Ray A. Northup moved with his family at the age of 16 to the western edge of Washington's Olympic Peninsula in 1895. At various times, he homesteaded in that area, but for many years was lured away from the land to the sea, working aboard bar tugs on Grays Harbor and on the Columbia River. He served at both the Westport and Neah Bay lifesaving stations. He was an engineer for lighthouse tenders and the Merchant Marine during World War I, and an engineer on whaling vessels working out of Grays Harbor for seven years and ...
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Ray A. Northup moved with his family at the age of 16 to the western edge of Washington's Olympic Peninsula in 1895. At various times, he homesteaded in that area, but for many years was lured away from the land to the sea, working aboard bar tugs on Grays Harbor and on the Columbia River. He served at both the Westport and Neah Bay lifesaving stations. He was an engineer for lighthouse tenders and the Merchant Marine during World War I, and an engineer on whaling vessels working out of Grays Harbor for seven years and Alaska for five years. This is his story as he wrote it, a pioneering and adventurous life, divided between the land and the sea.
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