“What Happened in Craig“ Capt. Kolivosky and Lt. McCoy, having become more adept at tide charts, soon met with Sue Domenowske. Sue told them that she and Paul Page had driven to Craig on Tuesday, September 7, to get ice, take showers, or to pick up lumber for their house — Domenowske couldn’t remember exactly what they were up to. No matter. Her memory of the skiffman was engraved in her consciousness.
Sue Domenowske, who was standing about ten or 12 feet away from Paul Page on the Phillips Cold Storage dock, remembered the skiff’s bow hitting the dock head on. “It didn’t come in alongside like you’d normally bring a boat in,” she recalled. When the skiff smashed into it, the dock shuddered under her feet and spooked her.
The man jumped out of the skiff and, she said, using a rope attached to the bow, quickly and loosely lashed it to the dock. Domenowske remembered that the man was young, maybe between 19 and 21 years old, and had stringy-looking brown hair that fell about one and a half to two inches below his ears. He wore glasses, a blue or blue-grey baseball cap, jeans, a T-shirt, and a wool fisherman’s jacket.
Woolrich Brand “Halibut” Jacket from the 80’s (Woolrich didn’t explicitly sell a “halibut” jacket, but plaid wool hunting jackets like the one shown acquired that nickname throughout the fishing community)
Domenowske said she tried to ask him if anybody was on board the burning vessel. “I thought he was in shock or something because he was ashen colored, and he talked really measuredly and kind of slow. He said he had to go, he was in a hurry, but he still kind of just stood there.”
The man then told them that, if they wanted, they could take the skiff out to the fire.
“Neither Paul or I are that great at operating a skiff so we told him no, we didn’t want to take his skiff to go out to the fire,” she said. The man then said he had to leave to go call the Coast Guard, which freaked her out.
“No one’s called the Coast Guard yet?” Domenowske exclaimed. But he just walked away without responding. Domenowske added that he didn’t look like anyone she’d ever seen in town.
Copyright Leland E. Hale (2018). All rights reserved.
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