Don Lee Hammond, 47, disappeared in the Chukchi Sea after leaving Kotzebue aboard the Seagull II on August 10, 1986. He was traveling with 39-year-old Rodney Howarth on the 56-foot converted landing craft, which carried a portable drill rig and pilings. Hammond was reported to be wearing dark blue coveralls and a white and blue baseball cap marked ANC Auto Electric; reports differ on his footwear, listing either brown leather boots or red tennis shoes.

An official report was filed with the Alaska State Troopers on August 11, 1986, after the vessel failed to arrive in Deering and no contact was made. Extensive searches turned up no wreckage, cargo, or sign of the two men. The case remains unsolved and open as a cold case, with no definitive explanation for what happened to the Seagull II or its occupants.

Does anyone have information about the Seagull II, that route between Kotzebue and Deering in August 1986, or either man’s work that could help clarify what happened?