TROUBLE IN A STORM OFF WHIDBEY ISLAND ❖ ❖

 

F.V. MIDWAY
lashed to Leiter Hockett's salvage tug AMAK
after three months underwater near
Whidbey Island, Washington.
Four were lost on 9 March 1959.
Click image to enlarge.
Original photo from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

Four Seattle fishermen were lost when the 56-foot fishing vessel Midway capsized and sank in a storm half a mile off Partridge Point.
        The overturned boat was sighted by the tug Tartar and reported to the Coast Guard.
        Less than 14 minutes later the tug reported that the fishing boat had sunk.
        The men lost were Bjarne Olsen, John Eikevik, Carl Jensen, and Simon Ingebretsen.
        The Midway's 18-ft dory was found about the same day; it still had the canvas stretched over it, indicating it had not been used.
        The Midway was bound Bellingham to Seattle when the accident occurred.
        The vessel's owner, Albert Anderson, was not aboard because of an ailment.
        The vessel, a trawler, had been off the Washington Coast and had unloaded her catch yesterday in Bellingham, before departing for Seattle about 3:30 p.m. She was riding high, without cargo, and with little ballast when she capsized.
        The Midway was a sister ship of the Northern Light, which sank ten days ago in Georgia Strait. The two were launched a few weeks apart 15 years ago and had fished together much of the time.
        Text from the Seattle Times three months later.

❖ NOOKSACK Tribe Wins the INTERNATIONAL CUP ❖ 1935.

Ten tribes of the Pacific Northwest
 start for the International Cup Race.

Coupeville, Whidbey Island, WA.
Dated 12 August 1935.
From the archives of the 

Saltwater People Historical Society.

On this Log we have included the University of Washington crew winning their 1936 Olympic race in Berlin, here. 
      The two photos today depict the racing scene in Washington State, the previous year.
       Husky paddlers representing ten Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest vied for the International War Canoe Championship at Coupeville, Whidby Island, WA. The eleven man boat QUESTION MARK representing the Nooksack tribe won the three mile race. 

A large waterfront gallery cheers 

Coupeville's two-man canoe race, August 1935.

Thousands lined the racing course in Penn's Cove
for the Water Festival canoe events.
The TACOMA looms large among the many small craft;
she was packed with an excursion crowd from Seattle.

Click image to enlarge
Photographer unknown.
From the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society.

Below text from the Anacortes American, 10 July 1890

"The canoe race by Indians in the afternoon over a two-mile course was the exciting and interesting feature of the aquatic sports and witnessed by nearly the entire population. 
      Each boat contained eleven oarsmen and as the light canoes flew through the water and bounded over the waves like things of life, the excitement increased, which was only subdued when the race was won and the swarthy braves who occupied the winning boat jumped out on the gravelly beach to receive the caresses of their faithful klootchmen, some of whom were so overjoyed that they fell upon the necks of their warriors and wept for joy."

Klootchmen––Chinook term for woman or women. 
As listed in Almost Out of the World by James G. Swan; Washington State Historical Society, 1971.