1B
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2018
CONTACT US
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
FREE THE WHALES
D
rones are proving useful on many fronts, and now the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
(NOAA) Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine
Sanctuary has teamed up with Oceans Unmanned, which
uses drones to protect the oceans and environment, to help free
whales from ocean debris, such as discarded fishing nets (tinyurl.
com/dronewhale).
Ed Lyman of NOAA says the drones, which send real-time
footage of the entangled whale to the rescue team, help them
“minimize approaches, give us a different view — an aerial view
— of the gear and the animal’s condition … it reduces our risk,
having that drone in the toolbox makes the whole procedure a
much safer one.” Still shots from a DJI Stories video is shown
(tinyurl.com/DJIwhale).
“Using tech for environmental good,” Matt Pickett, a pilot
and president of Oceans Unmanned said, “is a really fantastic
feeling.”
SAVING FRED
G
io DeGarimore is the owner of Giovanni’s Fish Market
in Morro Bay, California. He is also a diver, and after inter-
acting with octopuses, knows how intelligent they are. Therefore,
the shop’s Facebook page declared, Gio decided to take a “moral
position,” and not support the sales of “any octopus products.”
So last month, when a local fisherman had a 70-pound octopus
for sale, Gio bought the critter, put him in a tank at his market,
and named him Fred. No, Fred was not for sale, and he’s pictured
courtesy of the market’s Facebook page. Gio’s only intention was
to release Fred into the open ocean — which is exactly what he
did a few days later. Meanwhile, Fred’s story went viral.
“At the end of the day, Gio said, ‘It might not change the world,
but I’m going to do one thing,” a May 15 Facebook post noted,
“and if it only makes me and Fred happy, that’s OK too …’”
his weekend marks the 207th anniversary of the Bat-
tle of Woody Point, near Vancouver Island, British
Columbia, when John Jacob Astor’s ship, the Tonquin,
met her fate. Local history buffs will recall the Tonquin
brought settlers to establish Fort Astoria in March 1811,
then sailed north to trade.
The accounts of the Tonquin’s demise are many, accord-
ing to a 1922 article by F.W. Howay in the Washington His-
torical Quarterly (https://tinyurl.com/howayTonq). First told
by the Tonquin’s interpreter, Lamayzie, the sole survivor,
the already bloody tale took on some wild embellishments in
the retelling. Howay, however, constructed what he believes
is a true narrative of what happened, summarized below.
The Tonquin went to Woody Point to barter with the
Wickananish tribe. Trading aboard the ship went well
the first day, but that evening Lamayzie reported the tribe
planned to attack the next day.
Capt. Jonathan Thorne didn’t heed the warning, but
when a suspiciously large crowd showed up in canoes the
next day, he ordered seven men into the rigging to set sail.
Meanwhile, as the brisk trading continued on deck, the Wick-
ananish were hiding their knives and strategically position-
ing themselves. The attack, once launched, was a slaughter.
The surviving men in the rigging descended, but two
were lost coming down. Four uninjured crewmen and
one other, mortally wounded, headed for the cabin, found
weapons, and managed to roust the invaders. Before
dawn the next morning, the four boarded a longboat and
left. Eventually driven ashore by foul weather, they were
caught and murdered.
The wounded man stayed behind, professing he wanted
to die on the Tonquin. After the others left, he leaned over
the side, and gestured he needed help. The Wickananish
boarded, and while they were engrossed opening the hatches,
he set fire to a 9,000 round magazine, blowing everyone, and
the Tonquin, to smithereens.
It took Lamayzie, who was already ashore when the ship
exploded, 14 months to get back to Astoria to report the Ton-
quin’s unhappy ending. And the rest is history.
T
SEA VIEW HOUSE
STILL ‘IN THE SPIRIT’
ne advertisement was a bit odd in the June 15, 1881
edition of The Daily Astorian: “Sea View House, J.L.
Stout, proprietor. North Pacific Beach, Washington Terri-
tory. Will be open for visitors July 4, 1881. It is one mile
nearer Ilwaco than last season.” Huh?
Sometime in the late 1860s, Jonathan Stout and his sec-
ond wife, Annie Gearhart of Clatsop Plains, moved to
Unity (the old name for Ilwaco). He became the postmas-
ter there, built a house, and then a hotel to attract tourists,
which he named Bay View (after Baker Bay, no doubt).
In 1871, he bought 400 acres of what is now the town of
Seaview for 50 cents an acre (about $10 now). He opened
a resort there in 1873. From the 1881 ad, it’s obvious an
on-the-move Sea View House was already up and running,
but most current historians say the Sea View House hotel
wasn’t built until 1886.
Be that as it may, Mr. Stout’s resort was a hit. His
obnoxious wife, not so much. A snarky snippet from the
Portland Oregonian appeared in an 1887 New York pub-
lication “Life”: “Sister, thou hast left us … (All) will be
rejoiced to hear that Mr. J.L. Stout, proprietor of the Sea
View House, has been granted a divorce from Mrs. Stout,
whom it would be a piece of glaring mendacity to call his
‘better half’ … She is gone, and guests at the Sea View
House will be terrorized by her no more.”
Unfortunately, the cost of the divorce, and a fire in 1892
that destroyed the hotel (which was not rebuilt), ruined him
financially. He died in 1896. Community historian Joan
Mann, with assistance from Ron Hylton of Penttila’s
Chapel, replaced his simple wooden marker with a gran-
ite headstone in 2017.
(tinyurl.com/StoutLife, tinyurl.com/1JLStout, tinyurl.
com/2JLStout, tinyurl.com/3JLStout)
O
A
few weeks ago, the Four Brothers Across America, deaf
young men from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.,
were featured in this column. Jake Grindstaff, Gilwon Seo,
Dakota Daniels and Jerrod Grill (pictured, from left), left May
31 to bike the Transamerica Trail. Unfortunately, there has been
a mishap.
“On June 2, Four Brothers chose the different route from
Pacific City to Salem, Oregon, as a best and quick way,” a June
7 post on their Facebook page said (tinyurl.com/3pedalFB).
“Ended up on a small roadway and no shoulders. Jerrod had a
bicycle fall, (and) he got his head injured.
“Then the ambulance brought him, with Jake, to the hospital
in Lincoln City, while Dakota and Gilwon biked more than 25
miles. After examining his head, no concussion or serious threats
because his bike helmet saved him. Jerrod returned to home last
Tuesday for his safety.”
The three remaining brothers plan to keep going, as Jerrod is
still with them “in the spirit.” Want to sponsor their “Pedal for
Deaf Pride”? Just go to tinyurl.com/3pedal
PLEASE FENCE ME IN
LAMAYZIE’S TALE
e’re desperate!” Fences for Fido posted on their Facebook
page. “Whiskey and Tank (pictured) are two lovable Saint
Bernards who spend their days in a small outdoor kennel. We are
scheduled to build them a fence this Saturday, and have only a cou-
ple of volunteers signed up. The build is in Chinook, Washington,
a beautiful drive on what’s supposed to be a beautiful day.”
Want to help these big ol’ boys get a nice, fenced in yard? Sign
up here: bit.ly/whiskeytankbuild
“Way too much dawg for a small kennel, don’t you think?”
Jennifer Adams of Fences for Fido asks. “What’s better than a
scenic road trip to a small coastal town, where you get to be part
of giving the gift of freedom to two deserving dogs. And maybe
get a hug from a Saint Bernard!”
‘W
LOCAL BREVITIES
T
idbits from The Daily Astorian, Wednesday, June 15, 1881:
• Master Will Warren has received, direct from New York,
one of the handsomest bicycles on the Pacific coast; it cost $150
($3,490 now), and is a real beauty. Will is very proud of it.
Note: The bicycles of 1881, aka velocipedes, had a chest-high (at
least) front wheel and a small back wheel (tinyurl.com/cyclehist). A
leap of faith was required to mount and dismount. A how-to is here:
tinyurl.com/upboneshaker
• Miraculous Escape: Two men fishing for James Quinn
came in through the surf on the northern beach in front of Mr. L.A.
Loomis’ (pictured inset) place Sunday night, after drifting about on
the ocean for 14 hours. Their boat had capsized in the breakers but
the net hung to it, and they hung to the boat and net; being towed,
tangled as they were in the meshes of the net, a great part of the time.
They came to the city on Monday. The boat and net were also saved
Note: James Quinn owned a tiny cannery in Quinn’s, somewhere
near Clatskanie. After leasing the fishing grounds to cannery owner
J.O. Hanthorn for $1 a year, a messy lawsuit for breach of contract
eventually ensued (tinyurl.com/JOandQuinn).
It’s hard to say where businessman and developer Louis Alfred
Loomis’ “place” was in 1881. However, in the late 1880s, his place
was a beachfront Victorian mansion, just south of Klipsan Beach,
with 12-foot ceilings, eight bedrooms, and extensive grounds, that
was torn down in 1953. He also built the Clamshell Railroad, con-
necting Nahcotta, Washington, to Ilwaco (tinyurl.com/sydneytells).
• Beer ad: “… I have an old father who’s now eighty-three / and
this is the advice he gave unto me / He spoke to me kindly with a
voice bright and clear: / “If you want to be healthy, drink Albany
beer” … C. Grattke, Welcome Saloon
GOONIE OVERLOAD
F
eeling a little let down because Goonies Week is over? The
Ear has just the ticket for you to keep you occupied for a
while: “Goonies, The Trivia Questions & Answers” (tinyurl.com/
GoonTest1). There are 257 questions, some only the most dedi-
cated Goonie fan could answer. For example: “How many lawn-
mower jobs did it take Brand to have enough money to buy his
bike?” Answer: 376.
Then there’s The Goonies Trivia and Quizzes (tinyurl.com/
GoonTest2), which boasts “over 275 questions in rotation” and a
“new quiz every hour!” and consists of numerous small tests cre-
ated by fans of the movie.
Both sites have annoying duplicate questions, but they should
provide Goonie overload until next June rolls around.
COMMUNITY NOTES
SATURDAY
Chinook Indian Nation Annu-
al General Meeting — Registration
starts at 9 a.m.; meeting at 11 a.m.,
South Bend High School cafeteria,
400 First St., South Bend, Wash-
ington. Meeting open to all tribal
members; attendees are reminded
to bring a potluck item. For ques-
tions, contact the Tribal Office at
360-875-6670.
Seniors Breakfast — 9 a.m.
to noon, Astoria Moose Lodge, 420
17th St. Cooked to order from
menu, includes coffee. Cost is $5
for seniors 62 and older, $7.50 for
those younger than 62. Breakfasts
are open to the public. Proceeds af-
ter expenses help support local and
other charities.
Sit & Stitch — 11 a.m. to 1
p.m., Homespun Quilts & Yarn, 108
10th St. Bring knitting, crochet or
other needlework projects to this
community stitching time. All skill
levels welcome.
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 astoriafiberarts.com
SUNDAY
Seniors Breakfast — 9 a.m.
to noon, Astoria Moose Lodge, 420
17th St. Cooked to order from
menu, includes coffee. Cost is $5
for seniors 62 and older, $7.50 for
those younger than 62. Breakfasts
are open to the public. Proceeds af-
ter expenses help support local and
other charities.
Cannon Beach American Le-
gion Women’s Auxiliary Break-
fast — 9 to 11:30 a.m., American
Legion, 1216 S. Hemlock St., Can-
non Beach.
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.
33rd St. Needlework, hardanger,
knitting, crocheting, embroidery
and quilting. All are welcome. For
information, call 503-325-1364 or
503-325-7960.
MONDAY
Grace and Encouragement for
Moms — 10 to 11:30 a.m., Cross-
roads Community Church, 40618
Old Highway 30, Svensen. GEMS
group is a time for moms to relax
and enjoy each others’ company.
Chair Exercises for Seniors
— 9 to 9:45 a.m., Astoria Senior
Center, 1111 Exchange St. For in-
formation, call 503-325-3231.
Scandinavian Workshop —
10 a.m., First Lutheran Church, 725
See NOTES, Page 4B