October 8, 2026, by Colleen Kelly, City of Seward Resurrection Bay Historical Society

RBHS invites the public to the free program starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, at the K.M. Rae building on Third and Railway.

Seward will host the Oct. 20 premiere of a film recounting the sinking of the SS Yukon steamer in a storm 80 years ago along an isolated stretch of coastline 40 miles southeast of Seward.

Tales of shipwrecks hold a fascination to many, so it might come as a surprise that more local people haven’t heard the harrowing story of the SS Yukon. It’s certainly an event that etched a deep impression on folks who lived here at the time.

As filmmaker John McDonald of Bethel set out to chronicle the shipwreck, he contacted Resurrection Bay Historical Society and Seward Community Library Association to see what their archives held.

The project has been a labor of love for almost a decade for McDonald and his wife, Beverly Hoffman, who will be here for the premiere of “When We Die for Others, We Live Forever.”

RBHS invites the public to the free program starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, at the K.M. Rae building on Third and Railway.

Photo courtesy of John McDonald

McDonald has packed a lot into the 49-minute documentary, thanks to hours of meticulous research. He managed to track down a passenger who was on the ship – Patty Jo Smith, just 3 years old at the time, who has vivid memories of being separated from her mother when brought to Seward during the chaotic rescue.

The film includes an interview with the late Yvon Van Driessche of Seward, who dove numerous times on the wreck at Cape Fairfield in the 1970s. Among the items Van Driessche salvaged from the SS Yukon was a porthole donated by Doug Capra that is now on display in the Seward Museum.

It’s a story about bravery by many of the SS Yukon’s 496 passengers and crew who didn’t lose hope during the more than two days it took for their rescue in challenging weather amidst a February storm with 40- to 50-foot seas in the Gulf of Alaska. About half of the Yukon’s passengers were soldiers being shipped home after serving in Alaska during World War II. McDonald is a veteran himself, having served in the Vietnam War.

RBHS 2821.26.8 | Crew from the Coast Guard cutter Onondaga bring the first boatload of survivors from the SS Yukon. Women and children were the first to be rescued.

Most of the civilian passengers were Alaskans who cooperated with the ship’s crew and the outbound WWII soldiers while working with vessels from the Army, Coast Guard and Navy. You’ll learn how they dealt with mounting challenges until nearly all of those onboard were taken off the broken ship and brought to Seward, where the community welcomed survivors with hot meals, dry clothes and a place to sleep.

McDonald has packed so much into the film: the needless loss of life; the pain of the victims’ family members; and the unforgettable terror experienced by survivors waiting for help. But there are bright spots too: heroic efforts by people like Jimmy Johnson (nicknamed the Screaming Swede) and kindness by survivor Vivian Sherin, whose account of the event gave needed comfort to one family who suffered greatly.

The documentary is a fitting tribute to the shipwreck’s victims and to the heroes who rose to the occasion.