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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, JuNE 23, 2022
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
FORT UNDER FIRE
uesday was the 80th anniversary of the shelling of
Fort Stevens during World War II. On June 21, 1942,
Cmdr. Meiji Tagami slipped his I-25 submarine into the
mouth of the Columbia River with some incoming fishing
boats, surfaced and fired 17 shells at the fort from his 5.5-
inch cannon.
An in-depth video, “The Attack on Fort Stevens,”
describes the reaction at the fort. “Everybody’s running
around trying to get out,” Lester Madison recalled, “and I
had to stop them at the head of the stairs to get them to go
… get their clothes on before they went outside.”
The searchlights were not turned on to keep the fort’s
position hidden. The same logic was probably used in the
decision not to return fire — along with the belief that the
submarine was out of range.
Edwin Jolley recalled that when he relayed the order
to Battery Russell not to shoot back, they wanted to know
on whose authority. Col. Carl S. Doney, the command-
ing officer at Fort Stevens, grabbed the phone and person-
ally ordered the battery not to fire even one round, or he’d
court-martial the whole 249th Coast Artillery.
The shells that hit caused craters on the beach, a base-
ball backstop and tree were damaged, a power line was
nicked, then failed, and a soldier cut his head while rush-
ing to his battle station. Pictured, some soldiers examining
a shell crater.
U.S. Air Force planes on a training mission spotted the
I-25, and reported Tagami’s location to a bomber. Although
he found the target, the sub dodged the bombs and sub-
merged unscathed.
The surprise attack sent shivers of fear up and down the
West Coast. On the North Coast, the reaction was to string
barbed wire from Point Adams in Hammond southward to
fend off an invasion, and the Peter Iredale shipwreck was
tangled up in barbed wire until the end of World War II.
T
SCARED TO DEATH
SHIVELY’S CABIN
he Daily Astorian, on June 26, 1883,
included a letter to the editor from Ore-
gon pioneer, John M. Shively, who helped
map out early Astoria.
Shively opined that if Sir Francis Drake
had come as far north as the Columbia
River in 1579, “… about 10 miles up the
river, south side, he might have found a vil-
lage of … buccaneers enjoying themselves
by a rousing fire made of spruce limbs, with
plenty of corn beef and pork, a barge and all
other appliances to repair their fleet.
“… In 1844, I built my log cabin a mile
above (meaning upriver of) the old fort of
J.J. Astor (at 15th and Exchange streets),
and proceeded to clear a garden. In spading
up the ground about 8 inches deep, I came to
many beef bones, evidently the bones from
corn beef, horn handles of table knives with
other kitchen implements of by-gone days.
“It is evident that all iron from length of
time has oxidized to dust, for the old horn
handles had once held a blade. The place
was grown up with maple, spruce and hem-
lock with nothing to distinguish it from the
adjacent forest. The trees cut down and burnt
showed a square hillock about 6 feet high.
“Curiosity led me to dig into it, I came
to charcoal, and on further examining the
place came to the logs of the house which
the charcoal had preserved from decay. It
must have taken many years to oxidize all
iron and bury these things 8 inches beneath
the surface …
“The place is on Lot 8, Block 2, Shive-
ly’s Astoria, where anyone can go and see
traces of the coal to this day. The coal would
be abundant but was carried away for black-
smith purposes years ago.”
Liisa Penner, archivist at the Clat-
sop County Historical Society, explained
where this lot was. “Shively’s first home
was supposedly at 1416 Grand in 1954,”
she wrote, “which changed to the current
address of 3024 Grand.”
As to whom the kitchen utensil-wield-
ing visitors were, one guess it was probably
not buccaneers, but quite possibly the Lewis
and Clark Expedition instead, since they
stopped at Tongue Point in March 1806
after wintering at Fort Clatsop.
T
‘CUDDLEBUTT’
half-husky, half-Newfoundland (who looks
like an enormous black Lab) named
“Cuddlebutt” was inadvertently dognapped June 12 in
Tillamook County when some thieves stole his owners’
vehicle, a Nissan Pathfinder with Montana plates, and
he was taken along for the ride. Naturally, the owners
were frantic.
That’s the bad news. The good news and photo came
on June 16 from the Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office
Facebook page, when David McCall found the vehicle
and the purloined Cuddlebutt:
“… Cuddlebutt has been located safe and sound,
and is with TCSO deputies,” the post said. “He will be
reunited with his humans shortly. Oh yeah, the stolen
Nissan Pathfinder was also recovered, but we all know
what everyone was really concerned about …
“According to TCSO Cpl. Chris Barnett,
Cuddlebutt does indeed live up to his name, and he
provided many kisses and hugs to Deputy Chris
Rondeau.”
“… He drank all of the water from my water bot-
tle,” Barnett said. “Then he thanked us. He is definitely
a lover.”
A
IT’S PUZZLING
he largest plant in the world has been determined
by researchers, and it’s not a tree, NewAtlas.com
reports. Actually its a seagrass meadow off the west-
ern Australian coast, in Shark Bay, that is 112 miles
long.
It was discovered when scientists from the Univer-
sity of Western Australia and Flinders University were
studying the genetic diversity of seagrass in the Shark
Bay area, and took shoot samples from several sections.
It was while they were examining the 18,000 genetic
markers that they came to a stunning conclusion: The
meadow has grown from one seedling, which is con-
stantly cloning itself.
“The answer blew us away — there was just one!”
Jane Edgeloe, lead author of the study, said. “That’s it,
just one plant has expanded over 112 miles in Shark
Bay, making it the largest known plant on Earth.” Even
more amazing: The scientists calculated the plant is at
least 4,500 years old. (Photo: University of Western
Australia)
T
HONORING BACCA
he June 21, 1942, shelling of Fort Stevens may
have given everyone at the fort a good scare, but
what about the civilians who lived in the vicinity?
The photo shown appeared in newspapers all over
the country. This particular version had the following
cutline: “Donna Jean Heffling, 3, hands Col. Carl S.
Doney, commanding officer Columbia River harbor
defenses, a shell fragment picked up near her home in
Seaside, Oregon, on June 25, 1942. Her sister, Jean, 9,
stands by. The Heffling home was within few hundred
yards of one of nine craters, but undamaged.”
Well, OK, so they got the date wrong, the photo was
actually taken June 22, and the Heffling farm wasn’t in
Seaside, either.
Other papers only ran a small story as a follow-up
to the shelling. This one is from the Wilmington (North
Carolina) Morning Star on June 23, 1942: “’I was scared
to death,’ said Mrs. Heffling, and her husband echoed
agreement. Three-year old Donna Jean Heffling fell out
of bed in fright, but her brother, Keith, 10, wasn’t awak-
ened.” (Bob Glander/AP Photo)
T
WINNING ATTITUDE
he Whole Earth Man V Horse Race, over a 22.5-
mile course in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales, was won by
the aptly named Ricky Lightfoot, BBC.com reports.
When he crossed the finish line, Lightfoot had no
idea he’d won, since the people and horses take different
routes. Yet he came in two minutes ahead of 1,000 run-
ners and 50 horses, telling CNN he was “chuffed to have
won.” He’s only the third human to win since 1980; the
last time was in 2007, and the first was in 2004.
“I thought I could give the horse a good race,” he
explained. And so he did. (Photo: Yen.com.gh)
T
onation Day!” Laura Parker wrote
June 13, about her son, Jameson.
“Today these golden locks will be on their
way to another kiddo in need of a hair
replacement.
“When Jameson’s Bacca (his grandfa-
ther, “Scotty” Parker) was diagnosed with
cancer, he became aware of the struggles that
people going through cancer treatment were
facing. (Jameson named him Bacca when he
was about 1.) My dad was Jameson’s best
friend. Watching my dad struggle with can-
cer was really difficult for Jameson.”
So, Jameson talked to his mom about
how they could help others who were suf-
fering with cancer treatment. “He thought
growing his hair to donate could be a way,”
she explained. “So he started growing his
hair out. He is now over the length require-
ment, and is ready to have a short summer
hair cut!
“He asked me last month if his friend
Cutter‘s mom, Kelly Barendse, could be
the one to cut his hair. Jameson had some
trouble during wrestling after the loss of his
Bacca, and Cutter helped him through it.
Cutter encouraged Jameson, and cheered for
him every match, and even offered an arm
around him when Jameson was really miss-
ing his Bacca.
“Jameson had decided to donate to Wigs
for Kids. Each wig made for a child includes
150,000 strands of hair, and has a cost of
about $1,800. We would love to include a
financial contribution with his hair dona-
tion.” To help out, go to: bit.ly/WigsKids
‘D
SAVED AT LAST
escue rerun: The maritime world was agog over
a film clip of Harrison Okene’s rescue that made
the local and national news. Harrison, pictured in a still
shot from the video, was the cook aboard the Jascon 4,
who survived by finding an air bubble when the ves-
sel capsized and sank off the coast of Nigeria. He was
stuck in the upside-down tug, which lay under 100 feet
of water, for three days.
All of the crew were presumed dead, and Harri-
son was found purely by accident when a team from
DCN Diving, who were filming their operation under-
water, arrived on the scene searching for bodies. The
video can be seen here: bit.ly/HarOkene. (Spoiler
alert: There’s a genuine goose-bump moment when
the cook’s hand reaches out of the darkness toward the
diver.) After making it to the surface and decompress-
ing for two days, amazingly, he was fine. (In One Ear,
12/13/2013)
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