[Milsurplus] ( OT ) Wreck of the Mary B

[Hubert Miller]

Quite off-topic, but I don't think I'm squeezing out other military radio topics, or depleting bandwidth.
I think it's maybe just that this is such an unusual event in my awareness that I had to share it.

Tues. Jan. 8 I had my scanner on, of course, but I was not feeling well, with a cold, and was doing other things, and only half-listening.
When some words finally caught my attention, it was about someone being transferred to an ambulance at Nye Beach, and that the
person had been in the water 1 hour 20, and CPR was being done. "This is not going to end well", I thought. Another person had been
found on the beach north of the Newport jetty - this is on the route I regularly walk on my hikes.
Friday nite, after finally getting out of the house and getting some things done, I decided I really needed some exercise, so I started out.
It was nearing sunset, but I could still see enough to find my way down the path to the beach. As I walked south to the north jetty,
where I would turn around and head back north, I saw this dark hulk on the beach. I thought at first it was maybe a large tree tossed up
by the storm. No - it was the wheelhouse of the Mary B.
Mary B had been maneuvering toward crossing the bar into the river and Newport Bay. Out for the crab season, and apparently one of
the last ones trying to come back in to avoid a storm at sea. I wish I had heard the action on the radio - but what happened was, there
were two U.S.C.G. motor lifeboats on duty there, to guide the F.V. into the channel. The C.G. vessels were throwing flares to illuminate
the area so the Mary B could see. I read that waves were running to 10 - 12 foot at times. Incredible.  The channel between the north
and south jetties, I don't know how to convey the width, it's enough for two  fishing vessels to pass comfortably, or one large NOAA vessel
and one fishing vessel being very careful. In good weather it's a piece of cake, but in rough weather, it can be dangerous. The Mary B was
too far north and had just turned starboard to hit the mouth of the channel when a monster wave of 16 foot hit the F.V. and upended it.
The newspaper said it was a "plank built" wooden ship and those break up easier. The Mary B was 42 foot with 3 crew and no one made it.
One body was recovered next day from this wheelhouse. There was someone else down there that time of night looking and he told me no
one would remove the wheelhouse wreck from the beach, it was too sandbagged with sand and would take too much work. I don't  think
it will stay. This isn't some scenic skeletal ruin of  historic sailing ship, like somewhere else on the Oregon coast.  Maybe some park service
will break it up and remove.
I went inside. The sand surface was already up to near the top of the wheel. It was dark, and the tide was coming in, but I went in,
keeping a careful check through the windows to watch for waves, gauging how far up the beach they were coming - no danger, but i
didn't want to get wet. The radar was still in place, and the GPS; but the radar antenna and VHF antenna were gone. There was another
guy there who was trying to load up some of the rope next to the wreck - there were hundreds of feet of near-new condition rope -
stuff which would just become garbage anyway.
The other photo is of the 'Fishermen's Memorial Chapel' on the bluffs above the beach, at a public park. With all the votive candles
and photos of the crewmen, very sad. The Newport bayfront has a sidewalk where every concrete panel has the names and dates of
people perished at sea hereabouts. In the old days, of course, it was frequent that there was no recovery, crew just disappeared.
A couple years back the Coast Guard, as a cost-saving measure, announced their intention to remove the helicopter stationed here.
There was such an outcry over this that the Coast Guard "postponed" this decision and the chopper unit so far, stays. The chopper
crew is instrumental here every year in saving several lives.  Our women and men of the Coast Guard are truly  appreciated here.
The fishing industry itself, now that occupation has merciless, challenging variables, from the unpredictable dates and lengths of the
fishing seasons permitted, the variable prices netted, and of course, the often brutal weather.
-Hue


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