The Parable of Allen Puttbrese

I first met Allen in Thompson Falls Montana. I had not seen him in years, and we ran into each other working for a logger from Trout Creek Montana, by the name of Jay Joplin.

We were logging a unit outside of Troy, a few hours north east of where we lived. Allen and I found a private camp to stay at during the week, that had a kitchen, and bath house. It would more than make us comfortable.

Joplin had a big crane that he had converted to a swing yarder, and if you could find the stumps to tie it down, it could pull the world. The unit we were logging, required that we pulled every thing in tree length, as the forest service wanted to burn the slash that would be left behind. This made things pretty easy for Allen and I, we could bury the small landing with wood, in no time at all. The landing chaser, a young man named Fitchet, was pretty good with a saw, and worked hard to buck the full length trees into logs so they could be loaded on to trucks, and hauled away to the sawmill.

We would yard logs for about an hour, and the have to wait for a while, so the processing could be done, then yard for a while again plugging the landing, and wait again. This would go on for several hours, and Allen and I would go back to camp while the landing crew spent the rest of the day working up the logs and loading them out, so we would have room to work the next day. Allen and I were being paid based on the volume that went to the sawmill every day, so we piled the wood on before going back to camp.

Allen carried a day pack with a few items, and lots of food. He carried it every where he went, some times wearing it while he worked. when we would have our long breaks, he would pull a meal out of that pack, It was kind of like a horn of plenty. If he was not eating, he would lay down some where and go to sleep. I would wake him when it was out turn to work, and he would jump up and get right to it.

He told me that he always carried food with him, and would never miss an opportunity to sleep, Then he told me this story:

The story begins in Yakutat Alaska, Allen was working on a fishing vessel, that was in port there. I am not sure what kind of fishing they were doing, but they had a five man crew. As fishermen do, while they in port, the crew hit the bars, and partied hard. Some time, close to closing time, the skipper of the boat ended up in some kind of a conflict with some of the locals. Allen did not say weather he got his ass kicked, only that he decided they were leaving port early.

No sooner than everyone getting on board, and the skipper had the engines running, and gave orders to cast off. Normally we would file a trip plan, or at least call family members, and tell them our plan. It was just a safety measure, in the case we needed help for some reason. In the skippers haste they did not do this on this trip.

The river at Yakutat runs in to the gulf of Alaska, at a place where the tides of the gulf are stronger than the force of the river. This causes the river to run south perpendicular to the beach, then into the gulf. There is a jetty running on the west side of the river, giving the boats opportunity to get further out to sea before the waves start hitting them from the side. It takes a skilled skipper to navigate this port in good weather.

Though this skipper had been in and out of this port all of his life, this trip would be different. They had just passed the end of the jetty, and could see that it was going to get a little ruff. The crew were all in the galley looking for something to eat before they hit their bunks. The skipper was the only one on the bridge, so we can only speculate on what actually happened.

A wave hit the boat broad side, and caused it to roll on her side, she started to right herself, when the next wave took her on over. Water started pouring into the boat, but not as fast as you would think. the drunk and disoriented crew managed to find three of their survival suits, and exit the boat. They were all in the water before any of the suits could be utilized.

They struggled to get into the suits while in the frigid water. They struggled to utilize two of the suits by doubling up with two men in each suit. They hoped that by doing this they would generate more heat as they tried to purge the cold sea water from their new domain. The skipper and one other crew member were quite a bit older than Allen and the other two, so they tried to put a younger guy with each of the older men.

The boat was gone by the time they had accomplished getting into the three suits. There was quite a bit of stuff floating around, but not much that would serve as a floatation device. It was still dark, so they were trying to search for something, while trying to hold onto each other so no one would drift away from the others. Eventually they came across the hatch cover. it was about six feet wide, and eight feet long, it was made out 3/4 inch ply wood, with about a four inch edge around it, with 3 inches of Styrofoam in the bottom side. It was painted and slick, and did not float very high.

They all intertwined their arms, as they spread out on the hatch cover. the weight of their bodies made there new vessel float just below the surface. It was a constant struggle to stay on top of it. They struggled to purge water from their survival suits, but did not have much luck.

With in a short time the current from the river had pushed them about sixty miles out to sea, and a ways south. when they got to the end of the rivers force, the sea took over and turned them north, and back towards the beach. By this time a day had passed, and the older men were not doing well. They were all suffering from exposure. None of them had slept or eaten the night before this all started, and they all were drunk when the boat capsized. They were hungry, and tired. some time early in the second day both of the older men gave in to the chill and died.

Later that day a little while after dark, the wind picked up and caused the water to get a bit rough. They had taken the deceased out of the survival suits, and gotten more of the water out of them in the process, but they were still holding on to them. As the water got rougher, the hatch cover was getting hard to stay on. It was decided that it would float higher if there were only three of them on it. they knew there was not much chance that bodies would be found out there, and they were not sure any of them would survive. They came to the conclusion that they needed to say a few word, and perform a burial at sea.

The hatch cover did float a little higher, and the three of them made it through a rough night. They still had not gotten any sleep, as they all feared that if they all fell asleep, they would drift apart, and die on their own. They continued to drift to the north, and gradually towards the beach. At the time, they had no idea where they were only that they needed to stay on the hatch cover until something better came along.

They drifted through another night, and were starting to wonder if they would ever see land again when they started to hear the sea pounding on the beach. They all got excited for a while, as the believed they were drifting back into the land. They listened eagerly hoping the sound would continue to get louder, and eventually they would see the beach. After some time they realized that they were still drifting north, adjacent to the beach. They began to fear that they would drift back out to sea with the tide.

This almost started a panic situation, and if they had not have been so tired it may have. They talked it over for a while, and decided that they were getting closer as the day wore on, and hoped the tide was going in. If at any time they thought they were going away from the beach they would swim for it. As long as they thought they were getting closer they would hold tight, until they could see the beach.

They drifted most of the day listening, and looking to see waves breaking on the beach. It was getting late in the day when all at once they could see what they had been listening to. White water splashing onto the rough rocky shore line. They were so excited they almost could forget how tired and hungry they were. They talk about staying on the hatch cover a little longer to get closer, when somebody said the hell with that, and in an instant, they were all swimming with all of their strength for the beach.

They all made it to the beach, and up the rough rocky shore line, and onto the muskeg flat. After crossing those obstacles, they stumbled on to a road. They had decided that by now they were north of Yakutat, so they walked south. After walking a few miles, they came up on a fish camp, with bunk houses, and a cook house. The camp was closed, and no one was there. They were sure they could find something to eat at the cook house, so that is the first door they breeched. After searching the building, they found one one gallon can of cream style corn. They sat and ate that gallon of cold corn with out uttering a word.

They slept that night, like babies, on the bare bunks in one of the bunk houses. when they arose that next morning, they started walking south with the hope that it would be the way to town. They walked ten or twelve miles, before some one came along and picked them up. They soon made it to town, with nothing left to do but tell their story.

The last time I saw Allen Puttbrese, he had his pack, and was still taking his naps at every opportunity.