Brother Leo V. Ryan's Orient cruise aboard the Sapphire Princess, Part II: Kodiak

Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Church... The oldest Christian Church in Alaska, established in 1794.

(Editor's Note: The following article is part of a series of articles submitted by Waukon native Brother Leo V. Ryan, CSV from his cruise through the Orient and the Far East during September and October of last year. The cruise was a gift bestowed upon him in honor of his 80th birthday.)

Kodiak Island and the port community of Kodiak lie 248 miles southwest of Anchorage, AK. Kodiak is proclaimed as "The Emerald Island." As a committed Irish-American for me there is only one "Emerald Island" and that's Ireland itself.

Kodiak is many things. Kodiak is the busiest fishing port in the United States. Kodiak is home to the largest Coast Guard Station in the United States. Kodiak is home to the Alutiiq people who have inhabited the Kodiak Archipelago for more than 7,500 years. Kodiak is home to the monster Kodiak brown bears.

Kodiak is an angler's delight. "Where sport fishing rivals any place on earth." (Chamber of Commerce) Kodiak is home to salmon - especially sockeye salmon that come to spawn in the Ayakulik River. But, also king, Coho, pink, and chum salmon are indigenous to Kodiak. More than a million salmon come plowing and up the Ayakulik annually. The Kodiak Archipelago is a fisherman's halibut heaven and, in season, rainbow and steelhead trout abound.

But, "The Emerald Isle"? Why the claim? Twenty thousand years ago Kodiak's 16 major and countless smaller islands were covered by glaciers that scarred and carved the landscape. Jagged peaks, fjord-like bays and U-shaped valleys resulted. The scenery approached by sea is dramatic - rugged coastlines with Sitka Spruce in abundance, lush vegetation and the hillsides are truly green! Kodiak gets 86 inches of rain annually. The rain guarantees the "Emerald Isle" image.

Two citizens, in briefing us, commented that Kodiak has only three or four days of total sunshine and the other 361 or 362 days have clouds, mist and/or rain. Our day in port was one of the rare days. Our day was filled with warmth and sunshine from sunrise (7:47 a.m.) to sunset (8:27 p.m.). Yes, everything was green! I am happy to concede that Kodiak is "Alaska's Emerald Isle"!

The brown bear is Kodiak's Archipelago's "most noble inhabitant." They migrated here from mainland Alaska 12,000 years ago. Kodiak brown bears are immense in size. Male bears known as "boars" reach over 10 feet when standing on their hind legs. They measure five feet when on all fours. The average adult "boar" weighs 600 to 800 pounds and can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds.

Female brown bears are known as "sows" and generally are 20 percent smaller and 30 percent lighter in weight. Kodiak bears are classified as the world's largest land carnivore; technically, they are omnivores not carnivores.

Salmon are their most important source of protein. They are known to devour 20 fish a day. The brown bears also eat elderberries, salmon berries, cranberries, nutrient-rich grass and occasionally they discover seal and whale carcasses on the beach. Over 100,000 Sitka black tail deer are on the island - some of which become dinner for the bears.

While I have written about the brown bears unique to Kodiak, there are also Sitka black tail deer, fox and mountain goats. These land mammals were all to be found in the wildlife refuge. Marine life is abundant including sea otters, fins, humpback and gray whales, porpoise, sea lions and seals. Sunday, we saw sea lions swimming in the harbor.

Kodiak is also famous for land, sea and inshore birds. Just as hunters and anglers are attracted to Kodiak, so, too, are ornithologists. Kodiak claims ten species of land birds, from bald eagle to sparrows, nine species of sea birds, including petrels and puffins, and thirteen species of inshore birds, including loons and even Black Oystercatchers, can be sighted on Kodiak Island.

Fish outnumber the resident population by multiples. Kodiak, the six island villages and the Coast Guard Station (3,500) all together account for 12,500 persons on a 3,588 sq. mile island. Commercial fishing and canneries are the major industries but employment is seasonal.

One of the exciting dimensions of travel is the discovery of new places of which you were never aware of and their fascination. Kodiak proved to be such a place.

The Kodiak Archipelago has a prehistoric history, a period of European discovery, and early Russian settlements all before the United States purchase of Alaska by William Henry Seward in 1867. Kodiak has a "modern" history from 1912 to the present including World War II military activity in the Aleutians. Each period is worthy of commentary.

Archeologists have determined that the Aleutian Islands were suitable for human habitation as early as 8000 BC. The first documented evidence of human colonization in the Kodiak Archipelago dates to 5500 BC. Flash forward to 1300 AD, Alutiiq families began to build very large, multi-roomed, multi-family, sod houses occupied by related families.

The exploration period began in 1741 with Vitus Bering. Hence the name Bering Sea. His expedition marks the first European landfall in present Alaska. Bering was followed in 1793 by the Russian explorer, Stephen Glutov, who wintered at present day Kodiak.

Twenty years later (1794), a Russian merchant, Grigori Shelikov, established the first permanent settlement at Three Saints Bay on the southeastern shore of Kodiak. Another merchant, Alexander Andreevich Baranov, arrived in Kodiak in 1781. He established a fur trading business at St. Paul Harbor, which is present day Kodiak. The Russian ownership and control of the Kodiak Territory is dated to these early merchant entrepreneurs.

These Russian explorers and merchants were followed three years later in 1794 by the arrival of ten Russian Orthodox missionaries transferred from Sitka to Kodiak. The original church which these Russian Orthodox priests organized, Holy Resurrection, has twice been replaced, the last time in 1945. Their gleaming gold crosses on the blue-domed, white-walled hillside church hovers protectively over the Kodiak skyline. In addition, the church sponsors St. Herman's Russian Orthodox Seminary, Veniaminov Museum and St. Innocent Academy.

The name St. Herman is greatly revered in Kodiak. The twin city ports are St. Paul and St. Herman. Who is St. Herman? Formally, he is St. Herman of Alaska, the first Russian Orthodox American Saint. Herman was among the first ten monks to arrive in 1794 and the last of the original group to live. He died in 1836. He was a monk from Valaam Monastery in the Russian North. He was noted as a priest, teacher, protector of the Alutiiq people and the Russian settlers.

Each August 7-9 hundreds of people pilgrimage to his hermitage on nearby Spruce Island. According to legend, the day he died, December 13, 1836, the Alutiiq people saw a column of light joining heaven and earth. They interpreted that light as a sign their spiritual father was in heaven. He was canonized August 9, 1970. His relics are enshrined in Holy Resurrection Church.

Kodiak was a "boom town" in World War II. It was a major staging area for the North Pacific Defense Command at Fort Abercrombie. A naval station, a submarine station, air station and army outpost operated on the island. Pill boxes and bunkers are still visible around the city. The Fort is now a State Historical Park.

The Aleutian Islands are a volcanic chain of islands and islet more than 900 miles long. They form the western extension of the Alaska Peninsula from Unimak Island in the Western Hemisphere to Amchitka Island in the Eastern Hemisphere and continue into the south part of the Bering Sea. The Aleutians include mountains with bold coasts, deep water, close inshore with rocks and reefs surrounded by heavy breakers. We followed the Aleutians for more than a day - beautiful at a distance, but treacherous close by.

The Japanese reached and occupied Atto and Kiska, two islands at the tip of the Aleutians. Therein lies an almost forgotten chapter of WWII: the brief but "deadly struggle" for the Aleutians, 1942-1943. For three and one half weeks, in March 1943, the U.S. Army fought to recover Kiska.

Fighting was hampered by the bitter cold climate, inhospitable terrain, mud that mired equipment and vehicles to the beach and newly enlisted troops without combat experience. The Japanese moved inland to the mountains drawing our troops into the valleys. Our troops became easy targets for the Japanese. Thirty-four percent of our military mission suffered fatalities.

The Japanese command staff, troops and ships slipped out of Kiska under cover of fog. They succeeded in eluding the loosely organized U.S. Naval blockage which had been assigned to protect our invasion. Their successful exit saved Kiska. Thus, the only Japanese - U.S. encounter on American soil in World War II ended, but at great cost.

The synopsis is much abbreviated. I offer my apology to any of my readers who might have been in the "Battle for Aleutians."

As I reread, the above background material, I am reminded of a joke. A second grade boy was asked to write a review of a book he was reading about penguins. He wrote: "This book is about penguins. This book tells me more about penguins than I care to know."

I hope I haven't told you more about Kodiak Island than you care to know!

Meanwhile, you may wonder how I spent my day in Kodiak. We arrived at 10 a.m., Sunday, September 15, a day of dazzling brightness. We were told by locals that they get only three or four days of total sunshine. We were lucky. After our Kodiak visit, we sailed westward for five days headed toward Japan. We experienced turbulent seas, mist, rain and heavy winds.

Early Sunday (8 a.m.) there was Mass for about 350 Catholics and an Interdominational Service followed immediately after (9 a.m.). The Catholic Chaplin was Fr. Michael Knipe, a diocesan priest from Tulsa, OK.

Shuttle buses were available hourly once we off-loaded the ship. A group of us had hired the services of Sue Rohner as a guide. Sue and her husband, Dick, operate the Rohner Bear Camp which offers "Bear and wildlife viewing for eagles, puffins, sea birds, marine mammals, stream fishing and fly fishing for 'wild' steelhead and coho" to quote their ad in the local Explorer.

They are transplanted Pennsylvania farmers who have been in Kodiak for 39 years. Sue was very friendly, knowledgeable and receptive to questions from us statesiders, ("from down below"), and the many foreigners on our cruise. Residents from Australia, Canada, China, England, Ireland and Wales were among the passengers on the Princess Sapphire.

Our first destination was the Baptist Campground for "Russian Tea." Among the Kodiak residents was a couple from Paris, France. He is a chef and she a pastry chef. She, Nicole, prepared platters of pastries to accompany the refreshing Russian tea.

We were further treated to a concert of Russian music, choral singing, and troika dances by students of St. Innocent Academy and townspeople. The musical leader, and organizer of both students and former students (townspeople), was a Russian Orthodox priest, Father Piousska. He is a transplanted Italian who has been with Holy Resurrection Parish and Academy for over 20 years, and he was their featured guitarist.

We were later to visit Holy Resurrection Parish, the earliest Christian church in Alaska (1784). The Russian Orthodox religion is the historic religion of the Aleutians and is a very visible religious influence even today.

The Russian Orthodox Church was long under Patriarch of Moscow. In recent years, ecclesiastical jurisdiction has been transferred to the United States. The five priests of Kodiak are under the Bishop of Sitka, AK. In my curio cabinet, in Arlington Heights, I have a religious triptych which I acquired 15 years ago at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Sitka.

We spent a half hour at Holy Resurrection. A young monk from St. Herman's Theological Seminary gave us the history of the Church and an interpretation of the icons on the Sanctuary screen.

Our city tour involved a "pass by" of Baranov Museum (Alutiq artifax), the harbors, marina, "the mall", Cannery Row, the library, junior and senior high schools, municipal buildings, the ferry dock and the airport. All these locations were easily accessible to each other since the city streets are no longer than our own businesses on East and West Main and Allamakee Street.

The island has, Sue said with a twinkle, "One hundred miles of paved roads." She explained, "We have a 50-mile paved road. When you reach the end, you have to turn around, making 100 miles." There is a second road of 25 miles but the same situation prevails.

Our driver, Bob, was an ex-Coast Guard stationed at Kodiak who never went back to Kentucky. Our group was permitted to visit the U.S. Coast Guard Station provided we did not exit the bus. The Station is an expansion of the old Naval Station of World War II. Today it is the largest Coast Guard Station in the U.S. (housing 3,500 active duty and their dependents). The base has all the facilities of an army or naval base.

The Station has a buoy tender, two cutters, seven helicopter units and five C-130 air craft. Kodiak Station personnel conduct patrol and rescue operations throughout Alaska. Communications, navigational support, marine safety are also part of the diverse mission of this Coast Guard Station.

Our group returned to the Sapphire Princess a half-hour before the ship departed. We sailed Sunday night, September 16 and all day and night Monday, September 17 following the Aleutian Chain. By Tuesday, we were in the open waters of the Bering Sea enroute to the North Japanese island of Hokkaido.

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