The Cordova daily times., 1919-02-12


 vised by his mate of the fate which might await them and advised that he should insist he was a Portuguese and pretend that he did not know the | English language When Keen was called before his questioners for ex- animation the captain of the vessel said said that the boy was his son. "He don't look like Portuguese to me; his Skin is too light" replied one of the British officers. But the cap- tain insisted that the boy was his son. by Dutch mother, and when Keen was questioned he pretended abso- lute incomprehension of the language spoken. This subterfuge did not avail him and he was forced to other means to escape return to Great Britain in irons. How he did it. ex- cept that he was in the water for three hours, Captain Keen prefers not to recall.
 After his return home his parents accepted the inevitable, and much to his joy, apprenticed him to the Hudson Bay Company for five years. He sailed through the Straits of Ma gellan on a company boat, and in 1858 arrived on Vancouver island. His first trip to Alaska was in 1863.
 Turns Scales in Boundary Dispute.
 At a crucial point in the negoti- ations between the United States and Canada for settlement of the Alaskan boundary question, Keen's affidavit turned the scales for America and the immensely valuable district, in- cluding Juneau and Skagway, which Canada claimed, was saved for the United States. The Hudson Bay Company maintained that years be- fore it had raised the British colors at Pyramid at the mouth of the Chil- cat river. Keen made affidavit that while the Hudson Bay Company's boats had frequently visited Pyramid harbor, no white man had dared to go ashore, as many of the Indians were hostile and that all trading had been done on the ships deck Other tes- timony on the subject was so evenly balanced and the arbitrators' faith in Keen so thoroughly established, that uh ing factor and the boundary line was established where it now is, leaving the disputed territory under the Stars and Stripes.l
 Keen, known as the pioneer pilot on Puget sound, after he had completed his service with the Hudson Bay Con- pany secured an interest in the Red Rover and for several years traded on his own account. In 1869 he ent- cred the United States revenue cutter service as g pilot. taking the Corwin on its first trip north Incidentally, he was also on the Corwin when 1t made it's last trip to Alaska. After ten years continuous service with the government he again embarked in business for himself, but remained subject to call by the government and for considerable periods was on the pay roll of the United States treasury department. In March, 1915, ne retired as master mate on coast guard service.
 Rescues Survivor from Pacific.
 It was while he was pilot on the revenue cutter Walcott, in 1875, that he rescued one of the two survivors of the 370 men, women and children, most of them Alaska miners, who had started North on the steamer Pacific. Off Cape Flattery the Pacific had been run into and sunk by the steamer Or pheus, the captain of which, not req lizing in the heavy fog that the other boat had been fatally injured, had proceeded on his way until the Or pheus had itself run onto the beach. Neil Henley, for long period a warden on McNeil island, then but 22 years old, was the man Keen took off the Wreckage of the Pacific. Henley had been clinging desperately to the wreckage for seventy-six hours when Keen reached him. The only other survivor of the Pacific was a Canadi- an named Jelly, who was picked up by merchantmen. Many of the bodies of those lost were cast on the shores of Vancouver island and that of a young woman had been cast LID by the sea within few yards of her own home at Victoria. When the cap- tain of the Walcott proposed to take the rescued captain of the Orpheus to Victoria the latter objected. He re- alized how keen must be the feeling against him and he preferred to be taken to Port Angeles or some point in the United States.