THE EVENTS DESCRIBED IN THIS book depended on the efforts of many people without whom the Kad’yak would not have been found nor its history revealed. I am greatly indebted to each of them for their assistance and support, and in order not to attach particular emphasis to any one individual, I list them here in more or less chronological order.
Katherine Arndt started the gears in motion by translating the log of Captain Illarion Arkhimandritov’s circumnavigation of Spruce Island. Mike Yarborough then planted the seed in my brain by providing me with those documents that both taunted and challenged me for a decade. Bill Donaldson, Mark Blakeslee, and Dan Miller assisted me in some close but misdirected early attempts to find the Kad’yak with a two-person submarine and a remotely operated vehicle. Dave McMahan elevated my armchair doodling to real archaeology, and instigated the actual search by providing his support and introducing me to Tim Runyan and the ECU crew. Dave also ran interference between us and the Alaska State Department of Natural Resources, Office of History and Archaeology. Josh Lewis and Steve Lloyd provided key elements needed for the discovery including a boat, a magnetometer, and their time. Bill Donaldson and Verlin Pherson aided the initial efforts by assisting with diving and scuba support. Stefan Quinth documented the discovery efforts on film and later in his book on Kodiak; I believe his presence as a neutral observer helped prevent a difficult situation from becoming worse. Stacey Becklund and the Kodiak Baranov Museum were strong supporters of the search and later exploration efforts. Mary Monroe, as Chairman of the Baranov Museum Board, established a small research fund for our assistance. Marty Owens provided vessel support for the scouting dives in February 2004. Dr. Tim Runyan wrote and managed the grants that helped us to conduct an archaeological investigation once the wreck had been discovered, supervised the ECU team, and taught me valuable lessons about archaeology and the public interest. Frank Cantelas acted as chief archaeologist for the investigation and wrote the subsequent report for NOAA; his calm and contemplative demeanor defused even the most exciting moments. Evgenia Anichenko conducted invaluable research on the origins of the Kad’yak for her MA thesis, and she and Jason Rogers formed a significant part of the archaeological team that investigated the wreck. Their booklet published by the Anchorage Historical Museum in Russian and English is the most definitive history of the Kad’yak to date and provided source material for this book. Steve Sellers, ECU Dive Safety Officer, insured that our diving met the standards of the American Academy of Underwater Scientists (AAUS), and looked after our personal safety as well. Tane Casserley, on loan from the NOAA Maritime Heritage Program, took valuable underwater and above-water photographs of the 2004 survey expedition, its participants, and artifacts collected for preservation. Captain Gary Edwards recognized the importance of the project and lobbied for the vessel contract; he and his crew made his vessel, the Big Valley, our home and dive support ship for the duration of the 2004 survey. Bryce and Jesse Kidd served as crew of the Big Valley, whose collective duties included being engineer, first mate, cook, chief bottle washer, plumber, mechanic, general roustabout, longshoremen, crane operator, welder, and other duties as assigned, as well as being ardent listeners, enablers, and supporters of the general expedition welfare. Peter Cummiskey, Larry Musarra, Scott van Sant, Mark Blakeslee, and Sean Weems all assisted our efforts as volunteer divers while surveying the wreck. Verlin Pherson and Lonnie White provided scuba tanks, air fills, weights, and various other supplies needed by the team. Lydia Black and Gary Stevens provided valuable historical information and documents, without which this story could not have been told. We greatly appreciate the financial support provided by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, Grant #NA04OAR4600043, and the National Science Foundation Grant #OPP-0434280. Captain Craig McLean and Lieutenant Jeremy Weirich, of the Ocean Exploration Program, provided encouragement for our grant requests to their agency. Balika Haakanson and John Adams incorporated our findings into lesson plans on maritime history for students in the Kodiak Island Borough School District. Nicholas Pestrikoff, of Ouzinkie Native Corporation, hosted our visit to Ouzinkie and served as liaison with the Kodiak Native community. Dr. Sven Haakanson, previously Director of the Alutiiq Museum, and now Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington, answered many questions about the history of the Alutiiq peoples of Kodiak and helped me obtain some historical documents from the University of Washington library. Many of the people listed here read early drafts of the manuscript and helped to correct my errors and omissions, or steer me in the right direction. Olivia Ngai, my editor at Graphic Arts Books, provided many valuable suggestions and insights about organization and story construction. And finally, I have to thank my wife, Meri Holden, and daughter, Cailey Stevens, who participated in some of the adventures described herein, for their patience, encouragement, and ability to quickly burst any bubble of pretense that I might have blown in their direction.
INTRODUCTION
ON A SPRING DAY IN 1861, the Kad’yak set sail from Kodiak, Alaska, bound for San Francisco with a shipload of ice. Within a few miles from shore, it struck a rock, foundered, and was abandoned. But it didn’t sink. Now a wooden-hulled iceberg, it floated for four days before finally grounding on a reef in Icon Bay, on Spruce Island. That would have been the end of the story but for one detail. Captain Illarion Arkhimandritov, skipper of the Kad’yak, had promised to hold a service for Father Herman (now known as Saint Herman of the Russian Orthodox Church) before leaving Kodiak, but the captain did not keep his word. And the Kad’yak had somehow drifted through a maze of jagged reefs only to sink directly in front of Father Herman’s grave, with the top of the mast sticking out of the water, forming the Russian Orthodox cross—a public rebuke that would forever remind the captain of his perfidy and haunt the site for over a hundred years.
In 2003, after years of painstaking research, I led a team of volunteer divers to discover the wreck of the Kad’yak. This is the story about the amazing history of the Kad’yak and how it sank carrying Alaska’s most important export for two decades in the mid-nineteenth century—ice. Through painstaking research of historical Russian documents and deep analysis of the complicated and confusing log of the skipper who surveyed the wreck site, this is a story of the incredible discovery of a shipwreck over 140 years old, and how I had found it with “friends” who later tried to claim ownership of the shipwreck and credit for its discovery. It is a story about the personal, ethical, and legal struggles to keep the Kad’yak safely preserved for the Alaskan people and to illuminate its historical significance and linkage with Alaska Native knowledge.
A true tale of adventure in historical and modern-day Alaska told by a scientist who specializes in underwater research, the story ends with another tragic sinking of the Big Valley, the Bering Sea crab boat that served as dive tender and headquarters for the Kad’yak expedition, along with its captain and crew, in January 2005.
Come with me, if only briefly, to a faraway place and time. To the real Alaska that is not that different from the imaginary one that lurks in our collective subconscious. Wild, snow-covered in winter, and emerald green in summer, Kodiak Island is central to this story. Approaching it from the fog, Alaska’s Emerald Isle suddenly appears as the mists of time part to reveal verdant hillsides reaching up to snow-capped mountains.
CHAPTER 1
THE
SHIP
AND THE
SAILOR
A FRESH BREEZE BLEW IN FROM the southwest on the morning of March 30, 1860. Wind from that direction was usually a steady 15 to 20 knots; it was good weather for sailing, especially if one’s course was southeast on a broad reach, with the wind off the starboard beam. After a long, arduous winter with constant storms blowing in off the Gulf of Alaska, bringing nearly constant wind and rain to the island, it was a refreshing change. Captain Illarion Arkhimandritov looked at the telltales in his rigging, sails flapping gently, as bellwethers of the coming trip. Standing on deck, he checked the sails, the rigging, and the deck arrangements, and made mental notes of items that needed repair. It was a good ship, this one. It was named the Kad’yak, after its home port, Kodiak Island, in the Gulf of Alaska.
While the crew stowed the cargo, Captain Arkhimandritov checked his chronometer, wanting to make sure he got underway in