On February 26, 1910, John Currie and John Silander, the two assistant keepers at Eldred Rock, set out in the station’s launch for Point Sherman. With light snow falling, the assistants left Point Sherman at about 4 p.m. the following day for the return. When his assistants hadn’t shown up at Eldred Rock after an absence of three days, Keeper Adamson rowed out to the Justina Gray to put out notice of the overdue men. Two days later, the station’s missing launch was located “with all gear gone excepting mast, sail & anchor.”
Adamson, who was tormented by the presumed drowning of his assistants, later wrote: “I myself am unable to account for any accident that could have happened to them as there was no wind to speak of and a smooth sea & in my opinion they should have reached home easily by 8 p.m., though they had an ebb tide to contend with.”
For a month, Adamson searched the waters of Lynn Canal for his assistants when time and weather permitted. At night, he would often rise in his sleep, stand at his bedroom window, and call out their names – a nightmare that continued the remainder of his life.