WAKENA 208632 Built in Portland, OR., in 1911 116.5' x 25.7' x 7.8' 310 G.t. / 226 N.t. Click image to enlarge. Photo purchased from the Puget Sound Maritime, Seattle, WA. Negative 955-5. |
1915: Walter Allenby of Seattle, first mate, and August Krotz, quartermaster, were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning aboard the vessel early Nov. 1915. The WAKENA left Tacoma on the morning of 4 Nov, bound for Seattle and towing a large barge alongside. A head wind was encountered all the way to Seattle, with the result that an air pocket was apparently formed between the towing vessel and the barge at the point where the barge rested against the vessel, the gasoline engines of the freighter pumping a steady flow of lethal fumes, which were not dispelled as would normally have been the case. Allenby and Krontz were asleep in their staterooms, which were found to be full of fumes, and it was impossible to revive them upon the WAKENA's arrival in Seattle.
1917:
Cannery building at the Shaw Island Landing. The plant operated between 1911 and 1922. This photo is dated between 1930 and 1951. Click to enlarge. |
While bound for Alaska in the service of LaTouche Packing Co the motor freighter WAKENA caught fire off Nanaimo on 27 May 1925 and was completely destroyed, the officers and crew were rescued and taken to Nanaimo by tug BELLE.
Source:
Gordon Newell, editor. The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the PNW. Superior Publishing. 1965.
One of the died men on board of the Wakena in Nov 1915 was a younger brother of my grandfather Paul Krotz.
ReplyDeleteHis name was August Krotz (not August Krontz. This was a write failure in the Seattle Post Intelligencer from 5th Nov 1915).
August Krotz was born 9th Jan 1891 in Stettin, Pomerania, Germany. He came in Nov 1913 from Germany to USA.
Greetings, Andreas Krotz, akrotz (at)hotmail.de