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Tall Ships Photo Gallery
From the Collection of Steve Priske
1/02/04 ~ ECS ~ With all these wonderful rediscovered old Tall Ships pictures heading our way has come the realization that we had better get a new Web page up in large page format to show them off to the maritime world, so here it is. This page will grow over the coming days.
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Hi Don, Looks great. So you know, the photo (above) of the ship wrecked with full sails is found around Oregon, not just in my (new) collection. However, the vast majority of the others submitted have not been seen anywhere. ~ Steve Priske.
Attached is one of my favorite non-ship photos of the Tall Ships of the Coos Bay. Over a 50-year period, from 1858, over 50 ships were lost on the rough bar entering Coos Bay. This treacherous sand bar is what prevented Magellan and Cook from entering Coos Bay when they explored this part of Oregon. But with the newly founded lumber business in 1858, ships would have to cross over this deadly harbor entrance. It was not until the 1830s that a dredge would make entering Coos Bay a safe practice.
This is the first lifesaving station built on the Southern Oregon coast. Established in 1878 by Captain Asa Meade Simpson at the entrance to Coos Bay Harbor, this one-man station saved three crews over a ten-year period, saving a total of 35 souls. Here's how it worked: From the top floor of the two story house the lifesaver could monitor ships entering the harbort entrance. When a ship looked to be in distress (most always in a winter storm) the lifesaver would race to the storage shed (right of photo) and ride a cable car to the promontory off Sunset Cliffs (Cape Argo). From here he would lose a long 300-foot-long dock, built onto sliding rails. The dock would slide down to the water (high or low tide) just past the entrance to the harbor, where stranded sailors could literally swim to their rescue.
By 1888, the entrance to the harbor was no safer, so multi-man stations were established. The large rock in the foreghround, from where the photographer took this amazing photo is where the Cape Arago Lighthouse resides.
The three-masted schooner Advent was launched in 1901 from the Simpson shipyard at North Bend, on Oregon's Coos Bay. She was a masterful 151 feet long and 431 gross tons. The Advent wrecked on the Coos Bay bar, coming to rest under Sunset Cliffs, the south spit, February 18th, 1913. The life saving crew rescued her seven-man crew before she broke up. Note; the tiller stem, not visable in a floating ship.
The rugged Oregon coast is dotted with now famous lighthouses. Here
we see the Coquille River lighthouse, with schooner Advance stranding
on the beach in front of the lighthouse, c. 1905. the Coquille river
is located just south of Coos Bay, and is every bit as dangerous to
enter.
Captain Asa Meade Simpson had Emil Heuckendorff of Coos
Bay, Oregon, build the four-masted Barkentine, Echo, for his
account. She was launched on Aug. 31, 1896 and sailed from Coos bay
for Australia via San Francisco with a cargo of 1,000,000 feet of lumber.
She was the last Barkentine in regular commercial service between San
Francisco and the South Pacific Islands. The Echo measured a
stately 183 feet in length and was 707 gross tons.
ECS ~ More photos to be posted soon!
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