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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, ApRIl 29, 2021
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
SQUANDERED ELEGANCE
PORT YOUR HELM!
T
he steamer Great Republic, with more than
1,000 passengers and crew aboard, ran hard
aground on Sand Island off Ilwaco, Washington, while
en route from Portland to San Francisco on April 19,
1879.
The three-masted ship, launched in 1866, was a side-
wheel steamship with three decks. She was 380 feet
long, 50 feet wide and was a well-made vessel built of
wood and braced with iron. At the time, she was the larg-
est passenger vessel on the West Coast.
Since it was a clear night when the grounding hap-
pened, there was an inquiry. Capt. James Carroll
accused the pilot of ignoring his order to “Port your
helm and put it hard over, as I think you are getting too
near the island.”
Be that as is may, it was low tide, they were stuck
fast, and a storm was coming in. The 896 passengers
safely disembarked but the crew stayed aboard, hoping
they could refloat the ship at high tide.
But when the storm arrived, the pounding waves
quickly began breaking up the vessel, so there was no
choice but to abandon ship the next day. It was as the last
boat left that disaster struck; a steering oar broke, mak-
ing the boat overturn, and 11 died. The vessel’s cargo,
contents and the passengers’ possessions began washing
away, and the ship fell apart, a total loss.
A diver trying to unsnag a fishing net in 1986 redis-
covered a massive wreck, originally thought to be the
Isabella, wrecked in 1830. It is now believed to have
been the remains of the Great Republic. (bit.ly/GrtRe-
pub01, bit.ly/GrtRepub02)
FISHY UPDATE
he wreck of the Great Republic had quite an impact
on Astoria, as mentioned in The Daily Astorian on
April 29, 1879, 10 days after the ship ran aground on
Sand Island (pictured).
With a wreck that size, salvagers were swarming the
ship, and working hard to save and sell off everything
possible.
“Throwing the wrecked goods from the lost steamer
upon the market now has a very depressing effect on
trade,” the newspaper noted.
As an example: “Our friend Hanson is getting
ready to go into the drug business. He purchased
at the sale yesterday four dozen bottles of Jamaica
ginger; half a barrel of paregoric (tincture of opium)
and a dozen spades … Prices ranged from about 5 to
50%.”
However, the wreck was good business for local
steamers, many of which made special trips to Sand
Island just so “excursionists” could see the wreck.
“Everybody who goes to the wreck brings home some
relic,” the Astorian reported. “The wonder is how the
ship ever held so much.”
Even a little steamer from Portland, with about 100
aboard, came downriver for a look.
“Sand Island, with the wrecked steamship for an
attraction, will become a popular summer resort,
‘before we know it,’” the Astorian opined. Wishful
thinking.
Even Astoria schoolchildren, along with their parents,
took a special trip to Sand Island and returned “with a
better idea of a wreck on the sea coast than they could
learn from six months study.”
“Squandered elegance,” the Astorian observed. “…
Silks and satins, horse-shoe nails, patent medicines,
sewing machines, soap, sugar and socks, all tumbled
together and there isn’t warehouse room enough in Asto-
ria to string it all out, nor weather to dry it.
“But the (shipping) company is doing its level best to
make something out of nothing.”
T
SCOOTING SCALLOPS
F
rom The Daily Astorian, April 29, 1879:
• We have all heard fish stories, but of all the
interesting stories we ever listened to, none can compare
with Capt. Manson’s clam story of San Pedro, Cal-
ifornia. The clams are there by the millions, and they
actually walk (or hop), and swim on the water, by flap-
ping the shell. Fact.
Note: The Ear, who was brought up in an oyster-
ing village on the East Coast, at first thought this was a
whimsical bit of nonsense. But it’s not. And those clams
he saw were likely scallops, which are also bivalve
mollusks.
Scallops actually do swim in — not on the water —
and at a pretty good clip. They can propel themselves
both forward (swimming) and backward (jumping) by
sucking in and expelling water.
You can see a scallop in action at bit.ly/goscallop (a
screenshot is shown). They rarely go more than about a
yard up off the sea floor, and seldom for more than about
16 feet, but nonetheless that’s pretty impressive.
Other scallop notable features: They can have up to
200 eyes along the edges of their shells and they can
produce pearls. And yes, there are scallops at San Pedro,
even now.
EYES ON OSPREY
WASHED AWAY
he live osprey nest cam in Broadway Park in Sea-
side, operated by the Necanicum Watershed Coun-
cil, has been giving bird lovers an up-close-and-personal
view of what’s been going on in the nest for the last few
weeks.
Everyone watching has been waiting with bated
breath for the first egg to arrive and, well, now they can
breathe easily again. The first egg of the season was laid
on April 25. Since osprey can lay up to four eggs per sea-
son, hopefully there will be more.
You can keep an eye on the osprey family at seasid-
eosprey.org. Updates are on the watershed’s Facebook
page at bit.ly/FBosprey. The photo shown is courtesy of
the council.
Not surprisingly, the female does most of egg-incu-
bating honors, as well as caring for the new chicks in the
nest, but the male does help out quite a bit by giving her
the occasional break and bringing her snacks. The eggs
take 36 to 42 days to incubate, so perhaps a Memorial
Day celebration chick will be forthcoming.
T
n 2015, a large chunk of fiberglass boat arrived on
the beach in Waldport, covered with barnacles and
containing several live fish swimming about, Q13 Fox
News reported. Belated tsunami debris?
Oregon Coast Aquarium and Hatfield Marine Sci-
ence Center biologists arrived, and noted that there were
“several live specimens of a variety of yellowtail jack
fish found in the coastal waters of Japan.” The fish were
sent to the aquarium.
So, how are they? Good news: “… They have been
doing well!” an aquarium representative replied. “Our
curator of fish and invertebrates reports that the two
banded knifejaws/beakfish (one is pictured, cour-
tesy of the aquarium) are still in our coastal waters gal-
lery, and the yellowtail jacks are still in our open sea
habitat, and can be identified as the larger jacks of the
school.”
I
DO YOU FIT?
ere’s an unusual casting call from Weeble
Mountain Casting in Portland: “We need
people who fit sample size shoes for a photo shoot for
CAT Footwear. Pay is $1,200 a day for one day of
work in Portland between May 12-16 … All identities
welcome.”
Sample sizes are footwear prototypes made before
the production of a full line. So, they want people age 18
and older: Men who comfortably fit men’s size 9 (wears
size 8 to 10); and women’s size 7 (wears size 6-8), which
are the only sizes available.
All of the details, and how to sign up, are at
bit.ly/WeebleCAT. If you’re interested, you’d better
hustle, since the deadline to apply is 11:59 p.m.
Saturday.
H
ocated south of Grayland, Washington, in the
neighborhood of what local people call North
Cove, is a vast area of pre-dune land called Washaway
Beach,” Joe Granger wrote.
“Its several miles of coastland has been washing
away at the rate of 150 feet average per year since the
late 1800s but the erosion occurs in fits and starts. Many
attempts at trying to stop it have had limited (if any) suc-
cess …
“… My parents bought a nice single-wide mobile
home on two platted lots on nearby Seamobile Lane.
They had to sign several documents that they knew the
property was likely to wash away in the near future …
“They immediately built a large deck on its seaward
side … The only erosion occurring in their immediate
vicinity was about 100 feet over the next 10 or so years,
so they were lucky.
“What a view, and what a pleasure to recreate and
vacation at this property! They enjoyed it nearly every
weekend throughout the year. Even the winters there
were fun.
“… Then, about 11 years after purchase, their mobile
home was broken into and ransacked. That, plus a quick
100-foot erosion, set them to put it up for sale. Another
older couple bought it, and paid what Mom and Dad had
invested in it.
“Sadly, the couple who bought it … only got to enjoy
about two years of its use. Then, the erosion acceler-
ated and took the entirety of Seamobile Lane, and all the
trailers and cabins located thereon.
“Mom and Dad later bought two other properties in
the area for very cheap prices so they could camp at
Washaway Beach … They, too, were eventually washed
away.
“I try to visit Washaway Beach at least once a year
to reminisce,” he added. “Though their places there
are gone, I look out to sea, and find them both as they
were.”
Note: His parents’ mobile home is now about a
quarter of a mile out at sea. Read the entire story and
see more of his photos (one is shown) at bit.ly/JGranger
‘L
NEED ICE?
un rerun: For fans of maritime oddities — An
enormous iceberg has parked itself in the North
Atlantic off the tiny town of Ferryland, Newfound-
land (population of 465, as of 2011), according to a
story in The Toronto Star (tinyurl.com/bigberg). It is
shown in a photo courtesy of Paul Daly of The Cana-
dian Press.
It’s normal for icebergs to pass through, as that neck
of the woods is called “Iceberg Alley.” But it’s totally
unexpected to see one this large stop in its tracks, dwarf
the town and become a tourist attraction. Hundreds of
people are flocking to Ferryland to gawk at and photo-
graph the icy marvel.
“It’s the biggest one I ever seen around here,” the
town’s mayor, Adrian Kavanagh, said. While the mon-
ster berg is terrific for tourism, Kavanagh added, fisher-
men aren’t too “particular about ice and the icebergs.”
(In One Ear, 4/21/2017)
F