The wreck of the Peter Iredale, still visible after 100 years. Photo: KGilb.
One of the first major shipwrecks recorded in the Pacific NW was that of the sidewheeler General Warren. On January 28, 1852, forty-two people died in the surf after the steamship ran aground on the Clatsop Spit. Two of the victims were a newly married couple whose bodies were found with their hands still clasped.
On November 22, 1875, the capsized schooner Sunshine washed up on Long Beach Peninsula. Everyone onboard, all twenty-five souls, were presumed lost at sea. No trace of them was ever found.
On September 18, 1914, the steamship Francis H. Leggett bound for San Francisco foundered off the northern coast of Oregon. Sixty-five people perished when the ship went down.
The waters off the Northwest’s rugged coastline have long been known as the as the “Graveyard of the Pacific”. From Oregon’s Tillamook Bay north to the entrance of the Juan de Fuca Strait, as many as 2000 ships and upwards of 1000 lives have been lost since the early 1800’s.
Some of the vessels, lost in thick fog, ventured too close to shore where they ran aground. Many got caught in violent winter storms with gale force winds that drove them into the jagged rocks skirting the headlands. (wind speeds of over 120 mph have been recorded at the North Head Lighthouse in Washington State) Still others capsized while attempting a treacherous bar crossing at the mouth of the Columbia River.
Fortunately, the wreck of the Peter Iredale ended on a happier note. The four-masted steel barque was cruising north toward Portland in the early morning hours of October 25, 1906. While waiting to cross the bar, a sudden wind shift and exceptionally strong currents caught the ship and drove it onto the beach near Warrenton, OR. The impact was strong enough to snap three of its four masts . . . but everyone made it off alive.
The rusting hulk of the Peter Iredale is now a popular stop for visitors to the Oregon Coast. It’s located on the beach near Fort Stevens State Park. The photo above shows the bow, one of the masts, and a couple of its ribs still poking up out of the sand.
**Special Note: For a more complete listing–and a brief history–of many of the ships lost in the Graveyard of the Pacific, please check out Washington’s History Link website.