4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL APRIL 25, 2018
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History: 120 miles through a hurricane
From the mid-1800s
through
the runup to
For The Sentinel
the Second World War,
lumber schooners were
a familiar sight in all Oregon seaports. These were
small, simple cargo ships, with shallow drafts so
that they could fi t across small river bars and in
and out of the “doghole” ports of northern Cali-
fornia and southern Oregon.
In many of these ports, lumber from local saw-
mills was actually loaded onto the ships with a
block and tackle, dangling from something like
a zipline, while the crew fought to hold the ship
steady in the swells and breakers. And the ships,
when they headed out fully loaded on their way
to San Francisco or San Diego, sometimes had so
little freeboard and such a tall deck load that it
looked like any little wave could just swamp them
or roll them over.
Starting in the late 1880s, operators started
putting steam engines in lumber schooners, which
made the tall masts unnecessary; by the First
World War nearly the entire fl eet had converted to
these “steam schooners.” (Since a schooner is by
defi nition a sailing ship, the later mast-free ones
weren’t really schooners; but the name stuck.)
Steam schooners were a big improvement,
particularly with respect to safety. Winds in river
bars and bays are notoriously fi ckle, and plenty of
lumber schooners ended up on the rocks when the
breeze died at the last minute, or blew onto the
beach when caught in a gale. Sometimes, when
that happened, the sailors got lucky; and some-
times they didn’t.
All in all, it was a very dangerous way to make
a living. But there was one key mitigating factor
for sailors in lumber schooners: As long as they
were carrying a load, they always knew their
ships would never sink. The cargo would always
keep them afl oat.
Plenty of sailors ended up owing their lives to
that fact, since one of the fi rst things that always
seemed to happen when the weather got really
nasty was that the lifeboats would all get carried
away by boarding seas.
By Finn JD John
Among those lucky survivors were most of the
crew of the Frank W. Howe.
The Frank W. Howe, 159 feet long and dis-
placing 573 tons, was one of the last unpowered
lumber schooners, a fact that may also have saved
the lives of most of its crew. That’s because unlike
steam engines, sails still work when the hull is full
of water — a condition the Frank W. Howe found
itself in just a few days after leaving Ballard (now
part of Seattle) with a heavy cargo of railroad ties,
headed for San Pedro.
The ship left Ballard on Feb. 12, 1904, and
all was well at fi rst; but soon the crew members
found themselves beating into the teeth of a fero-
cious and seemingly unending gale.
Well, that was all in a day’s work for a lumber
coaster. The ship, only 13 years old, was still a
sturdy one; and the storm, although on the strong
side, was nothing out of the ordinary for February.
But then, fi ve days into the voyage, off the
Oregon Coast near the mouth of Yaquina Bay,
something happened — probably a hull plank
succumbed to the constant fl exing of the seas and
broke loose.
Whatever the cause, one minute the Frank
W. Howe was beating valiantly into the howling
wind, and the next she was wallowing in the wa-
ter like a log, decks awash, hull completely fi lled
with seawater, kept afl oat only by the railroad ties
in her cargo hold.
Yaquina Bay was a nix now — the ship would
never make it through the channel, as low as she
was riding in the water. Ditto for everything south
of the Columbia River, and things would have to
get a lot calmer for THAT to be an option. More
likely, they’d have to go all the way back to where
they came from — past Cape Flattery and into the
Strait of Juan de Fuca.
It wasn’t all bad news, though. If the Frank W.
Howe had been a steam schooner, she’d be done;
there would be nothing for it but to huddle there,
rolling in the trough of the sea, and pray for some-
one to come along and rescue them. A steamship
full of water can’t make steam; but a sailing ship
full of water still can make way, albeit very slow-
ly. And the wind was coming, as usual, out of the
southwest — so all the way home they would be
on a broad reach, the easiest and most comfort-
able point of sail.
Ordering the sails trimmed for the journey,
Captain A. Keegan and his men settled in as best
they could for the slow northward journey.
And that’s when the storm unleashed its full
fury. What had started out as a heavy bluster-
ing gale now ripened into one of those temper-
ate-zone hurricane monsters that occasionally hit
the Oregon Coast, ripping roofs off of barns and
knocking trees down on houses. No wooden ship
in the open sea could sneeze at such a storm.
The exhausted crew had to climb up into the
rigging to escape the relentless walls of green
water that kept sweeping across the deck. One at
a time, they undertook the heroic work of man-
ning the wheel, keeping the ship pointed upwind
enough to keep from being blown ashore and try-
ing to keep from being swept overboard by the
occasional massive combers that swept over the
ship.
One great wave picked a Norwegian out of the
rigging — he’d picked too low a perch and his
hands were likely numb with cold — and carried
him screaming away into the foamy night. Anoth-
er time, a huge wave caused the ship’s rudder to
come clear out of the water, whereupon anoth-
er wave slammed into the ship’s rudder with so
much force that the great spoked wheel was torn
out of the hands of the man whose turn it was to
hold it — and then the wheel sucked him in like a
great sawblade, cutting him nearly in half.
This went on for fi ve days.
Finally, the ship was off the Columbia River.
By then the storm had abated to a standard-issue
strong wind, but the bar was still impossible. The
men were exhausted and famished; they couldn’t
hold out much longer; but there was no choice.
The ship continued wallowing northward.
Then fate intervened again:
“About 10 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 22,
the schooner’s back broke clear across under the
hatch,” Capt. Keegan recounted, as quoted in
Gibbs’ book. “Finding the schooner would weath-
er Cape Disappointment, I headed her for a sandy
beach in order to save the lives of the balance of
the crew.”
The beach he picked was, of course, Long
Beach Peninsula in southern Washington. Under
the power supplied by the one remaining piece of
sailcloth that hadn’t been shredded by the wind,
the Frank W. Howe made her laborious way to-
ward the beach.
Meanwhile, the ship had been spotted, and help
was on the way.
“The excellent service of the government to the
maritime interests of the world was never better
demonstrated than yesterday morning,” the Morn-
ing Astorian’s reporter wrote in the next day’s pa-
per. “As soon as the North Head lookout discov-
ered the vessel on the horizon he placed himself in
communication with the lifesaving crews at Long
Beach, Fort Canby, Hammond and Point Adams.”
Attempts to get rescue boats across the bar did
not work out; the breakers were just too ferocious.
Lyle guns were lined up on the beach and tried
valiantly to shoot a line out to the ship, which by
this time had struck and stuck; but because it was
full, the ship was riding so low in the water that
it was still far out to sea, out of range of the can-
nons.
Finally, after several attempts to get their surf-
boat through the breakers, the Ilwaco crew man-
aged to battle their way to the doomed schooner,
and one by one the exhausted crew members
dropped out of the rigging and into the rescuers’
boat.
“Our experience was a terrible one,” Keegan
told the Astorian’s reporter after his rescue. “The
death of the two poor fellows who were killed
last Thursday was an awful calamity, but it was
fortunate, indeed, that all of us were not killed or
drowned. I never before experienced such terrible
weather, and I thank God seven of us are alive to
tell the tale.”
Dr. Joel Fuhrman: Berries and their fl avonoids protect the heart
Berries are one of my favorite super foods – the second B in
G-BOMBS (my list of super foods: greens, beans, onions, mush-
rooms, berries seeds) – rich in fi ber and phytochemicals and low
in calories. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries
are vibrantly colored with antioxidant phytochemicals, and they
are some of the highest antioxidant foods in existence. The deep
red, blue and purple pigments of berries are produced by fl avonoid
antioxidant molecules called anthocyanins, which are concentrat-
ed in the skins of the fruits. Flavonoids, including anthocyanins,
are not merely antioxidants; they are thought to have a number of
additional benefi cial effects in the body that are unrelated to their
antioxidant capacity. As such, several studies have shown that high
fl avonoid intake is associated with considerable risk reductions (up
to 45 percent) for coronary heart disease.
Recent research highlights the cardioprotective properties of
berries. A 2011 study investigated berry consumption in relation
to risk for elevated blood pressure. Compared to eating no blueber-
ries, just one serving per week decreased the risk of hypertension
by 10 percent. New fi ndings published in January 2013 from the
Nurses’ Health Study support these results with data in younger
women (age 25-42 at the start) who were followed for 18 years.
In these women, three or more weekly servings of blueberries or
strawberries was linked to a 34 percent reduced risk of heart attack
compared to lower intake of berries.
How do berries and their colorful anthocyanins protect the heart
and blood vessels? Studies using berries or berry phytochemicals in
human participants or on human cells have uncovered some of the
possible protective actions of berries on the cardiovascular system.
Berry fl avonoids seem to act in several different ways to maintain
heart health. In human subjects, researchers found that berries miti-
gated oxidative stress, decreased oxidation of LDL (which helps to
prevent the production of atherosclerotic plaque), increased blood
antioxidant capacity, and in some cases improved lipid levels, blood
pressure or blood glucose. Higher anthocyanin and berry intake is
associated with reduced C-reactive protein (CRP), suggesting that
berries may curb infl ammation; additional studies have confi rmed
that berries have anti-infl ammatory properties. Berry phytochemi-
cals also may enhance nitric oxide production in the blood vessels,
which helps to properly regulate blood pressure.
Why not amplify these benefi ts by eating berries every day? If
observational studies showed a 10 percent decrease in hyperten-
sion risk for one serving of blueberries per week and a 34 percent
reduced risk of heart attack from three servings of berries per week,
imagine the protection that is possible when you eat berries every
day! Even during winter, we can get our daily dose of anthocyanins
from frozen berries. Also remember that in addition to promoting
heart health, berries also have anti-cancer effects and provide pro-
tection against diabetes and dementia.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and a
board certifi ed family physician specializing in lifestyle and nutri-
tional medicine. Visit his informative website at DrFuhrman.com.
Submit your questions and comments about this column directly to
newsquestions@drfuhrman.com.
C ottage G rove
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IN BRIEF APRIL 25-MAY 10
The Lion Pride Pageant is this Saturday, April 28 at Cottage
Grove High School beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the
school offi ce or $12 at the door the night of the event. The
fundraising effort benefi ts the local Children's Miracle Net-
work.
The Gathering Place owners celebrate the grand opening of
their new venue for performance, art and events in the historic
Veatch home in the Northwest Neighborhood at 119 North L
Street. They invite you to visit and enjoy light appetizers and
wine tasting, live music by Resonance, history, a rock painting
work station and local art by CK Night Photography. The open
house coincides with the Art Walk. (Information from Around
the Grove).
Art Walk starts on Friday in downtown Cottage Grove from
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.