It was July 9, 1958, and an earthquake on the Fairweather Fault in the Alaska Panhandle
rattled for about one minute.
It was the strongest in Alaska for 60 years, and could be felt as far as Seattle.
The quake sent around 82 million tons of rock in the waters of Lituya Bay.
All that rock hitting the water was like an asteroid impact, and the result was the world’s
tallest mega-tsunami, measuring something like 1720 feet (524 meters).
The giant mass of a wave continued down the bay, taking with it any vegetation on the
mountainside.
That monster destroyed everything in its path.
One man and his son were sleeping in a boat in that bay as all this happened.
Through the skin of their teeth they survived, but others weren't so lucky.
Howard Ulrich and his eight-year old son named Sonny had been catching some Zs on their boat,
the Edrie, when the earthquake happened.
(Credit: geology.com https://geology.com/records/biggest-tsunami.shtml).
They had been out salmon fishing throughout the day and had retired to their bunks.
Just after 10 pm their bunks started shaking, almost knocking the two guys onto the floor.
Howard had no idea what had happened, so he got up and went on to the deck.
The boat was still shaking violently from side-to-side.
Suddenly there was an eerie calm for about 2 1/2 minutes, and what followed almost knocked
Howard off his feet.
He heard a crashing sound that was deafening, which was the rocks hitting the water in the
bay.
His son joined him on the deck.
They both looked into the distance down the bay, and on each side they saw the mountains
shuddering, sending snow flying high into the air.
Suddenly the two witnessed a wave coming towards them, so large they could hardly believe their
eyes!
As the wave approached though, it became smaller..
Still, it was racing down the bay at about 120 mph (193 km/hr), taking out trees on the
mountainside, plucking hundreds from their roots in a matter of seconds.
Howard now knew this was no time for standing around and admiring the power of nature.
There was no way this wave was going to stop before it hit their small boat.
Howard told Sonny to put on his life preserver and start praying to God Almighty.
There was not much he could do to steer the boat out of the way since it was anchored,
but he managed to turn on the engine and steer the boat so it was facing the oncoming wave.
Had he had not done that, the two might not have survived.
Howard dropped the anchor as low as it could go and his last words on the radio were, “Mayday,
Mayday.
This is the Edrie in Lituya Bay.
All hell has busted loose in here.
I think we’ve had it.
Good-bye.”
The wave was now 1720 feet when it was close enough for Howard to really see what was coming,
but receded to just 100 feet high as it neared.
When it finally reached them the wave was only around 50 to 75 feet high, but that was
enough to snap that anchor chain like it was nothing but a fishing line.
The boat rose high into the air, riding the wave.
With such force Howard believed the boat would be thrown to the land and smashed to pieces,
but that didn’t happen.
Once they were over the crest of the wave there was more danger, because the choppy
waters were full of debris that the wave had taken with it.
The two weren’t out of trouble yet, and little did they know, others were in danger,
too.
Unfortunately, not everyone was as fortunate as Howard and Sonny and managed to ride the
mega-tsunami.
Some would succumb to the giant wave.
There were two other boats in the bay on that historic day, a boat owned by Bill and Vi
Swanson named Badger, and a boat named Sumore owned by another couple, Orville and Mickey
Wagner.
Both these couples were actually friends and prior to the incident had waved across the
water and said hello.
When Bill Swanson felt the swaying of his boat he too got up to see what was happening.
He later described what he saw next was, “like a big load of rocks spilling out of a dump
truck.”
That might have been an understatement, because the rocks that hit the water would have weighed
as much as 240 Empire State Buildings.
The Swanson’s boat was lifted even higher when it was hit by the wave.
In Bill’s own words, he said, “We went away up over the trees, and I looked down
on rocks as big as an ordinary house as we crossed the spit.
We were away up above them.
It felt like we were in a tin can and somebody was shaking it.”
Looking down at the trees, Bill believed he was at least 80 feet in the air when on the
crest of the wave.
That crest broke and the Badger landed quite close to the shoreline.
The boat soon began to sink and suddenly trees and other debris flooded into it.
Bill was hit in the chest and broke a couple of ribs, but both he and his wife didn’t
go under.
The couple, still in their underwear, quickly got in their small dingy.
The water was rough and full of trees, but they managed to use that dingy to steer out
of danger.
They were rescued by a fishing boat about two hours later.
Referring to what he saw that evening right after the earthquake, Bill later said, "People
shake their head when I tell them I saw it that night.
I can't help it if they don't believe me, but I know what I saw that night.”
On the opposite side of the bay the Sunmore and its occupants Orville and Mickey Wagner
were not so fortunate.
Unlike the two other boats, after the earthquake hit, the couple decided to get out of the
bay.
This might seem like a wise decision, but just as they turned out of the entrance the
wave hit them from the side.
The boat flipped and was taken by the wave.
The couple did not survive.
It could have been a much bigger tragedy, though, since two groups of campers consisting
of twenty people should have been camping on the shoreline of the bay that evening.
Lady luck must have smiled on them, because the two groups had decided for various reasons
not to camp.
Had they been there when that wave hit, they would have been taken by the waves along with
the trees they were camping next to.
Howard and Sonny didn’t give up fishing, although after a year Howard retired as a
commercial fisherman.
Bill and Vi soon recovered from their injuries, but Vi said she’d never get in a boat again.
Bill did, and on May 26, 1962, almost four years after the accident, he returned to Lituya
Bay in his boat the St. Nicholas.
It was the first time he’d been back since the accident.
This man, now a 50-year old in good health, died of a massive heart attack just as soon
as his boat passed through the entrance.
Looks like the wave got him in the end.
Here at the Infographics Show we always have more amazing tales, so now go watch the “Crazy
And Sad Story of Man Lost In The Jungle For 27 Days” or “The Hindenburg Disaster - The
Titanic of the Sky”.