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Okay. Years after a sad shipwreck happens, you, a retired Alaska State Trooper, find out about it and decides it deserves a book. It involves people you know in the tiny fishing town of Pelican in Southeast Alaska where you now live, so how do you handle it? Just as you conducted investigations when you were working. You interview people, get as many sides to the story as possible, find as many photographs as you can and record it all.

The heart of the story is set in November, 1950, when coping with weather on fishing boats in Southeast hadn’t really changed since marine engines were invented and skippers had to depend on experience and luck to traverse a course, particularly in the fall and winter. No marine weather reports were available in Pelican. At that time, when the community gathered at the Cold Storage to hear the World Series broadcast on the shortwave radio, the lack of marine radios, telephones and television were not noticed.

First, the families involved are given short biographies, illustrated with photographs. Then the tragic hunting trip is reported. The “Dixie” was a good fishing boat and her owner, Fred Wetche, an experienced skipper. His passengers were his son, Fred, Jr., “Bubby” age 14, and Helvig “Chris” Christensen, a long-time friend. The November trip was only about a two-and-a-half hour run from Pelican, but a portion between harbors was wide open to the North Pacific where the winter storms can be fierce. Unfortunately for the hunters, during their return, a 50-60 mile per hour wind came screaming out of the Northeast and battered the boat until the engine stopped near Yakobi Rock and the boat slammed into it. The boat broke up in a few minutes; they took to the skiff; it swamped. Helvig managed to wedge a fist into a crevice in the rock and held on. His shoes were gone, his clothing soaked. He said later “the tide would come in and my legs would warm up; it would go out and they would freeze.”

Two days later, on the Friday, Tom Allain came to town and decided to search for the “Dixie”. He had Marie Mork, 13, and her sister, Betty, 16, along on their way to visit in Sunnyside, across the inlet and asked them if they’d like to come. Of course they would. His boat was only 32 feet but sound, although there were no electronics on board. Tom piloted her while the girls slept. Around midnight the prop slammed into a reef; the reverse gear was damaged and water was entering the hull. Marie was set to work with the manual deck pump. Tom managed to get his vessel into the lee of Yakobi Rock and Betty began blowing the manual air horn. Suddenly they heard Helvig shouting. Tom took the skiff and soon rescued him although it was highly dangerous for both. The anchor winch was broken, so the girls had to pull the anchor by hand. Amazingly, the boat and crew made it safely back to Pelican by 7:30 the next morning.

Helvig lost part of both legs, but constructed a three-wheeler for himself and continued his marine repair business in Pelican for many years.

Somehow the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission learned of the tragedy and sent an investigator to Pelican. The Mork sisters and Allain were all awarded Hero medals and money.

So Officer Carson has now closed the case and interviewed Marie (now Laws), the only living actor. She didn’t really think she’d done anything that heroic. When the medal was presented at the Sheldon Jackson School in Sitka, modest Marie later said, “I wanted to slide under a table or desk.”

An excellent read for anyone, especially those who boat in Southeast Alaska and can look around and enjoy the marine radio, not to mention electric bilge pump, fathometer and searchlight. And particularly for those who admire the modest Marie.

Dee Longenbaugh is the proprietor of The Observatory bookstore in Juneau. Her reviews have been published and broadcast across the country.