US Coast Guard - Crescent City - Tsunami Response

The following is from a blog by Michele Thomas of the Crescent City Daily Triplicate relating to the boats damaged in the Cresenct City tsunami; Pictures are in photo gallery

The Kodiak was built by Western Boat Co. in Tacoma, WA in 1926 for the owner of Western Boat. It was made of double planked Douglas fir. She fished in Alaska before coming back down the West Coast. We were told that the Kodiak was used to rescue survivors of the 1964 earthquake in Anchorage, AK which caused the tsunami that wiped out the harbor and most of downtown Crescent City. Media from Alaska have been calling about this - so I'm pretty sure the story is true although I have not personally verified it. The owner told me that the prior owner told him that story, too.

The current owner, Mike Garfield, a transplant from Nevada who moved to Crescent City about 14 years ago, has spent the last 12 years and 3500 hours restoring the Kodiak - he was not done.

For several days divers have been checking the Kodiak and making the necessary preparations to pull her up. The divers have very little visibility - just the glow from their lamps. But they were optimistic about this particular boat and were encouraged that she might surface and be in good shape. That's been the buzz for the last few days.

I asked the Public Affairs officer for the Coast Guard to please let me know when they were ready to raise the Kodiak because I wanted to document the moment of something good happening in this post-tsunami harbor in triage. I got the call this morning.

I arrived around 9 a.m. and they had already begun to bring her up, slowly and carefully. By about 3 p.m. rescue operators boarded her and determined that she was not salvageable. Her owner wept. He was gracious and kind and thanked everyone for their efforts. He was a very classy man - others might have cursed or been angry. He was simply grateful, but obviously devastated.

I saw his tears and tears from Coast Guard personnel, divers and others working at the scene. In fact one diver was visibly upset. He came to shore on a small boat then returned to the Kodiak and retrieved the wheel and tiller. When he came back to shore he put the wheel and tiller down on a bench then went into a trailer and brought out a bottle of water and some rags. He wiped the wheel and tiller clean of mud and sand and polished them as best he could. Then he walked across the harbor to the parking lot where the owner was standing and gave him these two mementos of his boat.

I visited the harbor in the morning and in the afternoon and again this evening. The sun was out, but the wind was bitter cold. The Coast Guard, Fish and Game, Global divers and other men and women on the tsunami response team are so genuinely sad and disappointed that the Kodiak is lost. Their hope was to see at least one boat make it. The several boats that remain to be raised are in several pieces at the bottom.

They are not able to pull the Kodiak out of the harbor - they say she will fall apart if they do, so tomorrow morning they will guide her near the edge of the harbor and use the clamshell bucket on the crane to break her apart and throw the pieces into a dumpster.

One Coast Guard member asked me if we had considered a memorial for these boats. I asked if he meant a service or a monument. A monument, he said. I told him I had heard some talk about it. He asked me to take his name and address and to notify him when the time comes because he and other people working on this rescue team would like to contribute.

For me, another emotional and eye-opening day at the harbor.