Gary Stallings Missing Person Case

Apr 11, 2018

Jul 30, 2024

Gary

Stallings

63

19

73 inches

150 lbs

White / Caucasian

Male

In the harsh and unforgiving waters of the Gulf of Alaska, a young man named Gary Todd Stallings, just 19 years old, was working as a deckhand. On November 30, 1981, he was aboard the 138-foot scallop fishing trawler, The St. Patrick, which was navigating the turbulent seas five miles east of Marmot Island, near Kodiak. The vessel and its twelve-person crew, which included an eighteen-year-old cook from Kodiak, had left Gibson Cove just after Thanksgiving for what was supposed to be an eight-day trip. The boat was helmed by an acting captain who was not licensed to be a ship's master, a critical detail that would later have significant consequences. As a fierce storm blew in on the evening of November 29th, with winds gusting over 65 knots, the crew could only secure the deck and jog slowly into the increasingly violent weather. Shortly after midnight, the situation turned catastrophic when a massive 25-foot wave slammed into the port side of The St. Patrick, shattering wheelhouse windows. Amid the chaos, the engineer reportedly warned that seawater flooding the bilge could cause the batteries to explode. This, combined with the severe listing of the ship, appears to have led the acting skipper to make a fateful and panicked decision: he ordered the crew to abandon the vessel. There were not enough survival suits for everyone on board; only nine were available for the twelve crew members. As the crew went into the 40-degree water, their life raft, which had become untethered, was quickly pushed away by the wind, its light disappearing into the storm. In the days that followed, a search and rescue operation was launched in the storm-tossed gulf. The efforts led to the miraculous rescue of two crewmen, Robert Kidd and Wallace R. Thomas, who had managed to survive for more than a day in the freezing conditions before being found on the beaches of Marmot and Afognak Islands. Searchers also recovered the bodies of eight other crew members. However, Gary Stallings and another deckhand, Clifford Stigall, were never located. In a tragic irony, the vessel they had abandoned was found still afloat and adrift less than 12 hours later. The St. Patrick was towed to Womens Bay near Kodiak, where it remained for years as a ghost ship, a haunting reminder of the lives lost, before it finally sank at its mooring. The case of Gary Stallings is an account of a young life lost at sea, a tragedy compounded by a vessel that was found to be lacking in proper lifesaving equipment and experienced leadership, leaving a lasting scar on the Kodiak fishing community and an unresolved search for two men who vanished into the cold Alaskan waters.

Nov 30, 1981

Kodiak

Alaska

Kodiak Island Borough

No

32650

Alaska State Troopers

Anchorage

Alaska

Anchorage Borough

99507

Malia Miller

Missing Persons Clearinghouse Manager

5700 East Tudor Road, Alaska

9072695511

State

Law Enforcement

C81-11690

1981-12-01

Alaska State Troopers

10662

Brown

Unknown

Unknown

07/24/2026