Roy Tussing also remembered a barbecue on one of the uninhabited islands that dot the Inside Passage in southeast Alaska. They were still fishing the Kit, Tussing said, and were taking a well-deserved break. A fair amount of alcohol was consumed by the time the barbecue was ready, and the rest of the crew noticed crewman John Peel passed out at the galley table in the Kit. So, they thought, why not tie him to the table?
And that’s what they did, taking a length of rope and tying his feet to the legs of the table. Then they wondered if they could get his hands, too. They had to do it without waking him up. And when they were done, they went back to their barbecue.
A hour or so later, they heard angry shouts coming from inside the Kit. John Peel had come to his senses. “Get me out of here you assholes,” he shouted. ”Get me out of here.”
Only one crewman volunteered to help. Dean Moon. He brought Peel a knife. He was ready to cut the ropes. Somehow, though, the captive wasn’t grateful. He started blaming his rescuer. Told him he would kick his ass when he got out of the ropes.
Moon wisely cut one hand free, then put the knife on the galley table. “Cut your ownself free,” he told his co-worker.
What to make of Tussing’s Coulthurst recollections was — and is — a persistent challenge. There was, in his musings, a sense of playful innocence distorted by liquor. Of teenaged boys acting like, well, teenaged boys. And yet, hidden between the lines was something else.
Those years on the Kit, whatever else they were, had a sense of reckless fun. Of barbeques and near sinkings and joke tapes. When Tussing started to describe the Investor, all the fun was gone out of his voice. The Investor was serious business, where not even a break for an ice cream cone could be contemplated.
Excerpts from the unpublished original manuscript, “Sailor Take Warning,” by Leland E. Hale. That manuscript, started in 1992 and based on court records from the Alaska State Archive, served as the basis for “What Happened in Craig.”
Copyright Leland E. Hale (2019). All rights reserved.
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