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New granite pavers honoring Gig Harbor’s fishing fleet are meant to stand the test of time

“Written in stone” means something is permanent, indelible. Gig Harbor commercial fishermen hope they’ve captured that characteristic in new granite paver stones installed this winter at a plaza in Ancich Waterfront Park to honor the city’s fishing fleet.

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Each glossy 2-foot-square stone is engraved with the name of two Gig Harbor fishing boats — from A Ribich and Abe to Yellowstone and Young America — and the names of their captains or owners. Information on the type of vessel (G for gillnetter, L for long-liner, S for seiner, etc.) and its year of construction is also provided.

Soon the plaza will also have a sign with a photo, purchased from the Harbor History Museum collection, showing a 1970s Blessing of the Fleet ceremony. The sign will explain the meaning of the information on the stones and provide additional history.

The city expects the sign to be finished this week and is targeting Feb. 5 for its installation, said Parks Manager Jennifer Haro.

New granite pavers, installed by the Gig Harbor Commercial Fishermen’s Club, at Ancich Waterfront Park. Photo by Ted Kenney

Fishermen’s Club paid for new pavers

The new granite pavers come to the city compliments of the Gig Harbor Commercial Fishermen’s Civic Club.

It’s actually the second time in recent years that engraved tiles honoring the fleet have been placed at the park. The city previously spent $22,000 to buy and set in place concrete pavers bearing the same information. That installation was completed in 2019.

But there were some issues with the original pavers. For one thing, within a few years, the words on them became hard to read, despite being relatively new.

“We had a hard time even trying to figure out what was on them,” said Chris Green, owner of Pacific Coast Memorial, which provided the new granite tiles. He attributed the problem to the colored grout used in the old tiles’ engraving losing its color over time.

In addition, when the old memorial was created, the city was supposed to erect a sign highlighting and explaining that earlier display. But somehow the sign never materialized.

Its absence meant many visitors didn’t understand what they were seeing — to the point where some thought the pavers memorialized vessels and crew lost in accidents, said Randy Babich, treasurer of the fishermen’s club, who spearheaded the replacement.

More pavers, more problems

The city of Gig Harbor isn’t alone in having invested in concrete memorial pavers that did not stand the test of time, Green said. For example, at Seattle’s Pike Place Market, similar issues afflicted the concrete pavers installed around the bronze Rachel the Pig statue at the market’s entrance and elsewhere, he said.

With engraved concrete tiles, “they’re not going to look good more than 10 years,” he said.

Ancich Park’s new 1.75-inch-thick, shiny granite pavers are a different story, Green said. The stone is “flame-finished” using a blowtorch, which takes off the top layer of mineral. This leaves a somewhat rough finish that keeps people from slipping, but the granite “will still gleam in the sun,” he said. The engraved portions are colored with lithichrome stain, which contrasts with the stone and is durable.

The Gig Harbor Commercial Fishermen’s Civic Club spent $34,000 on labor and materials to re-do the pavers, Babich said. Club members believed that a new display, featuring bright and legible engraving, would serve as a better tribute to their ancestors and to the industry around which Gig Harbor developed.

The old pavers at Ancich Waterfront Park became difficult to read within a few years. Their replacements, made using a different technique, should last longer. Photo byTed Kenney

To pay for the project, the club tapped its Memorial Fund. This account received money over the years, typically when a member’s obituary suggested donating to it in lieu of sending flowers, said Gregg Lovrovich, club president.

Lovrovich noted that the old pavers removed from Ancich Park aren’t going to waste. Members of the fleet retrieved many of them, as keepsakes and to be used in personal projects (Lovrovich himself took home the paver honoring his 58-foot purse seiner Sea Fury, along with tiles for boats owned by his father and an uncle. They will occupy a place of honor in his garden, he said).

Pavers don’t only honor fishermen

Replacing the old pavers gave the fishing community the opportunity to expand and improve the tribute to Gig Harbor’s fishing fleet. There are now 189 stones, five more than previously.

One of the new tiles pays tribute to two Gig Harborites with special non-fishing talents held in high regard by members of the fleet. One is Howard Cox, owner and operator of Gig Harbor Machine Works from 1945 through 1988, who “made and installed small engines, made masts, booms and winches (anchor winches, tow bit winches) and basically anything that made the boat go,” according to a Harbor History Museum Blog post.

The other is Lee Makovich, a local maritime historian and journalist who chronicled the fleet and the industry in the Fishermen’s News, the Tacoma News Tribune and other publications.

This paver honors two local men who contributed to Gig Harbor’s commercial fishing industry. Photo by Ted Kenney

“It’s important to do a tribute to the fishermen” who came as immigrants and founded the town, and the workmanship of the memorial should reflect their pride and integrity, Babich said.

When Babich looks at the pavers in Ancich Waterfront Park, he sees a line of continuity connecting Gig Harbor’s present-day commercial fishing fleet with the boats and captains of long ago. One tile honors Emancipator, built in 1918 in Gig Harbor. The original partners in the boat were Paul Puratich Sr., Paul Serka and Randy Babich’s grandfather, Spiro Babich.

That boat has been completely refurbished. Last fall, owner Brad Buske used it to deliver almost a million pounds of chum salmon to Trader Bay Ltd., Babich’s company that makes caviar and other products from the fish, Babich said.