WRECK; HOOSIER BOY~~1911

 HOOSIER BOY

96409
Built in 1898 for Coast Fish Company of Anacortes, WA.
31 G.t.. 58' x 12.4' x 5.5'

Scanned photo courtesy of J. Canavit.
From the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society.

San Juan Islander newspaper, 9 June 1911.
From the archives of the S.P.H.S.

WRECK; HARVEST HOME ~~1882

 HARVEST HOME

Capt. A. Matson
Built for Preston & McKinnon
San Francisco, CA.
Lost: 18 January 1882
About 8 Miles north of Cape Hancock.

HARVEST HOME 
Possibly a reproduction by the esteemed 
photographer/historian Charlie Fitzpatrick 
a resident of this  North Beach area, WA.
Click image to enlarge.
Photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"If it is possible for a shipwreck to be a happy affair, perhaps the loss of the bark HARVEST HOME would fall under this classification. The date was 18 January 1882, and the bark was beating up the coast under a pleasant breeze in a calm sea shrouded by a white sheet of fog. Her destination was Pt. Townsend, WA, and she rode low in the water with a full load of general cargo. Under the command of Capt Matson, the bark was skirting along in a northwesterly course in the early morning hours while most of the crew were asleep. Only the sea water caressing the hull of the vessel broke the silence of the nearing dawn. Then came another sound, a sound quite divorced from those of the sea. The helmsman cupped his hand to his ear and then pinched himself––had he heard a rooster crowing or was he dreaming?
      Suddenly the vessel began to pitch and roll as though it had been struck by a tidal wave. The crew was tossed from their bunks and in a matter of minutes the ship was deposited on the sands and suddenly became motionless.
      Capt Matson stormed up on deck and leaped upon the poop, but before he could get his mouth open, the helmsman informed him that the vessel was aground.
      "Aground you say, Mister, why we're six miles to sea, I set the course myself," bellowed the Old Man.
      Fog was all about the stranded ship, but there was little doubt about her being aground, and before the flood tide had decided to go back to sea again the HARVEST HOME was bogged down in the sand up around the driftwood area.
      Several hours later the bewildered skipper discovered that he had been navigating with a defective chronometer which was responsible for the stranding.
      When the fog lifted around noon, the helmsman sighted a big barn a few hundred feet from the beach, and it was then that he knew that the rooster he had heard crowing had not been a figment of his imagination. The wreck was lying eight miles north of Cape Disappointment, on the sandy beach of the peninsula.
      Later the crew walked ashore and the wreck remained stationary while the tides swished around her, more firmly entrenching her in the sands. The cargo was salvaged but the bark was left to die a slow death.
      In the months that followed, tourists paused at the wreck to have their pictures taken under the summer sun or to picnic on her rotting timbers. Some of the shipwrecked sailors found themselves peninsula belles and tied the legal knot of matrimony.
      Meanwhile, Preston & McKinnon of San Francisco, owners, collected $14,000, the amount for which the vessel was insured."
Above text from Pacific Graveyard. Gibbs, James A..Binfords & Mort. 1950 

WRECK; GROMMET REEFER ~~1952

 GROMMET REEFER

246509
Blt. 1944, Duluth, MN
G. t. 3,805.
323.9' x 50.1' x 26.5'

GROMMET REEFER
246509
Seattle, WA. 1948
This year this vessel was moored in
Seattle, classed as a 
US Navy ship but under US Army jurisdiction.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

GROMMET REEFER
Four US Navy helicopters hover
over the disabled ship.
Leghorn, Italy,
16 Dec. 1952.
AP Wire photo via radio from London,
Archived with S.P.H.S.©

GROMMET REEFER,
Italy, 1952.
From the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

On 16 December 1952 the freighter,  GROMMET REEFER, supplying food to servicemen, ran aground on a rocky reef on the coast of Leghorn, Italy, splitting in two during a violent storm. The first operation involved breeches buoy, small boats, and swimming, with the rescue of 26 crewmen. 
      Next, the Navy helicopters rescued the remaining 13 crew during a daring aerial rescue from wave-lashed decks, as viewed in these two dramatic APWire photos from the S.P.H.S. archives.

WRECK; GOVERNOR ~~1921

 

GOVERNOR

April 1921
Capt. F. P. BartlettCapt. Thomas Marsden.
Pacific Coast Steamship Co.
Near Port Townsend, WA.
Loss of life: 7 passengers and 3 crew.

S.S. GOVERNOR
One photo and one lithograph postcard 
from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©
Click images to enlarge.

The Sinking of the Steamship GOVERNOR

A letter from E. W. Horsman to author R. H. Calkins of Seattle:
      "The memory of the collision is especially vivid in my mind as I had the unique experience of actually seeing the impact of the WEST HARTLAND on the starboard beam of the GOVERNOR. I was employed at that time by the Pacific Steamship Co. and was working out of the office of A. F. Haines on special assignments and happened to be on board the GOVERNOR in a deluxe stateroom directly under the bridge. I had retired but was not yet asleep and on hearing the danger signals, jumped up and went to the starboard railing. I saw the dark outline of the WEST HARTLAND about 20-ft from the GOVERNOR.
      One or two minutes after the collision, the lights on the GOVERNOR failed. This made a particularly dangerous situation on the starboard side, as the nose of the WEST HARTLAND had pierced considerably into the promenade deck of the GOVERNOR, leaving a large hole that extended into the engine room. This, I fear, may have caused some of the loss of life.

Captain F.P. Barlettt
Master of the GOVERNOR on this day. 
He was a graduate of the famed New York
nautical school ship St. Mary's and one of 
 the senior masters under H.F. Alexander.
Bartlett was exonerated of any blame;
he was not on watch at the time of the wreck.
Original photo from the archives of
 the Saltwater People Historical Society©

      Immediately after the collision, I reported to Captain Bartlett and was instructed to assist in getting the passengers out of their rooms and into lifeboats, which I did with all of my energy. After we had checked all of the staterooms and no other passengers seemed to be on board, I again reported to Captain Bartlett near the bridge and he instructed me to slide down the boat falls. He followed immediately behind me. To the best of my knowledge, we were the last persons leaving the ship.
      Our lifeboat pulled a safe distance from the sinking GOVERNOR and we watched her slowly settle by the stern. Finally, when the deckhouse was just about submerged, a bulkhead collapsed and the stern settled very fast. The bow of the ship rose high in the air and as she took her final plunge, there was much noise of escaping steam and crashing wood.
      One of the peculiar incidents the next days was the attitude of a well-known Seattle man, the president of one of the railroads. He had two valuable horses on board the GOVERNOR and they, of course, were lost. The Seattle railroad president threatened steamship company officials with everything but murder because of the loss of his horses."

WEST HARTLAND
Capt. John Alwyn
Original photo from the archives of
the Saltwater People Historical Society©

Above text by R. H. "Skipper" Calkins. High Tide. Marine Digest Pub., 1952.
For an excellent in-depth report by Douglas Egan with fine drawings from the pen of Ron Burke, see the Sept. 1993 issue of The Sea Chest, the quarterly membership journal of the
Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society.

And then the salvage crews––
Here's a link to read more about the divers' efforts over the years.

Maritime Venture, Inc., Aug. 1987.
Two divers in a pressurized bell 
drop into the water off Pt. Townsend, WA.
An effort to recover an estimated $9 million
 in gold coins, fine wines, and other goods
that went down with the luxury liner 
SS GOVERNOR.
From the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

WRECK; GRACE ROBERTS ~~1887

 GRACE ROBERTS

ON 10870
269.91 G.t. Barkentine
129.5' x 32.' x 9.'
Blt Port. Orchard, WA. 1868
Home Port in 1886 was listed as San Francisco.
Wrecked Oysterville, WA.
8 Dec. 1887 Capt. M. Larsen

GRACE ROBERTS
Photo by Charlie Fitzpatrick.
From the archives of
the Saltwater People Historical Society©

      The American barkentine stranded two miles south of Leadbetter Point, 8 Dec. 1887, without loss of life. The vessel, commanded by Capt. M. Larsen, was feeling her way along the coast in a thick fog when she drifted into the breakers, knocking several holes in her hull. The crew had to take to the boats. Shipbreaker Martin Foard purchased the wreck for a small sum and salvaged the cargo and equipment. The ROBERTS was built at a cost of $30,000. It was said that the owners of the barkentine had run the vessel hard, overlooking badly needed hull repairs which may have caused her to bilge on the sands. Parts of her barnacle-encrusted remains could be seen on the peninsula as late as 1953. They are the oldest visible ship's remains in the Pacific's Graveyard.
Above text from:
The Pacific Graveyard. James A. Gibbs, Jr. Binfords and Mort, 1950

WRECK; GENERAL M.C. MEIGS~~ 1972

 GENERAL M. C. MEIGS

Lost 9 January 1972
US Navy troop transport ship.
7-mi south of Cape Flattery, WA.
Unmanned.

GENERAL M. C. MEIGS 

wreck, 1972

Near Tatoosh Island, WA.

Photo by Roy Scully 

Original photo from the archives of the 

Saltwater People Historical Society

Early 9 January 1972, the San Francisco tug BEAR put out to sea from the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the face of gale warnings, towing the 622-ft troop transport GEN. M. C. MEIGS, formerly in layup at the Olympia Reserve Fleet and en route to the remaining West Coast reserve fleet at Suisun Bay near San Fran. No sooner had the tug and tow rounded Tatoosh Island than the wind and seas tore the big two-stack transport loose and drove her ashore 7 miles south of Cape Flattery. Soon afterward she broke in two against a murderous cluster of pinnacle rocks. Although unmanned, the MEIGS was carrying much material from the Olympia Reserve Fleet, including a steel harbor tug chained on a deck forward [visible in photo].

Burning wreckage from the 

GENERAL M. C. MEIGS, 1972
"Smoke rose from a pile of burning driftwood 

and timbers as USN enlisted men mop-up oil 

washed ashore from ruptured tanks 

on the MEIGS.
 The Navy is burning oil-soaked timbers 

and shoveling globs of the tar-like substance

into bags. the beach is owned by 
the Native Makah tribe.
The MEIGS was carrying 116,000 gallons and 

only about 5,000 have appeared." 

Seattle Times 1/1972.

      

The loss of the MEIGS and her valuable cargo aroused numerous questions in maritime circles, aside from the basic one of why the GEAR, under contract to the US Navy, proceeded to sea in defiance of a Force 8 gale. Several experienced mariners reported seeing the tug headed out with the transport on a short towline and an inadequate hitch. The Coast Guard does not investigate accidents involving naval vessels unless asked to do so, and the Navy made no such request, leaving many questions unanswered to the present day. Naval personnel were dispatched to the scene to clean up the spill of heavy bunker oil and to guard the wreck, although no effort was made to salvage anything from it. Subsequent winter storms have torn the ship into many pieces, with only a section of the bow and a mast remaining visible [at press time].
Above text: The H. W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (1966-1976). Gordon Newell, editor. Superior, 1977.
 

WRECK; GLEANER ~~ 1940

GLEANER

O.N. 204548
422 G.t. / 408 N.t. Sternwheeler
Built 1907, Stanwood, WA.
Aground 6 December 1940.
Owned by Skagit River Trading and Navigation Co.

GLEANER
Skagit River sandbar, 1940
Photographer unknown.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"No more bends in the river for the abandoned Skagit River sternwheeler GLEANER that ran afoul of a sandspit at the north fork of the river on 6 December 1940. Lying upstream from the North Fork Bridge, the steamer had her machinery and fittings removed. She operated between Seattle and Mt. Vernon. 

WRECK: LIBERTY SHIP GEORGE WALTON~~ 1950

 GEORGE WALTON

243051
Liberty Ship hull #0344
7,176 G.t. 4,380 N.t.
Built 1943, Savannah, Georgia. 422.8' x 57' x 34.8'
Lost to fire off WA. coast.
Died: 1 by explosion and 5 by drowning, according to McCurdy's.
Another source claims more died.
Capt. Alfred Bentsen

Liberty Ship GEORGE WALTON
Lost en route to India loaded
with a cargo of wheat.
Acme Wire Photo to US Coast Guard.
From the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"The steamship GEORGE WALTON was swept by fire 390 miles off the WA coast on 6 Nov. 1950 as a result of a boiler explosion which killed Second Engineer Gus Larsen. Capt. Bentsen and the crew launched boats in heavy seas that capsized one of the boats. Five more members of the crew were drowned as a result of this accident. The Greek freighter KATHERINE picked up 12 survivors, the Japanese freighter KENKON MARU rescued 12 and the Coast Guard cutter WACHUSETT, six. The injured seamen were flown to Seattle hospitals, the remainder being landed at Port Angeles. The GEORGE WALTON, a Liberty ship, had departed Portland with 9,000 tons of grain for India. It was first assumed that the burned-out vessel would sink, but she maintained an even keel and, almost two weeks later, was towed to Puget Sound by the tug Barbara Foss. She was later scrapped."
Above quote from The H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the P.N.W. Newell, Gordon, editor.

LIME WORKS WITH JUNE : November 1929

Roche Harbor,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
 The Lime Transport
moored to load barrels.
Click image to enlarge.
Original gelatin-silver photographs from 
the Saltwater People Historical  Society©

Puget Soundings

June Burn
Bellingham Herald, November 1929

"Five years ago and Capt. Wirstrom retired from the sea. He had sailed his last ship, kept his last watch, and tooted his last whistle in a pea-soup fog. He was going to farm for the rest of his life and take things easy far from the mad winds and the merciless reefs of rock out where no gentlemanly reef ought to be.
      Today, as you read this, Captain Wirstrom is probably down in Coos Bay, having navigated a boatload of lime rock from Roche Harbor, WA, to the paper mills of Empire City. For, when the call came, the old mariner found he could not resist it and so he sits again in what seems to me a lonely state in his captain's quarters aft, on the big Roche Harbor Lime Transport.
      On the northern tip of San Juan Island, two companies dig lime from hills full of the purest lime deposit in the world, they say. Moreover, there is said to be enough lime in those hills to last more than a century with both companies going for all they are worth. (It is my private opinion that in a hundred years they will have dug up the whole island at the rate they are going now.

Orcas Lime Company

Click image to enlarge.

"The Orcas Lime Co worked a small quarry 

just a few hundred yards south of the 

Roche Harbor deposit. 

It supplied its single kiln with 

limestone by means of rail carts pushed 

along on top of a long trestle.

That plant and dock were located on narrow

Mosquito Pass, also served by 

Puget Sound Freight Line boats.

When the quarry rock finally gave out 

in the mid-30s, this trim little competitor

 gave up the ghost and the land 

  became a sheep ranch."

Text from the Journal Jan. 2003.

Author unknown.

Roche Harbor, San Juan Island, WA.

Original gelatin-silver photograph from the 

archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

On the beautiful old Scurr place, the Orcas Lime Works dig out the fine, white angular rocks to be broken and burned in the kilns where they will become flaky snow-white lime for a score or uses.
      And against the curving hill slopes behind one of the prettier harbors in the world, Roche Harbor Lime Company digs and burns, and barrels are loaded on ships for places far and near.
      The fine long dock at Roche Harbor is piled with barrels upon barrels, four deep, all filled with lime ready for the boats. Sacks upon sacks of lime are stacked behind the barrels. The daily capacity of the works is 1,500 barrels.

Antique copper stencils 
once used to inscribe lime barrels  
shipping out to these destinations from
Roche Harbor Lime Co.
Now archived at the 
San Juan Island Historical Museum.
Stop by during their open hours
and visit their wonderful 
effort highlighting history of San Juan Island,
San Juan Archipelago, Washington.

Boats come and go, bringing in thousands of cords of wood to Roche Harbor, going out with tons and tons of lime from Roche Harbor. The little bay is lively with boats.
      Ten years ago we helped to dig rock out of those hills. That is, Farrar broke the rock and I watched him! I used to walk up the Clematis-covered banks, over the tiny railway to the high-walled quarries to watch the men with their big sledge hammers cracking the boulders, breaking off one corner after another, sometimes finding themselves faced with an almost round, unbreakable rock at the end if they weren't skilled. The game was to break them so that there would always be another angle left. Farrar used to say there was poetry in watching the rocks come down after the blast, in selecting one's boulder to conquer with sledge and muscle, in breaking it so skillfully that the last bit was so full of sharp angles as the original boulder had been.
      The Clematis on those banks was planted forty-three years ago on the birthday of Mr. McMillin's son. The original plant is now a hoary old vine several inches thick, crawling all over the place. And the progeny of that vine softens every nook and cranny of the hill. It is chiefly responsible for the beauty of the place as one comes in by boat.

Hotel de Haro
Roche Harbor, 
San Juan Archipelago, WA.

      Against the dark hill rising up from the harbor on the left, as one enters, are the white cottages of the laborers, the combination church and schoolhouse, with its spire, the vine-covered hotel, the Clematis banks, and the big flower garden coming down to the water's edge. The effect is incomparably lovely. If there were no lime there at all, and no industry, the dainty small harbor would still be a village for the sheer beauty of the location.

      But to get back to Captain Wirstrom: Several years ago the lime company bought a big sailing boat––a beautiful thing she is, with flowing robes riding her prow. For two or three years, the long slender six-masted schooner sat still in the harbor. She too has retired, maybe. Thought to ride the calm waters of a picturesque harbor for the rest of her days. But now she is to be used again. Stripped of three of her masts, part of them used now as cargo booms, she will haul lime rock down the coast to the new paper mills at Empire City in Coos Bay.

      La Escocesa (Scotch Maid) was built in 1868 in Dundee, Scotland. She ran as a steamship between England and India. Later her name was changed to Coalinga and she was used in the carrying trade, whatever that means. Freight, I suppose. Finally, the Alaska Packers bought her, changed her name once more to Star of Chile, and used her as a sort of floating cannery in Alaska. Now she is the Roche Harbor Lime Transport barge and once more a "carrier" of things.
      Of iron her hull--thick plates of Swedish iron--and of her iron spirit, else she would never have lived out the seas which have broken over her in every sea in the world. And perhaps there is some iron in the spirit of her new captain that he comes from retirement to pilot a "barge." She doesn't look like a barge, certainly, with her trim lines and the three masts rising so fine and tall. But she is to be towed, sailing only when there is sufficient wind to make the use of her small canvas, worthwhile, and so she must now be called a barge, though her captain doesn't like it.
      Here comes my boat to take me to another island! I had thought to have dinner in the attractive hotel here and the soft-voiced Japanese boy is just serving the salad, but I must run. There will be a sunset on the channel as we chug across the island's dark shadow against the bright waters. See you tomorrow. June. "

PULLING 250 MILES EACH SUMMER –– FOR FIFTY-ONE YEARS

 

Arthur O. McCormick,
Rowed the San Juan Archipelago 
for 250 miles every August.
His vacations were enjoyed for
fifty-one years in his 15' boat.
He passed at age 81, in Seattle, WA. 
Gelatin-silver original photograph 
from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

"A. O.  McCormick rowed a journey of 250 miles each summer for his three-week camping trip in the islands. He did this every August without fail for 51 years. Often his excursions made news in the weekly newspaper in the islands.

His mode of transportation was a 15-ft rowboat, of the old type that does not move unless someone is pulling the oars. McCormick said in 1947 when this photo was taken he pulled his oars just as hard as 45 summers ago. "Not as fast, maybe, but just as strong," he says.

McCormick attributes his robust health to all the Augusts of rowing in the sun.

He tried a sloop once––in 1905, his third junket into the islands––but sold it that fall. "I couldn't go where I wanted," he explained.

McCormick preferred to pull silently along the crooked shorelines of the San Juan Islands, putting in here and there wherever it struck his fancy. Often in the heat of the day, he hauled his craft above the tide line and scrambled off into the woods or rock to make pictures with one of his two ancient cameras.

McCormick said he would rather prowl along a shady shoreline with a camera than sit in a boat on the sunburned end of a fishline.

The oarsman shoved off from the same spot about a quarter of a mile west of the Deception Pass Bridge, which oldtimers of the region have named "Mac's Cove."

CANOE PASS,
Deception Pass State Park, Washington.
48°24'30"N, 122°38'40"W

Signed original gelatin-silver photo
by photographer James A. McCormick,
who might have been catching his brother Arthur
down below in his small craft working the tide   
from "Mac's Cove" to camp on island beaches.
Arthur was still rowing in 1935 when a 511.2'
bridge was built across this scene  
to carry vehicles and foot traffic 
on WA-20 from Fidalgo Island
 to Pass Island (on right),
then to the next bridge   
over Deception Pass to Whidbey Is., WA. 
The views are a major attraction
for visitors to the area. 
from the archives of the Saltwater People Log©

Every night during his three weeks trip, McCormick pitches his tent on a different beach, just out of reach of high tide, where he can hear the waves washing and there are no ants to crawl down his neck.

McCormick and his older brother, J.A. "Mac" McCormick, a noted photographer of Seattle and San Juan County came to Puget Sound in 1901 from Denver, 1,500 miles on foot for 14 months. 

'Part of the time we walked, and part of the time we shoved the burros.'

The brothers came across the Rocky Mountains in the dead of winter, but they feared not because those were the days when young bucks laughed at danger the way young fellows today sit by the radio and laugh at Bob Hope. 

Arthur O. McCormick was a picture framer in the University District, widely known for his rowing tours. Proud of his physical strength and health, he declared he had never taken a nickel's worth of medicine in his life."
Lenny Anderson, for the Seattle Times.

Two salty scenes captured by  
James A. McCormick.
Click the double image to enlarge.

 Mac also took summer vacations in a small craft 
loaded down with glass plate negatives,
tripod, camera, and camping gear.
When he got back to shore, he would process
at his seasonal photo studio in the county
 seat of Friday Harbor, Washington.
Two gelatin-silver original photos from 
Saltwater People Historical Society archives.©