Tiny Alaskan mission parish memorializes ship workers lost at sea

Published: 2004-12-23

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNS) -- A tiny mission parish in Alaska's Aleutian Islands held a memorial Mass Dec. 12 for six ship workers who were lost at sea after their vessel ran aground during a vicious storm. The Selendang Ayu, a 738-foot Malaysian freighter en route from Seattle to China, lost power in the Bering Sea and drifted for several hours Dec. 7 and 8 before grounding near Skan Bay, less than a mile from the shore of Unalaska Island. A Coast Guard helicopter attempting to rescue the crew during the squall crashed into the ocean and sank. Four of the 10 people on board the aircraft were plucked from the sea and saved by a second helicopter crew. The six other men, all workers from the ship, were swept away and are presumed dead. The Selendang Ayu then broke in two in an onslaught of 30- to 40-foot seas and high winds. Unalaska Island is home to just one community, Unalaska, a fishing center several hundred miles out on the Aleutian archipelago that arcs into the Bering Sea from the southwest corner of Alaska.

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