1910 — Jan 12, Steamer Czarina, hit by large wave, grounds on Coos Bay Bar, OR –22-24

— 30 Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac 1911. “Casualties, 1910,” p. 551.
— 30 New York Times. “Events That Made the History of 1910…” Jan 1, 1911.
— 24 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 207.
— 24 Oakland Tribune (Editorial) CA. “Why is a Life-Saver?” Jan 22, 1910, p. 12.
— 24 U.S. Bureau of Navigation. Merchant Vessels of the United States…1910, p. 407.
— 23 Smith. A Place Called Oregon. The Sinking of the Czarina, Jan. 12, 1910 Coos Bay, OR
— 23 United States Life-Saving Service. 1910 Annual Report.
— 23 U.S. Steamboat-Inspection Service. Annual Report, 1910, p. 13.
— 22 Marshall, Don. Oregon Shipwrecks. Portland, OR: Binford & Mort Pubs., 1984, p. 44.

Narrative Information

Annual Report of the United States Life-Saving Service:

“Not in a quarter of a century has there occurred within the score of the service such an appalling marine casualty as the wreck of the steamer Czarina at the mouth of Coos Bay, Oregon, January 12, 1910.”

“The Czarina was a 1,045-ton vessel owned by the Southern Pacific Co., of San Francisco…. When the disaster chronicled here took place she was on her way from Marshfield, Oregon to San Francisco, with a cargo of coal, lumber, and cement. About 40,000 feet of lumber was stowed on her decks. She carried a crew of 23 men all told, and 1 passenger…

“It may be stated for the information of the reader that Coos Bay is a sinuous body of water approximately half a mile wide and something like a dozen miles long. Beginning at the ocean entrance, it runs easterly for three-fourths of a mile, turns in a northerly direction and keeps nearly parallel with the coast for several miles, then swerves to the eastward again for half that distance and doubles back toward the south for 3 or 4 miles. At its head lies the town of Marshfield. In outline the bay is not unlike a dipper, with the bottom of the bowl lying toward the north. The peninsula of sand that separates it from the ocean is called the North spit. On the inner or bay shore of the spit is situated the Coos Bay Life-Saving Station, 2 miles above the entrance. Near the point of the spit, and overlooking the entrance, the service observation tower and a house that shelters a boat and their equipment designed for the use of the life-saving crew in affording assistance to vessels that get into difficulty on the bar and in contiguous waters.

“The Czarina left port at 11.15 a. m. The trip down the long, narrow bay was uneventful until she made the last turn in the channel and headed straight for the ocean. Then she began to ship water. It was very rough outside. In fact, the condition of the sea was such as to deter the prudent mariner from risking a passage over the bar which the Czarina was about to attempt. Capt. W. A. Magee, master of the harbor tug Astoria, was watching the Czarina as she steamed down the bay, his vantage point being a tower in Empire City, 4 miles above the entrance. He testifies that when she had worked her length beyond the black buoy, where the channel turns towards the ocean, she seemed suddenly to lose headway, stop, and move backward; then there came a momentary lull in the sea, and she went ahead again. To use an expression of the witness, she “seesawed” back and forth for several minutes in the manner described, then swung her head well to the northward, as if she intended to try for a less difficult passage to starboard. Shortly, however, she swung around to the southwest and went unsteadily forward until she brought up on the South spit. Then she blew a distress signal.

“Up to the time of striking the South spit she had shipped 61 breakers by actual count. When she sounded a signal Capt. Magee left the tower, got up steam on his tug, and started down to the bar with the intention of going to her assistance, but by the time he reached the bar she had drifted across it and was working up along the beach northward. He did not therefore attempt to go out. He explains his failure to do so in the following words:

The bar was too rough for us to attempt to cross. After seeing the position of the Czarina I knew that nothing could be done from the outside. A steam schooner was off about three-fourths of a mile from the wreck, standing by.

“It would seem that the master of the Astoria expected that the steam schooner referred to by him would endeavor to assist the Czarina. This vessel, as shown by the evidence, did actually start in to the imperiled steamer, but put off again before getting near her. The schooner, it developed, was herself heavily loaded with lumber, and doubtless became apprehensive that the venture could not be undertaken without great danger to herself. It is also shown that on the following morning, while several of the Czarina’s crew were still in her rigging, another vessel, the steamer Nann Smith, also attempted to approach her from the outside, but abandoned the enterprise on account of the danger involved. Had the Astoria risked the bar and gotten safely offshore, she might, at any time before the Czarina foundered, have been able to drift a line down to that vessel. At least such was the opinion expressed by the survivor, First Asst. Engineer Kintzel.

“It is gathered from statements made by Kintzel that while the Czarina was being buffeted across the bar the boarding seas flooded her engine room and put out her fires, so that when she found herself in the quieter waters beyond she was entirely helpless. On the trip through the breakers the crew had been driven into the rigging, from which position they watched the seas play havoc with the deck load, carrying two of their lifeboats away and smashing another to pieces, thereby cutting off all chance of leaving ship even had an opportunity for launching a small craft presented itself. Once outside, where the water was less turbulent, the vessel rode easier, and the turmoil on deck abated to such an extent that the crew left the rigging and threw over the anchor, the captain hoping by such action to keep offshore until help could reach them.

“But the fulfillment of this hope was denied, and the act mentioned without doubt operated ultimately to bring about the destruction of the vessel and the great loss of life that accompanied it. The Czarina drifted northward, and was soon in the breakers. Realizing what was in store for the crew should the progress of the vessel be interfered with before she came near enough to the beach for the life-saving crew to put a line over her, the captain ordered the anchor chain cut. Some of the sailors attempted to carry out this command, using a hacksaw, but before they could accomplish the task the seas drove them back into the rigging.

“The anchor caught and brought the vessel up when she was still several hundred yards from the beach. Held thus, she had to take the full force of the ponderous breakers, and soon foundered, settling until her entire hull was submerged. The seas now completed the demolition of the deck load, sending it overboard to fill the breaker-swept space between ship and shore and menace the lives of both the sailors and those who would save them, and tossing it up against masts and rigging as if impatient to drive the hapless sailors from their refuge and complete the tragedy. As the rigging was sundered by the thrashing debris, the chilled and exhausted men dropped off singly and in groups to their death in the wreckage alongside. Kintzel was swept overboard about dark with the port rigging of the mainmast. Two or three of his shipmates went with him. He says he exchanged some words with them after finding himself in the water, but soon became separated from them in the gathering darkness. Kintzel was unable to tell much concerning the movements of any of the rest of the crew. His lack of information in this respect, however, is not surprising, as the situation on board was not conducive to accurate observation. He himself had on a life preserver. He was of the opinion that some of the others had them on also. For upward of two hours he was washed about in the furious surf, beaten by wreckage and smothered in the spume of the breakers. Once he was swept almost to the beach, but his strength was too far spent to fight the outward pull of the undertow, and he was carried back to the vessel again. There he managed to get hold of a heavy plank, to which he clung even after consciousness left him. His tenacity eventually saved him, for the plank was swept toward the beach, and a surfman wading out in the dangerous waters with a line tied to his waist discovered him and dragged him ashore….”

“The citizens of the locality…many of whom witnessed the work of the life-saving crew, did not regard Keeper Boice’s generalship as equal to the exigencies of the occasion. Their criticism of his management of the affair found expression in letters to the department from individuals, and in petitions from local commercial bodies the Marshfield Chamber of Commerce and the commissioners of the Port of Coos Bay charging him with failure to exert every effort to effect the rescue of those aboard the Czarina, alleging incapacity as a commanding officer, and asking for a thorough investigation of his conduct….

“The specifications relating to the Czarina, and that charging the keeper with failure to practice regularly with the surfboat are as follows:

• That the said keeper failed in accordance with regulations (sec. 241) to telephone adjacent stations for assistance.

• That said keeper, under regulations (sec. 245), failed to use an extraordinary charge of powder in shooting the Lyle gun, and desisted from said shooting entirely after two attempts.

• That said attempts with the Lyle gun were made at a time when, the tide was about three-quarters high, while at low water the gun could have been placed 100 yards nearer the wreck; but no attempt was made at low water.

• That said keeper, in accordance with regulations (sec. 252), failed to make an attempt to launch the surf boat.

• That said keeper made no attempt to bring the lifeboat to the scene of the wreck, although men were present who would have volunteered in so doing.

• That the keeper had failed for a long time before said wreck to cause his crew to drill in the surf; that is, to launch the surf boat from the beach into the surf.

• That at the time of said wreck the keeper permitted the wives of the crew to be on the beach in the presence of their husbands.

• That said keeper at the time of said wreck displayed no executive ability, and gave evidence to all present of being either incompetent to hold his position or too cowardly to perform his duties…. (U.S. Life-Saving Service. 1910 Annual Report)

Merchant Vessels: Twenty-four dead, no survivors. Listed as “stranded” (grounded) rather than foundered. U.S. Bureau of Navigation. Merchant Vessels of the United States…1910, p. 407.)

New York Times: “Jan 13. – Thirty lives lost in wreck of Southern Pacific steamer Czarina off Marshfield, Ore.” (New York Times. “Events That Made the History of 1910…” Jan 13, 1911.)

Smith: ”The Keeper of the Life Saving Station was charged with failure to fulfill his duties and professional unfitness. He would later resign his position.” (Smith. A Place Called Oregon. The Sinking of the Czarina, Jan. 12, 1910 Coos Bay, OR)

U.S. SIS: “On January 12, 1910, while the steamer Czarina was crossing out over the Coos Bay Bar, en route to San Francisco, Cal., with a cargo of coal, cement, and lumber, she was overwhelmed with heavy seas, and foundered. Twenty-three officers and crew and 1 passenger were lost, with but one survivor, the first assistant engineer of the steamer.” (U.S. SIS. Annual Report, 1910, 13)

Sources

Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. Boston: Mariners Press Inc., 1972.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac 1911. “Casualties, 1910,” p. 551. Partially digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=nMcWAAAAYAAJ

Marshall, Don. Oregon Shipwrecks. Portland, OR: Binford & Mort Publishing, 1984.

New York Times. “Events That Made the History of 1910…” Jan 1, 1911. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F70A10FC385517738DDDA80894D9405B818DF1D3

Oakland Tribune, CA. “Why is a Life-Saver? [Editorial]” Jan 22, 1910, p. 12. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=31211430

Smith, Gess. A Place Called Oregon. “The Sinking of the Czarina, Jan. 12, 1910 Coos Bay, OR.” Accessed 1-11-2009 at: http://gesswhoto.com/czarina.html

United States Bureau of Navigation, Department of Commerce and Labor. Forty-Second Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States…For the Year Ended June 30, 1910. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1910. Google preview accessed 7-14-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=jcDQrscv2roC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

United States Life-Saving Service. 1910 Annual Report. Accessed at: http://www.ocmuseum.org/shipwrecks/czarina.asp

United States Steamboat-Inspection Service. Annual Report of the Supervising Inspector General, Steamboat-Inspection Service to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1910. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1910. 391 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JlgpAAAAYAAJ