“When I think of what we went through 50 years ago I think about how lucky I am to be here today,” said Uchucklesaht Tyee Ha’wilth Clifford Charles. His hair, now frosty white, Charles was only 25 when he and his father answered a distress call that stormy night.
According to information from the Bamfield Historical Society, it was the start of the herring season and fishing boats were moving around the coast despite the wind and falling wet snow.
Charles, a new member of Bamfield’s Coast Guard was paged late that night, around 10:00 p.m. on Feb. 29, 1976. The Bamfield lighthouse keeper reported that there was a fishing vessel in trouble right off at Cape Beale.
It was by chance that Cape Beale lighthouse keeper Mike Slater learned of the accident. He was bringing his dog in from the cold when he heard something. High on a cliff, he peered out into the dark ocean. He heard someone calling for help and summoned the Coast Guard for help.
Clifford, his father, Martin Charles along with David Christney and Bob Amos met at the coast guard station where they boarded their vessel to head out into the pitch blackness.
The seiner, Bruce 1, out of Victoria, ran aground on the rocks at Cape Beale with four men aboard. One of those men, Reid Dobell, a lawyer from Vancouver, was only going along for the to observe herring fishing.
David Christney recalled it was around 11:00 when they reached Cape Beale near the lighthouse and it was pitch black as they navigated around towering rocks and breaking waves. A faint light was spotted between the waves. It was a partially inflated life raft with two men clinging to it.
In a recording, Clifford Charles says one man was lying on across the raft, on top of it instead of inside of it, because it wasn’t fully inflated. Another fisherman was clinging to the raft when they rescued them, after struggling with cords attached to the raft.
Thinking the rescue was complete, the crew was heading back to their base when one of the fishermen asked, ‘where’s Reid, where’s Rusty?’
“There’s two more guys!” Clifford yelled. But it was too rough and rocky for the big boat, so father and son launched the rubber boat to search. They heard someone yelling, ‘hey! Hey!’.
A third man, Reid Dobell, was deposited by a wave 30 feet up on top of a rock pinnacle directly in front of the Cape Beale lighthouse station and he could not get down, nor could the Coast Guard crew get to him.
The US Coast Guard in Port Angeles was monitoring the situation and offered to send a rescue helicopter. They quickly rescued Dobell, who had been stranded for hours atop the rock pinnacle, wet and freezing. He had been hoisted up to the US helicopter in a litter.
Charles said there was no way they could leave him there until morning. He needed to be rescued that night, after being in the ocean and exposed to the wintery weather, he wouldn’t have made it through the night, said Charles.
The Bamfield Coast Guard crew was heading back to their station with two rescued crewmen from the Bruce 1 while the US Coast Guard, with Reid safely aboard, flew over several times in search of the last missing crewman, Rusty Waters, when disaster struck again.
Alex Thompson from the Cape Beale lighthouse had been providing assistance to the recue crews from shore. High up on the cliff, he could see the helicopter and the lights from the boats.
“Thompson radioed us that the helicopter just crashed right in front of the lighthouse,” Clifford recalls. Christney, he said, went full throttle toward the lighthouse. There was more frightening action as the rescuers nearly capsized with Clifford out on the deck and near misses with the helicopter rotors.
“We went alongside the helicopter sliding door…it was still floating,” said Clifford. He and his father Martin were able to get close to the wrecked Sikorsky with the rubber vessel. They pulled Reid and the three US Coast Guard crew members from the helicopter.
Pilot Brian Mills said in a recording that the helicopter engine just quit, 250 feet above the ocean. As the helicopter fell from the sky, it was caught in a breaker, a large wave, that extinguished a fire and broke the helicopter’s fall into the ocean. Of his rescuers, Mills said, “we never got wet, those guys risked all to save us.”
The Bamfield Coast Guard crew returned with three survivors from the fishing vessel and three survivors from the US Coast Guard helicopter. Reid Dobell was fortunate enough to survive both.
Sadly, the missing fisherman, Rusty Waters, perished and was never found. The following day his green Mustang floater jacket was found, turned inside out, drifting offshore.
In the weeks and years following the incident, the Bamfield Coast Guard crew received bravery medals from both the Canadian and United States governments.
In May 2015 the Canadian Coast Guard christened a Hero Class vessel the M. Charles after Uchucklesaht’s Tyee Ha’wilth Martin in recognition of his heroism. Clifford Charles and family attended the event in Port Alberni.
The Bamfield Historical Society maintains audio accounts of this event on their website.
On Nov. 27, 2025, they posted on their website that a new commemorative sign about the rescue of the crew of fishing vessel Bruce 1 by the Bamfield Coast Guard Crew in 1976.
“During a fierce snowstorm on the evening of February 28th, 1976, the seiner Bruce 1 struck the rocks off Cape Beale, five miles SW of Bamfield. Immediately all four crew were fighting for survival in the frigid waters. The skipper Stan Beale and Randy West clung to a semi-inflated life-raft. Reid Dobell and Rusty Waters were swept onto semi-submerged rocks battered by waves.”
Heather Cooper is a volunteer at the Bamfield Historical Society and says this is one event that should not be forgotten.
“There are people that were there 50 years ago, involved in the incident that are still here today,” she said. Sadly, two of the Bamfield Coast Guard crew from that day have passed away, including Martin Charles. But Clifford is still here to tell his and his father’s stories.
In 2017 the Bamfield Historical Society received a BC/Canada 150 grant to create 10 historical interpretive signs. The Society aims to produce one sign each year.
The latest sign, posted in Bamfield, tells the story of what is now called the Bruce 1 Rescue incident.
On February 28, 2026, the Bamfield Historical Society in partnership with the CCGBamfield Lifeboat Station hosted a small social gathering at the Bamfield Lifeboat Stations to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the rescue.
“We will honour those who took part from air and sea and unveil a new permanent interpretive sign detailing the event,” reads the invitation.
For information about locations of interpretive sign locations or to hear recorded voices of the men involved in the rescue go to the Bamfield Historical Society website. There, you can hear Clifford Charles, his co-worker David Christney or the USCG helicopter pilot give first-hand details of what happened that night.
