Long-time PSMHS
member Joe Baar asks if anyone can offer insights as to the identity of an abandoned vessel in Puget Sound.
The
wreck in the photo is located approximately 800 yards north of Picnic Point, on
the east shore of the entrance to Possession Sound, almost due east of
Possession Point on Whidbey Island. (See the boxed icon on the right side of the NOAA chart above.) Just south of this site is an unnamed but inhabited point of land
projecting westward from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe right-of-way.
The
hull is of wood construction and I don’t believe it was a barge. It appears to
have been a twin-screw vessel, perhaps a freighter. Part of a shaft strut is
just visible above the water, below the red sign posted at the deck line on the
port quarter. The stern is round or elliptical in plan at the main deck. The
hull’s forward end incorporates quite a lot of steel, both along the sheer line
and in way of the hawse. I estimate the vessel’s length between 200 and 300
feet. The hull’s shape reminds me of something L.H. Coolidge or H.C. Hanson might
have designed for military resupply service to Alaska during World War II.
I
remember the vessel’s first appearance at this location during the early 1950s
when I used to travel to Wenatchee on the train that passes close to the east
of this site.
This
wreck and another submerged one are marked on nautical charts of this area;
Google satellite view shows at least five skeletal vessel remains on this
beach, and it appears the wreckers failed to burn only this one for the metal.
These
photos are dated August 20, 2010. Any help in identifying the vessel can be
noted in the comments section below, and is much appreciated!
-- Joe Baar
-- Joe Baar
Joe Baar has been
fascinated with ships since his childhood on Brace Point. His lifelong avocation
has included stints with the Sea Explorers, small-boat school courtesy of the
U.S. Army, working on yachts on Lake Union, and amassing a large collection of
maritime books.
To my knowledge, this vessel is the former "Pacific Queen," a 183-ft vessel built by Colberg Boat Works of Stockton, CA during World War II for the US Navy as the salvage vessel USS Anchor (ARS 13). Following the war it was sold to civilian owners, renamed and rebuilt in 1949 by Puget Sound Boat Building of Tacoma as a refrigerated cargo vessel. After making several trips to and from Alaska in the 1950's, she was tied up at a pier on Commencement Bay on September 17, 1957 when an explosion, likely triggered by gasoline stored on board, sank the vessel. Later salvaged, it was taken to the scrapyard at Pacific Point, but apparently they never got around to completely scrapping the hull.
ReplyDeleteImages of the vessel in her Navy days can be found here: http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/37/3713.htm
An image of the vessel as rebuilt can also be found here: http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/dt6n.asp?un=1&pg=1&krequest=subjects+contains+Puget+Sound+Boat+Building+Corp%2E+and+Tacoma+&stemming=&phonic=&fuzzy=&maxfiles=
Kind Regards,
Kyle Stubbs
Are the houses on the beach abandoned?
ReplyDeleteNo, it was recently for sale. A native American couple had originally owned the property. They ran a salvage business with multiple beached ships on the shore.
ReplyDelete