‘Beyond control of man’

The British ship Glenmorag met her fate in the Graveyard of the Pacific on March 19, 1896 (tinyurl.com/fluxglen). She got lost in the fog and ran aground on the Long Beach (Wash.) Peninsula north of Ocean Park. The ship is pictured, courtesy of FluxStories.com

Capt. Archibald Currie had no idea where they were, and feared coastal rocks, so he rather hastily gave the abandon ship order. Lifeboats were lowered, with a disastrous result, as a large wave lifted one of them, crashing it into the Glenmorag, crushing two crew members and seriously injuring four others, including William Begg. If only the captain had waited for the tide to turn, everyone could have just walked ashore.

Begg (pictured left, courtesy of FluxStories.com) was taken to the Taylor Hotel in Ocean Park to recover, which took several months. While there, he was nursed by the hotel owner’s daughter, Maude Taylor, whom he eventually married. He stayed on the peninsula — where he introduced the game of soccer and created the county’s first soccer league — for the rest of his life. Begg is pictured, left, with the Glenmorag’s figurehead.

A Naval Court of Inquiry found that despite the two deaths (deemed “beyond control of man”), “the conduct and the discipline of the officers and crew was in every respect correct,” and that the Glenmorag was “safe from damage,” should stay put so she could be salvaged in the summer (tinyurl.com/glenwreck).

Unlike William Begg, the Glenmorag did not find a happy ending. According to HistorySpinner.com, the owners tried unsuccessfully to refloat her several times, finally sending for a “famous wrecker,” Capt. Burns. He is reported to have spent $30,000 ($840,000 now) trying to save the ship before giving up and going home.

Since the amount of money already expended on her rescue could have been more wisely spent building a bigger, better ship, the Glenmorag was finally abandoned to sink in the sand.