The Wreck of the Peter Iredale on the Oregon coast is a wonderful place for a quick stop. For centuries, beachgoers near Manzanita, Oregon have picked up porcelain and chunks of beeswax that local legend claimed came from a shipwreck dubbed the Beeswax Wreck. Now, archaeologists have churned up an even greater treasure timber from the doomed ship itself. Rising first thing in the morning, I made the short drive from Lincoln City down to Depoe Bay. One of the rocks used to build the jetties at the mouth of the Columbia River, 1908. Private Joseph Whitehouses entry for March 9, 1806, confirmed that the Clatsops were trading beeswax: Sunday, March 9th. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Anybody know this barge's backstory? This was a deep ditch (called La Zanja) that encircled the city, and which was successful in ending the frequent disastrous flooding that devastated the residents. The 160 passengers and most of the freight were landed on the Oregon shore. Here are 20. Depoe Bay resident Tony Wisniewski, who witnessed the event from a bluff when he was a boy, recounted the event to The Oregonian in a 1977 interview: All of a sudden her tanks exploded and shot timbers, chunks of metal and flame clear up into the trees behind me, a quarter of a mile away. The British bark Carinsmore became lost in the fog off Clatsop Spit in September 1883. The wreck was sold for $150,000 to the Pacific Salvage Company, who removed its engine, boilers, and all else. Currently, the United States Lightship Columbia is moored in Astoria, Oregon where you can tour the National Historic Landmark at the Columbia River Maritime Museum! The Lupatia was a British bark vessel that was bound for Portland from Japan. Arriving, the spotted waves thrashed at the boat, and lumber and lifeboats spilled out in all directions. I appreciate your feedback very much. His relationships with state and local officials were prickly, however, and the state refused to grant him a permit. "Legendary Spanish galleon shipwreck discovered on Oregon coast", "Wreck of the Lila and Mattie at Tillamook", "The Struan: From Saint John to Sandlake. Research Lib., Frank Abell, photographer, Orhi141, bc001879, photo file 2533, Courtesy Oregon Hist. The ship was headed for Acapulco but was never seen again. No one was able to remove the boat, so it just stayed there. The raging sea took the lives of several passengers, crew, and lifesavers as rescue boats capsized in the rough surf. Warren Vaughn mentioned the two traditions as separate, the latter having occurred more recently than the galleon wreck; but Samuel J. Cottons Stories of Nehalem, published in 1915, contained an account that conflated the two tales. La Follette, Cameron, and Douglas Deur. Found ran aground the next day. The Indians also state in connection with the massacre, that the crew fought with slung-shots [sic]. Boiler Bay (then known as Briggs Landing) was named after the discarded boiler from the J. Marhoffer that washed ashore! I first read the story of the J. Marhoffer in 2017, while doing research for a story on shipwrecks on the Oregon coast. Nehalem-Tillamook and Clatsop peoples, and later EuroAmerican explorers and settlers of what is now Oregons north coast, knew that a large ship had wrecked on Nehalem Spit long ago. The Mauna Ala after running aground on the Clatsop Spit, December 10, 1941. Instead, the vessel ended up shipwrecked off the coast of Oregon, becoming one of roughly 3,000 ships lost in the region to date. High winds and twenty-six-foot swells drove the ship onto Horsefall Beach, leading to one of Oregon's worst oil spills. The hurricane-force winds reach up to 73 miles per hour, forcing the ship into dangerous territory on its voyage. The sidewheel steamer was once considered the fastest in the Pacific Northwest, reaching speeds of up to 50 mph as it ferried people from Portland to Astoria and Ilwaco. Walking on slippery strands of kelp, slipping on pads of sea moss and avoiding big tide pools filled with urchins and anemone, I carefully made my way into the bay, where on the other side of a long rock jutting out toward the ocean, I saw it. Tremendous seas broke the ship into pieces, and some of its carronades drifted south along the coast. This 17th-century shipwreck inspired Steven Spielbergs 1985 film, The Goonies, where a group of kids follow a pirate map to the wreck. The crew loaded into lifeboats and quickly paddled out into the ocean, where they watched in horror as the schooner crashed into the rocks, burned for a few minutes, then exploded, leaving only the bow and the boiler intact. Peacock in 1841, and Benson Beach, after the steamship Admiral Benson; after it went down in 1930, its bow was visible for decades. Weba mystery shipwreck at Coos Bay captured the imagination of thousands of visitors this past winter. A project of the Oregon Historical Society, 2020 Portland State University and the Oregon Historical Society, The Oregon Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Up to eighteen men drowned when the ship capsized during an ill-fated salvage attempt in April. So, back in my car, I drove a half-mile north up Highway 101 to a small dirt pull-out on the left side of the road. The biggest threats to the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet were fires consuming the wooden hulls and collisions, and one by one the fleet dwindled until it no longer existed in 1930. The morning mist along Clatsop Spit, for example, confused the captain of Peter Iredale, which found itself in the breakers in October 1906. As I circled the boiler, enchanted by the artifact, a group of researchers exploring the bay began to make their way back to shore. The U.S. Navys minesweeper YMS-133 learned the lesson of treacherous swells where the river meets the sea. The Manila trade was the principal economic basis of the Philippines colony, and an unscheduled return to port was a serious financial blow. The schooner reached the central coast in the afternoon, when the chief engineer, off duty, fell asleep in his cabin. Other causes of shipwrecks include mechanical failure and rough coastal weather on unforgiving rocky shores. Soc. Keeper waves from the walkway.. Near the mouth of the Columbia, Peacock Spit is named for the wreck of the U.S.S.