Ear: Flavel

The wreck of the steamer General Warren, on Jan. 31, 1852, was an avoidable tragedy. Unknown to Astoria bar pilot Capt. George Flavel, the vessel was unseaworthy.

As told by Mrs. George Flavel, in 1922, the General Warren, captained by George Thompson, crossed out over the Columbia River Bar on Jan. 29 with Flavel aboard as bar pilot. After Flavel left the steamer, a gale blew up.

At midnight, a mast blew away, the ship sprang a leak, and the wheat cargo kept clogging the pumps. Thompson decided to return to Astoria and waited outside the bar. The next morning, in heavy weather and seas, he spotted a pilot boat. He asked Flavel to come aboard and help him back across the bar.

“We have 3 feet of water in the hold,” Thompson told him. “We won’t live till morning unless we get into the Columbia. You will have to take us in.” The bar pilot advised the frantic captain to wait until morning. “It is suicide to make the attempt,” he warned.

The captain was insistent, and some passengers called Flavel a coward. Reluctantly, he took them across the bar at 5 p.m., near dark, in blinding snow. The rudder became partially disabled, the pumps were failing and all but one of the small lifeboats had been swept off the deck.

In desperation, Flavel beached the vessel on Clatsop Spit before it sank; on impact, it started breaking apart. Thompson pleaded with Flavel to go to Astoria for help, despite the breakers and snow. He agreed to try, and took the small boat, along with some of the ship’s officers and passengers. “If I live, I will return,” Flavel reassured the captain.

After an arduous, dangerous trip to Astoria, they secured a boat and headed back to the General Warren. Nothing remained but a few bits of wreckage.

Forty-five bodies washed up near Seaside, and were buried on Clatsop Beach. Capt. Flavel received a medal of honor for his efforts to save them. (Painting: Andreas Achenbach)