Waiting to enter the Columbia River Bar in early January 1853, the barkentine Vandalia was heading in from San Francisco, with Capt. Edward H. Beard, of Vancouver, Washington, as master. The vessel was last seen on Jan. 9 by the Grecian, whose captain reported that Vandalia was struggling a bit, but not in any obvious distress.

A week later, Vandalia was found hull up on what is now Benson Beach in Ilwaco, Washington. All hands were lost, but four bodies washed ashore, among them Capt. Beard and a 14-year-old boy.

Capt. Beard’s remains were found on the beach at a small cove north of the North Head Lighthouse that still bears his name, Beard’s Hollow, as a melancholy reminder.

Other crew members washed up in Dead Man’s Cove (or Hollow), near the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. Over the years, several unfortunate souls who were lost at sea have turned up there, hence the name.

“Exact particulars of the accident will never be known, as there were no survivors,” Lewis & Dryden’s Marine History of the Pacific Northwest reported of the Vandalia’s demise. “It is supposed that the bark … drifted into the breakers, where she sprang a leak and afterward foundered.”

Note: An interesting historical tidbit about this particular wreck is that a small Ilwaco, Washington, neighborhood is named Vandalia, after the lost ship. (Painting: Ivan Aivazovsky)