| Summary/Abstract |
As commander of the sole U.S. vessel charged with enforcing federal gun, alcohol, and hunting laws in the waters of Alaska, Captain Charles A. Abbey was acutely aware that the perennially fog-bound expanse of the eastern Bering Sea rendered his formal authority all but moot. Smugglers and poachers could as easily make landfall on an island or the mainland as slip out to the open sea undetected; the dense marine mist that usually blanketed the islands and seaways provided perfect cover. Even under the bluest of skies, a single police vessel, particularly an aging, overweight steamer like Abbey’s U.S. Revenue Marine Corwin, could never effectively patrol some 600,000 square miles of ocean space.
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