THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
COMMUNITY
1B
ROLLING TO RIO
PEEK-A-BOO
L
MEMORIES OF MEMORIAL DAY
H
ave you noticed that the Peter Iredale shipwreck is unex-
pectedly more exposed recently? Not as much as after the
2007 storm, but this time, the Iredale seems to have popped back
up without the encouragement of 100-plus mile-an-hour winds.
Linda Fenton-Mendenhall (pictured inset) took the photo
shown in mid-May.
According to the Iredale website, the 285-foot, four-masted
steel sailing barque ran aground on Clatsop Spit Oct. 25, 1906,
when the wind shifted in a heavy squall (http://tinyurl.com/P-Ire-
dale). The vessel, which was built in June 1890, and owned by
the shipping company P. Iredale & Porter, was carrying 1,000
tons of ballast, and had a crew of 27, including two stowaways.
No lives were lost.
The Naval Court held in Astoria in November 1906 absolved
the master and irst and second oficers of all blame, and con-
cluded by praising the “prompt action” of the life-saving crew
at Hammond. The hearing record ends with a remark by the
Vice-Consul, who “desires to express his satisfaction with the
quiet and orderly behaviour of the crew when in Astoria.”
GET ON BOARD, BIG GUYS
P
lastic has become the bane of the oceans and marine life, and
Saltwater Brewery in Delray Beach, Florida, has tackled the
problem head-on by developing an edible alternative to the plas-
tic six-pack beverage packaging ring, KABC-7.com reports
(http://tinyurl.com/6packeats).
“Around the world, an estimated 1 million sea birds and
100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles become entrapped in
plastic or ingest it and die,” marine biologist Mark Tokulka said
in a We Believers video about the new product (http://tinyurl.
com/6packsnack).
But when marine animals eat these new six-pack rings, they
won’t be harmed, as they are 100 percent biodegradable, and
made of barley and wheat remnants from the brewing process.
The photo of the snacking turtle shown is courtesy of a screen
shot from the same video.
Chris Grove, president of Saltwater Brewery, hopes their
packaging idea will spark a change in the beer-making world.
“We want to inluence the big guys, and kind of inspire them to
also get on board.”
ast weekend, an unusual car-
avan passed through Asto-
ria, the Roll to Rio (http://rollto-
rio.com) team of explorers and
ilmmakers on a 22,000-mile
cycling trip from Vancouver,
B.C., to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
for the Summer Olympics.
From Rio, they will continue
to Patagonia, Argentina, then
back to the U.S. Their mission
is to spread the word about the
sharing economy (“peer-to-peer-
based sharing of access to goods
and services,” according to Wikipedia), and to promote a health-
ier lifestyle. The cyclists are ilming a documentary and webisodes
along the way, and are accompanied by a van and AirStream with
internet connectivity, so they will “be able to work remotely and
become true digital nomads,” the group’s press release says.
“People are sharing cars, and rides and all this stuff,” team
member John Hazelwood told Seattle’s KING5.com (http://
tinyurl.com/roll2rio). “It’s kind of anti-consumerism, because all
this stuff people are building and building — and why does every-
body need a lawn mower?” He is pictured, courtesy of KING5.
This trip is a continuation of a previous 55-day, almost 2,500
mile cycling journey through 12 countries from Soia, Bulgaria, to
London for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
S
ince Memorial Day is coming up on Monday, a few
history tidbits are in order, courtesy of History.com
(http://tinyurl.com/MemDbits):
In May 1868, Gen. John A. Logan, command-
er-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans,
issued a decree making May 30 a national day to com-
memorate those who died during the Civil War. He named
it Decoration Day to remind Americans to decorate the
graves of the war dead with lowers. Legend has it he
chose that date because lowers would be in bloom, and/or
no Civil War battle anniversary is on that date.
One of the earliest commemorations for the Civil War
dead was organized by recently freed slaves in 1865 when,
accompanied by U.S. Colored Troops and a few white
Charlestonians, they gathered at the site of a prison camp
where more than 250 Union soldiers were buried in a mass
grave. The group consecrated a new burial site, gave readings,
sang hymns and placed lowers around the new cemetery.
Also called Memorial Day beginning in the 1880s, the
day was expanded to include all of the nation’s war dead
after World War 1. It became a federal holiday in 1971.
More than 20 towns claim the be the birthplace of the
holiday, but Waterloo, New York, won oficial federal rec-
ognition as the holiday’s birthplace in 1966 — the centen-
nial of what is considered the irst oficial community-wide
Memorial Day celebration, when stores closed, and the cit-
izens took to the streets in a community-wide event.
It doesn’t really matter where the holiday was born.
What does matter is that on Memorial Day, pausing for a
National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m. local time
is something we all should do.
GIVE A HOOT, AND A DONATION
‘T
his Great Horned Owl
(pictured) was found, and
rescued by staff and students
at Tongue Point Job Corps
Tuesday morning,” The Wild-
life Center of the North Coast
posted on its Facebook page
(http://tinyurl.com/wcncFB).
Just for fun, a few owl-
ish facts: A Great Horned Owl
(Bubo virginianus) can reach a length of about 18 to 25 inches, has
a wingspan of 40 to 57 inches, and can swivel its head 180 degrees,
according to AllAboutBirds.org (http://tinyurl.com/GrtOwl).
Mated pairs are monogamous, but they don’t build nests of their
own — they settle into crevices in snags and trees, and even swipe
old nests of other birds, especially Red-tailed Hawks.
Owls dine on smaller animals such as mice and frogs, but they
also enjoy scorpions and insects. Noted as “ierce predators,” they
have even been spotted preying on much larger birds, including
ospreys and peregrine falcons. Their talons, when clenched, require
a force of 28 pounds to open.
Digression over. If you would like to help get this recently res-
cued owl get back into the wild, you can make a donation via Paypal
at www.coastwildlife.org, or checks can be mailed to WCNC, P.O.
Box 1232, Astoria, OR 97103.
“He will need all the good vibes he can get!” the Facebook post
noted. “Please help us help this beautiful guy!”
USCG TO POLAR SEA: IT’S OVER
WHISTLE STOP
JUMBO LOAD
‘I
D
id anyone besides Roger Warren notice the Fairmaster heavy
haul ship, with two imposingly large cranes on its deck, sailing
up the Columbia River on Thursday, May 19? His photo of the 500-
foot long vessel is shown. Inset, a photo of the Fairmaster courtesy of
its owners, Netherlands-based Jumbo Maritime (www.jumbomar-
itime.nl).
The company’s website says the new vessel, built in 2015, can
cruise at 17 knots and “represents the latest evolutionary step in the
Jumbo leet (and) is both larger and stronger than its predecessors.” Its
cranes have a dual lift capability of up to 3,000 tons and the ship is cer-
tiied as Ice Class 1A Swedish/Finnish, so it can operate in arctic areas.
Fairmaster and her sister ship, Jumbo Kinetic, are so far the only
ships in the K3000 line, and believed to be the largest vessels of their
type.
’m on a tug assisting an ocean tug towing the decom-
missioned Coast Guard ice breaker Polar Sea,” Curt
Dawson, a Foss deck engineer, told the Ear on Saturday.
“She’s going to the ‘bone yard’ (in Seattle) and probably
never seen again by the public. You probably won’t see us
on the Foss tug ‘Kalama.’ We’re ‘made up’ on the Wash-
ington side of the ship.”
Being a fan of all things seaworthy, the Ear rushed
down to the 14th Street dock to take a photo (shown) of the
stately vessel sailing by, being towed by another Foss tug.
There’s a video of the tow, and an interview with Curt, by
Jeff Daly, and it’s posted at http://tinyurl.com/Polar-tow
Polar Sea’s Coast Guard website says the vessel, which
was built by Lockheed and commissioned in 1977, is con-
sidered “one of the world’s most powerful, convention-
ally propelled icebreakers,” and was designed to perform
Coast Guard missions at both poles (http://tinyurl.com/
Polar-use).
With a reinforced hull and up to 75,000 horsepower,
Polar Sea can break up to 21 feet of ice, or 6 feet at a con-
tinuous 3-knot speed. It can carry 150 crew members plus
35 scientists and technicians, and has ive internal labora-
tories, with room for seven more portable labs on deck.
According to gCaptain.com, the Polar Sea was sched-
uled to be scrapped in 2012, but got an unexpected reprieve,
and rebuilding the vessel was under consideration as a way
to save taxpayer dollars (http://tinyurl.com/Polar-scrap).
The reprieve is over.
I
nteresting historical nugget and photo (shown), courtesy of a post
on the Columbia Paciic Heritage Museum’s Facebook page
(http://tinyurl.com/CPHM-ilwaco), about a May 22, 1899 train
wreck at the Ilwaco (Washington) Wharf.
“Thankfully, despite damaged equipment, no lives were lost,” the
post says. “Crew members and passengers were able to safely swim
ashore, though eight passengers were trapped inside the car and
had to await rescue. One Ilwaco Railroad & Navigation Company
(IR&N) oficial gained local notoriety during the rescue attempt for
calling out, ‘Save me irst! I’m a company oficer.’”
Ah, but nothing beats an eye-witness account, and Matt Wil-
liam “Bill” Koski provides one, courtesy of a 1969 issue of The
Sou’Wester (http://tinyurl.com/koski-train). He was skipping
school and hiding out under the railroad trestle, when he heard the
approaching train’s “peanut wagon” whistle.
“When that three-car train was nearly out to the warehouse, the
engine and passenger coach crashed through the trestle,” he wrote.
“The box car stayed on the rails, the passenger coach hung up on a pil-
ing, which just happened to be there for some tie-up purpose, while
the engine landed on its side on the bottom, completely submerged, as
there was always some water at that point even at low tide.
“This particular trip was to meet the river boat at high tide. How
many other people witnessed that crash, I never did ind out. But one
thing I do know — there were none anywhere near where I viewed
it. And another thing: I wasn’t about to brag to anyone as to what I
saw on my hooky holiday, as I knew the answer to that one even at
my age — half past nine.”
COMMUNITY NOTES
SATURDAY
Sit and Stitch Group — 11
a.m. to 1 p.m., Custom Threads,
1282 Commercial St. Knitting, cro-
cheting and needle work. For infor-
mation, call 503-325-7780.
Columbia Northwestern Mod-
el Railroading Club — 1 p.m., in
Hammond. Group runs trains on
HO-scale layout. For information,
call Don Carter at 503-325-0757.
Spinning Circle — 1 to 3 p.m.,
Astoria Fiber Arts Academy, 1296
Duane St. Bring a spinning wheel.
For information, call 503-325-5598
or go to http://astoriaiberarts.com
SUNDAY
Authentic Spiritual Conver-
sations — 3 to 4:15 p.m., Seaside
Public Library conference room,
1131 Broadway. Exploring spiritual
questions, doubts, practices and
longings in a space where every-
one’s needs are respectfully held.
All faiths, including “spiritual but not
religious,” agnostic and atheist are
welcome. For information, email
info@cgifellowship.org or call 916-
307-9790.
Line Dancing — 5:30 to 8 p.m.,
Seaside American Legion, 1315
Broadway. For information, call
503-738-5111. No cost; suggested
$5 tip to the instructor.
TUESDAY
Do Nothing Club — 10 a.m.
to noon, 24002 U St., Ocean Park,
Wash. Men’s group. For informa-
tion, call Jack McBride at 360-665-
2721.
Senior Lunch — 11:30 a.m.,
Bob Chisholm Senior Center,
1225 Avenue A, Seaside. Sug-
gested donation of $3 for those
older than 60; $6.75 for those
younger than 60. For information,
call Michelle Lewis at 503-861-
4200.
MONDAY — MEMORIAL DAY
Senior Lunch — No lunch
served Monday.
Columbia Senior Diners — No
lunch served Monday.
Columbia Senior Diners —
11:30 a.m., 1111 Exchange St.
The cost is $6. For information, or
to have a meal delivered, call 503-
325-9693.
Warrenton Senior Lunch Pro-
gram — No lunch served Monday.
Astoria Lions Club — noon,
Astoria Elks Lodge, 453 11th St.
Prospective members welcome.
For information, contact Charlene
Larsen at 503-325-0590.
A Course in Miracles — The
Astoria ACIM study group meets
weekly from 3 to 4 p.m. Bring your
book. For information and location,
call 916-307-9790 or email mof-
fett@cgiFellowship.org
WEDNESDAY
Warrenton Sunrise Rotary
Club — 7 a.m., Dooger’s Seafood
& Grill, Youngs Bay Plaza, 103 S.
U.S. Highway 101, Warrenton. For
information, call 503-325-4030.
Moms Offering Moms Sup-
port Club — 9 a.m., Capt. Gray
Port of Play, 785 Alameda Ave. For
information, go to www.momsclubo-
fastoria.org or email president@
momsclubofastoria.org
Chair Exercises for Seniors
— 9 to 9:45 a.m., Astoria Senior
Center, 1111 Exchange St. For in-
formation, call 503-325-3231.
Help Ending Abusive Re-
lationship Tendencies — 10
to 11:30 a.m., The Harbor, 1361
Duane St. HEART covers subjects
related to the effects of domestic
violence on children, parents and
other family members, dynamics of
power and control, and how to rec-
ognize red lags. For anyone in an
abusive relationship, or who knows
someone who is. Call Juli Hol to re-
serve a spot at 503-325-3426, ext.
103.
Open Sewing Gathering —
10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Homespun
Quilts, 108 10th St. For information,
call 503-325-3300 or 800-298-3177
or go to http://homespunquilt.com
Wickiup Senior Lunches —
11:30 a.m., Wickiup Grange Hall,
92683 Svensen Market Road. Free
for those older than 60 ($3 sug-
gested donation), $6.75 for those
younger than age 60. For informa-
tion, call Michelle Lewis at 503-861-
4200.
Senior Lunch — 11:30 a.m.,
Bob Chisholm Senior Center, 1225
Avenue A, Seaside. Suggested do-
nation of $3 for those older than 60;
$6.75 for those younger than 60.
For information, call Michelle Lew-
is at 503-861-4200.
Columbia Senior Diners —
11:30 a.m., 1111 Exchange St.
The cost is $6. For information, or
to have a meal delivered, call 503-
325-9693.
See NOTES, Page 2B