The Wreck of the Peter Iredale (Oregon, 1906)

This is the

wreck

of the Peter Iredale, perhaps one of the most iconic and photographed visible ship

wreck

s in North America, but few people know the background of this ship, the harsh conditions of its crew, or the story of its running aground here on Clatsop Beach ago. almost 120 years. We'll take a detailed look at her career and see how the wreck changed over time and then we'll head to the Columbia River Maritime Museum and see what artifacts from the wreck still remain as we reveal what's rarely told. The story of this foreign northwest maritime landmark the story of the Peter Iredale begins with a man named Peter Iredale Peter was born near Maryport England in 1823 at an early age he went to see as a seaman and rose through the ranks until he qualified as a seaman.

Captain Peter's skills were not limited to sea navigation; He acted as a commercial agent and trader in West Africa for six years, where rumors persist that he even dabbled in illegal trade and smuggling. Despite this, he became a smart businessman with capital to invest and started investing. In shipping he formed Peter Iredale and Company around 1868. His ships traded around the world carrying any type of cargo he had demand. His company was restructured when he went into business with his son around 1881, changing the company to Peter Iredale and Son, but he had a falling out with him and found a new business partner called John Porter around 1890, restructuring again and changing the name of the company to Peter Iredale and Porter Limited with each incarnation of his Enterprise, he commissioned new vessels for his trade, he usually owned the majority interest in each of them over the years his fleet grew and grew the fleet included to Peter Iredale, Ada Iredale, Iredale, Lizzie Iredale, Lizzie Bell, dimmsdale, Daven, be the davenby again, the low gate, Lonsdale, Lorton and the valley of Dune, the crust, Peter Iredale.

Although it was the namesake of him he was not the biggest nor the fastest, he was not the first nor the last, but he was arguably the most famous. Several of his ships were wrecked over the years, but the simple popularity of these remains and the exhibition and photographs throughout the 19th century has since made him stand out from the rest of his fleet, like his namesake, the Peter Iredale, which was manufactured in Maryport, England and, unlike its namesake, was around 2,000 gross register tons built by Rritzen and Company in 1890 for its final partnership, the Peter Iredale. and Porter Limited, as with most sailboats, its captain was provided with the greatest possible luxury.

This beautiful hand-carved wooden sideboard was rescued from the shipwreck of the Peter Iredale and is now displayed in the shipwreck gallery of the Columbia River Maritime Museum, no doubt this originated. in the captain's cabin probably also came from the captain's cabin this comfortable upholstered chair in the museum's storage facilities, while Peter Iredale's fleet traded around the world, he had a close relationship with Portland and Astoria Oregon, the ships of the Peter Iredale company frequently sail to and from those In fact, so much so that Mr. Iredale named one of his boats Astorian early in his career, probably from her initial launch.

Peter Iredale's hull was painted black, we see it in this painting at the Columbia River Maritime Museum and we see that most of his fleet mates had the same paint scheme, Peter Iredale's career was largely uneventful. incidents worth reporting, her main crew were almost always English, but the rest of her hands, especially when sailing in and out of Oregon, were a mixture of things. of reluctant sailors of many nationalities forced to join the crew of the Peter Iredale against their will the life of a sailor was hard, one worked almost constantly in harsh conditions for low wages and, as a result, men were found who were willing to be of low level.

Sailors were a challenge for centuries, the practice of press or Shanghai gangs became common even here in the remote seafaring communities of northern Oregon, a con man named Larry Sullivan made a living from this practice by drugging or kidnapping men and selling them for the sailing crew. boats along the Columbia River in Oregon and a frequent customer of his was the captain of the Peter Iredale. These prisoners were simply men who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Travellers. Farmers. Townspeople, but rarely. Professional sailors. They signed up for a trip to abandon ship until the trip was completed, the fact that the signature on the log in most cases was forged was totally irrelevant, so they were taken to the ship signed against their will. and legally they could not leave.

They had no means of notifying their families and loved ones and if something happened to them while they were at sea or something happened to the ship, they were out of luck and the family probably never knew that the payment would have been made to Sullivan and in the In the middle of the night, just before departure, his henchmen would take the unconscious crew to the Peter Iredale, usually providing them with about 30 crew members, and lock them in the ship's Folk Soul until the ship was ready to sail, with Sullivan providing a couple. of armed guards only In case anyone woke up too early jumping into today, the ship's Folk Soul is the last piece of the ship that still resembles its original structure.

It is within this same section of the ship that these poor men were trapped as they recovered from their attack and realized it. They were prisoners for the next few months, once the ship was at sea the men were released from this prison and if they stepped out of line they were severely beaten by the Peter Iredale's officers until they were willing to learn their duties and carry out dutifully brought them out, the Columbia River Maritime Museum even has a pair of the ship's handcuffs prominently displayed, these were recovered from the shelf and would have been used in any case, the captain deemed it necessary the captain aboard these ships was the highest authority and the law and sometimes the rules and laws had to be enforced, so there were handcuffs available, they also carried hand weapons or had weapons available to enforce discipline on the ship, now these kidnapped crew members are paid, but only all kinds of expenses were deducted from their salary and, in fact, towards the end, from time to time, they often owed money to the ship and it is better for them to pay with a crew of more than 30 people, most of which joined the service and were ultimately new to the sea.

The Peter Iredale headed from Portland, Oregon, around Cape Horn, crossed the Atlantic, and arrived at her home. Unfortunately, in England I cannot say that this practice was uncommon. Sullivan made a fortune from Blood Money doing this, but the Peter Iredale was just one of hundreds of ships that hired him for their services. Sullivan was not the only criminal who did this and Oregon was not the only place where it happened, it was common practice in all corners of the world at the time, but on most voyages the crew of the Peter Iredale was made up only by a small handful of trained professional sailors and then several reluctant sailors.

Mr. Peter Iredale died in 1899 at the age of 76, but the ship would continue to sail between its usual ports in England and Oregon, picking up cargo around the world at some point after his death, as the company's ownership and the ship may have changed hands. The hull of the ship was painted light gray, as we see in later photographs. The end of the wreck on September 26,

1906

, the Peter Iredale, under the command of Captain Lawrence, sailed from Selena Cruz, Mexico, without cargo. Destined for Portland. In Oregon, normally this voyage would take between 30 and 35 days, but Captain Lawrence was offering a bonus to his crew if they could shave five days off this voyage so that Press's crew would not only make a small profit at the end but they would arrive. home five days earlier, naturally the Peter Iredale was running.

She had a crew of 25 men on board plus two stowaways who had snuck aboard. Bound for the United States they had been captured and put into service with the crew. I mean, you. You could have signed up, the crew would have accepted you, but now they don't pay you. 28 days later, in the dark of nights, the ship was sailing dead reckoning using the various light signals along the coast as reference points at 3:20 am. The Tillamook Lighthouse was sighted shortly after the Columbia River Light Boat was also sighted and the Peter Iredale adjusted her course. About an hour passed as the crust headed toward the light ship, but a heavy sea fog rolled in. which combined with the Dark Knight severely limited the ability of the crews, the problem with the Pacific coast is what they call Lee Shore, where the prevailing winds are constantly blowing towards the coast, so if a particular sailboat gets too close , it's hard.

To maneuver safely, the winds were increasing towards the coast. Now, to play it safe, the crew of the Peter Iredale intended to lower their sails and move away from the coast before entering the harbor until dawn, but before they could do so, they were carried away by the wind and thrown ashore. , the Peter Iredale struck the sands of Clatsop Beach and the impact of the first impact broke the ship's upper masts. The next blow brought down more mast and some of her masts, completely disabling the ship and sinking it into the sand. The Peter Iredale, in the midst of a strong wind storm and a dark early morning, was now fast on the sand at Clatsop Beach, about four miles south of the mouth of the Columbia River, the crew began firing the stress rockets and the nearby rescue stations quickly.

They responded through the furious surf boats coming and going from the stranded ship removing their crew. It was already daylight and the last men to abandon ship were Captain Lawrence and the first to do Clayton. Captain Lawrence staggered to shore. carrying the ship's log book, no doubt a sextant. an expensive personal possession and a jug of whiskey as he left the whiskey on the sand, thanked his rescuers and returned to the ship solemnly and with great dignity. Captain Lawrence stood up, saluted the ship and toasted God bless you and your bones whitening in the sand, took a drink and passed it to his crew and rescuers and then they were taken to nearby Fort Stevens, a military fort dating back to the American Civil War, where they rested and were treated from there.

He took the short train ride to the city of Astoria, where British overseas authorities held the ship's officers until an investigation could be conducted. Even in the early stages of the investigation into the wreck, it was clear that no fault would be found and the crew were eventually exonerated while the court convened; However, there were unsuccessful attempts to save the Peter Iredale, but each tide and storm sank the ship further. Initially, the boat was in a position where its bow was pointing towards the dunes, but as the tides rose and fell. the winds continued to buffet her hull and she was twisted and twisted into a parallel position and broke her keel now there was no hope of removing the unfortunate ship funny enough only 19 days after the grounding of the Peter Iredale another British barque arrived, the Galena in land on the Oregon coast, just a couple of miles south of the Peter Iredale site, with a touch of dark humor, Captain Lawrence of the Peter Iredale came to visit the wreck of the Galena while the captain and officer of the Galena kept watch to prevent looting from the wreck and the three posed for a photograph at the helm two captains who wrecked their ship within a few weeks of each other on almost the same beach, well done boys, Peter Iredale's crew finally went home and the rights to salvage the ship were sold, but the ship was never completely dismantled, just as Captain Lawrence toasted, the ship would sit and bleach on the sands.

However, several accessories from the ship were recovered and are now in the collection of the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon. These are the These are the pieces of the Peter Iredale that we have on display. Here is the Pinnacle compass with the large compensators. Up here we have one of the bells that says Peter Iredale. The ship's bell used to ring at the beginning and end of a crew watch. those two name boards came out of the ship's boats, all of these ships had small boats on deck that were used to get back and forth from the ship to shore or for emergency lifeboat use, but these would have been on the captain's ship or on some other service ship on board Builder's plate there saysRitson and Company maryport which was normally mounted on one of the warehouse masts the museum has a recovered iron pot which when rescued from the shipwreck still had dry and inedible food in it but still it is quite interesting that the bones of the Peter Iredale They are not far from their former fleet mates, the Ada Iredale.

The Ada was a smaller former ship of the Peter Iredale company and in 1876 she was crossing the Pacific with a cargo of coal, the coal ignited causing a smoldering fire to spread throughout the ship and eventually the crew abandoned her letting her go to the drifting eight months later, the Ada Iredale was found still afloat and still burning. She was towed into port and left to sit and burn, eventually being extinguished two full years after the initial flames, the ship was repaired and renamed Annie Johnson with new owners and then sold again and renamed Britannia. It was in 1929 when the remains of the Peter Iredale were already decrepit on the sands of Clatsop Beach, but the Britannia, the Peter Iredale's former fleetmate, was sailing in the same waters off the Oregon coast and had to be abandoned.

The captain, his family and his crew were rescued. It actually seems pretty common that at Clatsop Beach people would take their cars out. I see it today and I saw it a lot while filming but even then people drove their cars or went out with horse drawn carriages straight to the beach sands and up to the wreckage between 1929 and 1942 Peter Iredale continued to be a tourist site Funny, however, in June of that year the remains were caught in a rather unique battle. World War II had begun for America only a few months earlier and the Japanese submarine I-25 had been lurking off the west coast of the United States when it surfaced on June 21 firing at nearby Fort Stevens, no one was hurt. , although I understand that the nearby baseball field suffered minor damage, however, it has been said that Japanese gunfire flew right over the wreckage of the Peter Iredale.

I'm a little skeptical about it because it's not exactly in the line of fire from where the Japanese submarine was, but the attack of the I- on January 25 is a local legend, as is the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands off Alaska on Same month, they caused panic on the west coast because the Japanese could overrun barbed wire along parts of the coast, including Clatsop Beach, enclosing the wreck of the Peter Iredale in barbed wire. As the war progressed, the metal was removed from the hull to be scrapped for the war effort, but in 1945, when the war ended, the barbed wire was removed and it became a popular destination once again, the proupré remained prominent from the bow of the wreck until 1961, when one of the last remains of the wreck collapsed, proving it was once a proud sailing barge.

A piece of the propeller is in the backroom collection of the Columbia River Maritime Museum. Her popularity barely faded even though the ship itself did. I have here a small collection of some of the countless postcards that were printed of her over the years; the ones that still show the Sprint arch on the front would probably date from before 1961, when that arch fell, unless they simply printed an old photograph. Who knows, the bow of the ship remains deteriorated down to the frame. If we could remove the sand, we would see much of the keel and base of each mass still in place when we came to film it.

My friend Amos took me. a tour of the wreck and what he remembers having changed during the time he visited since he was a child. There are the two remaining pieces of wood right in front of the open hatch cover. It is the only wood left on the ship. I remember correctly. It was until the late 80's and early 90's, one of the front Masses was still on the beach and planted in the sand from a long time ago, God, I don't know if it was washed away or if it was rescued or what they show us, uh Crow's .

Access to the Nest, oh yes, the access to the Crow's Nest, is the only piece of dough left, that I know of, that is not buried. You can see the access door and you can see a little bit up here towards the sand. Not sure if that's a second to access or if it's just a part that broke off and was washed away, the hollow steel masts collect seawater with each tide, occasionally trapping marine life inside until they are released by the next high tide, the good thing is that you can see how long the boat was too because the rudder block is still in place.

If we look at the wreck from above, we can still discern the shape of the ship and how she wants to sit based on the position of her masts in relation to where the rudder and bow still are. The rudder post, a virtually unrecognizable structure jutting out of the beach at the far end of the ship, also remains standing. All of this is still in very good condition and in fact matches the inclination of the bow. I'm just sorry. Tom, just feel how. sturdy, it's still like it doesn't want to splinter, it's just a nice solid mod, yeah, there's no give, so I think we're looking at the rudder block at the top of the rudder, so if you look closely at her hull, you can still see it. the individual rivets that held her together through the roughest seas and still holding some of her seams strong after more than a century, even today with so little of the ship remaining, the Peter Iredale is a popular wreck and one of the most emblematic visible shipwrecks.

In the United States, by virtue of the fact that it is in a state park and is easily accessible to a large group of people, it makes it a popular place to stop. I mean, everyone has to take a photo in front of the wreck of the Peter Iredale. Peter Iredale has established a lasting local legacy in the nearby town of Warrenton: the Iredale Inn, complete with a painting of the ship over the entrance, the Fort George Brewery in Astoria, Oregon, even has a beer honoring this old ship, which God bless you and may your bones turn white in the sand Peter Iredale has been sitting for almost 120 years slowly crumbling into the sand and sea.

He has witnessed over 40,000 sunsets since he ran here on clatsa beach and hundreds of thousands of visitors who knew little or nothing about the history. For this once proud sailing vessel, there is an informational plaque in the nearby parking lot, but few take the time to read it if they have interest and Will Travel. The Peter Iredale shipwreck in northern Oregon is worth the trip to enjoy the rich history. Along the way and stopping at the incredible Columbia River Maritime Museum touring their shipwreck gallery among other exhibits, the museum was gracious enough to allow me to come in and film this and several more upcoming videos on the Oregon Coast shelves.

If you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing. to my channel and turn on post notifications so they update when a new video like this is uploaded. Special thanks to my Patreon supporters, especially Marlo Perez Kelly black kaiserville Helm II Trent Greger Zach Richards Donald Anderson Cody henricks Joan Haynes Sean Kimball Glenn bidiscombe Tucker Rob M Amos Mayhew Corey Andrews Nicholas masella zoltzbagner coltanic Sophie baber yako Martin Hansen Stephen schwankert Rob Oliver chin Chen jahala John milewski David watipka Tiffany Raritan and o um