HISTORY OF A TSUNAMI — ROBERTS 339 



debris — certainly not the landslide alone. Then, too, there are the 

 eyewitness reports of the survivors of the wave. 



It seems that the Lituya Bay wave of 1958, a true tsunami in the 

 original sense of "wave-in-a-bay," unbelievably but in all probability 

 threw its foaming crest higher than any wave ever before known to 

 man. 



Eyewitness stories of the Lituya events come from the Swansons 

 and from Howard Ulrich. Bill and Vivian Swanson, occupants of 

 the Badger during her mad flight across La Chaussee Spit in company 

 with the ill-fated Wagners, somehow managed to get clear of the 

 wreck in an 8-foot punt, undergoing exposure and fright as well as 

 loss of their worldly possessions, before their rescue by a fisherman 

 named Graham m the trawler Luman. They were quickly flown to 

 Juneau in a rescue plane and, after a short hospital rest, were able to 

 describe their experience. They were sure they had seen the glacier 

 riding high into sight from behind the western mountain, followed 

 by a great wave of water washing over its steep face. During the 

 following wild ride across the spit they believed they were 100 feet 

 high, for there had been trees on the spit, and they were above them. 

 They looked down on rocks as big as houses. They were incredulous 

 and deeply thankful to be alive. 



The stoiy told by the other survivors, Howard Ulrich and his son, 

 will probably be unmatched for a long time to come. In a vivid account 

 published in The Alaska Sportsman Ulrich tells how they entered 

 the ba}'^ on the last of the floodtide for rest after a day of poor fish- 

 mg. He anchored the Eclrie in a cove on the south side a mile or so 

 inside the entrance, and after supper he and Sonny went to sleep, 

 only to be awakened by violent motions soon after 10:15. Dash- 

 ing to the deck, Ulrich beheld the writliing and twisting of the high 

 peaks and the clouds of dust and flying snow about their summits. 

 Petrified, he watched for 2 minutes or more until his attention was 

 attracted to a new sight. There was a gigantic w^all of water which 

 he thought to be 1,800 feet high ei-upting against the western moun- 

 tain, then coming down the bay, cutting a swath through the trees 

 on the summit of Cenotaph Island, backlashing against the eastern 

 shore up to a height of 500 feet, then heading for the Edrne, now a 

 wall of water 50 feet high. 



Suddenly he realized he had to move. Cursing himself for delay- 

 ing, he got a lifejacket on Sonny, then somehow got the engine going, 

 but he was miable to heave the anchor in time. Just before the water 

 struck he veered the chain to its end, hoping to slip it, at the same 

 time maneuvering the Edrie to face the wave. As she lifted to the 

 swell the chain tightened and snapped, its short end whipping up 

 and winding around the pilothouse. The boat was swept, completely 



