Santa Maria (seiner)

In 1955, the purse seiner Santa Maria, owned by Obren Kokich and John Depolo, was cut in two by a Navy LST north of Seattle. John Depolo was the lone survivor of the tragedy that took the lives of Obren Kokich, Leigh Larson, and Sigurd Hoveland. Their bodies were never recovered. Kokich, the boat's captain, and Depolo had fished together for sixteen years prior to the accident. Obren Kokich, a personable and talented Slav, was born in Seattle and then taken to Yugoslavia by his parents as a child. He returned to the United States in 1938.

Citation: Tacoma Public Library