Cape Pankof is a point of land at the eastern tip of the Ikatan Peninsula on Unimak Island, about 148 miles (239 km) north-east of Dutch Harbor and 18 miles (29 km) southeast of False Pass, Alaska. It is the site of the shipwrecked SS Oduna. Unimak Island, measuring about 67 miles (108 km) long and 22 miles (35 km) wide, is part of the Fox Islands in the eastern Aleutians. Captain James Cook recorded the Unangan Aleut name as “Oonemak” in 1785. Father Ioann Veniaminov, a Russian Orthodox priest, first reported the name for the Ikatan Peninsula as “Ikatok” in the 1830s. The Russian name for the cape was first published in 1847 as “Pankof’s Cape”. The Ikatan Peninsula comprises three mountain masses connected near sea level by sediments deposited during the Quaternary period (about 2.6 million years ago to the present). The westernmost mountain consists of rocks from the Belkofski Formation that developed during the Oligocene or Miocene (about 30 million to 20 million years ago) and contains volcaniclastic sandstone, siltstone and conglomerate with tuff and breccia. The eastern portion comprises breccia and lava flows intruded by a quartz diorite pluton. Cape Pankof terminates in three massive cliffs on the southern coast: the westernmost has an elevation of 852 feet (260 m), the middle cliff rises to 1,070 feet (326 m), and the easternmost reaches 1,243 feet (379 m).
Unangan people historically hunted sea lions on the rocks and reefs of the Ikatan Peninsula, but established no permanent villages. In 1917 Pacific American Fisheries of Bellingham, Washington, built a salmon cannery on the north coast of the peninsula in Ikatan Bay; it operated until 1934. On November 26th 1965 Oduna ran aground in heavy seas when its radar became inoperative and strong currents swept the ship onto the wave-cut platform at the base of towering sea cliffs on the south coast of Cape Pankof. Adeline Foss received a distress call from Oduna while towing a barge from Adak to Seward, Alaska. Captain Guy H. Johnson anchored the barge in a nearby bay and attempted to reach Oduna, but seas were running 15 to 20 feet (4-6 m) and breaking violently onshore. Four crewmen volunteered to go ashore in a relatively protected bay with a small work boat, then hike two miles (3.2 km) across the island and descend the sea cliff where Oduna was grounded. They rigged a breeches buoy and brought 17 crew safely to shore. The weather then improved, allowing a US Air Force helicopter to transfer the remaining 20 crewmembers to the US Coast Guard Cutter Storis and Adeline Foss. In 1967 the Maritime Administration awarded meritorious service medals to Adeline Foss and its crew.
Oduna was a steel steamship of 422 feet (129 m) built in 1944 as a Liberty ship type EC-S-C1 for the United States Maritime Commission by the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in South Portland, Maine, one of 18 American shipyards that built 2,710 Liberty ships between 1941 and 1945. The ship was among the last produced, launched in 1945 as the Francia A. Retka, and decommissioned in 1947. In 1954 Tramp Cargo Carriers Company owned the ship and renamed it Liberty Bell. After several sales, Alaska Steamship Company acquired and renamed it Oduna in 1964, modifying it to carry refrigerated shipping containers. Following the successful rescue of the shipwrecked crew from Cape Pankof, the company initially believed the cargo was lost. However, salvagers recovered 200,000 pounds (90,718 kg) of frozen crab in refrigerated containers, cutting large holes in the starboard hull to access and extract them. Read more here and here. Explore more of Cape Pankof and Unimak Island here: