Artifact of the Month: August 2018

"The Best Boat on the West Coast"

Terry Richardson may best be known for his exquisitely detailed boat models, but many don't know he's also an avid coffee cup collector. In fact, coffee cups are his signature. Each of his boat models features one to give the impression of fishermen at work. Recently, Terry donated a coffee cup from the M/V Crane for the Tongass Historical Museum's new permanent exhibit. In the late 1990s, Terry acquired the cup from his long-time friend and the boat's owner, Lawrence "Snapper" Carson, while he was building a model of the historic vessel. The coffee cup was made for Snapper by one of his sons and was used on the boat.

The M/V Crane was built as a fish packer in 1928 at the J.C. Johnson Shipyard on Bainbridge Island, Washington, for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. Over the past 90 years, the wooden vessel has served many functions throughout the Pacific Northwest and has had many names, including Brapo, Fishing 5, Belle, and Patricia. For the first 30 years of service, the M/V Crane patrolled the Washington and Alaskan coasts all the way to the Bering Sea to monitor the salmon and halibut fisheries, and to conduct seasonal patrols for the protection of sea otters and migrating fur seal herds. In the fall, as the vessel returned south, it would stop in Southeast Alaska to assess salmon spawning waterways. The 90-foot vessel was also regularly used for transport, once delivering mail between Seattle and Juneau during a maritime strike in the 1930s.

In 1940, the Bureau of Fisheries merged with the Bureau of Biological Survey to form the Fish and Wildlife Service, who managed the M/V Crane's operations until statehood in 1959 when the boat was transferred to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Under their management, the packer was decommissioned and sold into private hands where it has remained until present day. Snapper Carson bought the M/V Crane in 1978 for $190,000 and ran it for 25 years as a packer for salmon and herring. Snapper called the sturdy wooden vessel, "the best boat on the West Coast." In a 1982 article for Alaska Fisherman's Journal, Snapper shared a story of colliding with a seiner. The impact sliced the aluminum seiner in half, but was barely felt on the M/V Crane. The Beaudin family purchased the boat from Snapper in 2003 and after restoring it, they now run Crane Adventures, a maritime tour company based out of Seattle.

Object credit:
Ketchikan Museums, KM 2018.2.17.1

Photo caption & credit:
M/V Crane at Snapper Carson's dock, May 18, 1998.
Photo courtesy of Terry Richardson