Kodiak Maritime Museum moves Thelma C to permanent spot downtown

The Thelma C in its permanent location downtown by Trident Seafoods. (Photo by Pam Foreman / KMXT)

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Kodiak Maritime Museum just moved its future outdoor exhibit, a historic fishing vessel, to its permanent location downtown.

Museum executive director Toby Sullivan says the Thelma C has been in the museum’s collection since 2005 and it was built following the 1964 earthquake and tsunami.

“A whole bunch of fishermen. Hundreds of people needed new boats. And there was a federal loan program in place that was low interest from the Small Business Administration, so a lot of people built boats just like the Thelma C. Sister ships. And we think this is – if not the last one, just about the last one in existence. The other ones have sunk and burnt up and gone on rocks and fallen apart.”

He says the museum rebuilt the boat in 2012 and, up until Wednesday, the museum had been keeping it in storage.

He says yesterday they moved the boat to its permanent spot by Trident Seafoods.

“We lowered it down onto some cribbing on a concrete pad where the exhibit will be. And then in a few days we’re gonna pull the cribbing out and actually lower the boat onto the frame, which will hold it – the boat cradle.”

He says the next step is to set up the pavilion, which will protect the vessel from the worst of the bad weather.

He says the museum is also contracting with Canadian-based SH Immersive Environments to manufacture the interpretive panels the museum will set up at the exhibit.

He says it’s the same company that did a series of panels downtown by St. Paul Harbor.

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