On the Beach!

While working for Sealaska Timber, back in the 90's, The M/V Albisol had been blown onto the beach at the Port of Hydaburg, Alaska. The ship had arrived the day prior, and had been moored to the three anchor buoys, one on the bow, and two on the stern. During the night, a storm with strong winds pressed hard on the port side bow of the ship, straining the brakes on the two winches holding the bow lines. the ships crew had not set the dogs that lock the winches, so the brakes eventually began to slip, until the the bow was completely free, as the ship started to turn away from the anchor, and had turned broadside to the storm.

Though it was darker than the inside of a crow, the night watch could see on the radar that the ship was adrift. After the alarm had been sounded, the quick thinking Captain realized what was going on, and ordered his crew to start reeling in the stern lines, hoping to hold the ship on those anchors when the ship tuned into lead with the wind. This action is what saved the vessel. As the ship turned to lead, it slid forward towards the beach, until it pulled tight into the stern lines. As it would turn out, there were two small islands between the beach, and the ship, more like large rocks , with a saddle of sand bridging under the water between the two. The bow of the ship went strait between those two rocks, and sat gently on that sand bar settling in for the night as the tide was going out. These were the events going on when my phone began to ring. The message was, "The Albosol is on the beach, go fix it".

It was a little after 2:00 am when my phone started ringing, I had only been in bed for a few hours, and I wasn't ready to wake up yet. I recognized the voice, and knew if he was calling me at this time of night, something is wrong.

John, this is Bob, The Albisol is on the beach, you need to get down there figure out what happened, and fix it. I would have laughed, if I did not know he was serious.

It was going to take an hour for me to drive from Craig, over to Hydaburg. Bob had informed me that he had two large tugs headed out from Ketchikan, and they would be several hours getting there, I am not sure but I believe Dave Ericson was one of the tug skippers, The only other tugboat in the area, was the Tiny Tim, skippered by Jeff Peele. The Tiny Tim was the boat tasked with the duties of tending to the ships that were loading at Hydaburg. I think it was 25 feet eleven inches in length, one inch under the length requiring licensed skipper. Jeff proved out to be very capable with the duties of this boat.

When I arrived in Hydaburg , Jeff and the Tiny Tim were waiting for me at the dock. We could see the lights on the ship, and I could hear her engines wind up, and then go to an idle. this sound kept repeating as I jumped on the small tug, and headed for the gang way leading from the water to the main deck. I could not believe what I was hearing.

The captain was on the bridge, he had ordered the engines started. This takes a little time, for various reasons This explained why this action had just begun. The Captain was easing into the sand bar with the bow of the ship, and powering into a full power to the stern. He was trying to back the ship out of this predicament under her own power.

I knew, I needed to stop him, the tide was going out. The spot where the bow rested was probably the only sand around. If he backed off of the sand during low tide he could very well be sitting on rocks rather than sand.

When I got to the bridge, I ordered the captain to order "All Stop"!! I had to shout a couple of times. I informed him that I would be in charge of all operations, until someone who out ranked me came and took over. I informed him that I had Tug Boats in route, and that we would be waiting for high tide to return.

With the ship's crew calmed for the night, I agreed to take the chief officer around the ship, on the Tiny Tim to get a " from the water" eye view of the situation. we idled around the ship seeing that four of the five hatches were floating, with the number one hatch, and the bow sitting solid on the sand.

At this point, I had a pretty clear picture of what we were up against. The wind had calmed quite a bit, it was raining hard. We had a couple log rafts that had been tied to the ship for loading. The ships crew had cut the lines, and set the rafts adrift. I sent the Tiny Tim to go looking for them with hopes they would still be intact, and not scattered all over the beach. Walter Frank was the boom man at Hydaburg, and did a good job of building these rafts. We just needed to get to them before they got high and dry with the tide going out.

I needed to call the office in Ketchikan before I met with the captain again. I wanted to have all the information I could, I needed him to be calm. There were no cell phones, so I headed to the beach, and drove into town to use the phone.

When I called the office, Bob Durland answered the phone on the first ring. I gave him a full report, describing the situation as accurately as possible. I informed him that at this point their did not appear to be any structural damage to the vessel , and that we could wait for the large tugs, and high tide to float the vessel again, we would just be waiting for the Stevedores to get here and do their part Bob informed me that Gene Find would be coming out on one of the tugs, and would be representing the Stevedores, and offering his expert advice. I had worked with Gene on several occasions, and respected his wisdom very much.

Bob also informed me that a Mr Kim of Lasco Shipping Lines would arrive later that day as he was traveling from Bellingham Washington, He was their highest ranking Captain for the entire shipping line. I was to bring him up to speed when he arrived, and to work with him until all issues were resolved.

As we waited for tug boats, the tide, and people of authority to arrive, The Tiny Tim, Jeff Peele and his deck hand, were very successful in salvaging the lost log rafts. As Jeff tied the rafts to the stiff leg, I went out and inventoried what he brought in. Soon all the bundles of logs were accounted for.

When the tugs arrived, I went out to meet them in the company's Boston Whaler. I wanted to meet with Gene Find before we dealt with the captain. I wanted him to know every thing that I knew, before he talked with the captain, it would be best if we had our plan down when we approached him. I wanted Gene to know the captain had panicked and tried to free the vessel under her own power.

Gene thought that we should have divers standing by when we pulled her off of the beach. The shipping lines will want to survey the hull of the ship before it is loaded to sail again. So it was another trip to town to call the office to have Bob set that up.

When I got on the phone with Bob, I brought him up to date, on the raft salvage, and told him of Gene's suggestion. Bob was one step ahead of us and already had divers with cameras headed our way. Things were falling in place so well it felt like just another day at the office.

Gene and I went to the captains quarters, and went over the procedures that we were going to follow. We explained that once we had the vessel afloat, we would dispatch divers with cameras, while the tugs held fast to the ship. Once the divers had surveyed any damage, and filmed it. We would all meet in the captains office, and review the video. We were assuming Mr. Kim would be there by then, and he could decide the fate of this voyage.

The divers were on the deck of the Tiny Tim, preparing to dive. I was directly above them on the flying bridge. It was one of those calm moments in the middle of all the excitement. The storm had passed, and it was actually kind of nice at the moment. Folks from Hydaburg were in their boats, trying to keep their distance while also trying to get a closer look at what was going on. the two tugs had un hooked the stern lines from the anchor buoys. the lines had crossed when when the ship turned on the anchors, so it took a few minutes to reel them in. The captain and I stood there on the bridge watching as everybody was doing what needed to be done, again just like another day at the office.

The two tugs had fastened their tow lines to the stern of the ship. I was on the bridge incase. I would need to remind the captain to take no action. He was pretty agitated, and did not speak very good English, and I spoke zero Korean. As we stood there we could hear the tug skippers talking to each other. They were pretty smooth, one of them said full ahead idle, and the other responded full ahead at idle. You could hear t he gear reduction of the big shafts turning the massive props of these powerhouse tugs. Full ahead one quarter, and then Roger, full ahead one quarter.

You could actually feel the deck tremble as every thing was getting real tight. The radio crackled again and you could hear "maintain all ahead one quarter" and the response, Roger that, maintaining all head one quarter. The ship had a vibration traveling through the deck that sounded like a low moan. I stood there looking at the captain, it was hard to read the look on his face as we waited for the vessel to move. About then I heard the tug skipper call for all ahead one half , with the response from the second tug roger all ahead one half. At that moment the groaning of the deck eased, and you could feel the vessel start to slide on the sand. Power down one quarter, Roger, power down one quarter, then the command power down to idle, Roger power down to idle. then all stop. Tow vessel to Albisol, you are afloat. I smiled at the captain, and he looked at me and said in his poor English, "you OK" as he turned and walked towards his quarters.

The divers were in the water and had started their survey when the float plane landed, and Mr Kim had arrived, he came directly to the bridge, and informed me that he would be taking command from that moment forward. I welcomed him aboard, and asked him if he would like to go to the captains office, and that I would brief him as to what had happened up to that moment.

I informed Mr Kim of all that had happened, and that Mr Gene Find had been their most of the morning as my advisor. I advised Mr Kim of what procedures we used to get his vessel floating again, and how smooth it all had gone. I also informed him that his captain and crew had cooperated very well through the whole event. I then informed him that there were divers surveying the vessel and would have video for us to look at soon. Mr Kim at that point had relaxed a little bit, and requested that the captain order us some refreshments while we waited.

Soon the divers were on board, and we were able to review the video. We could not believe the luck. Other than paint being scraped off of the hull we could see no structural damage. Mr Kim was very pleased at what had transpired, He just smiled, and said lets put some cargo on this boat and send her on her way.

It was a little over twelve hours since this ship had blown onto the beach, and we are cleared to load her and send her on her way. Mr. Kim, and Gene Find, myself, and the captain had a nice lunch together in the officer's mess. It was kind of nice as it gave us a chance to just visit. Mr. Kim told me that he appreciated me very much, and wanted to know If his company could send me a gift. I was very flattered, but told him any thing that I would receive from his company, would ultimately belong to Sealaska Timber. I then told him he could do one thing for me that would be acceptable. The hat that he wore was a Port Captain's hat, and very hard to come by. I sure would like to have one. Mr Kim humbly took off that Port Captain's hat, and handed it to me. He kind of blushed, and said I hope you do not mind that it has been used. That hat became one of the most cherished things I have ever owned.