Ear: Cairnsmore

The Daily Astorian, Sept. 29, 1883, featured a dispatch from Fort Stevens that the English iron bark Cairnsmore ran aground about 2 miles south of the Point Adams Lighthouse, in Hammond, after smoke from a fire Clark County, Washington Territory, plus a heavy fog, “made a haze almost impenetrable to the eye.”

Capt. Gibb noted it wasn’t just the pea soup visibility, but also the heavy swells that made it hopeless for him to get any sightings, and impossible to hear the warning bell buoy whistle. Although they burnt blue lights and had flares on the Cairsnmore, there was no one around to see them.

The ship ran aground just offshore, and heavy seas kept propelling the vessel further and further inland until it was grounded for good. When it began to list to port, the order was given to abandon ship.

All hands and the captain got into the ship’s boats, but no one onshore knew that the ship went aground for 15 hours. Fortunately, the boats were finally spotted by the Queen of the Purine, and the men were taken aboard. 

Martin Foard, of Astoria, quickly purchased the wreck and started salvaging “two full sets of sails, spars, rigging, etc.” and 29 barrels of cement (with more to come). To accomplish this, two tents were set up on the beach; one as headquarters and one for storage. At high tide, items to be salvaged were brought up to the ship’s deck. At low tide, the goods were thrown off the ship for retrieval.

It didn’t take long for the shipwreck to become a novelty. “The steamer Sam will leave for Skipanon at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning, returning at 2 p.m.,” the newspaper reported on Oct. 6, “giving passengers a chance to see the wreck of the Cairnsmore at low tide.” Over the years, however, the ship disappeared into the sand. (Painting: George Frederick Gregory)