"CODFISH FLEET WILL SAIL AND DAMN THE JAPANESE"–– 1940

 

Spars a'waiting to go north.
Wawona and Azalea
winter moorage, Seattle, WA.
Click image to enlarge.
Original gelatin-silver photo from the 
James A. Turner Collection
Saltwater People Historial Society©

"War in the Pacific has no terrors for officers and crews of two romantic old sailing schooners, survivors of the days of "iron men and wooden ships," preparing for deep-seas fishing operations.
      The vessels were the three-masters Wawona, down the ways in Fairhaven, CA, a year before the outbreak of the Spanish-Amerian War, and the Azalea, built in Eureka, CA, fifty-two years ago. Both vessels were owned by the Robinson Fisheries of Anacortes.
      "Unless the dangers from enemy vessels in the North Pacific and the Bering Sea are greatly increased, we will send the Wawona and Azalea to the fishing banks about 15 April, said J.E. Trafton, president of Robinson Fisheries, as he supervised the overhauling of the two sailing schooners.
      The Wawona and Azalea have two-way radiotelephones, and we will be able to keep in constant touch with them while they are on the banks. Two new masts will be stepped in each of the vessels."
      Capt. John Haugen, who has made many voyages to the banks, will command the Wawona. A master for the Azalea has not been selected.
      The 12th Naval District recently announced that plans were being made for the protection of vessels of the fishing industry in the North Pacific.
      Captain Haugen was mate of the Wawona 14 years under the late Captain Foss, who died aboard the vessel in Alaska waters, and was buried at Lost Harbor, Akun Island, in the Eastern Aleutians.
      Reputed to be the largest fore and aft sailing vessel in the world the 156-ft Wawona has a fine record for her owners. She made a voyage to the Fiji islands in the south with lumber during the first world war and since 1912, has been a unit of the Bering Sea codfish fleet with the exception of one season in the Alaskan cannery trade and her voyage to the South Seas.
      Outfitting for the Wawona and Azalea for cruises while the US was at war with Japan, recalled the experience of Capt. J.E. Shields of Seattle, owner and master of the codfather Sophie Christenson in the Bering Sea in 1938.
      Capt. Shields found Japanese fishermen with nets across the lanes followed by migrating salmon in Bristol Bay and sent a wireless message to his Seattle office asking for rifles and ammunition with which to drive the Japs from the Alaska fishing grounds. Soon after the message was sent, the Japanese left the Bering Sea and headed for Japan.
      One Japanese fishing vessel had three ninety-foot motorized scows laying crab nets, while eleven more fifty-four boats were used to gather the catches.
      Capt. Shields estimated that the fishing vessel laid 400 miles of nets."

Newspaper clipping from an unknown publisher, dated 27 February 1940.

Codfisher WAWONA
Survived the war–– she is seen here at 
Clam Harbor, the home shore of the Robert Schoens,
West Sound, Orcas Island.
Seattle photographer brothers Bob and Ira Spring
caught her in this beautiful setting in 1950.
Click image to enlarge.
Low-res scan of a gelatin-silver photograph from 
the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©