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Crew hooks device from Cold War

Crew members of the Windjammer haul what the U.S. Navy says is a Cold War-era communications device out of the Pacific Ocean 14 miles west of La Push, Wash., on Sunday. Skipper Erik Eide contacted the Coast Guard and then took the item to Port Angeles. Crew members are Troy Miller, Bob Cameron and Bryan Tharp. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press
Crew members of the Windjammer haul what the U.S. Navy says is a Cold War-era communications device out of the Pacific Ocean 14 miles west of La Push, Wash., on Sunday. Skipper Erik Eide contacted the Coast Guard and then took the item to Port Angeles. Crew members are Troy Miller, Bob Cameron and Bryan Tharp. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

BELLINGHAM – It was hard to miss. The stubby missile, floating about 14 miles off the Washington coast, was crusted with barnacles, seaweed and seagull droppings and had a live seagull sitting on its nose.

The trawler Windjammer had just pulled its net when skipper Erik Eide spotted the object on Sunday afternoon. He decided to move in for a closer look.

It looked to him like a World War II buzz bomb. “It was kind of freaky at first,” Eide said.

Then he remembered seeing something similar on the Discovery Channel and he was pretty sure it was a type of sonar rig. Eide decided to haul it on board in hopes that it could be worth something. “We’re just four guys struggling to make a living,” he said.

When they scraped off some barnacles and seaweed, they saw Cyrillic letters and that’s when Eide decided they better report their find to the U.S. Coast Guard. Minutes later, the Coast Guard radioed back to say it was coming to take a look.

A helicopter flew over, a vessel pulled alongside, took some digital pictures and then the Navy ordered Eide to head to Port Angeles instead of heading to the Bornstein Seafoods dock in Bellingham, with his perishable cargo of cod and sole.

Jay Overton, spokesman for Navy Region Northwest, confirmed Eide’s assessment that the object was not dangerous. He said Tuesday that the Navy had decided the device was some kind of Cold War era communications device.

“It has no real value to the Navy,” Overton said, adding that they would probably be returning it to Eide with the government’s thanks for doing the right thing and reporting the find.