3/18/2018 Shipwrecks On The Mendocino Coast | Anderson Valley Advertiser

Shipwrecks On The Mendocino Coast

by Katy Tahja, June 14, 2017

As a historian I’ve always been fascinated by shipwrecks, but not in the conventional manner. Yes,
there is drama in the ship crashing on the rocks and the exciting rescue of the crew and
passengers, but what I like to read about is what washed up on shore.

The story of the Mendocino Coast and its settlement starts with a shipwreck. The trade vessel
“Frolic,” loaded with merchandise destined for San Francisco during the Gold Rush, in the early
1850’s crashed on the rocks in a cove near where the Point Cabrillo Light Station now stands.
While the crew survived, and in a small boat made it to Bodega and on to San Francisco, they had
to tell the owners the ship went down.

Frolic (courtesy Kelley House Museum)

Salvage is the process of sending examiners to a wreck site to see if the ship’s contents are
retrievable and if the ship can be refloated or repaired. This salvage crew for the “Frolic” arrived to
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find Pomo natives wrapped in silks eating candied ginger on china plates. The ship and contents
were unsalvageable but the salvage crew saw timber growing to the shoreline and went back to San
Francisco suggesting someone ought to establish a sawmill up there as lumber was in high
demand. A sawmill back east was taken apart, the pieces sailed around South America, and
reassembled in what would become Mendocino City. Our modern history starts there, thanks to a
shipwreck.

In an interesting “pre-history” note archaeologist Thomas Layton was investigating a Pomo village
site west of Willits on Three Chop Ridge and found Chinese pottery shards. His curiosity about
how natives came to possess these lead him to author three books including “Voyage of the Frolic”
and “Treasures of the Celestial Kingdom” and an excellent video “Impact of the Frolic” that can be
seen at vids.kvie.org on the internet.

Settlers along the coastlines looked at shipwrecks as a gigantic “Free Box”. Once locals had done
the proper thing and rescued anyone still alive they made sure that anything that was useful had
vanished by the time the salvage crew showed up. Along the north coast settlers went to help at a
shipwreck with a horse and wagon. Lumber schooners in rough weather frequently lost their loads
of boards piled on the deck and the timbers floated on shore. Many a coastal ranch had a
construction boom after “free” wood floated up on a beach and was hauled off.

What turned up on the beach other than lumber? Often tons of stuff if it floated ashore. The sacks
of soggy U.S. Mail were returned to the postal service. Sacks of grain tainted by seawater could be
ground into animal feed. Wells Fargo Express packages might be sent on. The Ukiah Republican
Press newspaper in 1938 reported a wrecked steamer at the mouth of the Gualala River had
“enough coffee to last the residents of Mendocino County for some time to come…” as coffee in
two, four and 14 pound cans, 20 tons of it, that was salvaged and resold to general stores. Other
shipwrecks resulted in cases of hundreds of cans of condensed milk, or canned Monterey sardines,
washing ashore.

So say a coastal rancher has a shipwreck on his shoreline. What’s worth climbing down the bluff,
braving the surf, and trying to save? Masts, spars and rigging rope? Dishes, cutlery, glassware pots
and pans, wine and whiskey? How about the ship’s bell? Was it hauling canned goods in its cargo?
Could you use the deck planking? Fabric, toys, rugs, nail kegs? Look at the door knobs and ax
handles intended for a general store littering the shore! Did you know potatoes can float?

Some rough weather incidents were spectacular. In 1912 a ship was carrying a pedigreed stallion
worth $2,000 that Union Lumber Company had purchased for a stock farm east of Fort Bragg. It
succumbed to seasickness and was buried at sea. A cargo of Peruvian sheep washed off a ship’s
deck in 1920 but swam to shore and escaped into the hills.

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The worst shipwreck in north coast history happened up by Crescent City in 1865 was the “Brother
Jonathan.” Of 244 people on board only 19 survived and lost were two camels, a Newfoundland
dog and five million dollars (today’s value) in gold coins. It took treasure hunters 130 years to
retrieve the gold and the Point Saint George Lighthouse was built at the site of the wreck.

Two books that can give an interesting look at shipwrecks that I enjoyed were “Tractors, Trains &
Shipwrecks” by Donald R. Richardson and “Shipwrecks of the California Coast” by Michael D.
White. The first is set at Stewart’s Point and I found it on the Mendocino County Bookmobile. The
chapter “Wreck of the Steamer Klamath” recounts how every object of value, from the 4” thick red
velvet cushions from the ship’s lounge to the sinks in the staterooms, were retrieved. White’s book
looks at famous and infamous disasters and is available in independent bookstores.

In closing I’d like to imagine I’m a little kid on a coastal ranch a hundred years ago, watching the
clean up of a shipwreck. I’m coming home dragging a gunny sack of coconuts behind me and
asking my Mom “What are we going to do with these?”

Related

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One Response to Shipwrecks On The Mendocino Coast

Annette Reply

June 15, 2017 at 5:20 pm

When I was a child we stayed at Stinson Beach in the summer. In 1951 a hospital ship and tanker
crashed just outside the Golden Gate Bridge. Lots of tar and oil and other things washed up on the
beach. We found a wooden box of plasma in glass bottles. Our parents told us to take it to the
lifeguard station. It took us most of the morning to drag it down the beach. We were about 8 years
old and felt like real pirates. One of my best beach memories.

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