Two Tales of Old Kodiak

Let this author take you back to an earlier, wilder Kodiak when the seafood industry was booming and the town never went to sleep, when fur trappers were popular and often sold most of their prime catch to the locals and tourists, when the bars and churches ran neck and neck in numbers and the congregation was always largest in the former. 

The Wreck of the Rustler will give the reader a feel for what living on Kodiak meant in the 50s and 60s and take you on a few boat rides on the Island, one of which become a terrifying nightmare for the four young boys aboard when the skipper and other adults dank too much whiskey. The boat plowed into a rockpile on a wintery Christmas night and began taking on water. For hours impending death loomed in their thoughts as they helped fight to save the boat and aid towards their eventual rescue by Coast Guard helicopters. 

Confessions of a Seal Hunter is a descriptive recollection of a small seal hunt down the east side of Kodiak Island during which an untried boy tool his first steps into manhood, learning the skills of work and survival as he followed his skipper down the Island in a small skiff, dreading his first kill with the club, learning to skin the seal and care for the hides, working brutal, long hours every day to help increase the catch and learning that a working man was expected to carry his share of the load no matter how tired, hungry, and cold he was.