density current of roiling vater, which would increasingly mound as 

 it reached flatter slopes , presumably near the 500-foot depth contour 

 (Fig\ire 13^). At about 1/2 mile from the shore the sliding mass elevated 

 the water to a humped surface from which waves, 15-20 feet high, radiated 

 (Chance, 1968; Grantz, et al, 196^+). These waves hit the Seward water- 

 front approximately 1 1/2 to 2 minutes after the earthquake started and 

 produced an inundation which rose over the waterfront and caused initial 

 heavy damage. As shown schematically in Figures 139a to 139e, the Alaska 

 Standard tore loose from her moorings and hoses and on the rising wave 

 received a shower of dock wreckage on her foredeck which included the 

 unconscious seaman Pedersen, who had been standing hosewatch on the 

 dock (Figure lUO). 



The first wave was probably in the nature of being close to a 

 resonant transverse oscillation for the north end of Resurrection Bay. 

 The transverse cross section of the bay off south Seward is approximately 

 parabolic in profile, and the calculated first mode oscillation for a 

 width of about U5 nautical miles and a central depth of 6OO feet has a 

 period of 3.6 minutes. After the drawdown (Figure 139b) it would thus 

 have taken about 1.8 minutes for the flood to crest at the Seward water- 

 front (in fair agreement with the observations. Figure 137 and Table VII ). 

 At least one witness (Jack Werner, cf. Berg, et al, I96U) records that 

 he could see the wave that swept east from the boil and struck Fourth 

 of July Point, where according to Lear (Berg, et al, 196^), it ran 

 inland a quarter of a mile. Many other witnesses, however, gained the 

 impression that two separate waves formed from the initial boil of water, 

 the first of which was the one to strike the south part of Seward and 

 then spread north and south (Chance, I968). 



This wave, having devastated the remains of the Standard Oil Company 

 dock, flooded over the Army dock (Figure 136) which had been slowly 

 sinking from the continued earth shaking. The flooding wave now lifted 

 part of the dock in the air and slammed it down in ruins (Tom Hyde, cf. 

 Chance, I968). As the wave peeled along the shore it spread burning oil 

 from the Standard Oil Company tanks toward loaded tank cars on the rail- 

 road sidings and toward the Texaco tank farm (Figure 136). The resulting 

 explosions engulfed the waterfront in flame (Figure lUl). 



The wave rose over the small-boat harbor in an area where witnesses 

 (notably Logan, Watson, Mrs. Hatch, Endreson, cf. Chance, I968) had all 

 failed to report any initial drawdown of water as had occurred at the 

 south end of Seward. Many of the boats were swept over the seawalls of 

 the boat harbor and toward the lagoon. 



Two people photographed the north and south parts of this wave. One 

 was Terrel Schenk, Manager of the Halibut Producers Co-op San Juan Cannery 

 (located near the boat harbor. Figure 136), who took the photographs shown 

 in Figures lU2 a, b and c from the approximate direction and at the 

 locations shown in Figure 1U5 (SEA interview, I966). 



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