By BILL MCRAE
HAVE thought far years that Pete Rempel and Earl
McClellan should have had some recognition for the
risks they took saving men who were caught for
hours on a raft in the middle of the icy Skeena River,
Their own safety was not on their minds at all,
. This event happened across from Brauns Island, a
‘mile or so above Frank’s Dairy Farm, where
Skoglund Logging Co was carrying on a logging op-

_ eration, A high-lead spar tree was set up on the river
_ bar. Logs were swung across the river, approximately

7000 feet, then loaded on trucks and taken to Skeena
-Forest Products sawmill.

_ Skoglands had built a couple large rafts to transport
men and machinery aq

rigging to the raft and pull it back across the river.
That day, the river was running a [ot of ice and was

building up ‘an ice jam below Frank’s Dairy Farm,

_ Several times, the river backed up, creating a lake of

ice chunks, and then released, causing the level to
_- drop and the ice to run again.

"The river started to jam up around 3 p.m. and by
4:30 p.m. at quitting time, it was really high and still
" Tunning,”” said John Bellamy, one of the men caught

on the raft, ‘‘The machine that 1 was working with

Wasa little later than the rest, so they left us fora sec-° -
0nd trip.
_.. The last turn of fogs that were towed across, brake

up the ice enough for the raft to be pulled through

quite easily, But by the time it got back to us, it had

jammed up again. We got 50-100 feet from. shore
_When ‘the raft stuck solid. Pete Hannah, who was

* hooker at the time, gave the signal to pull — the strap
broke that was fastened to the raft and left us adrift.”

Jim Hanna was donkey operator for Skoglund at the
time. When he tightened up on the line 1o the raft, he

“had to give ita hard pull. The cable broke causing the
_ Taft to float free.

_There was. no chance for the men to get off as the
raft started to move downstream. By this time, it was

_. gelling dark. The temperature was 12 above zero

(minus 11-C) with a strong wind on the river, It

-Wagir't possible to live out there for too long.

Bellamy said he was wet from working all day in
the bush, so it didn’t take long to get cold with the

wind blowing down the river,

_“‘Itsure was a helpless feeling after the strap
: broke,’*-he said. ‘‘All we could hope for was that we
- would drift to shore if the raft didn’t sink under the
~ ice. did not know if we could be seen from shore or

not. There was a [ot of hollering going on,"’ -
_ Guy Pratt said the raft went back and forth several

.. times with the surging of the river jammed with ice.

** The raft titled and we thought it would tip over,’’
he said, ‘‘It was a hair raising experience.

' He said is was dark and cold, and the men didn’t

know where they were.
At the time, Phil Bass, superintendent of Skoglund

_ Logging lived across the street, from us. When I ar-.

rived home for dinner, Helene mentioned that Phil

had a problem with ‘a raft being: loose inthe river. I -

knew this could be serious, so I grabbed my big

Men rescued from Skeena in 1960

- he river to the logging .
_.» Show, Crews would cross on'rafts in the morning and
~.. atthe end of the day, they would hook the donkey

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 24, 1999 - B3

Did you know, B.C’s Children's Hospital is the

te ott ; is

flashlight and headed to the river to see if I could frovirice’s major teaching, research and health BLAS
help. Ivan Frank and Earl McCleilan were there and promotion facitity for child health care? Ghildren's Hospital
said they could see light up river and had heard hol- ~ os?
lering and faint voices.

When 1 shined my flashlight, we could see a raft
wilh several men on it hollering and waving at us TD INVESTMENT
from about 350 feet out in a sea of ice. SPECIALISTS RANKED

It was plain to see that these men were in a #1 FORADVICE FOUR
desperate situation. Ice could move out anytime and YEARS INA ROW

the men would be lost down river, or the river could
back up and the raft would be on the move with the
likelihood of it tipping over.

What could we do to help them? If there was some
way to get a loggers pass line out to them, that would
be a starter. Earl said that sealers on the east coast go

over the ice floes when hunting seals, Using hip wad-
ders and with men on each side of a boat, they run
over the floes,

“If sealers do it, then I can do it,’* Earl said.

Earl went to get his boat and I] went to get a spool of
pass line. Ivan called people for more help.

By this time stores were closed, so I picked up Jim
‘McKeown, owner of the building supply store, so I

~could pick up a roll of pass line, ladders, gloves,
‘flashlights, life jackets and a number of other things.
,Dave Maroney, mechanical superintendent of
-“Skoglunds, also arrived there looking for cable.
When we told him of our plan, he said he’d send a
:cat to assist us,

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When we got to the river, Earl was there with his
“boat at ice level, ready to go. Pete had a flashlight

and a bundle of gloves. Over the floating ice they | maton obou thas mud nds is

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went and in a very short time had reached the raft. gery i woes and

By this time there were about 30 fellows on the

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river bank. We could hear the sound of a cat in the

distance, All of a sudden the river started to back up,
raising the level and moving the ice. The movement
of the ice was in our favour. Everyone pulled on the
pass line and luckily we were able to pull the raft to a
point close to shore with just a small channel of fast
water between the raft and safety.

With extension ladders and a small boat, in a few
minutes, all the men were safely on the river bank,
There was a lot of hooting and hand shaking as the
men made it to safety, It was about 9 p.m at this time
and the men were a bunch of cold fellows!

When it was over, we gathered up the gear and
went home. There was a small write upon the paper,
mentioning that Pete Rempel and Earl -McClellan
took a small boat out with a line to try to get to the
Stranded men , not mentioning the great risk they
took, nor was there all the media attention that goes
on today.

Bellamy said: ‘‘One thing for certain, I feel today
that we have those two gentlemen to thank for saving

* [hear a

SIGNS OF HEARING LOSS-

* T hear, but I don’t understand the words

* I can understand in quiet places, but I can't
understand speech in background noise.

* My family and friends complain about my hearing

or the birds in the morning.

* [can understand some people, but I have difficulty
understanding other people.

car in the driveway, but not the telephone

our lives. To come over that wide span of treacherous
river ice, hanging onto and pushing a small boat with
a 5/16”" Tine tied to it so it could be fastened onto the
raft and pulled to shore by the many volunteers that
were standing by, was remarkable, I want to say
thank-you, They should have been rewarded some-
-how or other.””...- 0 es 2 i

-We:should also: give thanks to our unseen helper — wre:
so many things fell into place at the right time.

ol .. 6857HEAR 1-800-811-1533. >

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