Scandinavian American. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1945-1958, 1952-06-18

tllfft my 4--frI--8Ds
who staked their claims for fame
or futiiity in Alaska that vast
hinterland where airplAnes now
bridge distances and help overcome
difficulties that once were As COM
r1onplaee a. they now are legend
arr 50 what do YOU do when
an Alaskan old-timer drops in for
a visit and accidentally touches off
reveries of yesteryeArs up there
when Scandinavians were as hardy
and true-biue as they'll ever come
We took our visitor. Captain
Pete Wold- out for coffee treat
to get the ball rolling The
CAPTAIN has rosmed Alaskan Wa
tiers and has Z patched eye :.
Sorry. ne isn't pirate, but he's
kicked himself around as much as
any bruised ball-player and with
his life a. stake as often Take
the eye for instance, be lost its
vision n crash Of one OF those
planes that have been sweeping
across Alaskan skies ever more
sweeping away some Of the over
land ronanticism Of oloen times
since the fateful event al Good
News Bay. II 1910. The doctors
IL Seattle: TO which ! was in
rnedia.ely flown after the acci-
dent. said I had Sc, chance TO
1--we" says the skipper So
here's one fiye-percenter who re-
paired sufferable damage honor
ably Hes as hale and hearty
as the San Diego sun which has
bssked him now for seven years
since ne retired from the SILVER
ing North for good
An Aalesund. Norway, native.
who came to the L. S. IN 19o2-in-
cidentally, leaving San Francisco
six hours after the big quake he
saw the fire $50 miles out at sea
VOID came TO Alaska in 1906.
He was a miner, mariner and ira
der. He skippered the mailboat
Fern out Of Seattle on the run to
Cnalaska and way points. He was
fishing and trading furs etc. with
the live-wire companionship OF
Carl -Soueaky' Anderson, that
now-wealthy Alaskan Swede who
achieved uneoualled beachmaster-
fame II World War II Seems
they had the boat Polar Bear" "
Ye,nem ber2 Well. TO brush
over lusty years briskly. Void
saw Anchorage rise from a little
community TO the booming to-
tai OF 1900 60 sinners and
saints: he traded out Of Siberia
he skippered nailboats; had a
store az Platinum. Good News
Bay, where the later eYer-so-suc-
cessful Swedish miners the Olson
added lustre TO the spot And
there the Eyer-Famous Reporter
Ernie Pyle wrote z piece On him
that added lustre 70 the name 0.
Void.
But what" We asked, IVA.
your most exciting adventure
The skipper pulls up a knee
eases into a half-crouch over tins
table.
The northern saga he was abou
to tell. was once deemed the best
piece of seamanship one Alaskan
reporter had ever encountered
II was IN 1929. Christmas tim'
IL fact: with raging seas. 4 fun
blast storm way off Latoose
TIE lJO-fo-ot Roosevelt with i
men was plORing the waves CT
route 70 Seward from Seattle
Tne1 At SOS. call % abandon
snip o.. Here comes Wold's littl.
vessel Attu with four me,
aboard. % the rescue II the middli
q he night The steel cab.
strung from the Roosevelt wOun'
Up around it, propeller. snappe,
>. For two days the Attu mel
sought IN vain to fasten tow
line. IS the Roosevelt dr1fted help
lessly toward the raging reef
The third attempt TO stem the or.
inO1s drift il those hssying seas
was successful and after - hours
the ship and crew were intact AM
safe az Latoose Void got na
tlon-wide publicity His con
panions, all EOrwegians and still
active, were Ben Aspen, Rol
-nH Dds