Department of Commerce 
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Fish and Wildlife Service 
Technological Laboratory 
2725 Montlake Boulevard 
Seattle , Washington 
March 28 , 1941 
Dr. Waldo Schmitt, Curator 
Division of Marine Invertebrates, 
United States National Museum, 
Washington, D. C. 
Dear Doctor Schmitt: 
I wish to thank you for your letter of March 18, and the one of 
earlier date, which was forwarded to me at Ketchikan, transmitting 
Earl Ohmer's report of the take of king crabs around Petersburg dur- 
ing the winter months. 
’While in Ketchikan I listened in on the boats several evenings, 
but reception was none too good and I could not get a very complete 
picture of the progress so far. We have had a small amount of bad 
luck, but fortunately none of it has turned out to be serious. The 
"Dorothy” evidently struck a submerged log and bent her wheel slight' 
ly, and the "Champion" cracked a piston Sunday. The "Dorothy" was 
able to repair her wheel at Seldovia, with no more than a half day's 
loss of time, and, fortunately, one of the construction companies at 
Kodiak had a spare piston which vre are being able to obtain for im- 
mediate installation in the "Champion” . 
At the time the boats were leaving Prince William Sound, Roy 
reported that they had caught about a hundred crabs to date. Since 
then he has reported very good indications in Cook Inlet, and I be- 
lieve the "Locks" was able to make some fair catches off Alitak. 
One night I heard Jim Slaughter talking to Trafton, and he said that 
the crabs certainly seemed to be coming in, in one location they had 
worked, but that further up the coast their catches were pretty much 
a blank as far as king crabs were concerned. Nevertheless, Jim 
seemed quite enthusiastic about the possibility of accomplishing 
something. 
I heard Pat's voice again, for the first time in seven months, 
and he sounded perfectly natural and as much a Louisianian as ever. 
He was giving the biologists on the other boats a lecture on the 
characteristics of the crabs he had observed during the winter. 
