June, 2021
There was a nice low tide this morning around 10am down here on the Oregon coast. You better believe I was up early and again drove to the beach to get a look at that ship while the tide was out. Partly I was thrilled to see the ship up close, and yet partly it hurt my heart to see it stuck there, no longer floating free.
In the video in my last blog post, you may have noticed some “sticks” or “posts” sticking up out of the sand a long way off to the left, way behind the ship (see photo below … the bow of the ship is WAY off to the right of the photo below).
However … those aren’t just any old sticks or posts. Those “sticks” are part of the ship’s stern-most mast, near the aft or stern of the Peter Iredale. Those posts helped support the fourth or stern-most mast. The vessel didn’t end there at those posts but continued on for another several feet to the left. In fact, in the photo above, you can see the bottom of the third mast on the right side of the photo. She was a four-masted barque.
This was one long ship! She was 285 feet long, displaced 2,075 tons (that’s what she weighed when empty of cargo). She had four masts with royal sails above double top and top gallant sails. She was a beauty!
She was built in 1890 in Maryport, England, and had been in international shipping service for just 16 years. On October 25, 1906, she was driven onto the beach by a sudden heavy nor’wester squall. She ended up on the beach, less than four miles south of the entrance to the Columbia River. The captain and crew could do nothing to save her. No human lives were lost. But her life was lost.
She had sailed from Mexico just one month earlier with only ballast on board, no cargo, with 27 crew and, interestingly, two stowaways. After the grounding and loss of the ship, a Naval Court inquiry placed no blame on Captain Lawrence. This was, after all, the “graveyard of the Pacific” and innumerable ships had been driven ashore and wrecked prior to this one, and many more would be grounded and lost in subsequent years. In fact, this continues to be one of the most treacherous river bar crossings in the world even though we now have ships with huge diesel engines on board.
Not long after the Peter Iredale grounded, most of her steel and iron were sold to a local scrap yard. Much of her original structure was removed within the first several years. Her bowsprit (that long chunk of metal pointing out from the bow that was part of the support structure for the forward mast and spritsails) was removed in 1960 for fear it would fall and hurt someone.
Here’s what the Peter Iredale looked like in early 1960. The photo below shows about 40% of her length. Notice three of the support tubes for the three larger, forward masts in the photo below. One of them was still visible when I was here today. I’ll show it to you. But not much is left of this ship today.
On the other hand, they say the ship was almost completely enveloped by sand about 10-15 years ago, but they also say that global warming and rising sea levels have increased wave action such that the ocean is now removing sand from around the ship, so more of the ship is being exposed. A Park Ranger told me that the parts of the ship that are still buried are still relatively intact.
Hmmm, on the other hand, there’s sure not much left of the the parts that are above the sand. Wind, tide, UV, and human interaction … all take their toll.
Photo below … from the aft of the vessel looking to the bow.
Even those posts near the stern are interesting. I’m told they helped support the fourth, small stern mast.
And then I turned and walked forward towards the bow of the ship, walking along what had been the deck of the ship.
You can see the bottom “stumps” of what remain of the supports for the second and third masts.
Off to my right as I walked along, curving along where the right/starboard edge of the ship would have been, were the tops of the structure of the railings, or the tops of the structure of the side of the ship … steel and iron, now encrusted with barnacles.
To the left, on the left side of the ship, the photo below shows definite structure of the top of the left side, the port side, of the ship.
The photo below is looking down into the “stump” of the iron support tube that helped hold up the third mast. This “stump” was at least 2.5 feet across, maybe 3 feet.
Photo below, off to the left again, on the port side of the ship, was a longer section of the iron support tube that surrounded the bottom portion of the second mast. That iron support tube is still there, lying across the outer edge of the ship where it fell when it broke off, and yet much of that support structure is now buried in the sand.
And then I turned and faced the bow of the boat … and walked forward along the center line of what would have been the main deck of the vessel. You can see below how this ship lists/tilts where it lies.
In the photo above, you can see what’s left of the the iron support tube for the forward-most mast, along with some of the steel supports for what were the deck plates … all at an angle.
I took the photos below as I walked slowly around the forepeak and bow of the ship. She certainly was held solidly by the sand.
Imagine the power of the ocean that bent that iron beam.
Above, standing directly in front of the ship and looking straight-on at the bow of the ship, I so wanted to lift her out of the sand, snap my fingers, and make her float again.
Although her very long bowsprit had been removed for safety reasons, a good portion of the cutwater had been left in place … that single piece of steel that curves outward in the photo below. As the ship is moving forward through water, this is the piece that “cuts” through the water before any other part of the ship does. I liked knowing it’s still there, and I liked seeing that there’s still water around it.
There are lots of photos online of this ship that people have taken over the years. If you would like to read more about the Peter Iredale, check out this website. Or check out any of a number of other websites about this ship.
Some of us believe that ships/boats have lives of their own. I absolutely believe that.
For this ship stuck in the sand, it felt as though she still had life, when I was here, when I walked around her and touched her gently. Maybe her life is waning, but she hasn’t given up yet. May she be at peace here.