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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 2016)
FRIDAYEXTRA ! The Daily Astorian Friday, August 5, 2016 Weekend Edition BEHIND THE MUSEUM Wikimedia Commons Steve Morgan Columbia River Maritime Museum’s exhibits are just the tip of the collection’s iceberg By ERICK BENGEL The Daily Astorian T he Columbia River Maritime Museum has never advertised the hidden treasure, let alone put it on display, but it is one of Deputy Director Dave Pearson’s favorites from the collection: The broken hull plate from the infamous Exxon Valdez oil tanker that, in March 1989, struck the Bligh Reef and spilled mil- lions of barrels of crude oil in Alaska — the worst oil spill in United States history until 2010. The Salvage Chief, the marine salvage vessel that pulled the tanker from where it ran aground, brought the hunk of split steel to the museum shortly after the accident. Sitting next to it on the pallet shelf in the collection storage facility is a bottle of the original oil. “That will make a great exhibit some- day,” Pearson said. As in most museums, the space in the Maritime Museum is limited and the collec- tion vast, so the materials that visitors see represent a small fraction of what the insti- tution actually possesses. “By our very nature, we’re collecting more than we could ever put on exhibit,” he said. The museum currently features the fl oat- ing lightship Columbia, fl ags that Japanese soldiers took with them into battle during World War II, two cannons found in Arch Cape that came from an 1846 shipwreck, exhibits about the U.S. Coast Guard and Columbia River Bar, a photo gallery by local photographer Michael Mathers and other draws. But the off-site artifacts — which can be loaned to other museums or viewed by researchers — are often as compelling as the ones presented to the public. Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian Dave Pearson, deputy director of the Columbia River Maritime Museum, stands amid a group of boat engines in the muse- um’s collections storehouse. The fractured piece of hull plat- ing from the Exxon Valdez — the part of the tanker that broke on the Bligh Reef and spilled millions of gallons of oil in Alaskan waters — resides in the Columbia River Maritime Mu- seum’s collections storage facility. On the right is a bottle of the oil. What visitors don’t see The museum storehouse holds tens of thousands of miscellaneous maritime objects from the Lower Columbia River and the wider Pacifi c Northwest: Harpoons, anchors, spent artillery shells, fl at-bottom race boats, scraps of wood from shipwrecks, hardware from World Wars I and II destroyers, boat engines of many makes and models . Some items are so abundant — like octants, sextants and compasses — that the museum has stopped collecting them. Erick Bengel The Daily Astorian See MUSEUM, Page 3C Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian Matthew Palmgren, the collections manager at the Columbia River Maritime Museum, explains the use of an engine order telegraph, a piece of maritime equipment that allowed for communication between the bridge and engine room of a ship. U.S. Navy swords fashioned in the early 20th centu- ry are the subject of research in the Columbia River Maritime Museum’s collections room, located in the main museum building. The swords have been on display in the museum’s naval gallery. Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian Dave Pearson, deputy director of the Columbia River Maritime Museum, poses near a gillnet boat in the museum’s off-site boat haul. ‘By our very nature, we’re collecting more than we could ever put on exhibit.’ Dave Pearson deputy director of the Columbia River Maritime Museum