 a half-mile channel leading into Baker Bay. On February 11, 1929, with little human help, the ship floated down the channel and into the bay. The ship was sold and turned into a barge. Today, many know the North Bend as the ship that walked on land.
[caps]O[/caps]ne of the few shipwrecks that are still visible, even if only at very low tides, is that of the French ship, Alice. Part of the reason the Alice has remained so fast in the sand is because of its heavy load of three thousand tons of cement.
The ship hit the sands near Ocean Park, Washington, on the Long Beach Peninsula on January 15, 1909, after a long journey from London. The ship had been fighting bad weather and was pushed into the breaks, hitting land. The entire crew left the boat and made it safely ashore.
The weather eventually cleared and the captain was able to re-board his ship. There, he came to the disappointing realization that it had been sucked deep into the sand by the weight of its cement cargo. As writer of Pacific Graveyard, James A. Gibbs said, the Alice is “sealed in a coffin of cement.”
Admiral Benson 1930
[caps]T[/caps]ucked away in Cape Disappointment State Park, Benson Beach, Washington, is hidden by a towering cliff capped with a lighthouse. It’s a popular spot on the Long Beach Peninsula. The lighthouse has saved many ships over the years from getting too close to land, but there was no helping the Admiral Benson, the beach’s namesake, when it became stranded in heavy fog near Peacock Spit on February 15, 1930.
The ship was headed into the channel toward Portland, Oregon, when it got stuck on the sands. It was initially believed to be a very minor stranding. The steamship carried a cargo of citrus fruits, general freight, thirty-nine passengers, and sixty-five crewmembers.
Like many shipwreck rescue efforts at the time, a device called a breeches buoy was used to get a few passengers ashore, although the conditions were favorable enough that many were also taken in lifeboats. The breeches buoy device consisted of a line from the beach to the stranded ship with a pair of short canvas breeches suspended from a life buoy attached to the line. The survivor would climb into the pants and ride ashore along the line. Although a rather primitive device these days, the breeches buoy saved many from stranded ships.
It was originally thought that the Benson would be able to be refloated off the sands. The captain of the ship, C. C. Graham, remained aboard for over a week until the ship’s rivets began to pull loose and it was considered a loss. The cargo was salvaged, but the sands sucked the ship back in.
Peter Iredale 1906
[caps]T[/caps]he evidence of most shipwrecks disappears quickly. Whether covered by shifting sands, broken apart by relentless waves, or manually salvaged, stranded ships rarely stand the test of time. But the remains of one ship, the Peter Iredale, have survived over one hundred years and are still visible at low tide. The wreckage has attracted many visitors over the years and is touted as the subject of more photographers and painters than any other wreck along the United States coastline.
The Peter Iredale was a British bark built in Maryport, England, in 1890 and was one of the largest ships of its time. In the early morning of October 25, 1906, the ship ran aground on Clatsop Spit, Washington, after being caught by a quick current and strong winds. The ship’s masts snapped from the force of hitting the sands and Captain H. Lawrence ordered his crew to abandon ship. All crewmembers were taken safely ashore with help from the Point Adams Lifesaving Crew.
Information from Pacific Graveyard by James A. Gibbs
Photos courtesy of Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco, Washington.