FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson) 

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitkans Gather Sunday For Blessing of the Fleet

By Sentinel Staff

The annual Blessing of the Fleet will be held 2 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at Totem Square at Lincoln and Katlian streets – a temporary location because of construction at Crescent Harbor shelter.

The service includes music, prayers, blessing of boats and gear, bell-ringing in memory of loved ones, and spreading flowers across the water. 

Two wreaths will be taken out to sea, one to honor those mariners lost and the other to recognize those whose living is earned at sea.

Local musicians participating this year are: Mary Soltis, vocals; Matt Donohoe, vocals; Eric Gjertsen, mandolin; Dave Glazier, vocals, fiddle, guitar (and a keyboard/harmonica); Jim Berry, vocals; Laura Turcott, vocals; Dave Turcott, vocals; and Karen Lucas, vocals and guitar.

Prelude music includes sea chanties ‘‘The Fishermen’s Song,’’ ‘‘Safe in the Harbor’’ and ‘‘The Fishermen’s Hymn.’’ Other hymns will be: ‘‘Crossing the Bar,’’ ‘‘For Those in Peril on the Sea,’’ ‘‘How Great Thou Art,’’ ‘‘The Harbor Bell,’’ ‘‘Amazing Grace,’’ ‘‘Troublesome Waters’’ and ‘‘When Peace Like a River Attendeth.’’ 

The St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Choir will join in the ceremony. 

Father Andy Sensenig, St. Gregory’s Catholic Church; Turnie and Evadne Wright, the Salvation Army; Deacon Glenda Quintana, St. Peter’s Episcopal; and Pastor Sandra S. Rudd, Sitka Lutheran Church, among other clergy, will officiate.

Other participants include the U.S. Coast Guard Color Guard, the Assembly of God providing the P.A. system, and the Sitka Harbor Department. Individuals and families are again invited to take flowers and wreaths in remembrance of loved ones. The flowers will be taken out to sea following the ceremony. Those taking wreaths are reminded that they must be made of biodegradable materials. 

Refreshments will be served immediately after the blessing at the Sitka Lutheran Church, 224 Lincoln Street. The front and back doors of the church will be open. 

 

Organizers of the Blessing of the Fleet are S.E. Alaska Women in Fisheries and the Sitka Lutheran Church.

Those wanting to add names of mariners not included in the published list today, who have passed since the last blessing, may contact Mary Todd Andersen at 738-0969.  

Bells will toll after eachname is read of mariners who have died sine the last Blessing of the Fleet.

Those mariners are John Kenneth Davis, Earl Williams Sr., Dave Gross, Leo Kondro, Richard Steele Sunde, Charlotte Winnie, Harvey B. Marvin, Brian W. Crider, Gregory Mark Killinger, John Littlefield, B.G. Olson, Alton Isaac ‘‘Ike’’ Cropley, Michael Guy Stalkfleet, Chester ‘’Corky’’ Stewart, Theodore Edmund Grutter, Joe Lewis, Alfred Gray, Phillip Charles Nielsen, Eugene Widen, Franklin George Peters, Gene Craig Sr., Doyle Vernon Hoffman, Gerald Eugene Didrickson, Claude K. Odell, Gregory Allen Belton, Joseph E. Howard Sr., Jacob Hemnes, Francis John Parsons, William Church, Gary Harwood Erb, Lawrence Sommers, Richard Eldon Huff, Jack Roy Revard, Walter Francis Baldwin, William Walter Winnop, Robert C. Conatser, Zachary Gray, Jessica Acker, Leona Skultka, Myron Wheeler, Ian Blair, Christopher Fondell, Keith Garnick, Harvey Davis, James Drury, Mick McClain, Daniel Blankenship, Carl (The Snarl) Gregg and Scott Raymer. 

Richard Tedwill Hattan died at sea.

 

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.


50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....

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