Northwest Dive Club

Back to Alaska !

How cool is that?!?

Relatives of Japanese soldiers who died on Attu during the World War II visited the memorial
on Engineer Hill. Japanese government chartered airplane from Anchorage for the one day visit.

and life goes on...

I just found a restored film about Attu from 1943 that might be interesting to anyone who has followed this thread.



Once the sea star situation is better understood perhaps Jan will post some more.

Thanks for the "Report from the Aleutians"
That chain of islands still occupies a special place in my memory bank

LOVE LOVE LOVE this!

It has been a long time since I posted on my Memory line.
I just found on internet that Egabrag III, which was ship which carried me across the Pacific Ocean and was a part of my life for twelve years ended on the beach of Kamchatka peninsula. After it was sold to Alaskan fishing company in 1992, it worked out of Kodiak and then sold to a Russian company and continued in the fishery industry until storm and negligence ended finished off illustrious career. :(

Jan: I understand. I saw one of my ships, which I served on for 5 years, as a rotting hulk in Fiji. I watched online as another was sunk as a target by the Australian Air Force. That one was newly constructed when I reported aboard and we were enormously proud of it. Beyond just being your home at the time, your ship carries you across seas, carries you through many hazards, and supplies you with your shipmates. The end is much like a dying friend.
-Curt

I have only spent a few weeks at a time on particular boats, and even I get attached to them in those short times. I can only imagine what it's like for you, Jan, or as Curt says - spending that much time on a vessel. It is like parting ways with a dear friend, I'm sure. We are all dependents on the sea.

You honor the Egabrag III, Jan. Because of you we all know a little of her story, her journeys.

Maybe the attachment to boats/ships to some of us has to do that differs so much from our life on shore. Once the lines are cast off for long period of time, it is our home, our work place, and becomes a small world of its own. And if the experience is pleasant, memories are treasured. As Curt said when the ship becomes a hulk of rust or rut, we feel the loss, even if it is only a tool to cross body of water,
"The end is much like a dying friend".

So yet another of ships of my life ended her life, this time flying the flag of Honduras. I found few articles in Honduran and Nicaraguan newspapers mentioning the demise of Capt. Francito which used to be once the Egabrag II. I lost track of her after she was sold in 1992 and only through the interned search I discovered that just recently she met her end in the Caribbean on May 25th, 2015. At least nobody died when she sunk to the bottom and hopefully provides habitat to fish and other marine life.

After reading this ENTIRE thread I also feel a loss for these two ships...

RIP

It has been a while since I posted on my memory line.
I just found U-tube video somebody posted about the underwater habitat we put down in a quarry and I was a support diver on the last ewxperiment called Permon 4 back in 1967. Use your wild imagination and picture what it looked like, before the rust took over.
I am surprised that it is still watertight !

click on the link for the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WykoSJ45KDM

Very interesting..thank you for sharing it with us.

After four years, I decided to add little more to my Memory Lane.
After watching Space-X landing on the barges off Florida, it brought back memories when Egabrag III was involved in some pioneering ideas how to make space exploration cheaper. The year was 1990 and 1991. And since the rocket scientists of that era thought ocean recoveries might be part of the solution, they employed US Oceanography and our Egabrag III to test some of the ideas.
The first one was short lived. The spacecraft released by B-52 bomber disappeared without trace, there was nothing for us to recover.
Second program we got involved in was to test recovery of the main engines after separation of the space vehicle. Using a half size mockup, we tested different modes of recovery. After we finished testing, the whole program was shelved, I don't know for what reason. Life goes on ...

Thanks, Jan- I was hoping there was more to your story, and I was happy to see this entry today...

One more mission of the research vessel Egabrag III.



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And many years later, satellites still following the ship trail clouds...