In this video at 0:46 you'll see Miss Thriftway cutting across the bows of the other boats heading right toward 40575. At 0:49 just to the left of the evergreen tree the collision and spay of water coming up from the impact of the crash.
You won't believe what you'll see at 1:33 into the video. It's amazing to me that nobody was killed. According to the Seattle Times Aug 6, 1998 article the Coastie emerging from the wreck of the 40-footer was Portland's Robert William Hutchings, who was sleeping in the forward cabin. The nose of the Miss Thriftway pierced the hull and pinned Hutchings to his bunk. As the patrol boat went down, however, the Miss Thriftway backed out of the hole just enough to let Hutchings squirm free and swim to safety.
PHOTO ABOVE RIGHT: The CGC FIR raising the CG-40575 with Miss Thriftway impaled in her port side. I look at that photo and I shake my head in disbelief that Coastie Bob Hutchings who had been asleep in the cabin at the time of the collision could have made it out alive and virtually unhurt.
ASSOCIATED PRESS RELEASE - August 10, 1958 - (clip) Miss Thriftway, rudderless and helpless, tore into a forty-foot Coast Guard patrol boat like a torpedo and both sank. Muncey and 5 Coast Guard crewmen, were injured. Muncey was plucked from the water by a Coast Guard helicopter two minutes after the accident and was lifted to shore. He was found to have only cuts and bruises when examined at a hospital. None of the Coast Guardsmen was injured seriously.
