SEA DISASTER

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 19637, 19 February 1936, Page 4

SEA DISASTER

U.S. FREIGHTER LOST THIRTY-FOUR MEN PERISH. "THE PACIFIC GRAVEYARD." One of the most heart-rending calamities of the sea occurred when 34 men—the entire crew of the freighter lowa of the States Steamship Company—perished when a gale of 90-mile velocity drove the craft ashore at the mouth of the Columbia River and then smashed her with mountainous waves, a few hundred miles north of San Francisco. Coastguardsmen found her clutched fast in her sandy trap, with her back broken. After a- day of vain labour they declared: "It would have been impossible for any of her men to come through that surf alive." Three other ships suffered damage and lost parts of cargoes in the same locality as the fiercest storm of years hurled itself against the 200-mile stretch of coast from Coos Bay north. A fourth, California bound from Everett, Washington, ran into Astoria with a hole in her side, and her holds full of water. She narrowly missed the calamity which overtook the lowa on the treacherous spit which has wrecked more than 90 vessels, and is known as "The Pacific Graveyard." The hurricane seized the 415 ft. lowa early on the Sunday morning shortly after she left Astoria for San Francisco. It drove her upon Peacock Spit and began pounding her. It wrecked her radio equipment at once, and no word came from her after the first desperate 5.0.5., which pleaded "Need help, quick." The Coastguard cutter Onondaga raced Co her aid, but the fury of the storm nullified all rescue attempts. The cutter herself lost part of her rigging and had a lifeboat crushed as she futilely sought to send a breeches-buoy line aboard the foundering freighter. Three motor-driven lifeboats were unable to approach within a mile of the stranded ship. For hours it was believed that their crews had drowned, but they eventually turned up safely. Meanwhile the battered Onondaga withdrew to safety in hopes that the boiling seas would moderate. While she waited, evidence that the lowa was breaking up, and that her crew was doomed, washed up on the beach.

Six Bodies Found.

Six broken bodies had been cast up later, and others were seen bobbing outside the howling surf by hundreds of men and women who combed the beach for lumber, tinned goods, flour and other salvage cast up from the wreck. Commander Patch, of the Onondaga, reported: "The wrecked ship was well on the sands of the spit. We first obtained a good view at 10 a.m. It was apparent that there were no survivors aboard. A few minutes later the stack and the bridge went over the side. When we tried to approach to shoot a line aboard, heavy seas smashed over us. When we turned back only the foremast of the lowa was visible."

The lowa was of 5724 tonnage, and was built by the Western Pipe and Steel Company of San Francisco in 1920, and was then christened the West Cardon.

Coastguard lifeboats from Point Adams and Cape Disappointment fought their way through pounding seas to the side of the stricken freighter lowa, returning after more than 13 hours at the scene. They did not leave the scene until absolutely certain there was no sight of life on the wreck.

"There was no sign of life aboard at that time," one of the officers of the Coastguard said. "Only the masts and a small part of the bow were showing above the mountainous seas that swept Peacock Spit. After vainly trying to get a line aboard we circled the area seeking survivors among the wreckage that was being washed to the north shore." . They found no survivors, but one of the boats from Point Adams picked up one of the drowned men, and the boat from Cape Disappointment found two other victims. All three of the small boats took terrific batterings from the seas, and many of the 17 coast(Continued foot of previous column)