The Daily Alaska empire., 1948-09-13

0uAc III OuAiCdu dltCl AlFC udys and nights stranded on the beach fnear Icy Point the five crew mem ters and three. passengers of the wrecked power barge Caledonia 132 tons. 87 feet, arrived Saturday noon by Coast Guard PBY from Hoonah, where they spent Friday might and are awaiting transporta- Ition south by plane.
 ! Crew members are Capt. Kai Secher-Jensen. Kent; Chief Engi- neer Lloyd Hewitt. Bremerton; Ray McLane, 2nd Engineer, Sc cattle; Lewis Kathreine. mate, Paulseo; Ralph Van Dalen, cook, Chicago.
 Passengers aboard the Caledonia bound for Seattle, after a summer at San Juan cannery, were Kern Levin and Paul Rothfus. Seattle, and Gus Holland, Everett. A graphic story of fighting storms, wading glacier rivers, of being hum gry and wet from the constant rain 1 is told by the men aided by the diary kept by Paul Rothfus, only record of the wreck and of the ulti- mate rescue of the men. The Caledonia was 20 miles off Icy Point when the alarm was sounded at 620 Sunday night, Sep tember 5. The ship had been fisht . ing heavy seas and was barely tolel- ing it's own. The pounding of waves i tore planking from the low. All that kept the ship afloat, the rescued men said. were the six emp | ty 2,000 gallon cargo tanks in the bow
 Engine pumps failed to work and all aboard were manning the hand tilge pumps.
 Hero ot Moment
 Hero of the moment was Ray McLane, 2nd Engineer, who waded chest deep into the flooded engine room and removed a pair of over alls clogging the bilge pump. At 8:20 the Caledonia hit the eeach. Capt. Secher-Jensen attempt ed to land the barge. but the break CTS were too high and it was de- cided to stay aboard the ship. At 4 am. September 6, it was thought the ship was breaking up and all aboard went safely ashore, throwing to the beach what luggage they had.
 Coost Guard Citrus Arriues That day the c. G. Gutter Git rus made an attempt to take the eight men off the beach. It was then that the two Coast Guards men, attempting to land at the |bfacn in a rubber boat, capsized and jd-ned the stranded Caledoniails. Rescue plan had been to haul the men back to the Citrus by raft, but mountainous seas prevented. Rain all the time. No shelter until we built a lean-to out of vreckage,v said Rothfus' diary. September they started to hike to bay in the lee of Icy Point
 Sure is horrible. I've crossed two rivers" is the diary comment. Finally larger glacier river was reached and at 5 pm. Rothfus' diary entry says: Have given up cross 1 ing river Very little food. Still rain- ing. Built fire. Built lean-to of boughs Two Coast Guardsmen and Engineer Hewitt are going back to the Caledonia to try to use the radio aboard the ship and to bring us back some food"
 Raini Rain! Rdint September 8: Might cold. rained all night. Still raining. Soaking wet. As of this morning we are out of food. Lean-to leaks. Feeling pretty low. It is 10 o'clock and still waiting for our three men to come back. Had mussels for breakfast"
 And for dinner the seven men on the beach had can of soup and d seagull. Rothfus shot the seagull.
 They aren't as big as they look, cy the time you get the feathers off them. The meat is stringy but tastes like sweet beef" the boys said. Rothfus' diary continued Get ting kind of hungry. Has been foggy land rainy all day. There's storm in progress and we haven't seen the Coast Guard today We sure need some food and shelter 1 Wednesday the boys kept warm by driftwood fire. Warm. but not dry
 Sure hope we get home soon. 7 was the final diary entry on the eighth.
 Sept. g. Rained off and on all might. At 4:30 am. we had half a piece of seagull liver. Weather is a little better. At TAO a C.G. PBY flew over us and dropped us C. Rations, clothes and small radio We found out that the other three men are safe"
 Citrus Coming
 "The plane told us the ship Git rus will be here in about two hours. Plane will be back with more sup- plies in case we can't reach the Citrus and have to stay here afa- other night"