8:30 p.m. (Figure 90). In elaborating on this (latter) wave, Mrs. Fremlin 

 described it as a "big foaming vave" before it struck the outlying islands. 

 Quoting Chance's interview with Mr. and Mrs. Fremlin: 



"It then struck Mission Road and surged around the shoreline 

 and into the channel and small boat harbor where it ' foamed 

 and boiled and bubbled." Mr. Fremlin described it as looking 

 like a 'swift-water river that foams and boils and bubbles' but 

 it 'seemed to dissipate' as it swept by the outlying islands 

 and appeared to be 'a rapid surge upward, rather than a wave' 

 as it swept into town 'carrying houses and boats and planes at 

 a speed of about 50 miles an hour' .... The water swept in the 

 back doors of bars along the waterfront, lifting the buildings 

 as people ran out the front. Some people were wading waist- 

 deep and some were swimming. One man who saw the wave approach- 

 ing ran into the Elks Club on the waterfront and warned the 

 members of the Women's League who were bowling in the basement. 

 The water rushed down the stairway as the women ran up to get 

 out of the building". 



The Fremlins were on or near the top of Pillar Mountain (Figure 88) 

 when they saw all this, but several points emerge which suggest further 

 confusion. From Figure 90 we infer that the wave of 8:30 p.m. would 

 have been visible to them in the fashion described ^at about 8:00 p.m., 

 by which time, with the overcast, it would have been getting rather dark. 

 One questions, therefore, whether they could have noted the incident of 

 the Elks Club at that time. Surely the wave of 6:30 p.m. which flooded 

 around the Elks Club (Figure 9^) must have disrupted the bowling game 

 in the basement at that time. 



According to Chance (1968), Dell Valley and Will Coles, respectively 

 skipper and engineer on the crab boat Rosemary , surf-rode a wave through 

 the channel between Near Island and Kodiak (Figure 87b) into the harbor. 

 This boat was about 25 miles from Kodiak when the earthquake occurred. 

 According to Chance, "about a half-hour after the quake, their boat was 

 entering the channel when it was caught by a swift, incoming wave." The 

 channel entrance, however, is not more than 2 nautical miles from Kodiak, 

 and since it would be impossible for a crab boat to negotiate, say 20 

 miles in 1/2 hour, we conclude that Valley and Coles were actually 

 surf-riding the 8:30 p.m. wave (Figure 90). This would agree with the 

 Fremlins ' evidence that they saw a boat surf-riding up the channel from 

 northeast on the wave we have already adduced tc be the 8:30 p.m. crest. 



Quoting Chance again: 



"Valley said that riding atop the wave it was impossible to know 

 it was a wave because 'it wasn't breaking at all - couldn't even 



tell if there was any height to it ' Coles said, 'it was 



a real fast tide and this thing went like a motor boat.' The 

 Rosemary was swept through the area where the small boat harbor 

 had been and into the city dock (see Figure 89). The water then 



145 



