As anyone who has lived in Wrangell can attest, the sea is an important part of life. Many Wrangellites make their living on the ocean, be it fishing or operating a charter boat. Even if they do not rely on it for a living, many people in town enjoy taking boats out on the water. To showcase this fact of life for Wrangell, and to bring to life part of its history, the Nolan Center will be opening a new exhibit: "Wrangell Remembers - Shipwrecks Close to Home 1908-1952."
"It is very important to Wrangell, I think that it kind of encompasses what Wrangell is and who the people are," said Keeleigh Solverson, with the Nolan Center. "You know, fishing and boats are a big part of this island."
The exhibit will open on Nov. 8 at 6:30 p.m. with a presentation and tours through the exhibit. The museum will be offering free admission for opening night, Director Cyni Crary added.
Besides artifacts recovered from several shipwrecks, the exhibit will feature interactive kiosks, video, and storyboards made in-house.
The exhibit will focus on four major shipwrecks, Crary said. The Star of Bengal (sunk 1908), the Mariposa (sunk 1917), the Princess Sophia (sunk 1918), and the Princess Kathleen (sunk 1952). Each ship was either leaving or heading to Wrangell when they wrecked, she said, and each had a significant effect on Wrangell.
Part of the exhibit featuring the Princess Sophia is part of a traveling exhibit from the Alaska State Museum. What inspired them to create this large exhibit in the first place, however, was an item in the Nolan Center's own inventory.
"We have a triple deadeye piece [from the Star of Bengal] that is fantastic, and probably one of the centerpieces of the exhibit," Crary said.
Back in the days of traditional sailing ships, deadeyes were an important piece of rigging. Used in pairs, they were used as parts of pulley systems to assist in moving heavy loads.
Gig Decker is one of the guest speakers who will be at the exhibit's opening. He will go more in depth on the sinking of the Star of Bengal. He said that he never considered himself much of an "armchair amateur archeologist," but that he has spent thousands of hours underwater and around shipwrecks in his time as a fisherman and commercial diver. The sinking of the Star of Bengal was significant for Wrangell because, back when Wrangell operated a cannery, that ship was one that carried its workers and products back and forth across the ocean.
"It just left Wrangell," Decker said. "It was the last one of the season ... Those cannery workers were our cannery workers."
Mike Kurth, another local fisherman and diver, will be another guest speaker at the exhibit.
Crary added that the Wrangell Mariners' Memorial, the local organization building a memorial for Wrangellites lost at sea, will be present for the exhibit's opening, as well. They will be passing out information about the memorial and how people can get involved in their work.
"The exhibit itself is very comprehensive, there's a lot of information in there, and so we don't expect that everybody is going to be able to pile in there all at once," Crary said. "We're going to do groups. Then the exhibit is going to be here on display through the end of the year. So if people miss the premier they'll have plenty of time to come and check it out throughout the year."
To learn more about the exhibit, visit the event's Facebook page under "Wrangell Remembers - Shipwrecks Close to Home 1908-1952."
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