Storms in the Bering Sea are not uncommon, many a ship has been lost to the forces of mother nature. One such ship was the bark Merom. She was built at Phippsburg, Maine in 1870 and registered at 1,204 tons. At the time of her loss Merom was owned by the Alaska Packers Association and home ported in San Francisco, California. On the afternoon of October 6, 1900 the ship was driven ashore at Karluk Harbor, Kodiak Island, Alaska in a fierce storm. There were sixteen men aboard along with a cargo of several thousand cases of salmon. It must have been apparent to all that the ship would be lost as everyone less one man jumped overboard and made the treacherous swim to shore. Captain Peterson and his fourteen men all made it through the rough surf safely to land. The man who chose to remain onboard was known only as Dutch Bill, when the ship was taken apart by the crushing waves, Bill and all the salmon went with her.