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Funter Bay History – Cannery Employees

August 6, 2013

The Thlinket Packing Co at Funter Bay employed a number of different people over the years in a variety of positions. Below is a partial list, gleaned from early 20th century newspapers. Keep in mind that consistent spelling of names in the early 1900s was somewhat optional!

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James T. Barron – Owner and Manager, 1902 – ~1926. More on the Barron family here.

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Judge Michael George “MG” Munly (1854-1923)

The family name was originally spelled “Munley”, but Michael later dropped the E. He was company Secretary and brother-in-law to James Barron. He married Mary Nixon, sister of James Barron’s wife Elizabeth. Munly was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1882. He was deputy city attorney in Portland, and was appointed a judge of the Oregon circuit court from 1892-1894. Munly ran unsuccesfuly for mayor of Portland in 1909. Along with the Barron family, Munley and family were frequent visitors to the Funter Bay cannery.
Judge Munly’s grave and additional information.
1922 Biography of M. G. Munly
1928 Biography

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C. F. Whitney was Sales Manager at the company, based in the Portland office. He seems to have rarely visited the Funter Bay operation. Prior to taking this position, Whitney had been sales manager of the New York Life Insurance Co.

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Mr. and Mrs. Norton – Listed as winter caretakers at the cannery in 1903. Left in February to develop some timber claims in Oregon.

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James Lawlor – (Sometimes spelled Lawler) was caretaker and winter foreman(?) from at least 1903-1909. He took over from the Norton’s in Feb 1903 and began preparations for the upcoming coming packing season.

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Chris Houger (Sometimes spelled Hooger, Hugher, Hager, etc) was “Outside Foreman” at the Funter Bay cannery from at least 1903-1919. ?He was in charge of piling crews, trap installations, nets, etc. His wife was noted as being the cannery’s bookkeeper in 1914. In 1917 Western Canner and Packer referred to him as Manager of the Thlinket Packing Co.

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Captain Haly of the Rainier – hired to bring up the “fishing steamer Barron” from the South for the 1903 season.

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Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Bogarth – Operated fish traps near the Funter Bay cannery for several years around 1903.

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Captain Crockett – skippered the Anna Baron during at least the 1904-1907 seasons.

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Captain Mason was listed as skippering the Anna Barron in 1911.

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Captain Martin Holdst (Also listed as Martin Olson) of the Belle was employed in the winter of 1909-1910 repairing the water and power systems at the cannery.

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Pat. F. Mulvaney was the storekeeper at the Funter Bay cannery from at least 1909-1917 and listed as watchman in 1918 -1919.

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Fred Barker (Or T. H. Barker) was listed as cannery superintendent in 1911. His brother “Billy” Barker was the assayer at the Perseverance mine.

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Cannery employees listed as arriving in spring of 1911 were: H. H. Harvey, C. W. Young, G. W. Scott, E. A. Harriman, Thos. Redwood, F. Phelps, W. F. Brillian and H. Wills.

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A. M. “Bob” Bell was listed as a canneryman at Funter Bay in 1912. There is also an A. E. L. Bell mentioned, and possibly another Bell who ran the Glacier cannery.

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F. Hilder was an employee at the cannery in 1914.

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George W. (or L.) Bowman was listed as cannery superintendent in 1914. He formerly worked for the Northwestern Fisheries company.

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J. F. Bennett was listed as a cannery employee in 1915, his arm was caught in a rotating shaft in June and he required skin grafts at the Juneau hospital.

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Harold W. Chutter (Or Chuttes or Chutte or Shutter or Chutler) is listed as the “popular superintendent of the Funter Bay Canning Co” in 1916 and 1917. In Feb. 1917 it was reported that “Mrs. Chutter, formerly of Funter Bay” had left to marry the former accountant for the Juneau Electric Light company. In December of 1917 it was reported that Chutter was closing up his affairs at the cannery and leaving for Bremerton to join the Navy. Sales Manager Whitney planned to come North from Portland to temporarily fill in as manager.

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C.L. Cook is listed as bookkeeper in 1917.

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G.C. Coffin, an employee of the cannery, was at the Juneau hospital in 1917 for eye treatment.

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E. W. Hopper is described as the superintendent and/or manager of the cannery in 1918. His wife and daughter also resided at Funter in the summers.

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Capt. John Maurstad skippered the Barron F. in 1918. According to the Kinky Bayers notes, he came to Alaska in 1909 and was a resident of Angoon. He did some logging and built a sawmill and Kasnaku Bay (Hidden Falls) in 1927. In 1940 he was in charge of a CCC crew building roads near Angoon. He may have died around 1942 at age 53.

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D. J. Wynkoop, formerly of the Treadwell mine, was employed at the cannery in 1918.

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Captain A. Woods is listed as running the Anna Barron in 1918. He fell from a 20ft ladder in February and was in St. Ann’s hospital expected to fully recover.

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Chinese, Filipino, and Native Alaskan employees were usually only mentioned in passing, with no names given. A 1914 article lists the following “strange names” of Chinese workers bound for Funter Bay, but states that the purser of the steamship City of Seattle may have been kidding around: “Ten Pin, Hinge Lock, Wong Toon, Mop Dip, Wong Chuck, and Sam Lea“.

I’ve tried briefly looking into each of these people, but have not found any detail on most of them. I may try to come back to this post if more information becomes available. If you know anything about any of them, please feel free to contact me!

5 Comments | Alaska History, Funter Bay History, Funter Bay People | Tagged: Alaska, Boats, Cannery, Fish Trap, fishing, Funter Bay, Funter Bay History, History, salmon, Southeast Alaska | Permalink
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Funter Bay History: Scow Bay Part II

June 10, 2013

I realized that I have a large number of photos from Scow Bay, so I’ve decided to follow up on one of my earliest Funter Bay History posts with more information on that location.

Scow Bay is one of the few parts of Funter Bay history that are publicly accessible. This side of the bay lies within the Funter Bay State Marine Park. Again, please note that the adjacent former cannery site is mostly private property. Also note that the Scow Bay area features extensive tide flats, keep an eye on the tides if you plan to land a boat here, or you may find it high and dry!

Slipway pilings at Scow Bay:

The name of one of the scows, which were large enough to require official documentation as Merchant Vessels:

From the 1965 Merchant Vessel Registry on the above scow:

A.P.F. No 22 (wood) Barge, No 168899. 41tons gross/net. 61.1ft long, 18ft breadth, 4.4ft depth. Built 1924 in Houghton, WA for freight service. Owned by P.E. Harris Inc of Washington, home port Juneau.

The carved “H” seems to have slipped in between the P and F sometime after the official numbering, I’m not sure what it means. The other scows had equally imaginative names, like the No 19, No 20, etc.

Here are some more views of these scows in operation in 1908. The wooden boards surrounding the top would have increased their load capacity:

Courtesy of the Alaska State Library, William R Norton collection, P226-446

Courtesy of the Alaska State Library, William R Norton collection, P226-445

Two more views of the slipways, you can see some of the remaining top rails on the right, now home to small gardens of saplings:

Here is a diagram of the scow slipways from a cannery of similar vintage. Typically there would be one main ramp leading from the water up to the woods above high-tide, and then scows would be pulled sideways onto parallel tracks for storage. At Funter they seem to have had multiple parallel tracks to the water, rather than side-tracks.

Some of the collapsed top-rails that made up the storage tracks of the slipways, and one of the braided steel cables running back to the winch engine:

A spool that would have held steel cable (also known as an Alaskan patio table!):

Parallel rows of pilings leading from tideflats to the woods:

Closeup of a scow hull. The red paint was probably a copper-based anti-fouling bottom paint (to prevent barnacles and other marine life from growing on the wood):

This picture shows how the scows have rotted into and through the rails they once sat on. In some cases, the pilings that held up the rails are now poking up through the rotten wooden hulls. A scow (on the left) has settled to ground level, while a rail is seen falling off its posts on the right:

That’s it for now!

2 Comments | Funter Bay History | Tagged: abandoned, Alaska, Boats, Cannery, Fish Trap, fishing, Funter Bay, Funter Bay History, History, salmon, Southeast Alaska | Permalink
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More Funter Bay Fishermen

June 5, 2013

Here are a few more commercial fishermen (and women) who I’ve come across while researching Funter Bay. This is to follow up on my previous post.

Funter Bay has been used as a landmark or boundary point for various fishing regulations through the years.

Pete Hobson, a Tlingit man from Angoon, reportedly died at Funter Bay in 1930 while on the seiner Myrtle. He was mentioned in my previous Funter Bay Fishermen post, it was implied that he owned the Myrtle, and in 1924 he pulled two trollers off the rocks at Funter.

The troller Ada-May was listed as visiting Funter Bay in 1942. She was a 31ft gas fishing boat built in Ketchikan in 1924, belonging to James Paddock of Juneau. (The Ada May was also busted for bootlegging in 1930 off Point Retreat, with Ed Hibler and Scotty & Mrs. Boyce on board).

Max & Ann Dorman lived at Funter around 1943. They had moved to Sitka in the 1970s and were described as retired trollers who lived at Funter and at Elfin Cove. They had the vessel Pal in 1937.

“Bell” and “Al” Schramen fished the boat Aurora, and Bess and Chet Kimmerly had the boat Bess Chet, fishing around Funter Bay. (Per Lazzette Ohman). Aurora is listed as a 38′ fishing boat built in Bellingham in 1948. Bess-Chet was a 37′ fishing boat built in 1957 in Tacoma.

In 1954 the troller Helen was found beached at Funter Bay by the crew of the Mabel C. George J. Harju, 48, of Juneau was found dead at the Helen‘s wheel of an apparent heart attack. (per Pacific Fisherman Handbook, Vol 52).

Cora and Curly Warnock were Funter Bay residents (Per Lazzette Ohman). I’m not sure if they fished, they may have been hunting guides.

An “officious and profane resident” fishermen in Funter Bay was reported in 1973. There are probably several people this could have been! (This is sometimes the attitude towards “yachty” boats, fishermen usually don’t want “tourists” tying up next to them due to conflicting schedules, or just general cussedness).

I’ll probably have another fishing update in the future, but to wrap this one up, here’s a picture from Alaska Geographic magazine with my Dad on Harold Hargrave’s boat. Thanks to Richard Powers of the Whaler’s Cove Lodge for giving me permission to use his photo! This was from the Summer 1973 issue (Vol 1, No 3, “Admiralty…Island in Contention”).

1 Comment | Funter Bay History, Funter Bay People | Tagged: Alaska, Boats, commercial fishermen, fishing, Funter Bay, Funter Bay History, History, pacific fisherman, point retreat, Southeast Alaska | Permalink
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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 – More Fish Traps & Fish Pirates

May 8, 2013

This began as a dry discussion of trap types, and ended up with gun fights, legal battles, piracy, and everything else that goes with Alaskan fishing!

As mentioned before, the Funter Bay cannery operated mainly with fish traps (vs fishing boats). These traps were designed to intercept salmon as they returned to spawning streams, penning them in large fixed nets until they could be scooped out.

There were two types of fish trap used in the Funter Bay area. “Pound Nets” hung from fixed pilings driven into the sea bottom. Many of these pilings had to be replaced each season, as the winter storms would knock them loose. “Floating Traps” had nets hung from a latticework of floating logs, and were used in deeper water or locations with rocky bottoms. These traps were towed into protected coves for winter storage. Both types of trap would be located a few hundred feet offshore, with a “leader” strung towards the beach (and sometimes a “Jigger” extending seaward) to intercept passing salmon. This page has some more explanation and diagrams.

Pound Net:

Floating Trap:

These images show one of the Thlinket Packing Co’s pound-type traps near Funter Bay (Trap #7):

My first post on Funter Bay History shows Trap #6 at the Kittens (islands), also of the pound type.

Here is an example of a floating trap. The structure on top is the watchman’s shack:

As mentioned, watchmen on the traps were an attempt to prevent trap robbing or “Fish Piracy” at remote traps, which was quite common. Independent fishermen hated traps, which they (correctly) felt were taking too many salmon. Many fishermen felt that fish in a trap were fair game, and that trap robbing did not “cost” anything to the trap owner. In fact, the pirates would often sell the stolen fish to the same company that owned the traps! The problem became so bad that the governor of Alaska dispatched surplus navy boats to combat pirates, and the Thlinket Packing Co hired WWI veterans to serve as armed guards.

In July of 1919, the Weathers brothers, Al and Ike, along with Ernest Stage, were charged with assault and attempted robbery in a fish piracy case. The trio were accused of using the gas boat Diana to attack Hoonah Packing co’s tender Forrester near Funter Bay. Captain Alfred Knutson testified that his boat came under fire by the trio. Thlinket Packing Co trap watchman Ted Likeness was a witness. Earnest Stage was initially arrested for stealing $10 worth of fish from Funter Bay. Al Weathers was found guilty and given 4 years in jail, with the jury recommending clemency due to his young age.

Info on the USS Marblehead.

Photo of a WWI sub chaser in Alaska.

Fish piracy was reduced by 1925 after several canning companies joined together to patrol the area.

“Fish piracy, or the robbery of fish traps, which in previous seasons was bitterly complained of by salmon canners in southeastern Alaska, was reduced to a minimum during the season of 1925. This was accomplished chiefly through the maintenance of a patrol organized by the larger canners and operated under the supervision of deputy United States marshals. A number of cruising boats were engaged in this patrol and covered waters in the vicinity of Icy Strait, Niblack, Street Island, Behm Canal, Kanagunut, Rose Inlet, Dall Head, Hidden Inlet, Union Bay, and the west coast of Prince of Wales Island.” From Bureau of Fisheries report, 1926.

Some more information on fish piracy can be found here (restoring a patrol boat), here (the story of a miner turned pirate), and here (mentioning the piratical family history of Ketchikan’s mayor).

In addition to battling pirates, salmon packing companies were also fiercely competitive with eachother, vying for the same salmon runs, the most desirable trap locations, and the best land for canneries. An extreme example of this was “trap jumping”, similar to the phenomenon of mine claim jumping where one prospector would steal the land or resources of another. More details shortly…

Pound net traps often had a watchman on shore, vs floating traps with their onboard housing. As I previously noted, the Thlinket Packing Co acquired land via the homestead act from which to base their traps (although the person filing for the homestead would usually not be the one living there!). I showed a survey of cannery owner J.T. Barron’s “homestead” in this post. Below is a survey of the “homestead” at a trap site south of Funter:

This homestead (located at Lizard Head point just South of Funter) was fairly openly a front for cannery development, being transferred very quickly to T.P.Co owner James Barron. Barron had previously held a lease from the Alaska Packers Association for a trap they installed in 1908 at Lizard Head, and was moving to acquire the shore and upland to support this site.

“…On or about the first day of March, A. D. 1911, for value received, the said V. A. Robertson conveyed by good and sufficient deed in writing the above-described tract, lot or parcel of land embraced within said U. S. Nonmineral Survey No. 804 aforesaid to James T. Barron.”

However, before the Thlinket Packing Co could finish building their trap, Clarence J. Alexander, AKA “Claire Alexander” of the Tee Harbor Packing Co swooped in and installed his own, thus “corking off” Barron. He had previously worked on the pile-driving crew for the Alaska Packers Association, and knew exactly where the trap should go. Alexander even used some of the pilings that Barron had already driven! Barron sued, and some of the court documents are online (part 1 and part 2).

Perhaps Mr. Alexander’s “opportunity” was when Barron left the state?:

Claire Alexander’s fish trap shown in front of Barron’s Lizard Head property, from court documents:

Barron’s initial letter to Alexander:

In the court case, Barron testified not that he planned a trap (as indicated by his letter and other testimony), but that he wanted to use the site as a temporary mooring for boats. He mentioned that it was too hard to tow loaded scows to Funter Bay against a North wind. He complains that Alexander’s trap blocks his water access. Alexander claimed he had no knowledge of Barron’s so-called homestead and didn’t notice any development at the site (despite incorporating Barron’s pilings into his trap). The court found against Barron and ruled that Alexander’s trap did not block Barron’s access to his property.

Some 1911 photos from the Lizard Head trap site, including the beginnings of the T.P. Co. watchman’s cabin:

Claire Alexander would go on to found the Hoonah Packing Co a few years later, and his trap at Lizard Head was still in place, in the same configuration, in 1948.

Laws regarding fish traps tended to fluctuate. Traps were originally fairly unregulated, and canneries would often place them directly in stream mouths, intercepting the entire spawning population until the “run” of salmon was destroyed. Later regulations placed limits on where traps could be located, when they could operate, how long the jiggers could be, etc. By the 1940s, the salmon population had declined so much that trap catches were fairly low, but the price of salmon had risen enough to keep traps cost-effective. When Alaska became a state in 1959, traps were outlawed entirely, leading to the closure of many canneries (other methods of fishing were not efficient enough for the size and type of these operations).

The Thlinket Packing Co (and later owners of the cannery) occasionally ran afoul of fish and game regulations.

“During the season of 1926, four salmon traps were seized in south-eastern Alaska for illegal fishing during the weekly closed period. … A trap of P. E. Harris & Co., near Hawk Inlet, and one of the Alaska Pacific Fisheries, near Funter Bay. were seized on July 11. On trial the watchmen were found not guilty, but the traps were still in the custody of the United States marshal at the end of the season.” Bureau of Fisheries report, 1927.

I came across a set of 1948 aerial photos of Funter Bay while looking for another map (from http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/). The original is linked in my post on Funter Bay maps, below are a few excerpts showing fish traps around the bay in 1948.

A trap outside the south shore of Funter Bay (possibly pound net trap #7) Note the wake of the boat, possibly a cannery tender, leaving the trap:

C.J Alexander’s pound net style trap at Lizard Head in 1948, looking a little worse for wear. The trap has the same approximate layout as shown in the 1911 diagram (inset), but the line of pilings for the lead going to shore has vanished.

A number of traps seem to have been abandoned by the Thlinket Packing Co at this point. There is no sign of Trap #6 at the Kittens in the 1948 aerials. Several of the floating-style traps are also sitting on the beach or drawn up in shallow coves where they would go dry at low tide. More traps are visible operating and in place along the shore between Funter and Hawk Inlet, but I’m not sure which companies were operating these.

Fish trap on the beach in Crab Cove:

Crab Cove trap logs outlined to be more visible:

You can see the shadow of the watchman’s shack, this might have been the shack that became the entry of our house, as mentioned in an earlier post. Our neighbor Harvey Smith also had a few sheds that were the right size to be trap watchman’s shacks, I might detail those later on.

Floating trap in place along the Admiralty Island shore south of Funter Bay, with buoyed lead net going to shore:

Down at the other end of the bay, we can see a jumble of pickup sticks on the estuary between Ottesen and Dano creeks, near the sandy beach. A few hints of the outline of a trap are visible, this might be one or more damaged or disintegrating traps:

Here is the cannery site and Scow Bay with the scows visible on slipways:

And finally, back to the present day: here’s a trap log washed up at the sandy beach, probably from one of the traps seen above. You can see various bolts and hardware that connected the trap logs together:

8 Comments | Funter Bay History, Funter Bay People | Tagged: Alaska, Cannery, fish pirates, Fish Trap, fishing, Funter Bay, Funter Bay History, History, piracy, salmon, 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

Saveitforparts

Funter Bay History – Cannery Employees

Funter Bay History: Scow Bay Part II

More Funter Bay Fishermen

Funter Bay History: Fish Buying Station

Funter Bay Fishermen

Funter Bay History – More Fish Traps & Fish Pirates

Funter Bay History II – Ships and Shipwrecks

Funter Bay History – Cannery Postcards and Leftovers

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