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National Geographic : 1947 Jun
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Endeavour Sails the Inside Passage This Blockhouse Reminds that Sitka Was Once Capital of Russian America A replica of the original which protected the Russian garrison and townspeople from the Indians, it memorializes early days when trade and industry for the whole North Pacific region centered here. Ware houses were crammed with sea-otter skins. Foundries cast bells for the California missions. Little original evidence of the Czar's rule remains, for everything was constructed of wood and deteriorated quickly. Before Endeavour cleared Juneau, a rare summer gale swept the harbor. Roaring winds, shoving battalions of black clouds be fore them, strummed through our boat rigging for two days. This was the "Taku." Its winds have been recorded for five minutes' duration at 50 miles an hour, with individual gusts at 90 miles. We sailed before the storm abated. Head ing down Gastineau Channel, Endeavour crossed Stephens Passage in rollicking seas and flying spray and then dropped anchor near the "treasure ship" Islander which lay beached in a cove on Admiralty Island-a barnacled, gutted hulk. The Islander, carry ing Klondike gold from Skagway in 1901, sank in 365 feet of water, but salvagers raised her in the 1930's (page 817). For a while John and I sat in Endeavour's cabin, listening to the sluicing rain pattering across the cabin deck like the sound of bare feet. Then, upping anchor, we sailed north. Off Funter Bay we caught up with the Taylors on the Como Reto. They were fish ing for king salmon with a sport tackle. For two days we anchored off the head of Funter among a fleet of trollers. Because of the failure of the salmon run, many of these fishermen had not even made their gas money. A transient troller, bound westward, said, "These fellows are anchored here waiting for the fish to come in; I'm going out and meet 'em." Ashore we met Harvey Smith, who had just come here to live after 25 years as a construc tion engineer in foreign countries. 825
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