I’ve never seen the original ship before. This history is enlightening.
Yesterdays Trails Photo Restorations added a new photo to the album COASTAL / LIGHTHOUSE.
25 October 2024
SSA1375: THE FINAL VOYAGE -Wreck of the British Barque PETER IREDALE on the Northern Oregon Coast – Oct. 25, 1906.
This restoration, from the original photo, shows the British barque PETER IREDALE hard aground on Clatsop Spit near Warrenton, OR in the afternoon on Thursday, October 25, 1906 while en-route to Portland, OR.
At about 7:45AM, the Peter Iredale was driven aground in a gale on October 25, 1906 on Clatsop Spit near the mouth of the Columbia River, near Warrenton Oregon.
The four-masted barque was built in 1890 in Maryport England as the flagship for the Peter Iredale & Porter Shipping Company of Liverpool, England and was 285 ft. in length with a net register of 2,075 tons.
On September 26, 1906 the ship departed in ballast from Santa Cruz Mexico bound for Portland, Oregon where she was to be loaded with wheat for the United Kingdom. Reaching the mouth of the Columbia River in the early morning of a foggy & stormy Oct. 25 they waited offshore for a pilot. A sudden strong southeasterly gale-force wind caught the ship & along with the extremely strong currents running on the high tide, started pushing the ship into the breakers. The ship’s master, Capt. Lawrence ordered both anchors dropped but the ship slammed into the beach with such force as to topple parts of her masts, spars & rigging & setting her firmly aground.
The storm & surf increased in fury, battering the ship relentlessly & slowly turning her broadside to the beach, Capt. Lawrence saw the gravity of his situation & ordered the call for assistance and his ship abandoned. Word quickly spread of the ship’s grounding & lifesaving crews from the nearby Light Station at Point Adams & crews from Fort Stevens arrived and assisted in evacuating the crew from the ship. Once the Captain & all his crew were evacuated to the beach, most of the crew were taken to Fort Stevens & then by train to Astoria under the care of the British Consul. Capt. Lawrence & about 4 or 5 of his crew stayed overnight with the ship to do some salvage & prevent looting. The following day before the Captain & his remaining crew left to go to Astoria, Capt. Lawrence turned toward his doomed ship, saluted & said “May God bless you and may your bones bleach in these sands.” He then turned to his men, with a bottle of whiskey in hand and said “Boys, have a drink!”
Plans were initially made to try & refloat the ship but the day after her grounding, it was discovered that nature would have other plans as the ship had already been turned completely broadside to the beach by the storm surged waves and her draft marks on the hull showed she was buried in the sand 13.3 feet fore and aft. Also with the breakers violently hitting the hull & sending mist into the rigging, the ship was already showing signs of starting to crack amidships.
After investigation, the British Board of Inquiry proclaimed that the crew were “in no wise to blame” & attributed the cause of the wreck to the current & sudden wind shift.
The bowsprit was ripped from the bow by a powerful storm in November 1961 and what survives of it is now on display at Fort Stevens National Historical Park in Hammond, Oregon.
The framework of the bow that remains is an Oregon landmark. Pieces of the hull were salvaged during World War 2 for the iron & since then ship has deteriorated so much that only a partial amount of the framework of the bow remains visible. What remains of the masts, frameworks & hull have been swallowed by the sands with only bits & pieces occasionally visible at low tide though at times, when the tide clears much of the sand from the wreck, most of her keel & hull outline can still be visible.
Although there were no casualties of the ship’s crew, the Iredale wreck did claim one life for on the day after the grounding, during low tide four men from the nearby town of Warrenton boarded the ship after all the crew had departed. As darkness approached, the tide quickly moved in & the men hastily left for the shore. One man, Malcolm Grider, a 27 year old & described as a “cripple” by the Astorian newspaper, could not traverse the incoming waves, was pulled under & drowned. His companions all made shore safely.
To see more of the most recent restorations done & others not posted here, please go to Yesterdaystrails.com & click on the “Blog” tab or Yesterday’s Trails Photo Restorations on Facebook.