to the St. Paul Saints as a prop/prize for one of their halftime shows)

Anyway, here are some of my Dad’s boats!

After moving to Alaska in the 1970s, he hand-built a small fishing dory in one of the old cannery sheds. It was powered by an outboard motor and equipped with hand-crank downriggers (gurdies) for hand-trolling. It even had a small “cabin” which was more like a tent.

Here’s the dory under construction:

And launching with the help of some neighbors:

After saving up enough money from dory fishing, he was able to upgrade to a larger power troll vessel, the F/V Venture. This was a converted wood cruiser.

And finally, the 36′ F/V Imperial, which Dad purchased as a fiberglass shell (“Hull, deck, and house”), and finished off in Port Townsend WA before bringing it up to Alaska.

The Imperial was named after Imperial Whiskey, and featured the font on the stern. Someone sent a photo to the company who produced the brand, and they sent Dad a bunch of free stuff. Apparently Imperial Whiskey is now a collector’s item!

For a while, the crew of the Imperial included our family cat, Mandy. I think the story goes that someone had a box of kittens they were giving away in Elfin Cove, and as they got back on the plane for Juneau, they handed my parents the box with the last kitten.

3 Comments | Boatbuilding, Funter Bay History | Tagged: Alaska, Boatbuilding, Boats, Funter Bay | Permalink
Posted by saveitforparts

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