KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Bristol Bay double-ender, ca. 1920s. Photograph courtesy of the Pilot Point Tribal Council, Ace Griechen Collection.
What may very well be the last intact Bristol Bay double-ender on Kodiak Island is looking for a new home. The boat is owned by Leigh and Kip Thomet, and they are planning to move it from where it sits in Bell’s Flats. Leigh says they are working with the Kodiak Maritime Museum to find a sheltered place to store it while a preservation plan can be designed and funded.
— (Double 1 34 sec "It needs to be in a dry area … have that sort of life.")
The Thomet’s boat was built in 1937 and salvaged in 1975 from the old Alaska Packers Association Diamond M cannery in Naknek by Kodiak resident Tony Jones.
The double-enders were sailboats based on a Columbia River design from Astoria, Oregon in the mid-1800s. They driftnetted in the Bristol Bay salmon fishery until the 1950s, when they were finally allowed to be replaced with motorized boats. Some double-enders were retrofitted with engines and small cabins, and were known as "conversions," extending their working life several more decades.
Two of the 10 double enders Jones salvaged in Naknek were floated up the Kvichak (k’wee-jack) River and taken over the Pile Bay Road portage from Lake Iliamna to Cook Inlet, and then sailed to Kodiak. The others were barged here.
The Thomets bought their boat from Kay Povelite in the early 90s, and used it at their setnet site until 2009:
— (Double 2 21 sec "We used it as a holding skiff … and more quality.")
Thomet says when she’s been in the boat, she’s often thought about who the people were who fished in it before her family:
— (Double 3 31 sec "The one thing I get out … and what their story was.")
And she said the boats were just as tough as the fishermen who operated them:
— (Double 4 27 sec "They’re an amazing sea boat … around any more.")
The Thomets hope to find a dry place for their boat by spring.
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