10 June 2008, Juneau.

Juneau turned out to be a decent day. There was a bit of drizzle in the morning and it remained chilly but for the rest it was a good day. We arrived bright and early and were the first cruise ship to dock, all in accordance with the schedule set up in the beginning of the season. During the past two calls, the Infinity went in first due to medivacs and when that happens the docking of the Veendam becomes a little bit complicated. With 800 feet of dock and 720 feet of ship it means that you have to approach under a wider angle and to be almost stopped in position before you can pull the stern in because of that other ship that is docked alongside already.

Now with the normal arrival sequence the Veendam could just sail in and approach the dock under a small angle sailing over the spot where later the Infinity would dock. The angle of approach in Juneau is important because of a water cushion that tends to build up between the ship and the dock. At our dock, The Alaska Steam dock, we sometimes have no more then 10 feet of clearance under the bow during low tide. If you then have to push the ship sideways to the dock, a wall of water builds up between the ship and the dockside and that water has great difficulty in flowing away, as there is hardly any space between the ships keel and the sea bottom. Thus if you can approach under a bit of angle you can push that water away from the dock, using the ships bow as a knife that “cuts the water”. The amount of angle is the subject of a lot of discussions among ship handlers but I find that about 20 to 30o of angle in relation to the dock normally does the trick. A large angle works as well, but then you have to pull the stern all the way in at the last moment and that takes extra time. That you do when that other ship is there. So it is handy that the Veendam sails into port first and we then can approach the dock under this smaller angle as there is no other ship blocking the approach.

The name Alaska Steam Dock is a left over from the old days. Until 1964 there was a company called the Alaska Steamship Company who maintained a regular passenger service on the coast. They docked at this dock, which was the nearest dock to the town. After 1964 they continued with carrying cargo only and in that period also the Alaska State Ferry system came to prominence, which took over the passenger business.

As an example a photo of one of the steamboats of those days.

This ship is best remembered for the fact that it sank in seven minutes on May 26,1929 after hitting a submerged rock. Of the 116 onboard only one perished because that crew member went back to his cabin to get his lucky charm. The rock which it hit is now called the Aleutian rock. The wreck was found in 2003 and there were activities going on to salvage most of the contents as everything, apart from the wood of the superstructure, was still present. With a length of 375 feet it could carry several hundred persons. Its full time capacity was sometimes reached when it was time for personnel changes at the salmon canneries in the area.

Ships like the Aleutian formed the lifelines of small and remote communities along the coast carrying peoples and goods to and from the major cities. The terminus of the voyage being Seattle and or Juneau. They often sailed in-adequately surveyed waters and regularly touch bottom or hit a rock that was not charted. In this case for the Aleutian they hit it with the full speed of 14 knots and it caused its sinking. Quite often if such a ship would run aground it would just wait for a higher tide and then sail away again. These ships were very strongly built in order to survive the Alaskan winter storms.

The Veendam only sails Alaska in the summer and luckily we now have adequate charts, at least for the areas that we sail in. We also sailed on time, had our USCG escort again and headed south to what is supposed to be a sunny day in Ketchikan.