46| Risk in Rescue: Prince William Sound, Alaska

An old coast guard saying goes something along the lines of “you have to go out, but you don’t have to come back.” 

While some may scratch their heads at it, those located in Alaska’s gulf know exactly what the phrase implies. 

In Sitka, the coast guard is a group of elite individuals that present a United and unflinching front for who steps onto a chopper and flies out to the rescue of commercial fishermen. 

Their easygoing nature coupled with the  bond the group has formed is not by accident. The men and women who serve on Sitka’s Coast Guard are chosen for their honor, their commitment and their willingness to step onto a craft that flies into some of the most vicious waters in the world. 

Where they try to bring home those in need, and sometimes, despite their best efforts, find themselves in their own grave. 

Welcome back to tragedy with a view

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So something that I want to mention in regards to talking about some of these stories that are just really tragic and people die and why I want to talk about it is not only because I have a morbid curiosity with death, but also continuing to talk about them and their story is how you keep these loved ones family members alive. 

The area that we are talking about in this story today is called Prince William sound it is probably about 150 miles or 220 km south of Anchorage and a little bit more specifically when you’re looking at the state of Alaska there’s a section of land that runs along With the Canadian border that butts up against the Pacific Ocean. 

So when you look at the large landmass that is Alaska south of that you have like a small section that kind of like streams down and shut off of the coast and into the Pacific Ocean but then along the Canadian border there’s also a small section that just kind of jets out And runs south along Canada and more specifically British Columbia and in this area includes the capital of Alaska, which is Juneau. 

As we’ve discussed in previous episodes, Alaska is a ginormous and beautiful and wild place to be. Alaska is known as the last frontier for a reason and the sheer vastness of space between communities allows for the most pristine wilderness to thrive.

Alaska sits in the sub Arctic and arctic ranges meaning that there’s plenty of permafrost that supports massive glaciers. It is also home to Denali, which is the largest mountain from base to summit above the waterline. 

There is thousands up upon thousands of miles of coastline associated with Alaska, and I t is home to a boreal and coastal forests. 

An addition to this there are volcanoes that exist in Alaska, some of those being pavlof, which is the most active volcano in Alaska, Novarupta, which is located in katmai national Park and produced the largest eruption in the 20th century., and redoubt which is part of the Pacific Ring of fire. 

Prince William sound is a vital part of the commercial fishing industry in Alaska. There is a total of 3800 miles or 6,115 km of coastline in Prince William sound alone. This area also gets so much rain that there is a rainforest here and there are 150 glaciers in this area 17 of which are tidewater glaciers, which are known for the really crazy videos where a chunk of them will collapse and fall into the water and create these really crazy and beautiful chain reaction within the water. 

Even though this area is rugged and wild, it is relatively easy to get to and a couple that with the abundance of wildlife and sea and fish it’s a prime location to attract commercial fisherman like Skip Holden. 

Skip Holden grew up sailing with his father in California and thanks to this he learned how to navigate in open waters, tie reliable knots and make temporary repairs on the waters. 

Skip and his wife, Marlene, not to be confused with his boat which is also named Marlene, hitchhiked their way to Alaska from San Leandro (Lee-and-row), California, chasing a dream. 

Once in Alaska, they both got a job at a cannery and as soon as they saved $1,200 dollars they purchased a boat and started a new life. 

As commercial fishermen, they lived and fished on this boat, but it has pretty meager additions when it came to the living part. For example, there wasn’t a bathroom on board so they used a bucket. 

He named the boat after his wife, f/v Marlene, and the boat had a reel on the deck at the front of the boat which had the capacity to feed out and then pull in a 1000 foot of 300 meter long gillnet. 

But, after 8 years of hard work, he had experience and began to build a crew to fish with, but typically he would work alone in the area of the copper river flats. 

This area also had a mile wide sandbar, which depending on tide and the weather will either be open and able to pass over in their boats. Or it would close off and any boats stuck outside would be stuck in the open waters for potentially days as they were pummeled by a storm. This sand bar, though, would provide a source for wave breaks and therefore protection during storms, but this also meant that boats were unable to pass it due to the violent nature of the waters. 

Because of this. skip had a very strong habit of abandoning whatever he was working on to make it inside of this sand bar if he heard the news over his cb radio that it was closing. 

It was August 6, 1981 and Skip had already been going for about two days and two nights essentially just waiting for some inconvenient weather to pass. As soon as it did, he set out fishing. 

He quickly realized though that the swells were still larger than he expected them to be, and they were behaving oddly in comparison to what he was used to (ie. they weren’t breaking and they seemed to just roll). 

Which, inherently doesn’t sound bad, but what really set him on edge was the air seemed to be extremely calm, like, he says, it was out of breath. 

It didn’t take long, though and the air had caught her breath, so to speak, and a storm began to take shape again. 

At this time, the tide had been going out, so as it did, the stormy weather was pressing waves against the tide and creating a perilous frenzy of waves cresting and breaking in every direction. 

Skip first tries to return to the sand bar, but waves were breaking so aggressively across the now diminishing waters, due to the tide going out, that there was no way to retreat to the calmer waters of the inland bay. 

As he began to maneuver through the waters again, he spotted a light off another salmon boat, and this boat seemed to be maneuvering in a way that implied to Skip that he was showing skip the way through the 5,000 feet of 1500 meters of breaking waves toward the deeper waters of the main channel. 

Once he made it, skip began trying to find an opening along the 60 miles or 98km of sandbar. Here he could see egg island, which is a small island in prince william sound, and at this point he decided to use a cb radio to call his friend Phil. 

Phil Thrum is a fishing friend of Skips, and skip knew that he was back in the safety of calmer waters past the sand bar. 

Skip gets to the point immediately, asking if there was any ways in pay the samd bar that Phil knew of. Phil responded saying he didn’t think so, from what he could see the entire sand bar was unable to be crossed. 

Another voice cut in to confirm that there was no way in. This voice was an anonymous fisherman who had ended up on the same radio channel that skip and Phil were using. Skip and Phil were not the only ones on this channel. Others had been listening in, trying to find their own way or help those who were stuck. As the anonymous fisher said those words, the response seemed deafening as those stuck on the wrong side of the sand bar realized what they had to do. 

And that would be to wait out the storm, no matter how long it would last. At this point the winds were sustaining 60 mph or 97 kph, but this didn’t last long. 

Soon they kicked up and gusts were rushing by at over 80 miles per hour or 129 kmp. And This could have been managed a bit better had the steering on the fv Marlene not gone out. 

The waves and wind were quickly turning the fv Marlene to the side so that the waves were hitting broadside, or the side of the boat. Without steering, skip was worried about the waves completely turning him to the side, which would make it more likely for him to capsize. 

The other problem was that without steering, he was out of control, and the waves were pulling him straight toward rocks and cliff edges that dotted the area. 

In order to bring some stability and hopefully catch an undercurrent that could pull the fv Marlene away from the dangerous rocks, skip let out about 750 feet or 230 meters of his 1,000 foot gillnet. 

At this time skips friend Phil called him again and asked how he was doing and if he wanted Phil to call the coast guard- skip replied saying that he was alive and that if a rescue basket was to drop down on his deck, he would happily crawl inside. But the weather was too bad. There’d be no way the coast guard could get close to anyone on the waters. 

The storm only seemed to feed off the turmoil of the ocean and continued to grow stronger. Winds soon raged past 90 miles per hour or 145 kph. 

When skip returned to the wheelhouse, he heard the engine cough. He quickly pulled up the floor board to check on the engine and what he saw gave him a pause. 

He had left the wheelhouse door open to help try to air out some of the fumes, meanwhile the dense rain had been coming in and the engine compartment was now nearly flooded. 

Deciding he could only tackle one thing at a time, he set to shutting down the engine and so that he could carefully remove the water from the engine compartment. He removed floor boards so that he could climb inside. 

The water was already up to his chest, but more than an hour of careful and dedicated bailing, the compartment was mostly emptied of water. But, now the engine wouldn’t start back up. 

The storm, meanwhile, had pulled the fv Marlene into an area known as the pocket between softuk and strawberry, which were landmark areas of sandbars and channel entrances. Thanks to the layout, waters were known to be brutal and many boats that became stuck in this area would be destroyed if the operators could not get out. 

Phil, again called skip and asked for an update and if he wanted him to call the coast guard.

This area he was in is an absolute death trap. Skips cb radio would not reach the coast guard due to the distance being too far for his radio to reach. And with skip being unable to call a mayday in himself, he relayed his predicament to Phil and asked him what he thought. 

And this was a really heavy decision to make. Commercial fishermen, generally, do not call for assistance unless life is already at risk. And Phil believed that Skip wasn’t looking at the situation with enough urgency. 

Without responding directly to skip, Phil contacted the coast guard using a vhf radio. Everyone on their cb channel could hear the exchange of information as Phil relayed skips name, location, vessel name and answered a series of questions the coast guard had. After several moments the quick respond from the coast guard that they were on their way, had skip feeling nervous, but relieved. 

Then determination washed over him. He put on his survival suit and then stood at the ready, waiting for the coast guard to arrive, and willing to do all he could to help them as much as they were helping him. 

The survival suit is a neoprene coverall which covers a persons body from head to foot. It has boots to put your feet in, a single mit for your hands and a hood to cover your head, so that only your face is exposed. Neoprene is a type of pliable rubber which is waterproof and can sustain very cold temperatures. 

The survival suits are bright orange with reflective patches and are made to help prevent a person in the water from experiencing hypothermia, and have floatation devices made to help keep you above the water. 

In order to assist, the coast guard had a c-130 search and rescue airplane arrive on the scene, equipped with a cb radio so they could talk directly with skip. 

The c-130 is a 4 engine plane used by the military in civilian and combat search and rescue operations. They were flying at 18,000 feet and when they first talked to Skip, he started to imply that he thought this was a lost cause and there was no way they would be able to get a basket down to him.

Co-pilot lieutenant Jim Hatfield brushed this off and told him not to worry, but also not to be surprised if he felt a bit of a shock when basket got to him- it was just static electricity. 

Giving direction to Skip, lieutenant Hatfield helped Skip prepare for the best rescue operation they could feasibly try for. 

Including Taking the antenna down so that the basket wire wouldn’t get caught on it. This would also mean that the reach of skips cb radio would become even smaller. 

At about 1:00 am, August 7, 1981, several hours after the call, an H3 pelican sikorsky helicopter was seen in the distance. 

An H-3 pelican is an amphibious helicopter, meaning it can land and take off from both land and water and this helicopter really helped the coast guard to be able to maneuver in more dangerous off shore rescues. 

On the right side, closer to the front than back, there is a large sliding cargo door that opens which then allowed a hoist arm to swing out, lock into place, and from the hoist a basket could be lowered and raised with a hydraulic system to assist in rescues where it wasn’t the best move to put a rescuer on a line and down into the situation. 

The helicopter could accommodate at minimum, 2 crew, the pilot and copilot, and then 6 people in the back. Potentially more if needed, but most crew at this time was made up of a pilot, copilot, mechanic, and a navigator. 

When the coast guard got the call, this helicopter was already in the air. Pilot lieutenant Pat Rivas, copilot lieutenant Joe spoja, flight mechanic Scott finfrock, and navigator John Snyder had been on a training flight, and changed course immediately. 

Skip stepped out to stand on the deck of fv Marlene and watched at the helicopter came closer, and as it did he could hear how hard the engine was working. In his words, the blades were producing an impossibly loud whining, a kind of metallic screaming. 

Between the spray from the sea, the wind and the rain, it was nearly impossible to see. The waves were reaching 25 feet high or nearly 8 meters and the current continued to pull skip further out into the gulf of Alaska. 

As lieutenant Rivas and lieutenant Spoja tried to control the helicopter into an attempted hover overhead, skip suddenly found himself being yanked up and realized he had been caught by a rouge wave. 

A rouge wave is, in simple terms, is a wave that shoots up unpredictably and is often much larger than the waves around it. 

Just as the fv Marlene began her decent, the helicopters flood light flicked on and from the crest of the wave skip could see he was even with the helicopter hovering 100 feet away. 

Inside the helicopter, things were starting to malfunction. Their Loran C navigational computer had already shut down on their way to Skip, but now their radar had shut down and one of their onboard radio had shut down as well. 

Minutes went by as, again the helicopter tried to maintain control in the 90 mph or 145 kph winds, when suddenly, a sand bag attached to a line hit the deck next to skip. 

This line was called a tending line, and the coast guard often used this as a way to feed a basket down to someone needing rescue.

Skip saw this and thought to himself, maybe if they can’t get the basket down to me, then if I hold onto the line, they can pull me up. 

So Skip grabs the line and decides to pull a little to see if it’s attached to anything on the other end up in the helicopter, and just as he was doing that, a gust of wind overpowered the helicopter and had it shooting backwards with pilot and copilot fighting to gain control. 

The line that skip held in his hands wasn’t attached to anything in the helicopter, and snaked down to the ocean as it was pulled free from the helicopter. 

Again, Skip can see the helicopter gaining ground and as it comes to, yet another hover, he could see the mechanic, Scott, maneuver the basket out the door.

Another gust and the helicopter is flying backwards again, and the entire time, Skip is helpless. He tried so desperately to help his rescuers as much as he could, and he didn’t even have a way to communicate with them. 

Again, and again and again, the helicopter was plucked away like it was a toy, and the winds were a guiding hand. The winds had now reached over 100 mph or 161 kph. 

Lieutenant Rivas radioed up to lieutenant dale harrington, pilot on the c-130 circled by overhead, saying that they were going to try one more time, but he was nearly at his mental capacity. The seas were big, the boat was small and lieutenant Rivas felt like he was out of options. 

But they went back. This time, though, Skip notices that the whining of the helicopter engine now sounds like it’s grinding. 

Again, the helicopter was blown back. Skip, standing on the deck, watched in horror as the helicopter hovered momentarily, and then tipped sideways and fell from the sky. 

Skip could see the navigation light from the helicopter in the water, and decided that he couldn’t just sit there. These men needed someone to rescue them or they were dead. 

He ran back to his wheelhouse, desperately cranking the engine over and over, but it still refused to start. 

Remember, Skip had to remove his antenna at the start of the rescue attempt, so now his reach with his cb radio was very small. Still, he called out a mayday, desperately trying to let someone know what had happened.

In a particularly devastating relay of messages, Skips friend, Phil, could hear Skip but not respond to him. Phil then contacted the c-130 co-pilot, lieutenant Hatfield, and let him know what happened. The only respond that he received from the lieutenant was that of a sob. 

And then just as skips battery was dying, skips voice came through in the broken words of a cry “don’t send anyone else. No more.”

The helicopters tail rotor blades had been clipped by a wave as it was blown backwards by a gust of wind, shearing off the tail of the helicopter. This then sent the helicopter into a catastrophic failure, as it tipped to the side. 

Seconds later when the main blades hit the ocean water, they exploded on impact. With all the heavy equipment being located toward the top of the helicopter, it was weighted down, upside down. 

The waters were 44 degrees Fahrenheit or 6 degrees Celsius, but every man on board fought against the onslaught of frigid and treacherous waters. This temperature of waters means that you have a very short window to be rescued before hypothermia would render you unconscious- which would take about an hour. 

By the time dawn came, the winds had settled to near 50 miles per hour or 80 kmp, and in a cruel stroke of luck, skip tried his engine again, and this time it came to life. 

Skip decided to go see if he could find anyone from the helicopter crew in the water, and went to pull his gillnet in. 

As a fisher, finding it full of salmon would have normally brought a smile to his face. This time, he grabbed his hatched and cut the net away, not wanting to waste the time he had to rescue anyone needing help. 

Miraculously, Skip also found his steering had returned. Angling fv Marlene, he made his way toward the helicopter. 

About an hour later, he found it. The helicopter was floating, semi-submerged, upside down. It didn’t take long before Skip spotted a man floating face down in the water. He was in, what is called a dead man’s float, and was somehow tethered to the helicopter, for as the helicopter slowly descended deeper into the waters, the man was pulled down with it.

Realizing there was nothing he could do, he continued looking and 3 hours later, another boat approached. This was Andy Halverson, who came to the area in search of Skip. Andy had heard over the radio that skip was in trouble, and 4 United States coast guard men were dead. 

As soon as dawn came, a rescue mission was launched to search for the 4 coast guard men. 

31 year old, Lieutenant Joe spoja had exited the helicopter without being in his survival suit and likely suffered from hypothermia, quickly being overcome by the waves.

21 year old John Snyder likely lived for several hours, as he had been wearing his survival suit. However, he didn’t inflate the floatation collar, probably due to head injuries during the crash. It is suspected he drowned due to being incapacitated from his injuries. 

33 year old lieutenant pat rivas, whose real first name is Earnie, exited the aircraft despite having shattered the C6 vertebrae in his neck. This was likely caused by being thrown forward during the crash and colliding with the instrument panel in front of him. Despite not having a survival suit on, he gave himself the best chance he could at survival and removed his steel toed boots, probably trying to keep him from being weighed down while he tried to swim. 

It isn’t known who, but someone returned into the submerged helicopter to pull their life raft free. But once blown up by its co2 canister, the wind immediately began to blow it away. Pat swam after it. 

The flowing day, during a search for the missing men, the raft, in perfect condition, was found washed ashore on montague island. Pats body was found, face down and partially buried in sand next to it. 

25 year old Scott finfrock, who was working the basket hoist, was next to the open door when the helicopter plummeted into the water. He would have probably been the first out, and was wearing his survival suit, booties and a survival vest, giving him the best chance to survive the cold waters. But, he too, did not inflate his neck pillow. When his body was found they saw that tied to him was 30 feet of rope, which is surmised to have also been tied to the helicopter. He was likely who Skip found floating in the water. 

Due to bad weather, the bodies were not found for 2 days. First with Rivas and Snyder being found washed to shore. Its wasn’t until day 5 that Scott’s body was found. And then after 10 days of searching, Spojas body was found, concluding the search for the missing crew men. 

Skip, was able to return to land on his own. 

This particular storm that raged over prince william sound in 1981 still stands today as one of the most powerful storms to hit the area. Over the course of 3 the days, a total of 14 inches of rain fell from the skies. This is the fastest the area has ever received this volume of rain. 

Sources: 

https://cgaviationhistory.org/aircraft_/sikorsky-hh-3f-pelican/

Coming Back alive by spike walker