Schooner or later, it'll be gone again
TODAY photos (Slideshow below)
If you go:
The Emily G. Reed
NOTE: This story was written in Jan. 2011, when the Emily G. Reed was exposed on the beach at Rockaway. You'll need to wait for the next opportunity to catch it exposed.
What: The hull of the full-rigged wooden sailing schooner, built in 1880, which wrecked with a load of coal on Feb. 14, 1908
Where: On the beach just south of the public parking lot at Rockaway Beach Wayside (the park with the red caboose). Pedestrians can also enter via a beach trail next to St. Mary’s by the Sea Catholic Church.
When: The wreck first emerged in mid-December, with about 100 feet exposed as of Jan. 1.
Details: This site is a protected archaeological site, and it is illegal to remove or damage the ship’s remains. To learn more, call the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office at 503-986-0671.
Disclaimer: This site is best observed at low tide, and during calm weather conditions. Always practice caution and never turn your back on the ocean.
By Niki Price
Oregon Coast TODAY
[Posted Jan. 4, 2011]
There was quite a party on the beach last Saturday, Jan. 1. A hundred yards south of the Rockaway Beach Wayside, a crowd gathered around the ribs of the Emily G. Reed. People knelt down to touch the timbers and giant rusted nails, contemplating the 100 feet of schooner that had emerged from the sand. Families, on vacation from all over Oregon, took photos of one another while children played shipwreck hopscotch over the ribs.
This is not the first time this portion of the Emily G. Reed, which ran aground near the Nehalem River Bar in 1908, has come out to play – although it may be the first time her videos were posted on Facebook.
Despite the light New Year’s mood, in the welcome winter sun, the wreck inspired contemplation and admiration among those who made the trek. It was evidence of both the ocean’s dangers, and constant movement of the shifting sands.
The Emily G. Reed was a three-masted wooden sailing ship, built in 1880 in Waldoboro, Maine. It set sail in November 1907 from New South Wales, Australia, with 2,100 tons of coal, bound for Portland. Early on a dark and cloudy Valentines Day, 1908, after 102 days at sea, she sailed too close to shore and broke apart.
The Emily G. Reed
NOTE: This story was written in Jan. 2011, when the Emily G. Reed was exposed on the beach at Rockaway. You'll need to wait for the next opportunity to catch it exposed.
What: The hull of the full-rigged wooden sailing schooner, built in 1880, which wrecked with a load of coal on Feb. 14, 1908
Where: On the beach just south of the public parking lot at Rockaway Beach Wayside (the park with the red caboose). Pedestrians can also enter via a beach trail next to St. Mary’s by the Sea Catholic Church.
When: The wreck first emerged in mid-December, with about 100 feet exposed as of Jan. 1.
Details: This site is a protected archaeological site, and it is illegal to remove or damage the ship’s remains. To learn more, call the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office at 503-986-0671.
Disclaimer: This site is best observed at low tide, and during calm weather conditions. Always practice caution and never turn your back on the ocean.
By Niki Price
Oregon Coast TODAY
[Posted Jan. 4, 2011]
There was quite a party on the beach last Saturday, Jan. 1. A hundred yards south of the Rockaway Beach Wayside, a crowd gathered around the ribs of the Emily G. Reed. People knelt down to touch the timbers and giant rusted nails, contemplating the 100 feet of schooner that had emerged from the sand. Families, on vacation from all over Oregon, took photos of one another while children played shipwreck hopscotch over the ribs.
This is not the first time this portion of the Emily G. Reed, which ran aground near the Nehalem River Bar in 1908, has come out to play – although it may be the first time her videos were posted on Facebook.
Despite the light New Year’s mood, in the welcome winter sun, the wreck inspired contemplation and admiration among those who made the trek. It was evidence of both the ocean’s dangers, and constant movement of the shifting sands.
The Emily G. Reed was a three-masted wooden sailing ship, built in 1880 in Waldoboro, Maine. It set sail in November 1907 from New South Wales, Australia, with 2,100 tons of coal, bound for Portland. Early on a dark and cloudy Valentines Day, 1908, after 102 days at sea, she sailed too close to shore and broke apart.
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Six of the crew, including the captain and his wife, clung to the poop deck until low tide allowed them to walk ashore. Four others boarded a lifeboat and floated north, until they came ashore at Neah Bay. Seven (or, according to some evidence, eight) sailors died in the wreck of the Emily G. Reed.
The hull now visible near the wayside, said Lise Zimmerman of the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, is just one fragment. The museum holds a small piece, and a sample of the coal the ship was carrying, in its permanent collection (although it’s not currently part of the display). The U.S. Coast Guard Station Garibaldi, just off the port roundabout, has a piece of the coal on public display during business hours (for info, call 503-322-3531). “There was cargo strewn between there and Nehalem, and the ship broke up with sections in many places,” Zimmerman said. “There are stories of people taking metal sheeting off the wreck in that location, and of people who retrieved pieces of wood with copper attached. They burned them, and they gave off colors and glowed. They called it ‘magic wood.’” Of course, these days no one is allowed to burn shipwrecks, or their artifacts. But they may still ignite your curiosity about Oregon’s maritime history — which includes more than 3,000 recorded wrecks off its scenic shores — and the people who braved these dangerous seas. To learn more, check out these museums: Tillamook County Pioneer Museum 2106 Second St., Tillamook, 503-842-4553, tcpm.org Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, admission $1-$4 An exhibit on the first floor shows porcelain, marked wax, teak, metal objects and a holy oil jar from the famed “Beeswax Wreck” of Nehalem, which some believe was an 18th century Spanish galleon. The current display also offers a wooden post from the Glenesslin (wrecked in 1913 near Neah-kah-nie Mountain), and a life ring from the Mimi (also in 1913, near Nehalem), plus a basement “beachcombers collection” with anchors, glass floats and the like. Their research library is open by appointment (call the number above). Lincoln County Historical Society 545 SW Ninth St., Newport, 541-265-7509 Open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, admission by donation Just re-opened after its winter hiatus, the Burrows House Museum features an exhibit called “Rough Waters: Shipwrecks on Oregon’s Coast.” See historic photographs of wrecks like the Yaquina City (1887) and the Glenesslin (1913), as well as photos and Mimi Fox’s large-scale painting of the New Carissa (1999). Artifacts on display include an ornate seaman’s chest from the Atalanta (1898), the tiller from the now-buried wreck in Siletz Bay, and more recent finds like the lifejackets and flags from the Blue Magpie (1983). The research library is available by appointment. [Read more about central Oregon coast shipwrecks.] |
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