Tue, March 17, 2015
by J. Pennelope Goforth [Reader discretion advised: this rant contains strong language and truthiness.] It’s right up there with Dewey Wins! and Mission Accomplished and it’s just as wrong. The phrase has been said so many times in ignorant error that I refuse to let it be a search word term in this opinion piece. You know the one I’m talking about. The one that describes Secretary of State William Seward’s support for the Treaty of Cession as a mindless...
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Thu, March 12, 2015
by J Pennelope Goforth Earlier this month Seward welcomed the Polar Class 5 ice-capable vessel SIKULIAQ to its homeport. The name derives from the Inupiaq for ‘young sea ice’ and is pronounced ‘see-KOO-lee-auk’. She is a new 261-foot oceanographic research vessel. A commissioning ceremony and community reception for the SIKULIAQ was held in Seward. [caption id="attachment_3638" align="alignright" width="300"] The commissioning ceremony in Seward, March 7.[/caption] The ‘commissioning’ of a vessel is one of the major events in a...
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Fri, March 06, 2015
[caption id="attachment_3615" align="alignleft" width="221"] Captain Matthew Turner is best known as the most prolific shipbuilder on the western coast with some 240 vessels to his name from racing yachts to merchant cargo vessels. In addition to introducing Pacific cod to San Francisco, Turner also pioneered the south seas fruit trade and supplied the J. D. Spreckles sugar company with ships. (Unknown photography studio, San Francisco, CA. ca 1878.)[/caption] By: Jim Mackovjak San Francisco had grown quickly from a sleepy...
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Mon, March 02, 2015
by J. Pennelope Goforth Back in the day, in Alaska anyway, mail ships had personalities that summoned devoted fans who enthusiastically met each arrival at the dock. The mail boat brought not only first and second class mail, but current newspapers, fresh foodstuffs, cargo and most importantly, people. Teachers, doctors, priests, and loved ones returning home. These ships of yore spawned legends and myths along Alaska’s thousands of miles of coastline and river fairways for their bravery and courage...
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Tue, February 17, 2015
We lost a friend, a mentor, and a trailblazer of a historian at the beginning of January when Pat Roppel died. No one has done more to document the history of canneries in Alaska than Pat. From her seminal work, Salmon from Kodiak to her weekly columns that tracked the trajectory of canneries, salteries, and fishing boats published in the Capital City Weekly, Pat’s canon of work is voluminous and far-reaching. But even her published work is a small indication...
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