Aleutian

Voices

VOLUME 1, NO. 1, 2014

S.S. NORTHWESTERN

SAILING SHELTERED SEAS

S.S. Northwestern beached at Eagle River, 

north of Juneau, Alaska, 25 July 1933. 

PSMHS Negative No. 1783-1, Ordway 

photo, Williamson Collection.
As the nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has 

responsibility for most of our nationally-owned public lands and natural and cultural 

resources. This includes fostering the wisest use of our land and water resources, protecting 

our fish and wildlife, preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks 

and historical places, and providing for enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation.

The Cultural Resources Programs of the National Park Service have responsibilities that 

include stewardship of historic buildings, museum collections, archeological sites, cultural 

landscapes, oral and written histories, and ethnographic resources.

Our mission is to identify, evaluate and preserve the cultural resources of the park areas 

and to bring an understanding of these resources to the public. Congress has mandated that 

we preserve these resources because they are important components of our national and 

personal identity.

Published by the National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior, through 

the Government Printing Office with the assistance of Debra A. Mingeaud.

During World War II the remote Aleutian Islands, home to the Unanga{ (Aleut) people for 

over 8,000 years, became one of the fiercely contested battlegrounds of the Pacific. This 

thousand-mile-long archipelago saw the first invasion of American soil since the War of 

1812, a mass internment of American civilians, a 15-month air war, and one of the deadliest 

battles in the Pacific Theatre.

In 1996 Congress designated the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area to interpret, 

educate, and inspire present and future generations about the history of the Unanga{ and 

the Aleutian Islands in the defense of the United States in World War II. In a unique 

arrangement, the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area and visitor center are owned 

and managed by the Ounalashka Corporation (the village corporation for Unalaska) and the 

National Park Service provides them with technical assistance. Through this cooperative 

partnership, the Unanga{ are the keepers of their history and invite the public to learn 

more about their past and present.

This project was funded by the National Park Service, Affiliated Areas Program in support 

of the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area, in cooperation with the Aleutian 

Pribilof Heritage Group.

For information about the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area,

visit www.nps.gov/aleu/ or contact:

Alaska Affiliated Areas

240 West 5th Ave

Anchorage, Alaska 99501

(907) 644-3503

Ounalashka Corporation

P.O. Box 149

Unalaska, Alaska 99685

Visitor Information

(907) 581-1276

Visitor Center

(907) 581-9944

Aleutian Voices, Volume 1, No. 1

Francis Broderick/Michael Burwell

Library of Congress Control Number:

ISBN-10: 098 5394838

ISBN-13: 978-0-98539 48-3-7

2014
Sailing Sheltered Seas to the Land of the 

Midnight Sun!

Alexandr Baranov (1818), 

first governor of Russian 

Alaska. Mikhail T. Tikhanov, 

State History Museum, 

Moscow.

Main illustration/text this page and background preceeding page: 

Sailing Sheltered Seas to the Land of the Midnight Sun, Alaska 

Steamship Company, 1931.
“Anchors Aweigh–Happiness Lies Ahead!”

The material in this publication dealing directly with the S.S. Northwestern is drawn almost entirely from the research 

and writings of Michael Burwell, in particular from his excellent two-part history “The SS Northwestern: The Final 

Return of ‘The Ship That Always Came Back’” published in The Sea Chest: Journal of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical 

Society, September/December 1995. A condensed version titled “The SS ‘Northwestern’: The Ship That Always Came 

Back” may also be found in the anthology Alaska at War 1941-1945, edited by Fern Chandonnet, 1993.

All supplemental text is attributable to Francis Broderick.

Much thanks to the following proofreaders who graciously gave of their time and their expertise: Michael Burwell, 

Janis Koslowski, Rachel Mason, and Susie Wooliver. Of course, all errors are attributable to the coauthor Francis 

Broderick.

All images not credited are in the public domain or from Archgraphic’s archives.

Due to limited space, the acronym for Puget Sound Maritime Historic Society (PSMHS) has been used.
THE S.S. NORTHWESTERN

SAILING SHELTERED SEAS

—AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY

BASED ON THE 

WRITINGS AND RESEARCH OF MICHAEL BURWELL 

WITH 

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL BY

FRANCIS BRODERICK

Bow of the S.S. Northwestern aground at Captains Bay, Alaska, May 1992. John H. 

Cloe, Historian (retired), Eleventh Air Force, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. 
IRON, STEEL, AND STEAM

The Northwestern is constructed on the 

cusp of the nineteenth century, an 

“ocean liner” they call the vessel in 

newsprint, built to work open blue water as 

cargo and passenger ship. She is laid down in 

1889 by the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding 

and Engine Works of Chester, Pennsylvania. 

The ship is imposing in size: 336 feet from 

stem to stern, 43 feet at the beam, and 24 feet 

deep. The hull is forged of wrought iron plates, 

rivets, and steel. Coal-fired steam drives the 

power plant, producing 2,600 horses to turn a 

single, four-bladed screw. The propeller is cast 

on a grand scale—13,760 pounds of bronze 

alloy, 15 feet 4 inches in diameter. It can push 

the big, 3,497 ton ship an average 12.8 knots 

per hour.

Above: Shipbuilder/industrialist John Roach, 

1893. Roach’s Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding 

and Engine Works constructed the U.S. Navy’s 

first steel vessels in 1895. Known as the “ABCD” 

ships, these warships formed “...the nucleus of 

the New Navy.” Four years later, Roach would 

build the S.S. Northwestern. Image source: Men 

of Business, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY.

Below: Chester, Pennsylvania waterfront, circa 

1875—a mere nine years after the cessation of 

the Civil War and fourteen before the construction of the S.S. Northwestern. Engraving by J. W. 

Lauderbach from an original illustration by an 

unattributed artist.

The Orizaba. PSMHS Negative No. 10119-3.

November 23 1889, the Northwestern is 

launched. The vessel slides down the ways and 

strikes a tugboat. So its star-crossed service 

begins.

Originally christened the Orizaba—after the city 

in the Mexican state of Veracruz—the vessel 

was renamed the Northwestern in 1906. The 

name “Northwestern” will be used solely in this 

publication.
John Roach’s “ABCD Ships,” the Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and Dolphin were hybrids of old and 

new technology. The vessels featured steel rather than wooden hulls and relatively powerful steam 

engines, but were also rigged for sail. Some officers of the period disfavored coal power, feeling 

it was dirty and unreliable, and more importantly, that it was too costly. They also believed that 

it diminished the teamwork built through manning a sailing ship. As steam power proved itself 

superior to wind, however, the masts and sails of these cruisers were removed.

Three of the ABCD ships—the 

USS Atlanta, USS Boston, and USS 

Chicago under sail, Fred S. Cozzens, 

1892. Naval History and Heritage 

Command, NH 335-KN.

As-built specifications of the iron and steel steamship S.S. Northwestern. National Park Service.
EARLY YEARS

War and Bananas

For her first nine years the Northwestern

sails without mishap the warm, tropical 

waters of the Gulf of 

Mexico and the Caribbean 

Sea. Under the Ward Line 

flag, she ferries passengers 

and cargo between New 

York and points south—to 

Cuba and ports in Mexico. 

In 1898, she is chartered 

as troop ship in the 

Spanish-American War. In 

1906, the vessel sails once 

again in commerce, this 

time to Colon, Panama as 

banana freighter for the 

Panama Railroad. 

Banana freighters or “banana reefers” were refrigerated ships built to transport 

banana stems. The Northwestern as-built (see previous page) lists a “Fruit Rm” 

under cold storage capacity. “Buffalo soldier.” Of the black regiments that 

fought in the Spanish-American war, the 10th 

served with Teddy Roosevelt and the “Rough 

Riders.” 

Troop transport fleet, Tampa Bay, Florida, before departing for Cuba, Spanish-American War, 1898. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Shipping routes, United Fruit Company, 1909. 

F

C

D

E

B

G

Places of Interest:

1. New York City

2. Chester, Pennsylvania

3. Orizaba, State of Veracruz, 

Mexico 

4. Havana, Cuba

5. Colon, Panama

6. Cape Horn, Argentina

Built by John Roach in 1884, the Seneca (above) is 

chartered as troop transport in the Spanish American 

War. The fee: $450.00 per day. May 1885, the Seneca 

strikes the three-masted schooner William S. McCabe

in dense fog off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The McCabe sinks in minutes.

Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.
THE HORN

March 1906, ownership of the Northwestern changes hands and the ship is brought round 

South America to work the cold waters of the Seattle/Alaska route. It will be eight 

more years before the Panama Canal will open its waterway. In the summer of 1906, 

the Northwestern must navigate the length of the South American coast, coming safely round Cape 

Horn off the tip of Argentina where the gale-whipped seas can reach heights of 65 feet and the sea 

bottom is littered with centuries of broken ships. It is estimated the Horn has claimed more than 

1000 ships and 15,000 lives in the last 400 years.

“...hurrying upon deck, we found a large black cloud rolling on toward us from 

the south-west, and blackening the whole heavens. "Here comes Cape Horn!" said 

the chief mate; and we had hardly time to haul down and clew up, before it was 

upon us. In a few moments, a heavier sea was raised than I had ever seen before, 

and ... the little brig...plunged into it, and all the forward part of her was under 

water...”

—Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast,1840

“Tractus australior Americæ Meridionalis, a Rio de la Plata per Fretum Magellanicum ad Toraltum (Cape 

Horn).” Frederik de. Wit, 1675. Princeton Historic Maps Collection.
Gulf of Alaska

Bering Sea

Russia 

Alaska 

SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE.

ALASKA-VACATIONWARD!

The Northwestern has now traded oceans and seas, charged to sail as flagship for the 

Alaska Steamship Company in what may be the most troubled waters on earth—the Gulf 

of Alaska and the Bering Sea. 
Boy! What a trip.” “Yes, and the cost is so little too!” In 1929, a round-trip “First-Class—

Upper Deck/Ordinary Accommodations” ticket from Seattle, Washington to Nome, Alaska aboard a vessel of the Alaska line cost $230. With in-room bath, the rate could rise 

40% to $322. The average wage per capita in the United States in 1929 was $750, with agricultural 

workers earning as little as $273 per annum. Passage in steerage† to Nome in 1929, one-way, was 

$50, but steerage was limited only to men, and they “must furnish their own blankets.” The above 

list of “Minimum Passenger Fares” dates to January 1, 1929. The Great Depression in the United 

States began August 1929.

“Steerage” was the least expensive ticket class and offered only the most basic amenities, with limited 

toilet use, no privacy, and poor food.

The Northwestern loading at Seattle for the Alaska run. PSMHS Negative No. 18783-25.
National Park Service.
“...passengers danced, played cards, had a drink and dined... A great many 

families resulted from these voyages when boy met girl on the Northwestern...”

—Northwestern general passenger agent Robert C. Rose

“The social hall on the S.S. ‘Northwestern’ invites you to take your ease!”

Aboard the Northwestern, first-class 

passengers sail in spacious accommodation with in-room piped hot water, a 

dining salon (#1), and saloon (#2). On the 

hurricane deck they may watch the Alaska 

scenery pass in a glass-enclosed observation room 

(#3) or read (with the aid of electric lamps) the SS 

Northwestern Radio News—a typewritten 

shipboard daily containing news and sports 

gathered from the airwaves. 

S.S. Northwestern social hall. Note the Edison incandescent light bulbs mounted conspicuously in the ceiling. 

A mahogany Victrola stands beside the piano. In 1912 the 

music machine was touted as “a new luxury to Alaska travel.” 

National Park Service.

Images courtesy National Park Service.

Digital montage by Archgraphics.
DAYS OF ECHANTMENT

What a fascinating experience to 

write into our book of unusual 

adventures! Your trip to Alaska 

will ever be a chapter where each day is filled 

with colorful moments, whether joining your 

congenial fellow , travelers in interesting deck 

games of shuffleboard, quoits, tennis, hockey, 

golf, or taking to your deck chair and being 

just plain lazy. You never grow tired of watching the unfolding scenery and you never cease 

to marvel at the wonders of the cathedral,aisled 

ocean lane that starts the minute you swing 

northward from Seattle.

And what happiness lies ahead as your ship 

points her shapely bow Alaska-vacationward! 

Midst showers of serpentine, there is an air 

of expectancy in the thrill of your departure. 

And there'll be no dull days, with so many new 

things to do and so many new and interesting shipmates to know. Everybody aboard 

your ship will have thrown off the cloak of 

routine,living in exchange for the carefree days 

that go to make up this most thrilling and interesting vacation. If it is change and action you 

wish, your days will live vividly for you... if 

it is relaxation and rest you seek, you will find 

a soothing balm as you sail sheltered seas and 

discover new strength in the healthful salt air.

The Alaska Line ships are equipped for your 

comfort and enjoyment. You are sure to find 

every minute of your cruise crowded with 

hours' worth of pleasure. And after finishing 

your day with dancing to the ship's orchestra 

or at an informal gathering, such as can be 

conceived only aboard ship, you will make 

your way to your comfortable stateroom where 

you will find it easy to drop into restful 

slumber. The invigorating sea air, together 

with your comfortable quarters, will induce 

restful sleep to prepare you for another joyous 

and all,too,short day on The Alaska Line.

Anchors AweighHappiness Lies 

Ahead

The John Roach brigantine S.S. Columbia under 

full sail and steam by Antonio Jacobsen, 1880.

Left: Thomas Alva Edison, 1915. 

Fitted with Edison’s incandescent electric lamps in 1880, the

S.S. Columbia is the first commercial utilization of Edison’s 

lighting system. July 1907, the 

Columbia and steam schooner 

San Pedro collide in dense fog 

near Shelter Cove, California. 

The Columbia sinks in less 

than nine minutes—88 passengers die, including all children 

aboard.
“Then, dancing of an evening or a promenade around the deck under the stars—

cool, quiet night and sleep of peace.”

“Dinner is always an event at sea. You are ready for it with a zest only clean, salt 

air and life in the open can give.” 

Standard “B” deck cabin,

S.S. Northwestern

“De Luxe” suite on Alaska Line vessel

“C” deck cabin on S.S. Aleutian
“‘SMOKEY’—A favorite among the forty army dogs formerly stationed at Chilkoot Barracks (see below). 

Smokey was later sent to Ladd Field. He made the long journey to Fairbanks in January 1941, and is an 

outstanding specimen of the true Alaska Husky.” 

Josephine Crumrine is a young Alaska artist who lives in the territory... In the dog portraits featured in 

this current series of menus (S.S. Yukon, 1941) Miss Crumrine has captured the spirit of the Old Alaska 

when the chief mode of transportation was the husky-drawn sled.”

Two views of Chilkoot Barracks (formerly Fort William H. Seward, built 1902-04 at Haines, Alaska). Chilkoot barracks 

is the last of 11 military posts established during the gold rush era. At the onset of WWII, it stands as the only military 

installation in Alaska with 11 officers and 286 enlisted men. Courtesy Elmendorf Air Force Base Office of History.
In 1935, Northwestern passengers can purchase for 35¢ an “Old Fashioned.” Generally accepted as the 

first “cocktail” (called a “bittered sling” in 1806), the name “Old Fashioned” is anecdotally attributed to 

the Pendennis Club founded in 1881 in Louisville, Kentucky. To fashion an “Old Fashioned” in 1895, a 

mixologist would: “Dissolve a small lump of sugar with a little water in a whiskey-glass; add two dashes 

Angostura bitters, a small piece ice, a piece lemon-peel, one jigger whiskey. Mix with small bar-spoon 

and serve, leaving spoon in glass.” Early additional ingredients included absinthe and a nutmeg garnish. (In terms of buying power, 35¢ in 1935 is roughly equivalent to $5.50 in 2014.) 
Collagen extracted from boiled bones, connective tissues and other animal products has been consumed as food, particularly desserts, since the 1400s. The process of purifying “gelatin sheets” was 

time consuming, however, and the dish remained solely the dessert of Royalty and the rich through 

the Victorian era, where it was served in elaborate “jelly moulds.” With the advent of powdered gelatin, 

the dessert became available to the masses. Fruit flavors were added, and recipes through the 1930s 

specified additional ingredients such as cabbage, celery, and green peppers. In 1934, one year before 

the publication of this menu, the comedian Jack Benny became the spokesperson for the product, “JellO.” A meal served on the 1935 Northwestern menu above includes the choice of a gelatin dish called 

“Loganberry Jello Whipped Cream.”
S.S. Northwestern Radio News, Friday, June 21, 1935.
RADIO NEWS

The Weyerhaeuser Kidnapping • June 21, 1935

Verso of wirephoto above reads: “...George Weyerhaeuser, kidnapped boy... He had no worries 

when this snapshot was taken, but was proud 

of his cowboy outfit. “ George would grow to 

become Chairman of the Board for the Weyerhaeuser Company.

Verso of wirephoto above reads: “Pictured is 

Harmon Waley who, with his wife Margaret, was 

arrested in Salt Lake City and according to police 

of that city and Department of Justice Operatives, confessed to implication in the kidnapping 

of George Weyerhaeuser, a 9-year-old Tacoma, 

Wash., boy on May 24 (1935).”

"In five days or as soon as you have 

the money, advertise in the Seattle P-I

personal column. Say 'We are ready.' 

And sign it 'Percy Minnie.'"

–Egoist

Above is a quote from ransom note sent to lumberman J.P. Weyerhaeuser, signed “Egoist.” The 

kidnappers demanded $200,000 for the return of 

Weyerhaeuser’s son, George. The money was 

delivered; the boy released unharmed. All participants in the kidnapping were arrested. During 

his incarceration Harmon Waley wrote to George 

Weyerhaeuser apologizing for his actions. Upon 

his release in 1963, Waley again contacted 

George and in an act of profound forgiveness, 

Weyerhaeuser obtained employment for his former kidnapper in a company plant in Oregon.
RADIO SPORTS

“The Brown Bomber”

Yankee Stadium, 26 June 1935, Joe Louis 

knocks out 6’6”, 265-pound former World 

Heavyweight Champion Primo Carnera (“The 

Monster” ) in the sixth round.

Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, fight one, 19 

June 1936. Louis falls in the twelve round to 

Schmeling, his first loss in 27 professional 

bouts. In a rematch, 22 June 1938, Louis sends 

Schmeling to the canvas two minutes and four 

seconds into the contest.

“The Hebrew Hammer”

Slugging first baseman, Henry Benjamin Greenberg leads the 

Detroit Tigers to their first World Series against the Chicago 

Cubs in 1935. Voted the American League’s most valuable player 

that year, Greenberg is generally recognized as the first Jewish 

superstar in American team sports. His No. 5 is retired by the 

Tigers in 1983.

The names “Brown Bomber” and “Hebrew 

Hammer” reflect the discrimination prevalent and accepted in the mainstream media 

of 1930s America. Such language in no way 

reflects the views of the periodical author or 

the National Park Service. 

Primo Carnera.
SOME PORTS OF CALL

ASSOCIATED LOG OF ACCIDENTS OF THE S.S. NORTHWESTERN 

AND A FEW HISTORICAL NOTES THAT MAY INTEREST THE PUBLIC

“A Good-Natured Map of Alaska, showing the services offered by ‘The Alaska Line.’” 1934 (hereafter 

referenced as 'Alaska Line 1934' when quoted in this section) The language is left unedited to show 

mindset of the period. Library of Congress.

For 34 years, the S.S. Northwestern runs the Alaska Route as passenger and transport ship. 

She lays telegraph cable from Unalaska to St. Michael and Nome. In her hold, she carries 

copper ore from Kennecott, livestock, and railway track. The steamer ferries gold from 

Nome; transports mail, coal, and salmon pack. Bound to a schedule, the Northwestern sails, summer and winter, through bad weather and dirty seas. There are few buoys in the Alaskan waters of 

the early 1900s, few navigation lights. Often the vessel is lost in fog, relying upon ship’s whistle 

and depth soundings to find its way. In its career, the Northwestern runs aground 14 times. She 

strikes other vessels 10 times—rams docks; drops propellers, a rudder, and an anchor. Time and 

again, newspapers incorrectly announce the ship’s loss and salvage for scrap, but it is not until 

October 1940, when the Northwestern is far gone in years, that she is brought to shore for what is 

believed is the final time.

“The echoes of her whistle rocked back from the hills and you thought ‘Good old 

Northwestern—bringing news from the states, bringing mail, bringing a can of 

fresh peaches.’”

—Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 18 July 1942
SEATTLE

Gateway to Alaska

and the Orient

“The deep-throated notes of the whistle 

sound the last warning. Down goes the 

gang plank. Festoons of gaily colored 

serpentine—good-byes and waving of 

hats and handkerchiefs.

“As the big steamer swings gracefully 

from the dock and sets her course 

northward, the view of Seattle’s world 

famous skyline spreads before our 

delighted eyes. This is the city Alaska 

actually transformed from a small 

settlement on the edge of wilderness to 

a metropolis and a world port.”

—All quoted introductory text this section (as per 

above) from Sailing Sheltered Seas to the Land of 

the Midnight Sun!, Alaska Steamship Company, 

1931 (hereafter referenced as ASC 1931 in this 

section). The language is left unedited to show 

mindset of the period.

Seattle, Washington skyline. Pier 2,Alaska Steamship Company. 

Alaska Steamship Company headquarters, Seattle, Washington. 
Seattle, Washington dockyard.

Pier 2, Alaska Steamship Company. 

“...the merchants of Seattle practically control the trade of Alaska, and the Yukon 

Territory, which is $20,000,000 per annum and is increasing yearly... Seattle is 

the headquarters and base of supplies of the Puget Sound, Alaska, and Fraser 

River salmon fisheries, which produces salmon valued at $15,000,000 per year.”

—Seattle City Directory, 1905

S.S. Northwestern, Seattle dock.

LOG OF ACCIDENTS

Jan. 1910: Steamer Montara collides with Northwestern, Seattle

Sep. 1913: Northwestern collides with H.B. Kennedy, Seattle

Feb. 1913: Northwestern collides with Skagit Queen, Seattle

Sep. 1915: Northwestern backs into a breasting off float, Bell Street Dock, Seattle

Oct. 1918: Northwestern struck by the ferry West Seattle, Pier 2, Seattle

May 1922: Northwestern crewman crushed to death in engine room accident, Seattle

Aug. 1934: Two Northwestern crewmen burned when welding torch ignites gas fumes in oil furnace, Seattle

May 1935: Northwestern collides with steamer Tacoma at Pier 41, Seattle
View of Ketchikan from dock. Library of Congress.

KETCHIKAN

“Ketchikan, a short two days from 

Seattle, is the first port of call in 

Alaska. It is a busy, progressive 

city with paved streets, up to date 

department stores and curio shops. 

There is an opportunity here for a 

walk to Ketchikan Creek, which flows 

through the center of the city and in 

the salmon spawning season hundreds 

of salmon may be seen struggling and 

leaping the falls on their journey to 

calm fresh waters.”

—ASC 1931

LOG OF ACCIDENTS

Sep. 1911: Rams Glory of the Seas, Ketchikan (see When Steam Meets Sails at Ketchikan in 

this publication for more details o n this collision.)

Oct. 1915: Grounds, Potter Rock, south of Ketchikan (See facing page)

Feb. 1917: Smallpox discovered on board; vessel put into quarantine until all passengers vaccinated, Ketchikan

Aug. 1934: Strikes submerged object, leaving Ketchikan

Oct. 1937: While on last voyage as Alaska Steamship vessel, strikes Union Oil Dock, three fishing boats, and the oil barge Falls of Clyde, Ketchikan. (see When Steam Meets Sails 

at Ketchikan in this publication for more details o n this collision.)
S.S. Northwestern aground on Potter Rock, south of Pennock Island near Ketchikan, September 1915. PSMHS.

I

n 1919, five corporations from the coterminous United States control 53% of 

Alaskan salmon pack. Labor is largely 

imported—Chinese workers; and fishermen 

hired off the docks of San Francisco and 

Seattle. The canneries are fed primarily by 

stationary fish traps, not seiners (fishing boats) 

worked by Alaskan fishermen. The fish trap, 

according to Judge James Wickersham, Alaska’s first delegate to Congress, “does not demand wage or food, works night and day, and 

catches everything that travels the fish highway.” The then territory of Hawaii controls 

her own fisheries, but not Alaska. The salmon 

industry (the “Fish Trust”—the Seattle-based 

Alaska Packers Association) wields such influ-

“They used to say in Alaska towns that the Northwestern hit every rock in the 

Inland Passage—but they couldn’t keep a good ship down.”

ence that it prevents the transfer of Alaskan 

fisheries to the newly formed territory in 1912. 

The abolition of the fish trap becomes a political rallying cry of Native Alaskans (whose 

primary source of food and employment is being appropriated*); non-Native fishermen; and 

Alaskans in general . The end of the fish trap 

finally comes in 1960, one year after Alaskan 

statehood. So strong had the powers of the 

canneries been, that George Rogers, Alaskan 

economist, later commented that Alaska was, 

in terms of the corporate exploitation of fish, 

the “farthest north banana republic.” 

*In 1929 nearly 100% of seiners in Alaska are 

operated by Alaska Natives; in the Ketchikan 

district in 1934 the number is 8%.

—Cuttlefish Five O Editor: Ray Hudson

ctober 6th, 1915 the Northwestern

grounds in dense fog off Potter Rock (below), just south of 

Pennock Island in Tongass Narrows. Using a 

kedge anchor,* the vessel frees itself at high 

tide, then with donkey pumps working to drain 

the leaking hull and stern gland, continues 

northward. On the return voyage south, the 

vessel loses a propeller blade in Resurrection Bay after departing 

Seward. She limps into Eagle 

Harbor for repairs but proves 

too heavy for the facility—her 

weight on the railway cradle 

snapping the winch cable. 

*Kedge anchor: the nautical 

version of a “come-along.” A 

kedge anchor is carried by a 

lighter boat some distance 

from the stranded parent vessel and dropped to catch on 

the sea bottom. The main vessel then hauls in the taut kedge 

anchor line using a winch, 

drawing the vessel along.
WRANGELL

“Fort Wrangell: From the mouth of the Stickeen—the starting point of the expedition.” From Alaska 

Days with John Muir by S. Hall Young. Project Gutenberg.

“The voyage through the inland waterway continues on to Wrangell...many times 

referred to as ‘Wrangell the Beautiful.’ Wrangell is one of Alaska’s oldest towns, 

dating from the time the United States purchased the territory and established a 

military post [Fort Wrangell (1866-1877)]...”

—ASC 1931

Chief Shakes’ House, Wrangell,Alaska.
“Shortly after leaving Wrangell the 

ship steams through Wrangell Narrows 

(below)... For two hours the steamer 

cautiously threads its way through 

this winding, twisting, nature made 

channel, with shores so close on either 

side it seems possible to toss a stone 

ashore. Transiting Wrangell Narrows 

always will be remembered as one of 

the many thrills of an Alaska trip.” 

—ASC 1931

The City of Seattle at Skaguay [Skagway] wharf, 

circa 1900. New York Public Library.

The Northwestern, under the command of Captain William Jensen, ashore south of Anchor Point, 

Wrangell Narrows, 1 June 1919. PSMHS Negative No. 1783-14, from the Williamson Collection.

While steaming through Wrangell Narrows, “The Broadway of Alaska,” in dense fog, 

1 June 1919, the Northwestern takes a violent sheer from starboard. The vessel does 

not answer the helm and piles ashore south of Anchor Point. The City of Seattle 

(above) takes on the Northwestern’s passengers and stands by, and the following day the steamer 

Jefferson pulls the stranded vessel into deeper water. Inspection reveals no damage, and the Northwestern and passengers continue north to Juneau, arriving the same day.
SITKA

“Sitka—once the Capital of Alaska 

when the ‘great land’ was under 

Russian rule; Sitka rich in historic and 

scenic appeal, famous for its earlyday trading with the peoples of the 

entire Pacific Coast, has a romantic 

and turbulent background difficult to 

imagine.

“Today it is a beautiful, peaceful 

little town...surmounted by majestic 

Mount Edgecumbe, America’s replica 

of Japan’s famed Mount Fujiyama. 

The old Russian blockhouse—The 

Cathedral; beautiful, totem lined, 

Lover’s Lane, Indian River Park [Sitka 

National Historical Park, Alaska’s 

oldest federally designated park, 

established 1890*]—these and many 

other places of interest will make our 

stay in Sitka linger in the memory 

forever.”

—ASC 1931

Russian blockhouse.

Mount Edgecumbe, near Sitka.

Sitka was designated a national monument in 

1910 in commemoration of the 1804 Battle of 

Sitka fought between the Kiks.ádi Tlingits and 

Russians. 
Early Russian Orthodox Church, Sitka, 1886.

Alaska State Library, William R. Norton, photographs P226-361.

In the background is a photo of a steamship docked at the former Russian wharf and warehouse 

at Sitka, circa 1904. Under the direction of Territorial Governor (1897-1906) John Green Brady, 

the Revenue Cutter Rush collected totems from Southeast Alaska for exhibition at the St. Louis 

Exposition. These poles, now largely recarved by Native artisans, form the nucleus of the totem 

exhibit at Sitka National Historical Park. The United States Revenue Cutter Service joined with 

the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915, the latter continuing the Cutter’s Arctic mission to protect natural 

resources; suppress illegal trade; resupply remote outposts; support scientific studies; enforce the 

law; and participate in search and rescue. National Park Service, Sitka National Historical Park 

(SITK 883).
JUNEAU

“Sedate, trim and picturesque, backed 

by the tall peak of Mt. Juneau, this 

colorful and modern capital city 

of Alaska is nestled on beautiful 

Gastineau Channel of the Inside 

Passage. A thriving little city of 

over 5,000 people, Juneau owes its 

origin to gold. Today it ably holds 

the responsibility of the Territorial 

government on its shoulders...

“Here is located the residence of the 

Governor and the seat of all legislative 

departments.”

—ASC 1931

January 22, 1916, the Northwestern

docks at Juneau encased in ice. The 

photographers Winter and Pond and 

J. E. Thwaites capture the scene in a series of 

postcard views (see facing page). The Northwestern’s crew sets to work chipping the vessel 

clean, and she continues southward the same 

day.

Walter Eli Clark, Governor of the District of 

Alaska, 1909-1912, and the first Governor of the 

Alaska Territory, 1912-1913.

Governor Clark had argued against territorial status for Alaska in 1912, citing its small population 

of whites and the general lack of infrastructure 

(even though the population was actually greater 

than nine other territories when they had attained 

statehood). Among the notable laws signed by 

Clark in the territory’s first legislative season 

in 1912 were: a mandatory eight-hour work day 

in many industries; women’s suffrage; and the 

taxation of the salmon canning industry. The latter called the “case tax,” levied a 7¢ per case tax 

on red and king, and a 1/2¢ per case tax on pink, 

chum, and coho salmon.

Juneau circa 1897, possibly after a photograph.
“How’s this for cold...Northwestern, Juneau, Alaska, Jan. 22-1916”

 —Handwritten note on postcard

author unknown

John Zug Collection, Accession Number 80-68-140, Polar Regions Department, University of Alaska 

Fairbanks.

National Park Service.
SKAGWAY

“...Skagway sprang into life and 

became famous overnight during 

the gold rush of [18]97 and ‘98. It 

is the transfer point into the interior 

of Alaska and the Canadian Yukon 

Territory and is the ocean terminus 

of the White Pass & Yukon Route 

rail line... As the steamer stops 

approximately twelve hours at 

Skagway, ample time is afforded to 

make the side trip to Lake Bennett 

via the White Pass & Yukon Route. 

In Skagway, Blanchard’s garden 

should be visited. Here we find flowers 

of many varieties growing to such 

enormous size as to almost defy the 

imagination.”

—ASC 1931

“Skagway, gateway to the Yukon country.”

“From Skagway, many a weary prospector toiled 

over Chilkoot Pass in’98 on his way to the Klondike.”

Grand opening, Mascot Saloon, Skagway, 1904. 

National Park Service.
Looking north at Broadway, circa 1908-1914. National Park Service.

Moore’s Wharf during the gold rush era. The pens at bottom right hold livestock. P.E. Kern, John Urban 

Collection; Anchorage Museum, B1964.001.18
CORDOVA

and Monopoly

Beginning 1935, the Parker Brothers market 

the game “Monopoly.” Players buy, trade, and 

develop properties/railroads/utilities, and collect 

“rent” from other players. The goal is to drive opponents into bankruptcy. The “Monopoly: Alaska 

Edition” is first published in 1998.

James Wickersham, 1910, two years before he is 

appointed the Alaska Territory’s first (non-voting) 

delegate to the House of Representatives, U.S. 

Congress. 

“Cordova—the copper center of 

Alaska. The air has that crisp, green 

freshness, so characteristic of the 

Territory. Cordova is the ocean 

terminus of the Copper River & 

Northwestern Railway, which extends 

into the interior one hundred and 

ninety-six miles to Kennecott’s famed 

mountain of copper.”

—ASC 1931

(Above quote dates 7 years

before the closure of Kennecott Mine)

The great house of [corporate mogul 

J. P.] Morgan had, and still has, the 

practical control of railway building in 

the United States territory, just as the 

[Simon]Guggenheim side of the Alaska 

Syndicate (formed in 1906) has control 

of all power in respect to copper, coal, 

and lead and everything of a mining 

nature in the Pacific west. These two, 

in combination, have thrown out their 

tentacles along the coast of Alaska, 

have secured a monopoly of our coal, 

copper, and transportation, and they 

are in control of the three principal 

gateways to the interior of Alaska. 

They control the transportation1

 in 

Alaska; they control the situation with 

respect to railroad building in Alaska; 

they control the fisheries of Alaska; 

they control the copper of Alaska. (and 

copper smelters in Washington State)...

If we had no (Federal) Government 

control in...Alaska, the people there 

would settle the Guggenheims and 

their kind in short order.”

—James Wickersham,

Hearings Before the Committee on the Territories, House of Representatives Sixty-Third 

Congress, First Session on Bills Wednesday, 9 

July 1913, roughly one year after Alaska gains 

territorial status.

Cordova dock. National Park Service.
Sacks of Kennecott copper ore (weighing roughly 140 pounds each) on the Cordova dock. National Park 

Service.

“Kennecott, Alaska’s largest copper Mine.” [A 

National Historic Landmark since 1986].

The winter of 1908, the Northwestern transports heavy cargoes of freight and equipment to 

Cordova for construction of the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad (CRNW). By 

1909, her steerage is largely filled with laborers seeking work on the line. April 1911, the 

Northwestern docks at Cordova for “Copper Day,” celebrating completion of the 196-mile-long 

CRNW and the arrival of the inaugural trainload of copper ore from the mines at Kennicott—the 

ore bound for the smelters of Tacoma, Washington.

January 1916, the Northwestern alone hauls over a million dollars of gold and copper ore from 

Valdez and Cordova. Collectively, vessels of the Alaska Steamship Company carry 120 million 

pounds of ore southward in 1916—the greatest yearly volume recorded.
Northwestern at Cordova dock, 1923. In 1910, the vessel sails Seattle to Cordova in 4 days, 12 hours, 

breaking the speed record set by her fleet mate the Victoria by 6 hours. Captain H. Croskey is at the 

helm. Steamboat races were the norm in the early 1900s, with passengers often betting on the outcome 

and the fastest vessels praised in newsprint. Tinted lantern slide, Alaska State Library, ASL P198-75.

Wednesday, 29 March 1911, the last spike in the CRNW rail line is driven by Chief Engineer E. C. Hawkins and Superintendent Samuel Murchison at Kennecott. The spike (forged of copper) is withdrawn and inscribed with the words: “Native Alaska Copper” on one side; “Copper River & Northwestern Railway” on the second; and “Kennecott Mines” 

on the third: the fourth face is left blank. The copper spike is transferred to a safe aboard the S. S. 

Northwestern, along with a plaque reading “From E. C. Hawkins to S. W. Eccles, president, Copper River & Northwestern Railway.” When the S.S. Northwestern arrives in Seattle a week later 

with the first load of copper ore from Kennecott, she is decked out in bunting and streamers and 

carries a banner that reads: “First trainload of copper from Bonanza Mine (one of 5 mines in the 

Kennecott complex). Worth $250,000. A million tons to follow...”

In 1916, the peak year of production, the value of ore extracted from Kennecott reaches 32.4 million dollars. By 1925, however, the end of high-grade ore is in sight, and by 1938 the Kennecott 

mines close. When the last train leaves on the CRNW track, 10 November of that year, it leaves 

behind a ghost town. In nearly 27 years of continuous operation, Kennecott produced 4,625 million tons of ore averaging 13% copper valued at roughly 207 million dollars with an estimated 

profit of 100 million dollars. The by-product silver accounted for another 41⁄2 to 9 million dollars 

in revenues. The United States had initially sold the copper lodes at Kennecott to the Alaska Syndicate at a rate of 5 dollars an acre.
In 1912, the Alaska Railroad Commission 

(ARC) is charged by Congress to investigate 

expanding Alaska’s railroads into the resourcerich interior of the state. The commission concludes that it is most economical to purchase 

the CRNW railroad (above) and build a spur 

from Chitina to Fairbanks, rather than extend 

the defunct line originating at Seward. The 

commission also finds the port of Cordova better protected than that at Seward and the location less open to naval attack. Before the report 

is adopted, however, Woodrow Wilson takes 

office as president in 1913. Wilson signs into 

law the Federal Trade Commission, and pushes 

through Congress the Clayton Antitrust Act, 

which holds individual officers of corporations 

responsible for violating the law. The latter 

is considered the “Magna Carta” of labor. In 

an atmosphere of anti-trust/anti-monopoly, 

the purchase of the Alaska Syndicate owned 

CRNW railroad is political anathema. Wilson 

appoints the Alaska Engineering Commission 

to review the earlier ARC decision. Sensitive 

to the political climate, the Alaska Engineering Commission recommends purchasing the 

Seward-Fairbanks line (see image at right), citing the long-range benefits of opening the agriculturally fertile Matanuska Valley. The tracks 

and trestles of the Alaska Syndicate’s CRNW 

line, synonymous with the names Guggenheim 

and Morgan, were gradually dismantled and 

replaced by the 49.5 mile long Copper River 

Highway, which terminates (to the pleasure of 

Cordova’s contemporary isolationists) at the 

Million Dollar Bridge.

LOG OF ACCIDENTS

Aug. 1918: Gone ashore at Orca, near Cordova

Feb. 1927: Crewman D. Jorgenson crushed 

to death and another crewman 

injured while unloading railroad 

ties; Jorgenson dies at Cordova 

Hospital

Of the hundred and twenty-nine bridges built 

on the CRNW line, the “Million Dollar Bridge,” 

(or Miles Glacier Bridge [above]) was the most 

costly, with a price tag of 1.4 million. (Damaged 

by the 1964 earthquake and repaired in 2004-5 

at a cost of 19 million, the bridge could arguably 

be called the “20 Million Plus Dollar Bridge.”) 

The CRNW Railroad was listed on the National 

Register of Historic Places in 1973; the Million 

Dollar Bridge was added to the register in 2000. 

National Park Service.

Alaska Railroad locomotive #1, built 1899 by 

“H.K. Porter & Co., Pittsburgh Pa.” In this view, 

engine #1 may be working the narrow gauge 

route to Fairbanks, (formerly the Tanana Valley 

Railroad) that reached to within 39 miles of Chatanika in the heart of gold mining country. This 

line would be upgraded to standard gauge as 

part of the Alaska Railroad joining Seward with 

Fairbanks (see Seward, this section). Porter and 

Co. primarily built small, narrow gauge locos that 

could be operated by one engineer if necessary. 

National Park Service.
VALDEZ

“[They] were panic-stricken and 

stampeded for terra firma.''

—Nome Nugget, 23 March 1908

description of crowd reaction while waiting 

dock side

for the Northwestern during a strong earthquake.

“Valdez offers us another very 

impressive side trip; an automobile 

ride to Keystone Canyon... For this 

trip we leave the steamer, transfer 

to automobiles for the ride over a 

portion of the Richardson Highway, 

through Keystone Canyon—so rugged 

and deep, so appealing, as to make 

description impossible. Even the 

perfect eye of the camera cannot 

truthfully tell the story.”

—ASC 1931

Motor-coaches await steamer passengers for a tour of Keystone Canyon, Richardson highway. National 

Park Service.

1909, the Northwestern delivers to Valdez the first 

“White Steamer” automobile to attempt the Richardson “trail.” The above steam-powered vehicle 

is a touring version (likely 20 hp) manufactured 

by the White Motor Company in Cleveland, Ohio 

(1900-1911). White also produced bicycles, roller 

skates, and sewing machines. 
Livestock offloaded at Valdez.

Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, B67.1.9.

National Editorial Association Excursion at Valdez, 1 August 1909. Mary Whalen Collection, Accession 

Number 75-84-2285, Alaska and Polar Regions Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

As part of the events surrounding the 

Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition 

in Seattle, the S.S. Northwestern is 

chartered by the National Editorial Association 

(NEA) for a Southeastern Alaska cruise—24 

July to 12 August. The agenda includes visits 

to Native villages, glaciers, and coal mines. 

NEA excursionists ride the Copper River and 

Northwestern Railway and are vetted at a ball 

at Valdez held in their honor.

LOG OF ACCIDENTS

May 1907: Gone ashore, Swanport near Valdez (See Grounded at Latouche and Points South, 

this periodical.)

Sept. 1907: Blown away from dock by violent winds, “the next thing to a tornado”—both hawsers 

snapped at dock, captain forced to sail for Seward without discharging cargo, Valdez

Feb.1908: Experienced large earthquake while docking, Valdez. (See Earthquakes, Excursions 

and Icebergs, this periodical, for other seismic events affecting nautical traffic in SE 

Alaska.)

Jan. 1913: Aground, Valdez

May 1914: Snapped winch cable breaks passenger’s leg, another’s arm, and knocks down crewman, Valdez
“Cape Resurrection, protecting Seward Harbor.”

SEWARD

“Seward, named in honor of William 

H. Seward, whose conviction and 

persistence resulted in the purchase 

of Alaska from Russia in 1867, for the 

relatively trifling sum of $7,200,000.00, 

presents a magnificent setting at the 

northern end of the almost land-locked 

Resurrection bay...

“As the steamer remains in Seward 

for twelve to fourteen hours, we who 

are seeking diversion will find hiking, 

golfing, fishing or the auto ride to 

Kenai Lake delightful pastimes.” 

—ASC 1931

March 1908, Fairbanks newspapers 

report that the Northwestern has 

brought north 250 workers to 

break a miners’ strike at the Tanana gold placers.

April 1910, the Northwestern delivers a train 

crew and heavy equipment to Seward in an 

attempt to revitalize the new Alaska Northern 

Railway Company (a 51-mile stretch of track 

formerly owned by the Alaska Central Railroad). By 1914 the rail line, referred to simply 

as the Alaska Railroad, stretches to the gold 

fields of Fairbanks, 486 miles distant. In 1985, 

the federally owned railroad is purchased by 

the state of Alaska.

May 1917, the Northwestern offloads Chinese 

workers at Seward to ready equipment for the 

first canning season of the new San Juan Fishing & Cannery Company.

Secretary of State William Henry Seward, circa 

1860-65.

Seward survives an attempt on his life 14 April 

1865— part of a coordinated three-target assassination plan that includes President Abraham 

Lincoln. Seward suffers multiple knife wounds 

to his face and neck, and will carry the scars the 

remainder of his life. Almost two years to the day 

later, he brokers the purchase of Alaska.

When asked his greatest achievement, Seward 

replies, “The purchase of Alaska—but it will take 

the people a generation to find it out.”

Seward also argues for the acquisition of British 

Columbia, Panama, Hawaii and other lands.

J
Tinted image, Seward. Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, B88.52.38.

The S.S. Northwestern at Seward, 1907-09. Kodiak Historical Society, P-399-22-A.
NOME

“[Alaska] was the last great gold rush. There will never be another like it. It was 

one of the great adventures of the American epic. It was a chapter in the great 

westward march of the American people in search of greater opportunity.”

—Senator Ernest Gruening, Governor of Alaska Territory, 1939-1953

Miner’s cabin built of logs and sod, Nome Beach. Alfred G. Simmer Collection, Alaska State Library, 

ASL-P137-038.

In 1899, prospectors drawn by gold in the beach sands of Nome raise a tent city on the shore 

(below), reaching roughly 30 miles from Cape Nome to Cape Rodney. By 1900 the U.S. Census 

lists the population of Nome at 12,488, making it the largest town (incorporated as a city in 1901) 

in the Alaska Territory. By 1920 the easily accessible gold deposits are largely exhausted, and the 

population of Nome declines to 852. Alaska State Library, ASL-P45-1054.

K
On her inaugural voyage north on the 

Alaska route, the S.S. Northwestern

sails nonstop 1,971 nautical miles 

Seattle to Unimak Pass (80 miles northeast 

of Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Chain), then 

northward an additional 652 nautical miles 

to Nome. There on 25 June 1906 she loads 

750,000 dollars in placer gold. The long trip in 

Alaskan waters taxes her boilers, however, necessitating repair at the Moran Dock, Seattle, 5 

July. On her next trip north, the Northwestern

races the steamer Ohio—Nome to Seattle—

and wins; then on 12 August 1907, she challenges the steamer City of Puebla.

“...one of the greatest steamship races 

in the history of the North Pacific.”

 —Dawson Daily News

The Puebla breaks all speed records running 

for Nome, arriving in 61/2 days and capturing 

the market of 500 passengers at St. Michael 

and Nome eager to return south for the winter. 

Bad weather precludes the Northwestern from 

lightering many passengers and little cargo. 

June 17, 1908, the Northwestern encounters 

the worst spring ice conditions in twenty years 

at Nome, preventing the ship from moving 

close enough to shore to unload (see below). 

The following two winters, the vessel retreats 

south to the Seattle-Seward run.

The S.S. Northwestern moored offshore Nome 

with citizens on ice to greet her, June 1908. 

Women in foreground include Mrs. Goodwin, 

Mrs. Reagan, Mrs. Ames, and Mrs. Sale. Courtesy 

Lomen Family Collection, Accession Number 72-

71-2576, Polar Regions Department, University of 

Alaska Fairbanks.

The S.S. Northwestern at the Hefferman Dock, 

Seattle, circa 1909. During a major rebuilding 

at the dock, October 1909, 40 wrought iron hull 

plates are replaced—damaged by ice on spring 

runs to Nome. While still at Hefferman, the Northwestern and a neighboring ship are struck by 

the steamship Montara which had broken away 

from a buoy in Seattle Harbor. The Hefferman 

dock also suffers damage. PSMHS, Negative No. 

1783-27.
WHEN STEAM MEETS SAILS

At Ketchikan

A failure of the Northwestern’s engine 

order telegraph (right), 27 September 1911, causes the ship to lunge 

forward and strike the Glory of the Seas

(above) at the Ketchikan dock. The Glory is 

a once-famed, wooden clipper ship, stripped 

of her sails and converted to a floating salmon 

cannery. It is a point of contention as to which 

vessel suffers most from the collision. The S.S. 

Northwestern is made of iron and steel, but the 

Glory is fashioned of great oaken frames and 

covered in thick wood planking. Some argue 

that the Northwestern has her stem stove in 

and her rivets sheared while the Glory of the 

Seas is left strong and sound as ever. 

Glory of the Seas.

Above: Engine room order telegraph salvaged 

from the S.S. Northwestern shipwreck. Two of 

these devices were used to communicate desired 

speed and direction (forward/reverse)between 

the pilot on the ship’s bridge and the engineers 

in the engine room. Photograph: Archgraphics. 

Object courtesy Museum of the Aleutians, Dale 

Dorsey Collection. This object may be viewed at 

the Aleutian World War II Visitor Center, Dutch 

Harbor.
After 21 years as a British merchantman, the 

Falls of Clyde is purchased by the U.S. company 

Matson Navigation to work the San Francisco/

Hawaii route. August 1902, the Hilo Tribune notes 

that she carries in her hold for export “...3234 

bags of Olaa sugar, 3000 bags of Hilo sugar, 5000 

bags Hakalau, 11950 bags Waiakea, and 7301 

bags of Pepeekeo sugar; 2 cases ribbons, 20 

pkgs. household goods and 12 bags of coffee.” 

In 1907 the Falls is converted to an oil tanker, 

her hull fitted with ten large steel fuel tanks (total 

19,000 barrel capacity). In this configuration she 

transports, still under sail alone, kerosene to 

Hawaii, returning with molasses for cattle feed. In 

1927 the vessel is sold to the General Petroleum 

Company. She is ignobly stripped of her yards, 

topmasts and royals, then towed to Ketchikan, 

Alaska. There, the vessel operates as “a floating filling station...securely moored to [General 

Petroleum’s] dock...she goes up and down with 

the tides, a convenient platform for servicing 

fishing boats in need of fuel.”* The manager of 

the vessel lives aboard the Falls with his family 

in the saloon and cabins. In 1963, having outlived 

her usefulness, she is to be sold and scuttled 

as breakwater at Vancouver, British Columbia. A 

former mate on Falls in 1916, Captain Fred Klebingat (and others, including Hawaiian schoolchildren) raise the funds to have the Falls towed 

to Hawaii. The vessel is restored and opened 

to the public in 1968, but afterwards falls into a 

poor state of repair. As of 2008, the ship has been 

under the care of the non-profit group Friends 

of the Falls of Clyde. In 1989, the National Park 

Service had entered The Falls of Clyde into the 

National Register of Historic Places and declared 

the vessel a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

*The Falls has the distinction of being one of 

ten vessels that collides with the Northwestern 

during the steamship’s tenure. The Falls is struck 

October 1937 while tied to the Ketchikan dock.

Increased commerce between the mainland and 

Hawaii prompts a nascent tourism in the territory 

(1898-1959). The first hotel in Hawaii, the Moana 

(ocean) Hotel, is raised in Honolulu in 1901 and 

later subsequently listed on the National Register 

of Historic Places in 1972. 

The Falls of Clyde, an iron-hulled, four-masted 

ship, is laid down in Port Glasgow, Scotland in 

1878 by Russell and Company. During her first 

six years of service, she works the India trade, 

then operates as an “ocean tramp” (a sailing 

vessel bound by no fixed schedule or ports of 

call) carrying general cargo. The above rendering 

and other detailed architectural drawings carried 

out under the co-sponsorhip of HABS/HAER, 

National Park Service Maritime Initiative and the 

Hawaii Maritime Center, 1989.

Above is an early tourist advertisement for Matson and Lassco Lines serving Hawaii. Matson 

lists: “Sailings every Wednesday and every Saturday over smooth seas on fast de luxe liners; 

also popular one-class steamers.”
“...the first case on record in Sound history in which two vessels have grounded on the same spit together.” 

—Seattle Post Intelligencer, 5 June1907

GROUNDED AT LATOUCHE

...and points South

Latouche, Alaska, 19 March 1907, a sudden squall drives the Northwestern onto a reef, 

roughly 600 feet from the Beatson’s Big Bonanza Mine Wharf (Mine purchased by Kennecott Copper in 1915). The vessel’s bottom is pierced and seawater floods the forward 

hold to a depth of 17 feet. The steamer Portland takes off the Northwestern’s passengers and mail 

to Valdez, then returns with wrecking machinery.

By the end of April, the Northwestern is at Latouche Dock (inset, facing page), a false 

concrete bottom built over the compromised hull and the forward hold pumped dry. Refloated, the Northwestern leaves Latouche 25 May in convoy with the salvage tug Salvor

for repairs at Esquimalt, British Columbia. Almost immediately the Northwestern begins to flood, 

and the Salvor barely reaches Port Valdez, bringing the Northwestern ashore at Swan Port (inset 

below). After further repairs, Salvor and Northwestern again head south. Nearing Victoria, British 

Columbia, both vessels go aground in heavy fog near the mouth of the Fraser River at Sand Head 

Shoal.* The Northwestern manages to free herself, then pulls off the Salvor. June 5, the Northwestern goes into dry dock in Victoria. An inspection of the hull reveals 18 holes. Two months and 

35,000 dollars later, the repaired Northwestern heads for Seattle, nearly four months after grounding at Latouche.

The Northwestern on the beach at Swan Port, Valdez Bay, looking toward town of Valdez, May 1907. P.S. 

Hunt photo. Accession number 75-84-1366, Alaska and Polar Regions Department, University of Alaska 

Fairbanks.
“S.S. Salvor salving the Northwestern at Latouche, Alaska, 

(photograph) taken from the Wharf." P.S. Hunt photo. The 

Mary Whalen Collection, Accession number 75-84-2432, 

Alaska and Polar Regions Department, University of Alaska 

Fairbanks. Image digitally tinted.

“Lowering a diver from the S.S. Salvor to examine the Northwestern at Latouche, Alaska." The diver 

wears a copper helmet and waterproof diver’s dress. Oxygen is supplied via a hose attached to the 

helmet. P.S. Hunt, Crary-Henderson Collection; Anchorage Museum, Gift of Ken Hinchey, B1962.001.730

Right: Illustration of 

the Deane brothers’ 

helmet and “diving dress,” the first 

surface air supplied 

diving suit, 1842.
EARTHQUAKES

Excursions and Icebergs

“Everything was ice. It looked like the Bering Sea.”

—William Klaunig, 

Third Assistance Engineer, S.S. Yucatan, Icy Strait, 1910

September 10, 1899, a “world-shaking” earthquake struck the Yakutat Bay area, shattering Muir Glacier 

and sending massive icebergs into Glacier Bay. 

Beaches were uplift to a height of 48 feet and 

a mountain west of Disenchantment Bay rose 

nearly 50 feet. “Phenomena observed included 

surface faulting, avalanches, fissures, [and] 

spouting from sand craterlets...” A 35- foottall tsunami swept Yakutat Bay, and tsunamis 

were observed elsewhere along the Alaskan 

coast. No lives were lost and little damage 

done to structures “...because the sparseness 

of the population in the shaken area and the 

fact that the few buildings there were lightly 

and strongly built...most were low, one-story 

cabins built loosely of heavy logs or boards, 

difficult to tear apart.” In all, there were more 

than fifty earthquakes on 10 September 1899.

—The Earthquakes at Yakutat Bay, Alaska, in 

September 1899

—Seismicity of the United States,

1568-1989 (Revised)
Belowis a photo of the Northwestern safely navigating Icy Strait (the northern entrance to Alaska’s 

Inside Passage), circa 1910. The large ice masses 

are the result of the great earthquake of 1899 when 

the ice fields of Glacier Bay fractured during a 

8.0-magnitude tectonic event. The floating icebergs 

caused great hazard to steamer traffic on the Inside 

Passage and nearly sank the Alaska Steamship 

Company steamer (and sister ship of the Northwestern/Orizaba) Yucatan* in Icy Strait. National Park 

Service.

The Yucatan

In 1909, George W. Perkins, of Riverdale-onHudson, New York—associate of J. Pierpont 

Morgan and Simon Guggenheim—charters 

the S.S. Yucatan of the Alaska Steamship 

Company to bring 18 members of his family 

to Alaska to view the Guggenheim holdings. 

They are joined by eastern financiers and 

pro-development District of Alaska Governor Wilford Bacon Hoggatt. For the excursion, Perkins has converted the Yucatan from 

common carrier to private yacht at a cost of 

200,000 dollars. Suites are carpeted in rich 

green; mission brass bedsteads are draped with 

silk curtains to block drafts; and furnishings 

covered in fine upholstery. Valets’ accommodations are placed well forward of the main 

suites, but the staff are easily summoned by 

the push of an electric button. A modern cold 

storage plant is installed for the voyage, and 

two launches placed aboard for exploring the 

inland waters.

February 16, 1910, the Yucatan (in far more mundane commerce) is en route to the mining camp at 

Gypsum, Alaska) when she strikes a submerged 

iceberg in Icy Strait. Captain W.P.S. Porter steams 

for shore to beach his sinking vessel in Mud Bay, 

then evacuates passengers and crew before the 

aft of the Yucatan settles to the bottom in shallow 

water. The vessel is eventually salved and repaired at a cost of 170,000 dollars, but its new life 

is short-lived...scrapped at Osaka, Japan in 1930.

Gypsum is the mineral used in the manufacture of plaster 

of Paris and wall plaster.

“Group on upper deck (Taken on Prince Williams 

[sic] Sound.” Perkins’ excursionists, 1909. Back 

row, third from left: G. W. Perkins, “Hyas Tyee,” 

(“important/big ruler/leader” in Chinook jargon 

as described in photo album). Back row, fifth 

from left: Captain W.P.S. Porter.
NEGLIGENCE NEAR JUNEAU

July 25, 1933, 2:38 a.m., the S.S. 

Northwestern strikes at full speed a 

reef off Sentinel Island in Lynn Canal 

twenty-five miles north of Juneau. The vessel 

is beached on the sandy bottom of Eagle River 

to prevent sinking, and 180 passengers are put 

in lifeboats and lowered over the side. At low 

tide, salvage crews hurry to staunch hull leaks 

with concrete. After it is apparent the ship will 

remain upright, passengers are reboarded and 

at the return rush of high tide, the ship is floated. The Northwestern turns south for the fiveday trip to Seattle—to dry dock and repairs totaling $65,000. On the evening of the accident 

the sky was clear, suffused with Alaska’s long 

summer light. The Sentinel Island lighthouse 

beacon was lit, and the lighthouse keeper had 

repeatedly warned the Northwestern with his 

fog horn. In a much-publicized trial after the 

incident, both ship master and second officer 

receive license suspensions. On 13 October 

1933, The Alaska Weekly reports “Wreck of 

Northwestern Blamed to Negligence.”
PSMHS, Ordway photo, Williamson Collection, Negative No. 1783-1.
Captain C. A. Glasscock.

S.S. Northwestern

STEAMSHIP

NORTHWESTERN 

SENDS OUT

SOS

...---...
ABOVE: Verso of Captain Glasscock wire-photo portrait (at left) describing (#1 above) November 6th, 

1930 incident where the Northwestern drops stern post and rudder in heavy seas in the Gulf of Alaska, 

two miles south of Cape Spencer. Captain Glasscock signals an SOS and a flotilla of five “gas boats” tow 

the rudderless vessel to safety in Dundas Bay. The Northwestern waits out a hurricane in Fanshaw Bay 

with the tugs Creole and Douglas, then is towed south to Seattle.

“...all the expensive Christmas goods floating around in her hold ruined by 

seawater...”

—S.S. Northwestern radioman, 

Cape Mudge grounding, 11 December 1927

In an earlier accident, the Northwestern, under the command of Captain John “Jock” Livingston, 

goes ashore in heavy snowfall and a southeastern gale, five miles south of Cape Mudge, British 

Columbia, 11 December 1927. The wind broaches the vessel broadside to the beach, and the 

passengers fear it will capsize. Lifeboats could not be lowered, and downed radio landlines render 

the vessel’s wireless useless. The halibut boat Explorer, disoriented in the storm as well, hears the ringing of the Northwestern’s bell. The Explorer’s Captain Magnus Hansen pilots his 

fishing boat through the breaker’s at the Northwestern’s stern and 

comes to the lee of the stranded vessel. One hundred and 

eighteen passengers and their baggage are transferred to the 

Explorer’s “dark and fragrant fish hold,” then taken to the Tyee 

Club’s* summer resort hotel, Willowaw, at Campbell River. 

There they are treated to a big dance and the following day board 

the steamer Alameda for the return to Seattle. The Northwestern, 

believed to be a total loss, also returned to Seattle for $152,000 

in repairs, 55 days in dry dock, then back to work on the Alaska 

Route. And the seawater-soaked gifts...they were reported 

auctioned off.

“The Tyee Club of British Columbia began in 1924 with a group of anglers who returned to Campbell 

River each year in pursuit of the ‘Tyee’(or chief)—a Chinook salmon, 30 pounds or larger.” http://www.

tyeeclub.org/

“Mrs. T.B. Randall of Vancouver, B.C. being presented with 

diamond button by Wallace 

H. McMillan, president of the 

Tyee Club of B.C. Mrs. Randall 

is ‘Tyee Man’ and new record 

holder 1941. Catch 661⁄2 lbs on 

August 7th 1941.”
OLD DUTCH HARBOR

Gateway to the Gold Fields

Five disassembled sternwheelers are 

shipped from the lower-forty eight 

states by transport steamer to Dutch 

Harbor, Amaknak Island, 1898. There on the 

beach front the river boats are reassembled—

the Arnold, Herman, John C. Barr, John 

Cudahy, Klondyke, Leon, and Linda. It is no 

small irony that the vessels are constructed on 

Amaknak—a naturally treeless island, devoid 

of any timbers for shipbuilding. (The first people of the island, the Unanga{, had fashioned 

their watercraft of driftwood, bone, sinew, and 

sea mammal skin.) After completion at Dutch, 

the river boats cross 602 nautical miles of open 

Bering Sea to St. Michael, the deep water port 

at the mouth of the Yukon River. There they 

enter the Yukon trade, ferrying prospectors 

another 1500 miles upriver to the gold fields 

at Dawson, Yukon Territory, then returning. 

The Yukon boats are a much smaller variant 

of sternwheelers in the southern United States, 

capable of navigating narrow channels, rock 

gardens, and rapids. Their relatively flat hulls 

allow them to berth almost anywhere along a 

river bank without dock or wharf.

Warehouses, trading posts, goods and ships—

the Alaska Commercial Company (ACC) 

purchases all assets of the Russian American 

Company upon acquisition of Alaska, and like 

the Russians before them, the ACC monopolizes commerce in remote Alaskan villages and 

towns. In a land short of hard currency, barter 

remains the form of exchange—gold, fish, sea 

mammal skins, and terrestrial furs—traded 

for ACC merchandise and trinkets. ACC sites 

stores in Unalaska, St. Michael, and Dawson 

during the Klondike gold rush, and at Nome 

during the Alaska gold stampede.
Alaska Commercial Company advertising guidebook, 1898. 

Sternwheelers in various stages of completion line the Dutch Harbor beach, 1898. 

Alaska Commercial Company Store is in 

the middle, to the left of the scaffolding. 

Museum of the Aleutians.

Sternwheeler Yukoner “lining” Five Fingers 

Rapids, Yukon River. 
DUTCH HARBOR

On the Cusp of War

Amaknak 

Island

Unalaska

Island

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August 21, 1940, the Northwestern is overhauled at the Lake Union Dry dock, Seattle. 

September 3rd, she sails north to the Aleutian Chain under her own steam for the final 

time. Onboard are one Marine officer and 15 enlisted men of the Advance Marine 

Detachment; 4800 barrels of fuel oil; and 1500 tons freight—including four month’s supply of 

provisions and cold storage. 
Looking NNW at Amaknak Island, ca. 1942. 

Museum of the Aleutians.

1. Dutch Harbor dock/S.S. Northwestern

2. Naval Air Station

3. Fort Mears Army Base

4. City of Unalaska

C B

Unalaska Bay

Dutch Harbor

The ship ties up at the Dutch Harbor dock, Amaknak Island, in service to the construction combine Siems-Drake-Puget Sound Company—civilian contractors charged with construction of the 

nascent Naval Operating Base on Amaknak Island. Here the aged ocean liner is to spend the last 

of her years as a floating hotel, mess hall, and powerplant.
THE LAST STORM

“...it took me back to my sailing ship days, when we didn’t have any 

machines to help us. In those days, it was just men against the wind and sea.”

 — Captain Robert Kamdron, S.S. Northwestern, December 1940

T wice storms force the Northwestern to abandon her mooring and ride out bad weather anchored in Dutch Harbor. In a severe December storm, 90-mile-per-hour winds and heavy swells drive the ship pounding against the Dutch Harbor dock. Captain Robert Kamdron 

has the vessel towed a few hundred yards into open water, then drops four 5-ton anchors. But the 

anchors drag in the gale, and the Northwestern is slowly carried shoreward. Kamdron adjusts the 

tension on each anchor line, bringing the Northwestern parallel to shore and grounding her safely 

west of the Dutch Harbor pier.

S.S. Northwestern at Dutch Harbor Dock during winter storm. Museum of the Aleutians.

“...it appeared evident that the ship would break away from its mooring.”

— A. W. Cockrell
1940/ANC/jrs

 (309)

From:	 The Commanding Officer

To : The Major General Commandant

Via :	 The Commandant, 13th Naval District

Subject:	 Beaching of the S.S. NORTHWESTERN.

1. For several days we were aware of a severe storm to the west and

southwest. Indications wore that it would pass to the south of Dutch

Harbor but that this locality would be in the edge as the storm passed

and receive high northeast winds. Therefore, additional precautions

were taken for the safety of the ship and personnel.

2. At this time the S.S. Northwestern was moored to the Dutch Harbor dock

as follows:

1. 90 fathoms 1 7/8" anchor chain to 5 ton crankshaft anchor.

2. 1 1/2" cable to deadman on beach.

3. 1 1/2" cable to deadman on beach.

4. 1 1/2" cable to deadman on beach.

5.	 Double l" wire cables to reinforced dock pilings.

6. Double 1" wire cables to reinforced dock pilings.

7.	 Five 6" Manila lines to reinforced mooring bit.

8.	 1 7/8" anchor chain secured in series to pilings under dock.

9. Five 6" manila lines to reinforced mooring bit.

10. Five 6" manila lines to reinforced mooring bit.

11. Three 6" manila lines to two mooring bits.

12. One 8" manila line to cable and chain secured tinder dock.

13. 1 1/2" cable; 35 fathoms secured to 4200 lb. patented anchor.

14. 1 1/2" cable, 40 fathoms attached to 15 fathoms of chain secured to

4500 lb. wood-stock anchor.

15.	105 fathoms 1 7/8" anchor chain to 4500 lb. steel stock anchor.

NOTE: Two additional 1 3/8" cables had been ordered to be run from

forward part of ship, one on each side, to anchors on opposite side of

dock approach.

{SECRET}
3. About 2:00 a.m. on Friday, December 13, 1940 heavy north northeast

winds started. During the day the intensity of the wind increased. Some

of the gusts reached hurricane proportions. The evening weather map

indicated no change in condition. However, the surge of the sea continued

to build up due to continued heavy northerly winds. About l0:00 p.m.

the strain began to tell on the ship; the mooring bits located on the

starboard promenade deck aft (#10) gave 1 1/2 inches but held in that

position due to one of the mooring lines snapping; the forward mooring

bits in the windless room aft (#9) also gave about one inch and the plate

holding the chock bulged slightly. However, all other lines and bits

appeared in good condition.

4. About 1:00 a.m, the forward inside spring line (#11) due to nonholding by the starboard anchors (#13 and 14), was put to too much strain

and pulled the bits out of their casting. At this time the undersigned

issued orders to assemble the personnel in the mess room so that all

hands could be informed of the condition and be prepared to abandon the

ship if necessary. This assembly was executed in a quiet orderly manner

by having the officers and senior non-commissioned officers awake the

remainder. Each person made a small roll of blankets and one change of

clothing (Marines included their rifles). Life boats were lowered to a

ready position and five days food supply was stacked handy for transfer

ashore.

5. Due to the contour of the beach where the ship would ground and to the

flatness of the ship's bottom no real danger was felt or was anticipated

although it appeared evident that the ship would break away from its

mooring.

6. From 1:00 a.m. until the final hold to the dock gave way, about 3:00

a.m. one line after another broke. About 2:00 a.m. the outer forward

spring line (#12) snapped. With the bow anchors falling to hold the

bow soon moved into shallow water and grounded. This caused additional

surging of the after part of the ship. It was not long after this that

all lines aft started breaking under the strain. About 2:30 a.m. the

chock through which the anchor chain (#8) led to the dock broke into

several pieces. This permitted the chain to eat its way through the side

plates and stanchions a distance of about five feet until the anchor chain

made a straight line from its mooring bits on the ship to the dock. These

mooring bits could not take the strain and were broken off, however,

before they could be pulled through the side of the ship the anchor chain

parted and the ship, about 3:00 a.m., drifted onto the beach.

7. The actual beaching was so gentle that those assembled in the mess

room did not distinguish it from the surges and noises that had been in

progress for the past several hours. When it was realized that the ship

had actually beached the mental relief was very noticeable. The men were

returned to their rooms for a much needed rest.

8. During the day an attempt was made to take in the slack in the after
mooring cable (#4). This cable was secured to the capstan in the anchor

windlass room aft. A surge caught the line when taut and pulled the capstan

out by the roots in a manner similar to that of extracting a tooth.

9. Due to a reported possible shifting of the wind direction to the

northwest and to the concrete evidence that the ship's structure could

not stand up under the strains of being secured to the beach the

undersigned decided to abandon ship. It was felt that the best plan would

be to have the maximum number of personnel off the ship and thus avoid a

possible last minute attempt to abandon ship in case the ship did start

to break up. A line was worked to the beach and there handled by a group

of Siems Drake Puget Sound contractor party under charge of Mr. Leonard

Clark, the General Superintendent. This line was secured to the power

drum of a bull-dozer on the beach and through a sheave on the ship. One

of the life boats of the S.S. Northwestern was secured to this line. The

running end on the ship was handled by man power.

10. This rigging was completed by 3:40 p.m. and the first boat load of

22 Marines (truck and tractor drivers, searchlight operators, cooks,

etc) and one commissioned officer was ferried ashore. The last boat load

was completed at 6:50 p.m. After dark, about 4:20 p.m., illumination

was furnished by truck lights, one of the anti-aircraft searchlights

and a flood light rigged on the beach. In this manner 129 persons with

a few personal articles and clothing each were transferred ashore. Six

civilians, the mate, purser and four engineers, volunteered to remain

aboard so as to maintain the cold storage plant. As it was felt that

the ship was in no immediate danger these men were permitted to remain.

However, a watch was established on the beach so that an immediate rescue

could be effected in case of necessity.

11. The transfer ashore was greatly assisted by the use of two SCR195 radio sets, one on the ship and one on the beach. By means of these

voice radios, the signals for handling the lines were executed in a quiet

manner. The entire transfer was completed with such ease that it reminded

me of the handling of ships through the Panama Canal.

12. The personnel moved ashore were quartered la the 95% completed marine

barracks.

13. Work of removing food, personal effects, and other property, in order

named, was resumed Sunday morning. Due to another threatened shift of

the wind to the northwest, this work was continued until 11:30 p.m., at

which time all personal effects and about three weeks of food supply had

been transferred ashore. The transfer of the food supply was considered

imperative as no local food supply was available. The manager of the

Northern Commercial Company informed me that with the additional 135

persons from the S.S. NORTHWESTERN there would be only food enough to

last for ten days. This shortage of food in Unalaska was due to the nonarrival of the S.S. CORDOVA.
14. The storm, however, continued from the north and northeast, so work

was resumed Monday morning of the removal of supplies. This work was

completed about 4:OO p.m. Monday afternoon. The main amount of cold

storage supplies were left on the ship as no cold storage facilities are

available ashore. The material for cold storage plant for the marine

barracks was on the S.S. CORDOVA which arrived Tuesday evening after

having been hove-to for five days off the entrance of Unalaska Bay.

15. Too high praise cannot be given to the officers and men of the Noy

contract party and to the junior officers and enlisted men of this

detachment for their conduct during the long tedious hours spent in a

driving rain, sleet and snow storm which reached velocities of over eight

knots.

/a/ A. W. COCKRELL

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Copies to: 	 CG, FMF

CO, Alaska Sector

CO, Marine Defense Force

File

As if afraid the willful ship will take to water again, workmen labor to fix her to shore. A 

cavity is scooped out of the beach. The Northwestern is dragged inside, then a gravel 

berm raised to her seaward side.

Some say the ship is “anchored in solid cement”; some that her hold is filled “with concrete ballast 

to keep her from being dashed to pieces.” Whatever the measures taken, the Dutch Harbor dock 

will not be her final berth.

Siems Drake workers accessing beached Northwestern via gangplank. In background, center, earthmovers excavate the footprint of the Naval Air Station Powerhouse. Museum of the Aleutians.

Special thanks to “Researcher @ Large,” for providing an online digital account of the grounding of the 

Northwestern. Original file: National Archives.
Civilian workers accessing beached Northwestern via gangplank. Museum of the Aleutians.

Civilian workers, Northwestern mess hall. Note that fine dining furniture has been replaced with rough 

wooden tables and benches. The vessel could house 280 personnel. Museum of the Aleutians.
A SHORELINE STRUCTURE

1: S.S. Northwestern. (Note modifications made to superstructure to retrofit vessel as floating barracks and 

powerhouse. Original upperworks have been enclosed and portholes covered with shutters.) 2: Dutch Harbor 

dock. 3: Navy Barracks. 4: Molly Garfield House. (Alaska Commercial Company building dating to the historic 

old town of Dutch Harbor. Structure razed during expansion of Naval Air Station.) 5: Powerhouse. 6: Wooden 

plank fuel tank farm. Image taken 23 March 1942, roughly three months before the Japanese attack on 

Dutch Harbor. Museum of the Aleutians.
“Old” Dutch Harbor, circa early 1940s, prior to Naval Air Station construction. 

Alaska Commercial 

Company Store
PEARL
Lieutenant Zenji Abe with Aichi D3A Val dive-bomber. 

Alaska Aviation Museum, Zenji Abe Collection. 

ZENJI ABE

“The defeated should not talk about the battle. I can only say that I fought as I 

was trained in those times.”

—Japanese proverb quoted by Lieutenant Zenji Abe

May 2001, World War II magazine

June 4, 1942, Lieutenant Zenji Abe circles Amaknak Island, searching for a break in the 

6000 foot ceiling that blankets Dutch Harbor. Abe is 26 years old, born in the Great Depression of the early 1900s in a mountain village on Honshu Island, Japan. His father, Kumakichi, a sake brewer, is a good man, but unskilled in business. The family is poor. At the age of 

twelve, Abe attends Bocho Military School, his instructors general officers of the Japanese Army. 

At age seventeen, he enters the Imperial Naval Academy (only one of forty applicants accepted). 

For four years Abe studies the art of war, the finer points of language, mathematics, physics, and 

history. His lifestyle is spartan, his ideology that of the Samurai—allegiance above all else to 

emperor and country.

June 4, 5:55 p.m., Lieutenant Abe dives through a hole in the cloud cover over Dutch Harbor. Behind him, the remainder of his wing, eight Japanese Val bombers, follow. Nearly six months to the 

day earlier, 7 December 1941, Abe had commanded a squadron of dive-bombers in the devastating 

Pearl Harbor attack, his target the Arizona. This day his aircraft seek out ships in Dutch Harbor.

NPS Oral History Interview #373, 1 December 2001. Other interviews cite Abe’s target (whether primary or secondary) as the Raleigh

or West Virginia.
Background: Stoked by the wind, flames 

from the burning Northwestern jump to the 

“issue” warehouse, holding spare parts 

and hardware. The warehouse burns to the 

ground. U.S. Navy photograph, National 

Archives. Image digitally enhanced.

“That was the day [the Japanese] got 

the Northwestern, a hotel ship tied to the 

dock. Some of us were aboard having 

lunch. It was beautiful big pork chops, 

and I never got to eat one! We bailed 

off the ship and took cover where we 

could...”

—Walter R. Strong, Siems-Drake civilian worker

Inset, top: The “issue” warehouse ablaze (#2); firetrucks (#1) with uncoiled 

hoses. Inset, bottom U.S. Navy firetrucks. Museum of the Aleutians. Top image digitally enhanced.

Errant bomb strike, dock. 

Museum of the Aleutians. 
The seaplane tender U.S.S. Gillis and transport 

President Fillmore respond to the diving Vals 

with intense antiaircraft [AA] fire. The crew 

of the President Fillmore has transferred a shipment of 

37mm AA guns from its hold onto the deck and sends 

skyward such a heavy volume of fire that the vessel is 

reported to be ablaze. The crew fights with the knowledge that a single bomb or well placed round could 

ignite the ship’s cargo of explosives and disintegrate 

the vessel. Driven off by the Gillis and Fillmore, the 

Vals turn to secondary targets.

Two bombers armed with 550 pound bombs target the 

S.S. Northwestern. One bomb misses its mark, damaging the nearby dock. The other strikes the ship squarely, piercing the forward port deck. The blast ignites the 

ship’s fuel and fire sweeps across the vessel.

Val, type 98 #25 bomb.
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Illustration by Archgraphics. Val drawing adapted from The Maru Mechanic, May 1982.

VAL

TWO-SEAT, SHIPBORNE 

JAPANESE DIVE-BOMBER

From upwards of 12,000 feet in altitude, the Val bomber pilot selects his target. Stick 

pressed forward, he noses his aircraft into a 55-degree angle of descent, then opens dive 

brakes to check dive-speed at 250 mph. The plane plummets earthward, the pilot adjusting ailerons and rudder to correct for wind drift and target movement. Eye pressed to the bombsight telescope, the pilot waits, burning a small lifetime in the 40-second descent towards earth. At 

1500 feet, he fingers a switch and the bomb is loosed from its belly crutch. The 550 pound missile 

swings down and forward from the fuselage, clearing the spinning airplane propeller and falling 

towards target. In less than three seconds the bomb will strike and detonate. The pilot pulls back 

on the control stick and climbs, the blood drawn down from his brain, his consciousness wavering 

as gravity fights to drag plane and man down to earth.

JAPANESE DIVE BOMB TACTICS

1. Enter a 55 degree descent and lower 

dive breaks to slow airspeed to 250 mph

2. Release bomb load at 1,000 – 2,500 feet

3. Throttle away at low altitude

Bomb strike— forward port deck, SS 

Northwestern
This manual published June 22, 1943.

Digital montage.
For three days, the S.S. Northwestern

burns furiously at her landing, the 

intense heat fusing machinery and 

melting paint off the twisted steel hull (see #1 

facing page, bottom). Fire crews flood the engine room to save the ship’s boilers and battle 

to bring the blaze under control. Within a week 

of the attack, workers refire the Northwestern’s

boilers, and its 200-kilowatt generators are 

once again producing heat, steam, and electricity for the Naval Operating Base. “Tokyo 

Rose,” the Japanese propagandist, broadcasts 

to the men of Amaknak, “that the Japanese 

bombers destroyed a warship at the Dutch 

Harbor pier,” but scarred and fire-blackened, 

the aged steamship survived the attack.

“[The Japanese] set the Northwestern on fire 

and it burned, killing one million rats.”

—Sergeant Robert M. Proffitt

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Warehouse remains #2, and intact wooden fuel storage 

tanks #3. Museum of the Aleutians.

Below: S.S. Northwestern (#1); warehouse (#2); wood plank fuel tanks (#3), partially draped with camouflage netting. National Archives.

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“[Serious material casualties included]...the burning of the Northwestern 

upperworks and interior, and the burning of the issue warehouse. Efficient fire 

fighting supervised by Major G. P. Groves, U.S.M.C. and Fire Chief Harold Joe 

Davis (Siems-Drake) prevented the spreading of fire from the warehouse to the 

wooden oil tanks.”

—W. N. Updegraff, Commanding Officer, Naval Air Station, Dutch Harbor

Below: Civilian workers and firefighters feed fire hoses into the still smoldering shell of the Northwestern.

Pump on makeshift platform to left. Museum of the Aleutians.

Remains of bomb-damaged Northwestern, looking from stern to bow. Museum of the Aleutians.
Twisted wreckage of the S.S. Northwestern upperworks. Museum of the 

Aleutians.
No more Pearl Harbors and no more Hiroshimas should be the watchword for 

those who believe in peace.

—Lieutenant Zenji Abe

Flying from the carrier Junyo* during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, 19 June 1944, Abe is forced down 

on the island of Rota near Guam. Abe secrets himself in a cave for 14 months until the end of the war, 

then is held 15 months as a POW. For roughly 2 years, 5 months, his wife thinks him dead. Alaska Aviation Museum, Zenji Abe Collection.

*This is the same carrier which launched Val dive bombers against the military installations at Dutch 

Harbor and the Northwestern. She will be captured by U.S. forces at war’s end. 
N.A.S*

 POWERHOUSE

Naval Air Station: 1943-1985

Upon completion of the reinforced concrete Powerhouse (see below) in September 1942, 

the S.S. Northwestern is relieved of her power generating duties.

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“Transmitter No. 2 Generator Rm.: Explosion 

Chambr (Chamber) 

Powerhouse.” December 3, 1943. National 

Park Service.

Oblique view, looking northwest, NAS Powerhouse, 22 September 1942. Note sandbagged, 

concrete gun emplacements (#1) atop roof and 

wooden bridge (#2). National Park Service.

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Oblique view looking southeast, NAS Powerhouse. Remnant gun emplacements (#1); wooden bridge 

remains (#2). HABS 1985, Jet Lowe, National Park Service.

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“The Powerhouse...generated electricity for the 

Naval Operating Base. This massive concrete 

structure rises to a height of almost fifty-five 

feet. Designed to withstand the impact of a 

direct hit from a 500-pound bomb, the convex 

roof is over six feet thick and is fortified with 

four machine-gun emplacements. The walls 

are five feet thick. Inertia pads on the first floor 

supported the turbine generators, protecting 

them from vibrations occurring outside their 

own mechanical system. In 1943 the space 

between the roof and the burster slab was converted into offices. Inaccessible from the floor 

below, the offices are reached by means of a 

wooden bridge, crossing from the hill south of 

the structure. Abandoned following decommission of the Naval Base in 1947, the building is 

currently being restored to its original function 

to serve the city of Unalaska.”

—Historic American Building Survey,

Dutch Harbor Project, NPS,

Department of the Interior, 1985.

“Two 750 kw Westinghouse Turbine-Generator 

Sets/Ready for Trial Run.” August 30, 1942. National Park Service.
[void]

[void]

June 28, 1959

Mrs. Laura Lewellyn

512 Ridgeway

Little Rock, Arkansas

Dear Mrs. Lewellyn

Thank you for your letter of June 15th in which you made inquiry about

our old steamship NORTHWESTERN.

After checking a number of logical sources for information concerning the

final disposition of the NORTHWESTERN, I checked with the morgue of the

Seattle Times and learned that in 1943 the NORTHWESTERN was loaded with 

scrap, towed to Seattle where it arrived early in 1944 when the vessel

itself was scraped. So her return to sea was short-lived.

Sorry we couldn’t get this along to you sooner but hope that it will fill

your purpose.

Sincerely,

ALASKA STEAMSHIP COMPANY

S.G. Hayman

Manager, Service Department
IN PLAIN SIGHT

Official documents report that in 

1944 the S.S. Northwestern, determined obsolete, is towed south 

to Seattle with a load of scrap metal welded 

to her hull. According to the morgue of the 

Seattle Times, ship and cargo are torched apart 

that same year, yielding 2,700 tons of salvage. 

Despite contradictory evidence forwarded 

by local residents, these official records— 

backed by both the U.S. Navy and the Alaska 

Steamship Company—are regarded as fact 

until 1986. That year, the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers positively identifies the shipwreck 

in Captains Bay as the flagship S.S. Northwestern, (her name still faintly visible on the bow) 

and the issue is put to rest.

For over 40 years, the Northwestern remained 

hidden in plain sight, foundered among a 

group of small islands at the mouth of Captains Bay. Today, the bow is still clearly visible 

rising above the water line as if frozen in the 

act of slipping beneath the surface.

Northwestern in Captains Bay awaiting tug for 

ocean tow to Seattle circa mid-1940s. Two attempts were made to transport the vessel south 

for salvage; both failed. This may also be the 

location where the Northwestern was brought 

to shore to be viewed by President Franklin 

D. Roosevelt, August 1944. Lieutenant George 

Skarbo, USNR, naval pilot at Dutch Harbor, 

was charged with directing the tugs during the 

operation. Skarbo recalls that “with the gentlest 

of handling, so as not to shake loose any of her 

tired old plates and sink her in deep water,” the 

[Northwestern] was guided to a spot “...it was decided President Roosevelt could obtain the best 

view from a car.” Deteriorating weather cancelled 

FDR’s private viewing. Historian Michael Burwell 

posits the Northwestern was towed by Navy tugs 

to her final grounding in Captains Bay in 1945. 

Bow of Northwestern rising 50 feet above shallow 

waters of Port Levashef, head of Captains Bay, 

May 1992. Over time, the ship’s hull filled with rain 

water, settling the stern on the ocean floor. John 

H. Cloe, Historian (retired), Eleventh Air Force, 

Elmendorf AFB, Alaska.
LAT. AND LONG.

Construction and Shipwreck Seas Apart

United States Army Map Service, 1961. Library of Congress.

Captains Bay

52° 49’ 58” N. Lat.

166° 36’ 35” W. Long.

(Approximate) Chester, Pennsylvania

39° 50’ 50” N. Lat.

75° 22’ 22” W. Long.

(Approximate)

The Russian navigator, hydrographer, 

and admiral (1829), Gavril Sarychev, 

writes in Voyage to the North-East of 

Siberia (1806) that “Captain’s-haven” or 

Captains Bay was named for Captain 

Lewaschew who wintered with ship and 

crew there in 1768-9. During survey of 

the bay, Sarychev’s Unangax guides 

pointed out a marker on a shoreline 

hillock. Sarychev recorded the “decayed wooden cross, on which, with 

much difficulty, I deciphered the following inscription:—”Captain Lewaschew 

here passed the winter of 1768-9, with 

his ships.”
Four-bladed screw

MATERIAL: BRONZE ALLOY

Ø=15’, 4”

13,760#

March 1991, the City of Unalaska is permitted by the State of Alaska to remove the 

Northwestern’s propeller from the shipwreck. April 1992, Magone Marine Services 

excavates the screw from dense marine silt using high pressure water hoses and suction. Once exposed, divers place an explosive charge that blows the propeller from its shaft. The 

salvaged prop now stands prominently on display at the Unalaska Memorial Park.

The S.S. Northwestern, with only a single screw (rather than dual propellers) and a small rudder, was particularly difficult to maneuver according to Alaska historian Bob DeArmond. This 

may partially explain her propensity to strike other vessels and docks when tying off at crowded 

wharfs.

Stern view of S.S. Northwestern, drydock, Todd’s Shipyard, Tacoma. PSMHS. No Negative #,
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AMAKNAK 

ISLAND Unalaska Bay

1. Dutch Harbor dock

2. Beached S.S. Northwestern, 1943 

3. Fort Mears Army Base

4. Fort Schwatka Army Base

5. City of Unalaska

Detail: “Aerial Photographic Map 

of Amaknak Island by Naval Air 

Station Photo Lab, Dutch Harbor, 

Alaska, 24 February 1943.”

Illiuluk Bay

Dutch Harbor
NASA Earth Observatory.

Captains Bay

B

C

Illiuluk Bay

D

E

F

AMAKNAK 

ISLAND

UNALASKA 

ISLAND

1. Delta Western Fuel Dock (Dutch Harbor dock)

2. Current S.S. Northwestern shipwreck site

3. Unalaska Memorial Park (current location of S.S. 

Northwestern propeller)

4. Aleutian WWII National Historic Area/Fort 

Schwatka

5. Aleutian WWII Visitor Center

The S.S. Northwestern is listed on the 

National Register of Historic Places.

BE AWARE: Boarding the shipwreck, or 

collecting artifacts, is strictly forbidden. 

Road access to Captains Bay crosses 

private property. Please respect the rights 

of property owners.
Mike Burwell recently retired to New Mexico 

after 30 years in Alaska writing environmental 

impact statements for the Feds, doing maritime and shipwreck research, and teaching 

poetry at the University of Alaska Anchorage. 

A chapbook of his poems North and West was 

published by Heaven Bone Press in 1989 and 

his full-length poetry collection Cartography 

of Water was published by North Shore Press 

in 2007. He founded the literary journal Cirque

in 2009. He continues to dabble in Alaska 

shipwreck matters.

Above: circa 1933 matted image of S.S. Northwestern signed by crew—

Ship’s Master: Mac Donald. Facing page: verso of above signed by passengers. Both images from the collection of Michael Burwell.

Illustration by Glenn Sheckels from Sailing Sheltered Seas, 

Alaska Steamship Company, 1931.