A FAIRLY RECENT PICTURE of the author and his family.
With him is his wife Bernice and son, Wilson J. He also has a daugh
ter Cecelia.
Kodiak Locale For True Adventure Tale
White Water: An Alaskan Ad
venture. By Wilson Fiske Erskine.
Illustrated. Abelard Sehuman,
$4.95.
By SIG DIGREE
Going whaling at the age of
eleven years; taking command of
his own ship as a young lad; attain
ing the status of “Master of Steam
and Motor Vessels of any gross
tons upon oceans” in the short
space of thirty years; and the ven
turesome episodes that were
crowded in the short space of time,
all are told in a book that has Ko
diak as its locale.
The boak, “White Water” by Wil
son Fisk Erskine will thrill the
lover of the novel of adventure, but
will hold the interest of the reader
more because of it’s authentic back
ground and its relating of facts,
not fiction.
Growing up here as a boy and
returning as the years progressed,
the author’s life was completely
bound up with the Kodiak of the
early 1900s. Because his family fol
lowed the custom of living the win
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KRAFT’S MEN’S WEAR
ter months in California, and re
turning to Kodiak in the spring, his
periods away were filled with long
ing. “Alaska never disappointed
me. Never!” he writes. Going fur
ther he says elsewhere in his book:
“It was extremely difficult to con
trol the desire to return to Alaska
during the school years. 1 missed
the bitter taste of white salt water
spray. I missed the stinging bite
of snowJaden winter winds, and
the glory of long summer days
when I grew heady with a strong
aroma of sweet green grass and
wild flowers.”
Whaling is linked closely with
the early history of Alaska—a ven
turesome occupation, it called for
men who feared neither the angry
sea, nor these monsters of the deep.
For a boy of eleven to enter such
a man’s world is hard to conjec
ture. Wilson Erskine did just that.
In this book he provides some
highly interesting eye-witness ac
counts of those early whaling days,
and recounts his participation in
these and other hazardous expedi
tions. In a review of this nature,
we do not have the space to go into
details. Rather, we would leave it
to the reader’s enjoyment to pick
up 'this book and enjoy these true
tales.
The boy enters manhood, and
into active participation in whale
hunts. But this is only one phase
of his life on the sea as recounted
here. The book is replete with ad
ventures, tragedies and early his
tory of Kodiak and its people—of
the villages and out-of-the-way
places on and near Kodiak Island.
In the book you will find inter
esting, yea, fascinating reading
about the author’s three happy
years at sea aboard his first ship
the “Kodiak”; his later schooners,
tugs and boats, and the final ship
that he was sure was jinxed, be
cause of the many mishaps that be
fell it. This was the “Western
Trader” which finally came to
rest, a wreck, on Maud Island.
You will find much to hold your
interest in this book. Sketches in
the book are by the author and are
excellent.
The author lives in Miami, Flori
da with his wife Bernice, Wilson
J., age 14, and daughter Nel Ce
celia, 11 years old.
Aug. 22, 1940
Otto Kraft, Long-time Merchant Retires
On March 16th, 1885, a boy of 20
years of age, born in Berlin, Ger
many, left San Francisco, Cal., on
the schooner Karluk and after sail
ing the stormy seas arrived in Ko
diak on March 29th of the same
year, to accept a position with the
Karluk Packing Co. Today, Otto
Kraft, still a fine speciman of man
hood leaves this town to spend the
rest of his life in peace, quiet and
contentment in sunny California.
“He has made his stake”.
For years Mr. Kraft was in
charge of the North American Com
mercial Co. store on Wood Is.
where he traded merchandise for
sea-otter, foxskins of all types,
land-otters and ermine, as well as
bears, with the natives here. Ko
diak at that time had only one other
store, that of the Alaska Commer
cial Co., and a population of 175
persons, with no commissioner or
marshall. Only Russian money was
used and 'that was the universal
language also. The Federal offi
cials came here in 1890, imposing
no jail sentences, as fines were
their only source of revenue and
the companies had to pay the fines
of their native hunters. The omy
villages in Alaska then were Sitka,
Kodiak and Unalaska.
Mr. Kraft married in 1889 and
has had nine children, 3 of whom
died. He started the store of O.
Kraft & Son in 1903, recently sell
ing his entire interest in the con
siderably expanded business to his
son, Ben Kraft, who will carry on
the merchantile establishment un
der the old name.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Kraft intend
visiting friends in a number of Pa
cific Coast towns before returning
to their home in Seattle, Wash. To
the man who has been in Kodiak
for 55 years and 4 months, we ex
tend our best wishes for his future
happiness and good health.
Bon Voyage, Mr. and Mrs. Kraft!
Cheechako
(Continued from page 7)
eggs. We were of the old school
who believed an egg couldn’t be
too fresh.
I defy any master of the culinary
arts to take one or more of the
hatched products to reach Kodiak
in the early war years, and through
any amount of deftness and skill
that he might possess, place before
you an enjoyable dish. It just
couldn’t be done. Today, it’s a
different story. You now have a
choice—boatt eggs, airborne or
local—what you do with it after
you get it—it’s up to you.
And that is as it should be.
Looking Idea?
for a
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adding machines and typewriters.
Len Johnson —
Kodiak Office Equipment
Ph. 6-2350 after 6 p. m. Box 1515
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