Ear: Brock

The Daily Astorian edition, dated Jan. 28, 1881, has an eye-catching headline: “Phantom Ship in Columbia River.”

The Westport’s captain, E. D. Brock, upon landing in Astoria, told of encountering a mysterious object on the river while on his way from Astoria to Westport.

Right at Pillar Rock, across the river just east of Altoona, Washington Territory, they spotted two lights around Woody Island, a little further east. The lights appeared to be onshore, but as they got closer to Brookfield, the lights were clearly on the river, not on land, after all. At that point, they assumed it must be the barkentine Webfoot.

When Brock’s ship stopped at Brookfield to unload cargo, the mysterious lights were near the Fisherton Cannery, just west of Skamakowa. Once they set sail again, they quickly gained on the lights. By the time they reached Skamokawa, they were about 200 feet apart, and side by side.

“I was about to blow the whistle,” Capt. Brock recalled, “when the lights disappeared, and nothing more could be seen. One was a bright light which appeared to be hung on the masthead; another was a red light appearing to be on the mizzen mast, and every few moments we could see a number of small lights lower down, as though they were on deck. The object, before its disappearance, was moving upriver against a strong northwesterly breeze.”

The newspaper noted that it could not have been the Webfoot, as it wasn’t in the vicinity, and “no other vessel was in that part of the river at the time. What it was is a conundrum, and could perhaps only be solved by the author of Flying Dutchman.” (Painting: Charles Temple Dix)