Cruising on the Maris Pearl, Continued
The next day, we pulled into Prince Rupert and toured the Town of Nothing. I napped, played darts with Craig, then tried to encourage the wait staff at Breakers to join us for a tugboat party. They declined. Next time I’ll say “Mega-Yacht Party,” no mater what type of boat I’m on.
We stayed overnight in Prince Rupert. I worked in the engine room for most of the day, then we all watched movies.
The next morning, we got underway early, bound for Ketchikan. We passed the Songhee, a retired Army tug powered by an Atlas diesel that now operates as a Southeast Alaska charter boat:
When we pulled into Ketchikan, we had to squeeze the Pearl into a tight marina between two giant cruise boats. After mooring, we toured all the bars in Ketchikan with Brian and Roger. It was sunny for once, but there were five cruiseships in port and that made the whole town kind of crazy. It quieted down after the cruiseships left, and the locals were fun to chat with.
We spent the next day in K-Town, and took a day trip to Metlakatla, a small native village south of Ketchikan. On the way there, we passed this waterfall with an old powerstation at its base:
I also saw a home overlooking the water with “Leask” carved in the door. I thought it might be Irv’s house, or one of his family member’s house (that’s Irv from the Velero IV. Back in Ketchikan, we toasted Brian and Craig before their departure, and had dinner at Annabelle’s again.
On Thursday, I spent all day in the engine room again, cleaning and taking care of small things. I flew out Friday morning, back to Seattle and “real” work. The trip was a lot of fun, but I’m definitely glad that the Pearl is done for another season.
Reader-Submitted Heavy-Duty Stories
I’ve received several interesting stories from readers in the past few weeks.
First, a man from the Netherlands emailed to report a crane-barge powered by a 1944 Atlas-Imperial. The crane barge is reportedly run several times a week, showing that the heavy-duties are still doing what they were designed to do. We posted the full story on the discussion board here.
Later, fireman Robert from New York emailed about the city’s two fireboats powered by Enterprise diesels, the John D. McKean and the Alfred E. Smith. We posted Robert’s full email on the discussion board here. I’m also making plans to drop by and visit when I’m in New York later this month. I’ll write all about it here when I get back.
Finally, we received an email and later a phone call from Dirk about his days on the Arthur Foss in the early 1970s, just after Foss donated the boat to Northwest Seaport. Dirk was one of the first volunteers to help get the tug running as a heritage vessel. He was helping with a program called North by Northwest that got city kids out on boats, which ended up using the Arthur for some of their programs (an early maritime heritage partnership!).
We posted his full story over at the discussion board here. It’s a great read, and shows another piece of heavy-duty history.
Dirk is also interested in the Cooper-Bessemer for sale I heard about a while back. I just checked and it’s still posted on Craigslist. [posting since expired]
The Maris Pearl is tied up next to us in Juneau, it’s good to see such a neat old boat, much more character than the brand new yacht behind her. I’m an AB on the NOAA Ship John N. Cobb which until a few weeks ago was powered by a 1948 Fairbanks-Morse. Sadly the crankshaft cracked while we were running through Warren Channel, now she’ll be decommissioned ahead of schedule. Fair weather and following seas!
update on NOAA Ship John N. Cobb – she is scheduled to commence tow back to Seattle today (7/11), decommissioned 8/13, then disposed of. it will be a sad day. she’s a beauty, and, except for the old Fairbanks m/e, in exceptional condition….