19th-century Russian freighter found in Alaskan waters
By SHEILA TOOMEY, Anchorage Daily News
(Published July 29' 2003)
KODIAK ISLAND, Alaska (SH) - A team of divers has discovered what
appears to be the oldest shipwreck ever found in Alaska waters, the
remains of a three-masted Russian sailing freighter called the
Kadi'ak, which sank off Kodiak Island in March 1860.
The searchers, led by Bradley Stevens, a scientist with the National
Marine Fisheries Service, located a cannon, an anchor and what they
believe to be copper sheeting in an underwater sand channel off Spruce
Island, said Steve Lloyd, one of the divers.
The remains promise a wealth of cultural and historical artifacts dear
to the hearts of archaeologists but no conventional treasure, said
Mike Yarborough, an Anchorage archaeologist who did early research for
the project. The Kadi'ak belonged to the Russian-American Co., active
when Alaska was a Russian colony, and carried a cargo of ice bound for
San Francisco when it sank.
"The Russian-American Company had an ice plant on Woody Island, and
also a sawmill," Yarborough said. "They would saw ice in winter, pack
it in sawdust and ship it to San Francisco for the gold miners to put
in their drinks. It was a very lucrative trade."
The trip took two to three months, he said.
Yarborough lived in Kodiak during the 1970s and first saw a reference
to the Kadi'ak in a history book more than 20 years ago. When he later
spotted the name in Russian documents, he sent copies to Katherine
Arndt, a Fairbanks translator, curious to find out more about the
ship.
Yarborough passed on Arndt's translations, which included contemporary
descriptions of where the ship went down, to Stevens, who developed
something of an obsession to find the wreck.
Because of stories associated with its demise, the sinking of the
Kadi'ak assumed mythic proportions among Russian Orthodox faithful in
the area, Stevens said.
The 500-ton barque, about 120 feet long, was captained by Illarion
Ivanovich Arkhimandritov, a respected Russian-educated seaman who was
half-Alaska Native, Yarborough said. The Russian-American Co. bought
it from a German owner in 1851. Before it was lost, it made at least
one trip to the Hawaiian Islands, he said.
The Kadi'ak sailed north from Sitka in late February 1860 with a cargo
of timber for a new icehouse on Woody Island, then loaded 365 tons of
ice for the trip to California, according to historian Richard Pierce
in his book "Russian America."
Legend says the wife of the governor had previously asked the captain
to hold a ceremony in a chapel on Spruce Island near where a
now-sainted Orthodox priest was buried. He had died about 30 years
earlier.
As the story goes, Arkhimandritov tempted fate by failing to do so.
Shortly after leaving harbor, the Kadi'ak struck an uncharted rock and
foundered, but didn't sink right away.
The crew of about 27 got off safely and the ship "bobbed around like
an ice cube in a glass, probably buoyed up by the ice on board,"
Yarborough said. Crews were sent to tow the wreck to port, but the
wind came up and it got away from them, drifting over three days to
Spruce Island, where it sank right in front of the old chapel.
When it came to rest on the ocean bottom, all that could be seen from
shore was one mast rising from the water with a single horizontal
spar, forming a cross.
The people at the time saw a message in all this.
The Rev. Paul Merculief of St. Innocent's Russian Orthodox Church in
Anchorage said the legend of the Kadi'ak is not known to him, but
believers may well have suggested the captain ask the clergyman's
spirit to intercede with God for the safety of the ship.
Stevens has been looking for the Kadi'ak for 12 years and had begun to
doubt the legend about where it sank. It was found last week. "Just
finding it and proving that the stories were true is the biggest thing
for me," he said Sunday.
The team is leaving everything in place, awaiting professional
underwater archaeologists.
