Kodiak mirror. [volume] (Kodiak, Alaska) 1940-1976, 1961-12-01
KODIAK MIRROR

Captain Bob Won Scheele as he
went about the business of carry
ing mail around the island and
neighboring villages successfully
on the Ruff Rider, the Charlotte
B, the Phyllis S. and at last the
Shuyak. With perhaps no more
than two shortterm Interruptions
this went on from 1926 until his
one, and last, sickness took his
Life in June 1860, the last several
years being spent in private boat
ing of one kind or other. His very
last trip was on a salvage job for
Alvine, when he came in, after an
arduous tussle with two storms and
short help towing from Sitkinak
Island the metal barge which has
since been repaired and fitted up
for the present vertical lift at Al
vines Marine Ways.
The Romance of the Sea could
well entitle a stirring story of Bob's
days in the mail service, and we'll
he loved his chosen work in the
ebb and flow of the oceans tides
and often-unf0rseen changes in
the weather. Having tried at one
time to make a change and buying
a house in Seattle to start a boat
business there, he made it through
the winter all right, but when
spring came and the cannery boats
readied for Alaskan waters, he
daily found himself mingling in
these preparations as Though he
were himself to go, and nightly at
home he grew silent and more 81
lent until we knew of certainty
this would never do. He took pas
sage for Kodiak and soon applied,
for, and got, the job of mailcarrier
between Kodiak and Afognak with
st0poff at Uzinkie, at first once
a month, then twice a month.
The Ella M. was his initial pur-
chase from hard-earned fishing
money-six, and seven, to nine
cents for red salmon i'm those years
'25, '26, '27; UP to 121ac in '36. This
little boat, newly conditioned for
his first contract, came to an early
end. halliday approaching July,
'26), painted, the engine now run
ming, young helper aboard, an
easterly breeze freshening, he
would surprise his bride of months
and would run it from Back Bay
around the two points to the north
end of the village of Afognak
where they lived. A glittering,
bright day matched his spirits.
Upon anchoring proudly abreast
the house ON sandy bottom and
landing to find his wife putting on
supper, he ate hurriedly, seeing
this was not passing breeze
the fresh east wind was fast gain
ing gale proportions. In the smart
chop he rowed out and once on
board did his best to get it quickly
around another nearby point to
shelter. But drifting now, and
faster and faster, the engine not
turning over, the two finally had
all they could do to jump to safety
on to cliff on the crest of high
wave, all his work and earnings
left to 60 at the mercy of that
storm; all that remained of the
hapless Ella M. by falling tide was
kindling wood and useless motor
in a tide-pool. At twenty-six, a
grave accident, with loss of neither
life nor limb, was soon darkling
memory, the first crushing pain of
loss Softened by the rallying fam
lily and the wisdom of a kind father.
1t was then that his brother Tom
took over their fathers Herbert,
running on batteries. He worked
it over to sport a modern pilot
house, put in an N and S gas engine
and renamed it the Ruff Rider. En-
oipo chanood cIrhcarIynut1v several