A Granduc Story

Photo - Granduc Bunk Houses

Submitted by Art Vibert -
A personal travel diary to Granduc Mines

The men in charge, realizing it was impossible to control the men, herded us into the now empty hospital and only the ones with the lowest numbers were allowed by the door. The number system that the men in charge had planned the night before was now paying off. This was one of the smartest moves in the whole rescue operation. The food that had arrived on the second chopper was soon served. Several men dished it up on paper plates from Cy's bunkhouse and brought it up to the office door. Of course, the ones closest to the door were fed first. This irritated some of the men in the back so they stamped out of the door and over to Cy's bunkhouse only to find they had to wait there until it was served up. Finally our turn came to move out. The S55 chopper landed in a cloud of swirling snow, kicked up by the machine's huge blades. A carpenter foreman stopped the chap ahead of me and scribbled a phone number on part of a cigarette package saying, "Phone this number when you get out and tell them I am okay."

We all ran with our heads ducked down for the chopper. This is the natural thing to do around a chopper if you want to keep your head. Five of us got in. The pilot was asked if he could take one more but he said no.

Time 12:30 p.m. The door was locked, the engine revved up and we lifted off. This was the moment that I had waited fourteen hours for. I had to kneel on the floor but didn't mind it at all. It was a long ride to Stewart with the weather touch and go all the time. I knelt at the small window looking at this cruel, rugged north country with its jagged mountain peaks covered in snow and ice. In the hour and a half it took to make the trip, I didn't spot a sign of life, human or otherwise. Stewart was a very welcome sight.

There was no welcoming committee at Stewart. They were expecting all survivors to land at Ketchikan, Alaska. In fact, our chopper load of survivors was the only one to fly to Stewart. The rest were to go to the Chickamin River and then by boat to Ketchikan. We enquired at Granduc's office as to where we went from there, but no one knew, so Raoul and I hitched a ride on the running board of a 1/2 ton truck that was going into town. I went to the only hotel at Stewart and placed a call to Grace in Burnaby. The operator said she would try to get through. I waited for what seemed like twenty minutes, but was actually only about three, when in came a chap from Granduc's office wanting Raoul and I to go with him to the Taku (a U.S. Alaska ferry that had been assigned to aid in the rescue operations). I insisted he wait until my call went through. As soon as I picked up the phone, the operator said, "Mister, I'm trying." And, I said, "Just got out of the Granduc slide, you have to get through." That did it. In no time I heard a meek voice answering at the other end. Asked Grace to phone Raoul's fiancee and give her the good news.

From there we went to the Taku, boarded on a ladder laid down to bridge the gap between ship and dock. There were a lot of reporters on board so I borrowed a safety razor with a dull blade from one of them and proceeded to shave my four days growth of beard. Had a good wash and went up to the bar where I bought Raoul that drink I had promised him up on the hill. Later, the dining room opened up and we had a delicious salmon steak dinner. Slept in a stateroom and arrived in Ketchikan at 2:30 a.m. Went ashore and boarded a bus that took us to the Sourdough Cafe. Here we met the rest of the survivors. The miners were looking for something to drink and had no intentions of going to bed.

After eating at the Sourdough, we were handed two sheets each and sent to a block of apartments where a lady was busy trying to find beds for everyone. Got up at 6:30 a.m. and proceeded to round up Raoul. The poor lady who had bedded us down had no idea where anyone was sleeping but, as luck would have it, Raoul wandered out of a room and we headed back to the Sourdough where things were really rolling by this time. The men in charge had their hands full getting the worst ones on the bus that was going to the seaport, where a plane was waiting to fly them across the bay to the Ketchikan Airport. While we were waiting our turn at the seaport, the weather closed in, so Raoul decided to grab a cab and head for the nearest store and this was a couple of miles away. He wanted a toothbrush and paste. This little jaunt cost him 12.00 dollars.

Waited out the morning and part of the afternoon for the weather to improve and finally a Coast Guard cutter cruised in and ferried us across the bay to our waiting CPA Britannia aircraft.

We ate and slept all the way down to Vancouver, arriving about 5:00 p.m. on a warm, sunny day. Civilization sure looked good!
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Diary - The End