Shipwrecks litter coastal history
		The Santa Clara burns after running aground on Nov. 15, 1915, near the entrance to Coos Bay. Of the 60 passengers on board, 16 died in the wreck.
The South Coast had its share of shipbuilding facilities. Unfortunately, it also had its share of shipwrecks. Beaches and rocks along the coast are littered with bits and pieces of shipwrecks — some of the hulls have been incorporated into current jetties and others are visible from shore, such as the stern of the New Carissa. A few of the early ocean-going passenger and cargo vessels also left behind questions and mysteries: The Bawnmore, for example, had cattle that scattered once ashore and surprised Curry County residents the next spring by producing a new generation of calves. Or the South Coast, that broke up near Port Orford: There were no survivors and none of the crew were ever found. Nameplates and pieces of many of the following vessels are still around, in residences, museums, offices and stores. While not an exhaustive list, the following wrecks are some of the more famous ones. Libraries have several books available that detail the shipwrecks of coastal Oregon. — Staff Writer Susan Chambers The 693-ton Marconi was being towed out of Coos Bay when the line broke and it drifted onto the shore and broke up. Sujameco The 3,542-ton, 324-foot steel steamer, was built by Submarine Boat Corp. of Newark, N.J., in 1920. It was traveling from San Francisco to Coos Bay on Feb. 28, 1929, and ran into fog while trying to find the entrance to Coos Bay. On March 1, the Sujameco hit the beach at full speed roughly eight miles north of Coos Bay. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Redwing and two Coos Bay tugboats couldn’t pull it from the beach. Its crew of 29 abandoned the vessel; it was later cut up for scrap during World War II. Its remains can sometimes be seen at Horsfall Beach during winter when sand recedes. Czarina The Czarina was a 216-foot, 1,045-ton steel steamer built at Sunderland, England, in 1883 as the British steamer G. W. Jones. It left Coos Bay Jan. 12, 1910, bound for San Francisco with sack cement, coal and lumber. It made it halfway across the Coos Bay bar, where it struggled for an hour before a wave crushed the bridge and the vessel crashed on the jetty. It then drifted and went aground on the North Spit during the cold winter storm, 200 yards from shore. The crew of 25 and one passenger stayed on the vessel but the lumber broke loose, preventing other boats from reaching the Czarina. Shore crews tried to fire lifelines to the crew but the strategy didn’t work. The crewmen climbed the rigging but all eventually dropped into the ocean and died, except for one. He died a year later from injuries. Santa Clara The 1,588-ton wooden-hulled steam ship ran into a shoal near the entrance to Coos Bay on Nov. 15, 1915, breaking a hole in the hull and flooding the engine room. The vessel had 60 passengers and crew; most made it to shore in lifeboats but 16 died. Brush The 5,543-ton, 390-foot Brush, a steel steamer built by American International S. B. Corp. at Hog Island, Penn. in 1920, struck Simpson Reef on the morning of April 26, 1923. The captain, George S. Mitchell was 15 miles off course; Mitchell had turned over the wheel to his second mate, who had re-adjusted the course 10 degrees to the west. The Coast Guard rescued the crew and one passenger. The Brush broke up on the reef but people salvaged much of its cargo of lumber, some of which was used to rebuild the Simpsons’ Shore Acres fire-damaged house. Mitchell and the second mate had their licenses suspended. C.A. Smith The 275-foot, 1,878-ton C.A. Smith, built by Kruse and Banks in 1917, was carrying 1.5 million feet of lumber when it ran aground on the North Jetty at Coos Bay on Dec. 16, 1923. Of the 14-member crew, 10 were saved. The C.A. Smith was built in North Bend and wrecked near the North Jetty on Dec. 16, 1923. Marconi The Marconi, a 693-ton, four-masted schooner, was built by A. M. Simpson in North Bend and used for hauling lumber. While being towed out of Coos Bay on March 23, 1909, the line broke and the Marconi drifted to the South Spit where it eventually broke up in the surf. Fifield The 174-foot, 634-ton steam schooner Fifield, another Kruse and Banks-built ship, was hit by a southerly on Feb. 21, 1916, while trying to cross the Coquille River bar. The Fifield tried to follow another ship, the Brooklyn, over the bar the next day but its propeller hit the rocks and a wave pushed it sideways. The vessel eventually landed on the jetty, where the 22 crewmen and four passengers got off the ship. Local residents salvaged the cargo — lumber — as it drifted ashore. Oliver Olson Part of the 307-foot SS Oliver Olson, headed for Bandon to load lumber, will forever be a part of the Coquille River South Jetty. It went aground, damaging its propeller and rudder, on Nov. 3, 1953. Coast Guard crews and tugs tried to get the ship off the rocks but did not succeed. It was abandoned where it sat. Salvagers took most of the fittings and deck equipment in 1954, part of its hull was filled with rocks to form an extension of the jetty. Alaskan The Fifield flounders in the waves on Feb. 21, 1916. It wrecked as it tried to cross the Coquille River bar. One of the most notable maritime disasters on the southern Oregon Coast, the Alaskan was a steel, side-wheel passenger steamer that encountered stormy weather and began to break up near Cape Blanco on May 12, 1889. The 275-foot, 1,919-ton vessel was built for inland waterway service and spent most of its time on the Columbia River. However, its owners felt it seaworthy enough for a trip to San Francisco to be overhauled. A passing tugboat picked up some of the crew; others made it to the vessel’s lifeboats and survived to land near the Siuslaw River. One man was picked up by the British bark Kattie and was on the vessel when it arrived in Hong Kong weeks later. Only 16 of the 47 passengers and crew survived. Joan of Arc The wooden steam schooner Joan of Arc, a 2,360-ton, 245-foot-long vessel, built in 1918 in northern California, hit Rogue Reef on Nov. 16, 1920. Captain Hans Nickelsen was in charge of the vessel bound for San Pedro with a load of lumber. Currents and winds around Cape Blanco pushed Nickelsen and the Joan of Arc off course during heavy fog and seas. Once freed from the reef, the vessel began taking on water and a passing steamer arrived to help rescue the 30-member crew and passengers. The vessel drifted to the beach near Battle Rock where the gear and lumber were salvaged before the ship broke up in the surf. New Carissa The 600-foot bulk freighter went aground roughly one mile north of the jetty, on Feb. 4, 1999, while it was anchored and waiting to enter Coos Bay to load wood chips. Successive winter storms prevented the ship from being towed back to sea successfully and the hull eventually split into two parts. The bow, containing most of the oil, was towed out to sea and sunk. The stern remains mired in the sand on the North Spit. Crewmen were lifted off the freighter; none sustained injuries, according to the Coast Guard. •••••• All information taken and compiled from newspaper reports and three books: “Oregon Shipwrecks,” by Don Marshall, c. 1984 by Binford & Mort Publishing; “A Guide to Shipwreck Sites Along the Oregon Coast,” by Victor West with illustrations by R.E. Wells, c. 1984 by R.E. Wells and Victor C. West, North Bend; and “Shipwrecks and Rescues on the Northwest Coast,” by Bert and Margie Webber, c. 1996, Webb Research Group Publishers, Medford. Photos courtesy of the Coos County Historical Society
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