In the afternoon, after we had seen the Battery Point Lighthouse, we walked the beach. Here we came upon the Brother Jonathan Memorial. Beautiful memorial, terrible tragedy.
The Brother Jonathan sunk off the coast of Crescent City in 1865, the worst wreck on the Pacific Coast until then. The ship had a long career and had been completely redone when it began this final voyage. It had made a fortune for its owners and business was good. The ship was always loaded to maximum capacity and, when Captain DeWolf looked at the boat, already low in the water without the ticketed passengers, he told the company’s agent that it was too dangerous to sail her. The agent told him that if he didn’t sail her, they would find someone else who would. Then - the agent ordered 2-ton ore crusher placed on board.
When the ship was ready to go, the passengers aboard, the steam was raised, the lines were cast off and - the Jonathan sat there, not moving an inch. Stuck in the mud since she was so heavy. When the tide came in, they cast off again and made it out under the Golden Gate with 54 crew members, 190 passengers, a 2-ton ore crusher and lots of other cargo. Right into a heavy storm with a strong headwind and heavy seas.
After a stop in Crescent City, the Jonathan again tried to move against the storm but it was no go and Captain De Wolf decided to return to Crescent City. But, as they were heading shoreward, a huge wave lifted the ship up and deposited her on a small stone island. Another wave crushed her and DeWolf ordered the passengers off the boat.
One of the crewmembers, Jacob Yates, described the events: ‘she struck the unknown sunken rock, and with such a force that it felled the passengers who were standing on the deck...she then gave another tremendous thump on the rock, when part of the keel came up alongside. Captain DeWolf...ordered everybody to look out for themselves.’
There were 2 attempts to get passengers into a lifeboat but each failed as the seas forced the lifeboats back to the floundering ship. Finally one boat with women and children and several crew members made it away and back to Crescent City. Rescue boats tried to get out to the Jonathan but failed for two days and, by this time the ship had sunk, the passengers had drowned and bodies and wreckage washed up on shore for several days. Most of the passengers were never recovered. Of the 244 on board, only 19 made it back alive.
Now I said that the ship was heavily laden and lots of it was gold. There were crates of gold coins, Wells Fargo had shipments of gold on it and passengers carried gold and lots of valuable jewelry. The gold alone was valued at $50,000,000. Has it all be found? Nope, not after lots of people have tried. The ship was finally found but not the safe, not the crates, and most of the gold has never been recovered. That which was recovered became the basis for many lawsuits over who really owned the gold: California since most of it had come from there, Oregon because it had sunk there, or those who recovered it.
Crescent City built a memorial to those who died, laws were changed to require that life boats should be able to be lowered from a ship and finally a new lighthouse was built on St George, 6 miles out to sea, where the Jonathan floundered. Mariners and lighthouse keepers called it the Dragon Rock since it was the most dangerous duty in the lighthouse service.
To get ashore, on to the rock, a large boom on the island lowered, grabbed the boat with keepers and supplies and lifted the whole boat up. It was difficult and many boats tipped, losing all aboard, 4 keepers died and many more were injured while trying to transfer crews on and off the rock.
After stopping at the memorial and reading the plaque, we continued our walk.
One of the most dominant features of the coastline here is the seastacks, caused when a large block of resistant rock is surrounded by a less resistant rock. The waves can erode the less resistant rock and what is left is a sea stack. Here is a great example of this formation off the coast of Crescent City. Oregon is known for these and we expect to see lots as we travel along the coast.
The flowers along the cliff walk were beautiful.
Back in town, there is a huge seaside park, designed to slow down any future tsunamis. In this park is a memorial to those merchant mariners who died in 1941 when a Japanese sub sank their ship, the SS Emidio. It was the first casualty of the Japanese navy’s action off the California coast. The ship was attacked some 200 miles north of San Francisco and 5 crewmembers were killed. The ship was abandoned, drifted and sank off the shore of Crescent City where it lay until it was salvaged in 1950. This is the bow plate of the ship.
Interesting history in Crescent City, much more than we had expected. And, I haven’t even mentioned the tsunami in 1964 which wiped out the business portion of town. Another terrible tragedy which happened in Crescent City.
Our campground in Crescent City was nestled in a huge grove of redwoods north of town. Since we’ve just come up from the desert Southwest, this is a new experience for us. Trees, leaves, wow. And, this was just a taste of the redwoods we would hike in tomorrow. Our RV here looks like it has a wicked smile but Gary has just opened the hood to check the windshield washer fluid.
We’re traveling in what is called shoulder season which is nice since we don’t have to fight the crowds. We are often the only ones on the trails in the parks and can enjoy the quiet of nature. We can hear the birds sing, we can hear the squirrles chatter and hear such subtle sounds as a leaf falling though the canopy. We can also be the only ones a campground and can get the best spot.
We can also find that there are no lines at restaurants. And - the best part - the summer pricing has not started yet. And here’s another great advantage - we are the only ones on the wi-fi (we’re right next to the wi-fi in th ecampground above.) We don’t have to struggle in the evenings to get on line. Yes, we do have our own Verizon jetpack but we try to save our time on that and use the camp’s wi-fi
However, there can be problems. Sometimes the campgrounds and the restaurants have not opened up for the season. We wanted to take the harbor cruise in Eureka, CA - nope, not until May. We wanted to take Jerry’s Rogue Boat tours up the Rogue River - nope, not until May. The ice cream store is closed in Ferndale, CA. The Gold Beach, OR zip line is not open yet (well, maybe that is not a serious drawback). So, we take the good with the bad and enjoy what we can. We’re thinkin’ there’s lots more good than bad.
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