Graveyard of the Pacific

Published 3:19 am Thursday, October 19, 2006

“May God bless you, and may your bones bleach in the sands.”

Hoisting a bottle of whiskey in salute, Capt. H. Lawrence gave a final toast to his once-proud ship as it lay stricken on the sands south of the Columbia River in the blustery morning of Oct. 25, 1906.

The Peter Iredale’s bones bleached and rusted where they lay, in the process becoming a Northwest icon that still draws thousands of visitors to this lonely stretch of beach.

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the wreck of the Iredale, several local organizations are joining together for a week-long commemoration of the ship and the rich maritime history of which it was a part.

“Shipwreck Week,” Oct. 21 through 29, includes special exhibits, talks and interpretive programs at Fort Stevens State Park in Warrenton, where the wreck lies, as well as the Columbia River Maritime Museum and Clatsop County Heritage Museum in Astoria, and Cape Disappointment State Park and Ilwaco Heritage Museum in Washington.

Highlights include a presentation by Thomas Iredale, a descendant of a cousin of the ship’s builder and namesake, who will talk about Peter Iredale’s colorful life at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25, at the Ilwaco Heritage Museum.

The Iredale has been a tourist attraction since the day it ran aground, when locals in horse-drawn buggies braved blustery weather to view the remains of the ship stuck in the sand of Clatsop Spit.

In the decades since, as the wind and waves have worn away the hulk bit by bit, sightseers have continued to come touch, photograph and climb on the wreck’s rusty bones.

Before it became an Oregon landmark, the Peter Iredale was a sleek, four-masted steel and iron bark 278 feet long. Built in Liverpool, England, in 1890 by its namesake, it carried bulk goods to and from ports around the world, and on that fateful October night was on its way to Portland from Salinas, Mexico to pick up a load of grain.

The steam engine had been in use as a power source for ships for decades, but sail still had many advantages, especially on the lengthy voyages that ships like the Iredale commonly took, according to Dave Pearson, curator at the Columbia River Maritime Museum.

But the lack of an engine left the ships vulnerable to suddenly shifting winds and currents when they approached the Columbia, especially in bad weather. Fog was one of the biggest threats to sailing ships – a skipper could easily lose his bearings and not realize he was approaching the shore until he heard the breakers, when it was usually too late, Pearson said.

“You just couldn’t turn around something that big,” he said. “Inertia would take over.”

That was the situation Capt. Lawrence and the rest of his crew found themselves in early on that fateful morning as they passed Tillamook Rock lighthouse northbound for the river’s mouth. With a thick fog blanketing the coastline and blustery winds rising, the captain decided to steer the ship seaward to wait for daylight and the arrival of the Columbia bar pilot boat. But before the ship could turn, a sudden squall struck from the west, driving the vessel onto the beach.

A boat from the nearby Point Adams Lifesaving Station responded and all 27 crew members got off the ship unscathed – the only “casualty” of the wreck occurred the following day when a sightseer drowned after his small rowboat overturned as he paddled around the beached ship. Later, a naval court of inquiry convened in Astoria by the British consulate absolved Capt. Lawrence and his crew of any wrongdoing or negligence.

Late afternoon sun shines on the rusted skeleton of the Peter Iredale.The Iredale is just one of hundreds of victims claimed in the “Graveyard of the Pacific.” Clatsop Spit in particular snared many vessels. But those that weren’t cut up for scrap almost all sank into the sand. Why the Iredale has remained visible for a century is still something of a mystery – Pearson said it’s rumored that the wreck rests on a piece of bedrock, but that’s never been established.

The man who built and lent his name to the ship wasn’t around to see its loss. Shipping magnate Peter Iredale died in 1899 at age 76, after a lifetime in the maritime trades that included the founding of several shipping companies and the building of three dozen merchant vessels.

Lifesavers went through the surf to the ship, and all 27 crew members survived the wreck.

By KARA HANSEN

Coast Weekend

‘So Others May Live,’ by Martha J. LaGuardia-Kotite.Author Martha LaGuardia-Kotite became inspired to write about U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers while living in the Pacific Northwest.

First assigned to the Cutter Resolute in Astoria, and later a public affairs specialist for the Seattle-based 13th Coast Guard District, she heard often about daring rescues in the “Graveyard of the Pacific.”

“I was so inspired by the fact that these rescue swimmers, pilots and flight mechanics do these amazing rescues, and no one really knows the detail of it,” said LaGuardia-Kotite. “No one realizes the aftermath some of them could face.”

Now a commander in the Coast Guard Reserves in New York, she returns this week to Astoria to promote her book, “So Others May Live: Saving Lives, Defying Death with the Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers,” Thursday, Oct. 26 at the Columbia River Maritime Museum and the Coast Guard Exchange.

Released in June, the book details 12 of the most dangerous maritime rescues since the Coast Guard’s rescue swimmer program began in 1985, she said, telling the stories of the “unsung heroes.”

It includes the story of AST Tristan Heaton, who in 1993 disregarded his own life to reach a man trapped by incoming 12-foot breakers deep in a cave at Oregon’s Cape Lookout. Heaton ended up fighting the rolling waves for his own life as well, but completed a successful rescue.

“The emotion of not heaving been trained to do a cave rescue and getting stuck in such trauma weighed heavily on him,” the author said. “Whereas nowadays they have counseling for post traumatic stress disorder, before they didn’t have that.”

She also features AST Kelly Mogk, the first female rescue swimmer, who in midwinter 1989 rescued a pilot that bailed with another officer from an Oregon National Guard fighter jet off Tillamook Bay. She freed the hypothermic, struggling survivor from his parachute and helped him into the hoist basket. It took two men on an HH-65 helicopter to pull him aboard.

A portion of the proceeds will go toward development of a new rescue swimmer aquatic training facility to replace the aging one in North Carolina, built in 1947, she said.

For a complete schedule of book signings, visit the Web site www.mlaguardiakotite.com