The Ship That Walked: The schooner North Bend

The 204 foot long four-masted schooner North Bend was built by Kruse and Banks shipyard of North Bend, Oregon, in 1921, the last commercial sailing ship built on America’s Pacific Coast, and the last to sail across the Columbia River bar to Astoria.  The ship was a successful venture but the tall ships were being replaced by the more cost-effective steamers.

On January 5, 1928, under the command of Captain Theodore Hansen, the ship was again being sailed across the dangerous waters of the Columbia Bar underway to Astoria.  This time the captain was taking the ship across the bar himself to avoid the high cost of hiring a bar pilot to guide the ship.  The changeable currents and channels known to the professional pilots who studied the river constantly took the captain and the North Bend into the outer shoal water of Peacock Spit where it drifted aground, high on the sand where it avoided being pounded to wreckage by the sea.

An Astoria based tug, the Arrow Number 3, and the Coast Guard cutter Snohomish came to the North Bend’s aid.  The tug got a line aboard the ship but it was soon parted.  Another line was put aboard but it too was broken due to the heavy seas and high wind, which also drove the ship further onto the sand.  The ship remained intact but was now too far in the sand to be pulled back out to sea.  The owners stripped all valuables from the ship and it remained stuck fast on Peacock Spit.

For an entire year the ship braved the elements while remaining effectively intact and undamaged.  What followed was a remarkable journey as the ship slowly cut a half-mile channel across the spit into Baker Bay during stormy weather.  The storms would wash the wet silty sand away from the hull and let the ship move ahead a few feet without human intervention.  In storm after storm the ship literally walked itself to safety and eventually back to work again on the sea.

On February 11, 1929, the ship was re-floated, a year and a month after going aground.  Sustaining only minor damage to the hull the ship was floated and towed to Astoria where the owners contemplated her future.  The era of sailing was over and refitting her out again as a schooner made no economic sense, so the North Bend was converted to haul lumber for the Arrow Tug and Barge Company of Astoria.  The last tall ship built on the Pacific Coast was now a lumber barge.

In September of 1940 the North Bend was loaded with lumber at Gardner and pulled out to sea by the tug Umqua.  It soon sprung a leak.  While being towed to Coos Bend for repair the barge ran aground on North Spit.  It was re-floated and made Coos Bay where the lumber was unloaded, but the damage to the vessel was too great to be repaired.  The North Bend was taken out to sea and left to the elements but washed ashore near Cape Arago Lighthouse.  Perhaps she just wanted to make one last walk?

After 20 years of service, the North Bend was burned and the metal in her salvaged from the ash.  So ended the schooner North Bend, the Ship That Walked.