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Letters/Online Comments

RE: Port of San Diego Harbor Police Officer Receives Medal of Valor for Bravery in March 2021 Officer-Involved

Shooting (DEC. 10-24, 2021)

“Excellent Work Offi cer Horn, as I have been in your same footsteps as a Harbor Police Offi cer who received the fi rst ever Medal of Valor for an incident in San Diego Bay on July 19, 2008. Stay Safe & Enjoy the Port of San Diego Career.” —Clyde Williams

RE: In Memoriam: Morrie

Kirk (DEC. 10-24, 2021)

“I just read in the current Log about the passing of Morrie Kirk; I am saddened at this news. Morrie helped my partner purchase her current boat. What a wonderful, kind, and helpful person he was. Morrie enjoyed boating and shared this passion with everyone. If this world had more Morrie Kirk’s, what a wonderful world it would be. I will miss Morrie, but I will blow our horn for him, whenever we embark on a new voyage.” —Aaron Wilker

RE: Dog Aboard: In Loving Memory of a Best Friend

(NOV. 26- DEC. 10, 2021)

“So great that you kept his memory alive this way. Our dogs are our family. We love them fi ercely! So sorry for your loss. God bless you both.” —Diane Stalfi ere

“I’m so sorry for your loss. One day we will be reunited at the Rainbow Bridge with our fur babies. God bless.” —Donna Bradshaw

Comments are edited for clarity

Reader Q&A

QHow does one “Ask a Maritime Attorney” a question (unrelated to the one posted here)?

AAsk an Attorney submissions can be made on our website under News and Departments and then Ask an Attorney. There is a submission button at the top where it will ask for your name, fi rst and last, your email, and then your question. The question is then sent to the Log Editor email, where we forward it over to David Weil, our resident Maritime Attorney.

Readers can also email Weil directly at dweil@weilmaritime. com or contact him through his website at www.weilmaritime. com.

If a reader posts a question on the Log website, Weil will review it and then reply to the question directly on the website.

Weil does try to answer all questions, generally, on the day they were submitted. After that, he responds to readers directly.

In regards to the column, he chooses questions that he fi nds helpful or interesting to the public that have not been answered in the past year. FAST FACTS

Fast Facts: Santa Catalina Island is 480 Years Old!

By: KATHERINE M CLEMENTS

CATALINA ISLAND— In 1542, a Spanish explorer named Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo became the first European to land on Catalina Island. Over the next several centuries, other Spaniards would stop at the island but never settle there. It was not until the late 1700s that life would change for the island’s native people, the Tongva, also known as Gabrieliño, when Spanish colonization of the California coast began to develop. As a result, the majority of the island’s population relocated to the mainland by choice during the following decades.

In 1846, not long before the United States assumed control of California and its islands, the Mexican government granted ownership of the island to a private citizen. After changing hands several times during the late 1800s and early 1900s, the island was sold to William Wrigley Jr. and has belonged to the Wrigley family since 1919.

Settlers on Catalina Island raised sheep and cattle in the mid-1800s, introducing a ranching industry that continued in different forms until the mid1950s. The island was mined for gold and silver and was used by the U.S. government during the American Civil War.

The most important factor to Catalina Island’s future happened in the late 1880s when owner George Shatto embarked on a campaign to turn Catalina Island into a tourist destination; planning and building the town of Avalon as the focal point of the island and hub of this activity. Following owners have nourished Shatto’s idea by constructing hotels, golf courses, and new tourist attractions as well as encouraging hunting, fishing, and other outdoor pursuits, helping to make Catalina Island the resort it is today.

At the time of fi rst European contact in 1542, it is believed that the Native Americans living on Santa Catalina Island called their island Pimu and themselves Pimungans or Pimuvit.

On Board With Johnson by J.R. Johnson