On May 6, 1978, 18-year-old William R. Hamilton Jr., an American Indian or Alaska Native, disappeared on a boat trip between Hydaburg and Craig on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. He was one of five men on the voyage; the others were Verne Edenshaw Jr., Glenn Cook, Delbert Kelley, and Victor Burgess. The group left the Waterfall Resort, about 15 miles outside of Craig, in two skiffs for the roughly 30-mile journey and never arrived.

Searchers later found one skiff submerged in San Alberto Bay near Cruz Island and the other secured to a rock in Canoe Pass. No bodies were recovered, and the presumption is that all five men drowned in a boating accident. The circumstances that led to the boats being separated and abandoned remain unclear.

Did anyone in the area at the time have information about weather, sea conditions, or sightings of the vessels that could shed light on what happened that day?