Dwight J. Florin was 28 when he and fellow crewman Kaino Dixon left the fishing vessel Cougar for a hunting trip on Kodiak Island on November 12, 1981. They went ashore in a 12-foot aluminum skiff named the Dawn but became stranded as weather and seas deteriorated. That night they signaled the Cougar with an SOS flash and fired a distress flare; later a non-distress flare was also fired. The Cougar’s crew attempted a rescue but turned back because seas with waves reported at six to eight feet and violent breakers prevented a safe approach.

When the Cougar’s crew reached the shore the next day, November 13, 1981, neither Florin, Dixon, nor the skiff were found. Both men are now presumed deceased. Few details beyond the failed rescue and the absence of any trace of the men or the skiff are available.

Did anyone on Kodiak at the time see the Dawn or either man after they left the Cougar, or have information about that night?