This item in the Sept. 4, 1897 issue of The Daily Astorian sent the Ear on a history chase: “The U.S. lighthouse tender Manzanita will be launched from the Smith’s Point ship yards between 4 and 5 o’clock this afternoon. As this is the first large ship building contract ever taken in Astoria it is anticipated that every body in town will be there.”

But the Ear could not find a Mazanita, built in 1897, in Astoria. The only lighthouse tender named Manzanita of that vintage was a wooden-hulled, steam powered ship built in New York in 1880 (http://tinyurl.com/manzan2). Sad to say, she was off to an inauspicious start.

In 1881, lighthouse inspector Charles McDougal made an inspection trip up the California coast on the vessel. As they neared Cape Mendocino, he strapped on a money belt holding the lighthouse keeper’s pay in gold coins. Heading ashore, the launch capsized in the breakers, and he and two members of the tender’s crew drowned.

Some felt the deaths cast a pall over the Manzanita, which was only the second lighthouse tender to serve in the Pacific. She transferred to the 13th District (which includes Astoria) in 1886, and the historical references say that she was rebuilt in 1887, but do not mention specifically where.

On Oct. 6, 1905, a dredge ran into the tender on the Willamette River. She sank, but wasn’t done yet. A month later she was raised, and towed to Tongue Point. Decommissioned, she was unceremoniously sold to a tug company, and eventually replaced with a new lighthouse tender, also named Manzanita (pictured), built in 1908 in San Francisco.

Around 1912, the original Manzanita was rebuilt again, this time to be used commercially, and served until the 1940s. In 1944, she met a sad end, and was burned for scrap metal.

Back to the original 1897 Daily Astorian story: The Ear suspects that it is not referring to a new vessel being launched at all, but to the launch of the rebuilt 1880 Manzanita. If so, the historical accounts putting the date of the rebuild at 1887 are wrong by 10 years. And, if it weren’t for The Daily Astorian snippet, no one would be the wiser. Mystery unraveled … hopefully.

— Elleda Wilson