(note the horse and wagon) Strollers along a particular stretch of Oregon beach sometimes are lucky enough to see the fading remnants of a shipwreck. I'd bet that when they do, they wonder "what happened?"
Ships, and everything about ships, is vital to our collective family history. Our ancestors traveled in ships, fished from small ships, explored in ships, fought battles in ships, migrated in ships .......... and often died in ships.
The Peter Iredale is rather famous. She was a four-masted steel bark built in Maryport, England, in 1890. In September, 1906, she sailed north from Mexico bound for Portland where she was to pick up a cargo of wheat to return to England. From the Oregon History Project website we learn:
"Despite encountering heavy fog, she managed to safely reach the mouth of the Columbia River in the early morning of October 25. The captain of the ship later recalled that as they waited for a pilot 'a heavy southeast wind blew and a strong current prevailed. Before the vessel could be veered around, she was in the breakers and all efforts to keep her off were unavailing.' She ran aground at Clatsop Beach, hitting so hard that three of her masts snapped from the impact. Fortunately, none of the crew were seriously injured."
Our Washington coast, particularly around the Columbia River mouth, is known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific," and has seen approximately 2000 wrecks since 1792 with about 700 lives lost. The sandbar at Columbia's mouth is three miles wide and reaches seven miles into the open ocean, and being sand, is constantly shifting, making it a navigational nightmare.
Do you have ships mentioned in your family history? If you do, and would enjoy learning more, click to www.ShipIndex.org. This is a fabulous database all about ships.........sailing, steam, fighting or sunken ships.
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