The Crystal S (updated)

 

Researched and written by Tom O'Grady

 

 

While most of the posts on this blog feature aspects of the locks and grounds themselves, or historical events, this post will mark a decided departure from past posts. This is an article where the Ballard Locks are really just part of the backdrop of one of the more dramatic stories we've come across. But the fact that the locks were involved in even the slightest fashion, is all the excuse needed to share a great story.

This is not a drill!

Crystal S crew being rescued by the Bering Sea

The above photo was taken by the cook aboard the Bering Sea as it reached the 5 crew members from the now sunken Crystal S after they had spent the last 3 hours sitting atop their overturned lifeboat after abandoning ship. Although the text accompanying the photograph mentions that they had spent 9 hours adrift, 3 hours seems more accurate, although it might well have been 9 hours until they were landed safely back on shore after the incident.

Before going into what's known of the details of the boat's sinking, let's look into the development of the most crucial piece of equipment which was the primary reason for this story to have had the best of all possible outcomes, given the boat's failure.

Gunnar Guddal

Gunnar Guddal was an immigrant from Norway who came to the US in 1956 and spent some time working in North Dakota as a farmhand as well as venturing up to Alaska where he fought forest fires. His spirit of adventure eventually brought him to Seattle where he started his own company selling equipment to the maritime and fishing interests which were in abundance in Seattle. Having lost his grandfather to a fishing accident in Norway, he was dedicated to preventing such losses if at all possible and spent years in developing what would become perhaps his greatest contribution to the fishing and maritime industry ... the survival suit.

Wikipedia article on survival suits

Gunnar Guddal's survival suit 

Others had been working on versions of survival suits, also called immersion suits, for some time with varying degrees of success. Gunnar had finally designed a suit he was confident in and happy with by the late 1960s and began marketing them specifically with fishermen in mind. This turned out to be not an easy sell as the prevailing attitude was almost one of indifference from those in the industry. Some had a completely fatalistic attitude toward being adrift at sea, as to die from exposure to the elements was considered to be faster and more painless than a struggle against the elements. Others, no doubt, probably felt that if they hadn't needed one before, why bother now? Those of a certain age can look back at the uproar caused in this country when seat belts in cars were being considered as a requirement in automobile manufacturing. But Gunnar would bring his new-fangled survival suits to trade shows for the fishing and maritime industries, sometimes accompanied by his 9 year old daughter Kari, who would demonstrate these survival suits by putting one on herself and floating in a small wading pool on the convention floor.

This is a picture taken from National Fisherman, a trade magazine for the industry, and shows a typical convention for the fishing and related industries. (The amount of sales refers to overall sales, not just survival suits). Trade shows like this one would be an example of the scenes where Gunnar would bring his suits for display, sometimes accompanied by his young daughter or another individual who would provide a live demonstration as you can see in the picture below taken at the same Expo but from 1975.  I think if this caption would be run today the editor might suggest a more bland wording to describe the model.

The Crystal Boat Company

 Crystal Boat Company partners. From left to right: Magne Nes, Peder Nornes, and Mauri Oaksmith

Mauri Oaksmith was also a local man living in Ballard at the time who had a lifelong love of the water and boating. He owned a marine insurance company with an office at Fishermen's Terminal and as so would have known and had contact with a large number of anyone working in the fishing or maritime industries. In 1974 he, along with Magne Nes and Peder Nornes, bought a fishing boat which was located on the east coast and had it brought to Seattle. The boat was called the Crystal S and they formed a legal partnership and called it the Crystal Boat Company. Magne and Peder were both long time fishermen who have owned many fishing boats as well as spending most of their working lives fishing on them from Seattle to Alaska.

Magne and Peder flew to New Bedford where the Crystal S was based and sailed it back to Seattle. After sailing through the Panama Canal they brought the boat to Salina Cruz shipyard in Mexico, where modifications would be made before starting on it's West Coast career. Mauri traveled to Salina Cruz twice to make arrangements for the modifications before the boat had been sailed there. Nes and Nornes stayed at the shipyard for many weeks while the work was being performed. Magnus Eliassen, who would be the skipper for the Crystal S was at the shipyard for the entirety of time while the work was being performed.

With the modifications competed, they prepared for the upcoming fishing season. First for herring, then salmon, and finally to Alaska for the King Crab season. Magnes Eliassen was the skipper, Thomas Stava the engineer, and John Oaksmith, Sam Samuelsen, and Tor Tollesen were the other three crew members. John Oaksmith was the only inexperienced crew member as all the others had all fished for many years before this. He was Mauri's brother and was given an opportunity to get his "sea legs" under him. "Beginner's luck" doesn't begin to describe how this adventure would unfold.

 Magne, Mauri, and Peder would have known Gunnar for some time as the fishing and maritime industries were so interconnected, and so much of the shipyards, supply stores, and related businesses were located in the Ballard area of Seattle. They were not only aware of his work on survival suits, Magne himself was a strong proponent of the suits as well as other safeguards he put in place on his other boats long before they were legally mandated. The day before the Crystal S was to leave Seattle for the various fisheries, Mauri contacted Gunnar in order to buy a set of suits for the crew. Gunnar either drove up to Bremerton, where the suits were being manufactured by the Imperial Manufacturing company, or arranged to have them brought to him here in Seattle, and he delivered them the next day to Mauri at his office at Fisherman's Terminal. According to Mauri's wife Gwen, Mauri immediately brought them down to the Ballard Locks where their boat was in the lock waiting to begin their season. From the lockwall beside the large lock, Mauri began throwing Gunnar's suits to his brother on deck of the Crystal S. He explained to John what they were, where to stow them on board the boat, and most importantly, stressed to John that the crew were to try them out and make sure they knew how to put them on in case of emergency. These suits were not at all common at the time, and Tor Tollesen was likely the only crew member who had ever used them before. Not in an emergency situation but as a unique way of moving from ship to ship to perform a repair or maintenance on the other vessel. He would enter the water from one boat, swim to the next and be lifted by a line dropped from a boom on the neighboring boat. Tests at the time mentioned that a complete novice would be able to put on one in about 1-2 minutes, but with one or two practice attempts, that time could be halved. Seconds matter!

The suits delivered, the crew set out and went about their planned fishing schedule winding up in Alaska in August for the crab season. Due to a work stoppage over a wage dispute, there was no fishing being done over the next couple of weeks, but they had been able to set out their crab pots for later pickup. Tor Tollesen had planned on a trip to Norway to attend his sister's wedding, so he would be replaced the next day by Tormod Kristiansen when the Crystal S was finally set to go crabbing. Tor was dockside as the boat left and he threw the lines off and waved goodbye to his friends. After loading their crab catch on board they prepared to return to port and repeat the process. They unloaded their recent crab haul at Captain's Bay on August 11, and loaded up 36 crab pots on deck and set out for more fishing about 2 AM August 12. Most of the crew headed for their bunks for some well earned rest as they set out again. About 5 AM the boat started to experience some problems and the wheel watch notified the engineer who started an inspection below deck. The bilges were not where the problem was but shortly the boat began to list heavily to one side. The alarm went up, the crew were awakened and a Mayday call was sent out. Another Seattle fishermen recalled being up there with his father and hearing the Mayday call. Kristian Uri remembers the SOS this way ... "One of my traumatic memories was sitting on the wheelhouse chart table, listening to 4 megs and hearing “MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY – this is the Crystal S going down…” This call was acknowledged by the Coast Guard as well by the station on Akutan Island where they had set sail from. Immediately the Coast Guard set out to the location identified on the Mayday signal, and even more importantly so did seven other fishing boats in the area.

 

Relative locations from Seattle to Akutan, Alaska

Back on the Crystal S, the crew had by now put on their survival suits and launched their life raft. They were clearly going to have to abandon ship at this point. Somehow in the process of launching the life raft it started to inflate too soon and wound up getting tangled in the boats rigging. As the boat was sinking Sam Samuelsen managed to free the partially submerged life raft which immediately shot out from under the weight of the sinking boat, landing upside down some 50' from the crew who were now in the frigid Arctic waters. They swam to the life raft but were unable to turn it right side up so as to climb inside. Reports at the time indicate that there were swells of between 5' and 8', which would certainly make the task harder still. But they were able to all climb on top of the inverted life raft and were at least not adrift separately and apart from the raft.

About an hour or so later, they saw the Coast Guard ship Monroe which had responded to their Mayday call. But no one on the Monroe were able to see the raft and crew and after some time sailed back to port. One can only imagine the despondency the crew must have felt at seeing their presumed rescuers give up and sail away.

But of the seven other boats who also responded to the Mayday call, the Bering Sea, by great fortune was heading directly in the direction where the crew and raft had drifted after the Crystal S went down. The picture at the top of this post shows what must have been the happiest moment in the lives of the five crew members. 

Mauri and John's father, Gerald, wrote a personal letter to all concerned thanking them all for their efforts which brought about a safe return for the crew of the Crystal S. Coincidentally, the first two boats mentioned in Gerald's notice were owned jointly by Magne Nes and Peder Nornes. No doubt there were many celebrations upon the crew's return to Seattle.

Gerald Oaksmith with 4 sons, John and Mauri on far right.

Here is the article from Fishermen's News from Aug 1974 which describes the sinking of the Crystal S and the rescue of the crew.

There was some dispute as to whether or not the raft deployed as it should have, or if the crew didn't concern themselves with righting the life raft. Probably it's a question we'll never know the answer to, but in any event it did lead to further efforts in improving safety in the fishing industry by recommending more training for the crew concerned, before any need to depend on using the equipment in an actual emergency.

Fishermen's News full page ad with suits, raft, lights and signaling device

National Fisherman Sept 1974

The above was part of a much longer article stressing the importance of increased training in the use of emergency equipment in hopes of saving lives in future ac

 

This is a drill!

 

The sinking of the Crystal S and the survival of the 5 crew members seems to have spurred many efforts in education and training of future crews in the emergency equipment their lives could well depend on should things go badly while at sea. Survival tests were conducted with and without survival suits to explore the limits of human endurance.

A collection of ads and articles would follow the sinking of the Crystal S and rescue of the crew. This dramatic episode caught the attention of all in the fishing industry and was a game changer for Gunnar Guddal and his company and spurred many others to make many changes in their approach to maritime safety. Although these survival suits would not become mandatory until the late '80s, their presence on fishing boats especially, was increasing noticeably. Here's a few of the types of ads and articles you would have seen in trade magazines as well as daily newspapers. One of these features John Oaksmith himself and many of the others specifically mention the Crystal S, as its notoriety was especially well known in the Pacific Northwest.

John Oaksmith in ad on left with survival suit.

The small "family suit" ad in the top center, is believed to be Gunnar with wife Elsie, daughter Kari and a family friend as the suit models.

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Even Seattle's own Emmett Watson had his own unique contribution to make.

In 1992 there was a gathering to honor Gunnar Guddal and his life's achievements. Although Mauri Oaksmith was unable to attend this special night, he sent Gunnar a letter expressing his deep and lifelong gratitude to him for the difference he made in his own life as well as countless others. It's worth keeping in mind that the successful outcome of this story is primarily due to the owners of the Crystal S, Magne Nes, Mauri Oaksmith, and Peder Nornes and their decision to provide the survival suits for the crew, and of course, the suit's inventor Gunnar Guddal.

 

I'll close this post with a quote from Mauri himself in his letter to Gunnar.

Gunnar, Mauri, and Peder have commemorative bricks at the Fishermen's Memorial at Fishermens Terminal which are meant to commemorate those who have made contributions to the fishing industry and who have passed away.

Many thanks to Gwen Oaksmith who first brought us this story.

 

Thanks also to Alan Davis at Fishermen's Memorial for the information and contacts he provided.

 

Thanks to Kari Guddal, one such contact for a wealth of information about her father and his work.

 

Thanks to the librarians at Seattle Library, downtown branch as well as the librarians at the University of Washington. Invaluable help from all of them.

 

Thanks also to Tor Tollesen for much information and some corrections to my original post. He also offered many interesting stories ... some of which were actually related to the subject of this story. If you ever find yourself sitting next to a fishermen at a church social or local pub, just start a conversation and sit back and enjoy yourself. There will be no shortage of stories and surprisingly few of them are actually about fish. If you're pressed for time, start with the bar stool approach first.

 

Most of the original subjects of the story have passed away over the years and only Tormod Kristiansen and Tor Tollesen are known to still be with us. Tormod is retired and living in his native Norway where he's now seen more often on a dance floor rather than on a ship's deck. And Tor is still active in the company which he started here in Ballard many years ago, Lunde Marine Electronics, where he is the President. 

 

All articles and ads were printed in National Fisherman, Fishermen's News, Seattle PI, or the Seattle Times.

 

We are still hoping to find any additional information about the Crystal S story, so if anyone is familiar with the crab boat Bering Sea or any of the crew, especially Barry Ojai who took the photo of the crew on the life raft, please leave a comment below this post and we'll follow up. 

P.S. If you ever find yourself at a trade show, don't be so quick to overlook the next 9 year old girl demonstrating a product. She just might be showing you how you could save your own life!

 

Epilogue

Mauri Oaksmith passed away in 2021. His wife Gwen who first brought us this story, also sent a couple of other pictures I'll include here. The first is Mauri and Gwen enjoying their retirement years, long after the Crystal S episode.

 

 

Gwen and Mauri Oaksmith

 

 

Below is a picture of the extended Oaksmith family.

 

 

 

Seeing a large family gathering such as this, helps us to realize how many lives are affected by tragedies at sea. Considering there was a crew of 5 on the Crystal S when she went down, the number of relatives who deal with such losses rapidly reach "village" levels. Not to mention friends, acquaintances, colleagues ... all have benefited from Gunnar Guddal's survival suits.

Gunnar Guddal passed away in 2006. He left behind a legacy few could match and gratitude from countless others who likely never knew his name but were certainly indebted to him for his efforts.