75 years ago
April 5, 1943
The bodies of four of nine men lost in two sea tragedies off Copalis Friday and Saturday had been recovered today as coast guardsmen continued a sea and beach patrol to recover the remaining victims.
The tugboat Maurine, taken over by the army transport service from Schafer Brothers only two weeks ago, foundered off Copalis in a heavy blow last Friday with her crew of six being lost. Three of the bodies have been recovered.
Three naval aviators were lost almost at the same point Saturday afternoon when their small amphibian plane was forced down more than a mile off shore. The body of one crewman washed ashore yesterday.
Seven other navy aviators narrowly escaped a similar fate when their big four-motored patrol plane sank after lighting near the disabled amphibian in a rescue attempt. They managed to get onto a life raft before their plane sank.
April 6, 1943
Wayne Underwood, 1942 Weatherwax high school graduate, and now a gunner’s mate third class in Uncle Sam’s navy, is pretty proud of the navy’s destroyers and grateful, too. For he was one of the navy gunners aboard the first merchantman to arrive at Guadalcanal last December.
“For the last 10 days of that trip our ship was a clay pigeon for four Japanese subs,” he explained. “It was practically continuous ‘battle stations.’ They were 10 long days but when it was all over there were four less Japanese subs and both our ship and the destroyer were okay. We weren’t even scratched.”
While attending the Aberdeen high school, Underwood played on the school’s basketball team and was a lifeguard at Miller natatorium.
50 years ago
April 5, 1968
Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark said today that “substantial leads” had been developed in the hunt for the killer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Clark said the slaying appeared to be the work of one man.
King’s slaying Thursday sparked violence across the nation, but most of it subsided at daybreak. President Johnson canceled his proposed trip to Hawaii and a strategy conference with U.S. officials from Saigon.
April 6, 1968
Crack paratroopers today were backing up Army and National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. in an effort to prevent renewal of rioting, arson and looting by those angered by the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
More than 6,000 federal troops were patrolling the streets in the nation’s capital.
At least 21 persons have lost their lives in racial unrest that plagued numerous metropolitan ghettos since King was assassinated. Nine were dead in Chicago, five in D.C., two in Detroit, and one each in New York, Minneapolis, Memphis and Tallahassee, Fla.
25 years ago
April 5, 1993
Like all good fishermen, the captain and crew of the Freedom know how to tell a good fish story — or in this case a whale of a tail.
“You should have been here last week,” they told visitors aboard the Westport charter boat Saturday as they scanned the water for gray whales on a blustery day.
They caught sight of only two, but the weekend before, whale watchers patted two curious young whales who rubbed up against the 52-foot boat, said deckhand Jason Pierson, 16, of Aberdeen.
Things were also a little risque as two couples — whales, that is — were spotted mating, he said.
April 6, 1993
Pacific County officials saw “raw data” for the first time Monday on countywide Enhanced 911 costs, and even the cheapest option is far beyond the county budget, the county commissioners said.
The cheapest option of four considered — having Grays Harbor do Pacific County’s dispatching — would take some $700,000 out of county coffers the first year for start-up and operating expenses.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
