Nestled away under a canopy of trees on the North Olympic Peninsula is X-246.
Although it has the sound of a supersecret aircraft Gen. Chuck Yeager might have flown when he was a test pilot for the Air Force, in reality it is a restored Prairie Caboose that was once part of the Great Northern Railway that ran between Seattle and St. Paul, Min.
Today, far from any rail yard — or for that matter any waterfront — X-246 is now a seagoing sailor’s cabin in the woods.
The caboose is owned by retired Navy Capt. Richard Tarbuck of Sequim and is the repository for memorabilia collected throughout his naval career.
The caboose also houses numerous historical pieces from the naval career of retired Rear Adm. Ray Tarbuck, Richard’s father.
The caboose, which is 11 feet wide and 33 feet long, was built in Tacoma in the early 1940s.
Richard purchased it in the mid-‘80s from its then-owner who had the railcar sitting on a siding in Puyallup.
X-246 was then loaded onto a lowboy trailer and after a relatively uneventful trip to its current location — there was that one incorrectly marked highway overpass that caused a bit of a stir — was set upon ties and track that were laid down by Richard and his wife, Sanda.
Once the caboose was in place, carpenters went to work rebuilding it to standards and codes used for residential housing.
A cedar tree was felled and installed in the center of the caboose that extends from the pegged floor to the ceiling of the cupola, which is now the crow’s nest into which a bunk was installed for visiting grandchildren.
The compact “ship’s” galley has a porthole installed that was salvaged in Subic Bay, Philippines.
Wallpaper is out-of-date nautical charts of the seas that Richard and his father had at one time sailed that Richard acquired in 1958.
Along with a ship’s bell, port and starboard running lights adorn the exterior.
In the forward portion of the caboose there is a sitting area with a large glass cabinet that houses pictures and under way caps of some of the ships Richard commanded — including USS Warbler (MSC-206), USS Halsey (CG-23) and USS King (DLG-10), a guided missile frigate which I served on from August 1966 until January 1969.
Within the cabinet there are also old-style shoulderboards that officers wore before they were discontinued in the midst of World War II because of the shortage of gold, as well as a fore and aft cocked hat.
A narrow shelf near the ceiling rings the caboose, and on this ledge are small models of ships known as recognition models that were used in World War II to train aviators not to attack friendly vessels.
The aft compartment of the caboose doubles as sleeping quarters.
The walls in this space, as are all the bulkheads throughout the “sea cabin,” are rich with contemporaneous photographs of naval history.
There is a picture of Richard’s father with Gen. Douglas MacArthur when he served on the general’s staff, an autographed picture of Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz, who was a family friend, and one of Secretary of the Navy John Warner and Adm. Bernard Clarey, vice chief of naval operations, aboard the USS King on Christmas Eve 1971 when they visited the ship off the coast of Vietnam.
From the outside, X-246 looks to all the world like any other rebuilt and well-maintained historical caboose.
However, once inside you are surrounded by two lifetimes of naval history.
On any given day, the captain can pull up one of his favorite chairs — a wardroom chair salvaged from the sunken World War II Japanese battleship Nagato — and immerse himself in a world that was nearly 75 years in the making.
Big yacht refurbished
Platypus Marine Inc. in Port Angeles has the composite super-yacht, Aghassi, stowed in the Commander Building for the next week or so.
She is a 145-foot Christensen yacht that was built in 2002 in Vancouver, Wash., and launched as Primadonna.
In March 2008, she was sold, her name changed to Aghassi and her acquiring owner began chartering her in the Pacific Northwest and the Caribbean.
For the past couple of years, Christensen Brokerage has owned the yacht, and I understand the vessel is for sale — the asking price is a tick under $15 million.
According to Capt. Charlie Crane, director of sales and marketing for Platypus Marine, personnel painted the bottom and replaced through-hull fittings and the cutlass bearings.
The propellers and shafts were sent out to Sound Propeller in Seattle, where they underwent a scheduled American Bureau of Shipping inspection.
The captain of the yacht, David Sloate, told me that the vessel should be back in the water and under way by the end of this week.
He said that for the rest of the summer season, he will be aboard Aghassi cruising the waterways of Washington and British Columbia.
Also at Platypus
CF Todd and North are sitting on the hard at Platypus Marine, and they currently have much in common.
Both are commercial vessels that hail from Neah once sailed Bay, both are having planking repaired — and both are having their bottoms painted.
Harbor fill-up
Tesoro Petroleum on Tuesday refueled American Progress, a 575-foot petroleum products carrier whose hailing port is Norfolk, Va.
On Wednesday, Tesoro bunkered the 623-foot bulk cargo ship, Mandarin Dalian, prior to her departure for Vancouver, B.C.
Tesoro also refueled the 574-foot, Panamanian-flagged log ship, Hedvig Bulker.
On Thursday, Tesoro bunkered Golden State, a 600-foot petroleum products carrier that can carry close to 14 million gallons of product.
Today, Tesoro will provide bunkers to British Councillor, a 754-foot liquid petroleum gas carrier that made her way to Ferndale from Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats, ships and strolling the waterfront.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
