Funter Bay History: The Expanded Misadventures of Fred Patrick

After writing about Funter Bay resident Fred Patrick and his accident-prone life, I dug a little deeper into the original news articles. My prior information all came from summaries written by historian “Kinky” Bayers. The articles he references are mostly available in the Alaska State Library on microfilm.

An article from October of 1931 gives more detail of Fred Patrick’s shooting of Harold Tipton. Apparently Patrick was a “fox rancher” at the time, and Tipton was the cannery watchman at Funter Bay. Both were partaking in moonshine at a “small gathering” when Patrick decided to air some sort of grievance with a gun.

I was not able to find a follow-up article with the results of this matter. Whether Fred Patrick spent any time in jail for the incident is uncertain.

Fred shows up again in the news in 1938, when fellow fisherman George Ford sank his boat, and the two went missing briefly.

And Fred again ran into trouble with guns in 1939, this time in Elfin Cove.

That’s all I’ve found so far on fisherman, fox rancher, careless gun owner, and all-around unlucky fellow Fred Patrick. If I encounter him again in newspaper archives I will continue posting his exploits!

Funter Bay History: The misadventures of Fred Patrick

This guy seems to have lived an “interesting” life… I came across his name several times in old newspaper archives and notes on local history. The Kinky Bayers note cards mention him several times. Fred Patrick owned the fishing vessel Fearless and resided in or fished out of Funter Bay in the 1930s.

As previously mentioned, in October of 1938: Geo. Ford’s troller was found sunk in Funter Bay, he and Fred Patrick were missing for three days but turned up at Funter.

He seems to have had bad luck with guns: In October of 1931, Fred Patrick shot Harold Tipton in the foot during a drinking bout at Funter. In September 1939, Fred Patrick lost an eye and his nose when a shotgun went off in his face at Elfin Cove (also from Kinky Bayers notes).

Iin 1934, Fred Patrick was part of a march of unemployed men on the federal building in Juneau, demanding food benefits.

Fred’s dog Wiggles was stolen in 1934.

Fred’s boat was disabled in Echo Cove in 1938, and a hunter who was on board went ashore, never to be seen again.

The Fearless was a 33ft fishing boat built in 1916 at Berkely, CA. It had a 60hp gas engine and a crew of one. Reg. # 237891. Owner in 1942 was Fred R. Patrick of Juneau. In 1945 the boat is listed as abandoned.

That’s all I’ve been able to find so far on the (mis)adventures of Fred, if anything more turns up I will update this!