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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
WORLD IN BRIEF
Beeswax: ‘We do one ship a year. It’s a long process’
Associated Press
Continued from Page 1A
Interstate 84 westbound
reopens after fire closure
PORTLAND — Transportation officials say the west-
bound lanes of Interstate 84 in the Columbia River Gorge have
reopened to motorists between Hood River and Troutdale,
more than a week after the lanes closed because of wildfires.
The Oregon Department of Transportation says the lanes
opened just before 6:30 p.m. Thursday when officials deter-
mined the road was clear and no longer threatened by fires.
Officials say the eastbound lanes remain closed with no
timeline yet for reopening. Interstate ramps along the 45-mile
stretch of road from milepost 62 to 17 remain closed, includ-
ing the ramps in and out of Cascade Locks.
Motorists should not stop anywhere along the interstate as
the fire continues to burn in the area.
Manhunt on after bomb
wounds 22 on London subway
LONDON — Hundreds of British police embarked on
a massive manhunt Friday, racing to find out who placed a
homemade bomb on a packed London subway train during the
morning rush hour.
The explosion — labeled a terrorist attack by police —
wounded 22 people and ignited a panicked stampede to safety.
Experts said London may have escaped far worse carnage
because it appeared that the bomb only partially exploded.
“Clearly, this was a device that was intended to cause signif-
icant harm,” Prime Minister Theresa May said after chairing a
meeting of the government’s COBRA emergency committee.
Police called it a terrorist attack, the fifth in Britain this
year.
Witnesses described seeing a “wall of fire” as the bomb
— hidden in a plastic bucket inside a supermarket freezer bag
— went off about 8:20 a.m. while the train was at the Parsons
Green station in southwest London.
It was not a large explosion, and British police and health
officials said none of the injured was thought to be seriously
hurt.
North Korea fires missile over
Japan in longest-ever flight
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea conducted its lon-
gest-ever test flight of a ballistic missile Friday, sending an
intermediate-range weapon hurtling over U.S. ally Japan into
the northern Pacific Ocean in a launch that signals both defi-
ance to its rivals and a big technological advance.
Since President Donald Trump threatened the North with
“fire and fury” in August, Pyongyang has conducted its most
powerful nuclear test, threatened to send missiles into the
waters around the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam and
launched two missiles of increasing range over Japan. July
saw its first tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles that
could strike deep into the U.S. mainland when perfected.
The growing frequency, power and confidence displayed
by these tests seem to confirm what governments and outside
experts have long feared: North Korea is closer than ever to its
goal of building a military arsenal that can viably target both
U.S. troops in Asia and the U.S. homeland.
On the first day, they used
Magie’s sonar to gather images
of the coast from Cape Falcon
to Manzanita to study for pos-
sible future outings.
Instead of magnetometers,
the society on the second day
took out Clatsop Community
College’s underwater robot,
Lazarus, and robotics team
CEO Jennifer Jordan, who sur-
veyed with the submersible
just north of the beach. Neither
Jordan nor another survey by
the society’s underwater robot
uncovered any artifacts.
“We’re kind of getting
close to the end of the season,”
Dewey said of the worsening
weather. “We may not make it
back out there.”
Clues of a wreck
The legend of a ship-
wreck off the coast of Man-
zanita stretches back to the
early 19th century, when a fur
trader noticed Native Amer-
icans trading in beeswax
despite there being no native
honeybees in Oregon. To this
day, beachcombers periodi-
cally find blocks of beeswax
and pieces of fine china around
Short Sands beach and the
Nehalem Spit.
The search for the Bees-
wax wreck has been ongoing
for more than a decade, first
through the Beeswax Wreck
Project and later through the
archaeological society. During
a search in 2013, a company
briefly scanned the area near
Short Sands with a magnetom-
eter and found a spike indi-
cating the presence of metal,
Dewey said.
During a dive with friends
a year later, Dewey saw an
unusual growth near the sur-
face in the same spot.
The next step for the society
is to raise funds for a working
magnetometer, which Dewey
said will cost about $18,000,
and preparing to possibly dive
next year in the areas around
Short Sands. The instrument is
necessary for identifying metal
objects buried in the sand and
underwater.
“We could find something
Photos by Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Tim Stentz, a mariner and Maritime Archaeological Soci-
ety member aboard the vessel Sovereign, launches the
Clatsop Community College underwater robot Lazarus.
(with sonar and robots), and it
might be something very cool,
but the rest of the wreck might
be a foot under sand right
next to it or half a mile away,”
Dewey said.
Beyond Beeswax
While finding the Beeswax
is the top priority, the society
was formed three years ago
from the Beeswax Wreck Proj-
ect to expand the group’s mis-
sion and state support for iden-
tifying some of the thousands
of shipwrecks throughout the
region, Dewey said. The group
is a loose collection of vol-
unteers from throughout the
Pacific Northwest and Hawaii.
State databases include
more than 31,000 documented
archaeological sites on land,
State Archaeologist David
Griffin wrote in a 2013 report
on underwater archaeological
research.
“Recorded
shipwreck
locales within this data-
base number just over 300,”
he wrote. “With over 3,000
reported shipwrecks off the
Oregon Coast alone, the huge
disparity between this num-
ber and that earmarked in the
state’s records highlights the
need for improvement in both
recording location information
for shipwreck sites and more
professional investigation of
the significance of submerged
resources in general.”
Through its Oregon Coastal
Survey Project, the society has
been trying to find wrecks and
abandoned vessels all along the
state’s coastline. Last spring,
volunteers surveyed near the
THANK YOU,
seaside!
Hood To Coast / Portland To Coast Relays would like to thank the City of Seaside, Seaside
Fire and Rescue, Seaside Police Department, and Seaside Chamber of Commerce for
hosting the 36th HTC/PTC Relays Finish Party. Your beautiful city and county were on
display this year for participants from all 50 U.S States and 37 countries. We would also
like to thank Clatsop County public safety, residents, and businesses for your patience
and support. $19,000 will again be donated to Seaside Parks and Recreation.
With more than 60,000 individuals visiting Seaside for The Hood and Portland To Coast
Relays, this visit represents a first impression to a captive audience that very often leads
to future visits for these individuals and their families. This is an economic impact that
goes beyond measure and one that can very often be a lifelong development of future
memories in your town.
Additionally, participants raised a record amount of over $725,000, which benefits
Providence Cancer Center and their continuous efforts to find a cure for cancer.
Thank you Seaside, for supporting the race for 28 years in your community! We look
forward to many more fantastic race finishes in Seaside. Special thanks to all the
amazing charities on course; runners and walkers loved everything you provided, and
we hope you continue to raise money for your
charities in future years.
Looking forward to seeing you all in 2018!
Jennifer Jordan, CEO of
Clatsop Community Col-
lege’s underwater robot-
ics team, pilots the robot
Lazarus off the coast of
Oswald West State Park.
New Youngs Bay Bridge in
Astoria for the wreck of the
T.J. Potter, a 19th-century
steamer burned and scrapped
for parts around 1920. The
society has sent a report in and
is close to documentation with
the state, Dewey said.
Next year, the group might
focus on using its underwater
robot to better survey the Sil-
via de Grasse, a lumber schoo-
ner that sank in Astoria near
Pier 39 in 1849.
“We do one ship a year,”
Dewey said. “It’s a long pro-
cess. The T.J. Potter report was
about 40 pages. We’re writing
up reports on all the ones we
can.
“And we’re a volunteer
group, so we’re doing it as
quickly as a volunteer group
can do.”