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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, MARcH 5, 2022
Vaslav: Captain Tokareff was never heard from again
continued from Page B1
Columbia River Maritime Museum
ABOVE: The front cover of a pocket-sized Russian Constitution
taken from the shipwreck. LEFT: Photographer Lawrence
Barber captures a crew member descending from the Vaslav.
BELOW: Lifeboats arrive to Vaslav Vorovsky’s rescue.
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in between the Vaslav and
his lifeboat.
Just as the last crew mem-
bers were rescued, Cap-
tain Tokareff hauled up the
Jacob’s ladder and refused
to get off the ship. It’s
believed that he was afraid
of retribution from Russian
dictator Joseph Stalin, who
threatened ship captains
with the worst should they
let anything happen to ves-
sels under their command.
By daylight, the Vaslav
began to turn sideways. She
was hit repeatedly by waves
that began to break the ves-
sel into three pieces.
A few tugboats waited
on standby to help the ship
afloat, but it soon became
clear that she was lost.
After another 24 hours
onboard the sinking Vaslav,
Captain Tokareff signaled
that he wanted to be res-
cued. Although every-
one on board the ship was
saved, it’s rumored that
Vaslav Vorovsky had at
least one casualty after
all. Captain Tokareff and
his crew returned to the
Soviet Union after the inci-
dent, and the captain was
never heard from again.
It’s believed he was killed
on Stalin’s orders for the
accident.
Years after the ship-
wreck, a woman walked
into the Columbia River
Maritime Museum and
asked to speak with some-
one about a Russian ship
that had sunk on the Colum-
bia River Bar. Her hus-
band to be was one of the
Coast Guardsmen who once
responded to the Vaslav’s
distress call. A crew mem-
ber had gifted him with a
handful of spoons from the
sinking ship out of gratitude
for his rescue.
After keeping the spoons
in her family for many
years, the woman real-
ized their importance to
Columbia River history and
donated them to the Mari-
time Museum’s collection.
Julia Triezenberg is an
educator at the columbia
River Maritime Museum.