The scope and variety of the operations of our Marine Department are almost unlimited. In addition to insuring property of a "floating" nature in every town and hamlet of the country under All Risks and Inland Marine policies, protection is afforded on ships and merchandise traversing the seven seas to the distant frontiers of civilization.

Hal E. Pearce, of our Northwest Marine branch in Seattle, describes one Fireman’s Fund risk which takes us to unfamiliar scenes in the wide reaches of the north Pacific Ocean.

The great salmon fisheries of Alaska require much floating equipment, such as cannery tenders, fishing boats, tugs and scows. Most of these craft are built on Puget Sounds, and travel to far-away Alaskan points under their own power.

Scows, however, must make the long voyage in tow of a sturdy cannery tender or tug. These long, silent voyages are fraught with danger, and may such tows have ended in disaster.

On April 27, 1933, a new scow sailed from Seattle in tow of the cannery tender David B. for Nushagak, Alaska, 2,000 miles away in Bristol Bay, Bering Sea.

Nothing was heard from the David B. until May 13, when a radiogram reached the Seattle officer of the owners, Libby, McNeill & Libby, from Sand Point, far out on the Alaska Peninsula, reporting that the tow line had parted in a storm and that the scow was adrift in the open sea.

With all the north Pacific Ocean in which to drift, a search seemed as hopeless as seeking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

After the weather moderated the search began, and several days later the scow was sighted high and dry on a rocky beach near Chignik, on the Alaska Peninsula.

Owing to a rough sea, it was necessary to land men in dories with cables, which were fastened to the scow. Practically undamaged, the wayward scow was floated at high tide, and resumed its way northward under tow of the David B.

[04-01-03-004-0045 Fireman’s Fund Archives]