[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 11 (Friday, January 22, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S928-S929]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        BMC ANTHONY LAWRENCE PETIT AND THE SCOTCH CAP LIGHTHOUSE

 Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the five 
heros who perished in the Scotch Cap Lighthouse disaster of April 1, 
1946--five Coast Guardsmen who gave their lives so that others would 
survive. The lighthouse keeper was Chief Boatswain's Mate Anthony 
Lawrence Petit. His crew included Fireman 1st Class Jack Colvin, Seaman 
1st Class Dewey Dykstra, Motor Machinist's Mate 2nd Class Leonard 
Pickering, and Seaman 1st Class Paul James Ness.
  Lighthouses will always have a place in our history. They have warned 
mariners of danger, their crews have rescued survivors in the worst 
conditions imaginable, and their brilliant lamps

[[Page S929]]

have comforted and reassured those who are bound homeward at last.
  In 1903, Scotch Cap Light Station was the first light put in place on 
the outside coast of Alaska. Located at the western end of Unimak 
Island, approximately 425 miles southwest of Anchorage, the light marks 
the entrance to Unimak Pass. Its only contact with the outside world 
was--every three months or so--a visit from a buoytender bringing 
supplies.
  It was, and is, one of the most isolated places imaginable, 
especially in the winter, and its hardships were legendary--one 
lighthouse keeper froze both his hands just trying to go from the 
lighthouse tower to his quarters during a blizzard. It was so hazardous 
that no families were allowed, and in the early days, lighthouse 
keepers were allowed a full year off for every three years they spent 
on the island.
  In 1940, the original building was replaced by a brand-new, 
reinforced-concrete structure built on a bluff near the shore, raising 
the light to 90 feet over the ocean, and protected by a concrete sea 
wall. But it wasn't enough.
  The disaster began early, on April l, 1946. At 1:30 a.m., the crew 
woke to an earthquake lasting about 30 seconds, strong enough to knock 
things off shelves. After the quake, the watchstander at a radio-
direction-finding (RDF) installation--built a little farther up the 
hill during World War II--radioed the lighthouse crew and was told 
there was no major damage.
  Then, just before two o'clock in the morning, a second quake hit. The 
second tremor was expected, but not the million-ton wall of water--a 
tsunami--that quickly followed it.
  The RDF station logbook reported: Terrific roaring from ocean heard, 
followed immediately by terrific sea, top of which rose above cliff and 
struck station, causing considerable damages.''
  The watchstander again used his radio to contact the lighthouse. This 
time, there was no reply. This time, he wrote in the logbook: Light 
extinguished and horn silent.''
  The wave from the second earthquake is now estimated to have been 
over 100 feet high. It completely erased the concrete lighthouse, 
killing the five crewmen instantly, and leaving only wreckage. The 
bodies of Chief Anthony Petit and his crew were gone. They washed 
ashore again a few days later, identifiable only by their bridgework 
and jewelry.
  Chief Anthony Lawrence Petit was just a man--an ordinary man--but his 
life and death offer a glimpse at the thousands of ordinary men and 
women who join the Coast Guard and serve their fellow citizens in 
extraordinary ways. He was born and raised on Michigan's Upper 
Peninsula, in the town of Hancock, on a ship canal crossing the 
Keweenaw Peninsula. As a boy, he would have known the ships well, along 
with the Coast Guard buoy tenders and lighthouses that kept them safe. 
Petit enlisted in the Coast Guard as a young man in 1926. He never 
married, and served faithfully in the Coast Guard for the next 20 
years. And we know that just before his final transfer to Scotch Cap, 
he was quoted saying, ``I hope to serve at as many Coast Guard ships 
and stations as I can before I retire in ten years.'' We know that in 
the end, he died doing the job he loved; keeping the light burning for 
those in peril on the sea. And we know his life was not wasted, nor 
forgotten--and we celebrate the christening of the USCGC Anthony Petit 
this 30th day of January, in the year of our Lord 1999.

                          ____________________