1

The ADVENTURES of CAPT. GEO. FLAVEL

No. 17

The WRECK and PERIL of the GENERAL WARREN

by Fred Lockley

Untitled, by Cleveland Rockwell Image Courtesy, Clatsop County Historical Society

The image above shows a steam-tug towing a three-masted bark out through the mouth of the Columbia river, the channel marker visible in the “fore-water”. The shoreline to the left of the picture is the Washington State river shore, while the snow-covered dome of volcanic Mt. St. Helens can be seen on the far horizon.

ONE SHARP MACHINIST, Capt. James M. Gilman, was born in New Hampshire in 1826. He was a bright young man living in Boston, Mass., as a machinist apprentice, making $14/mo. –- not per hour -- when news of the gold strike in the Sacramento River valley reached the East coast, late in the autumn of 1848. With 100 others, each of whom subscribed $300 to the enterprise, he co-ventured on the purchase of a sailing ship, the Leonora, which the company equipped and provisioned with food for up to a year’s voyage to San Francisco. They started from Boston February 5, 1849, and reached the Golden Gate on the 4th of July. These sagacious young businessmen had also brought with them from Boston, a steamer, which had been stowed “in the knock-down” -- or, that is, shipped disassembled in crates. On reaching San Francisco, Mr. Gilmore, the machinist, helped to put this little steamer together, and it was soon making the run from San Francisco to the Sacramento river.

As opportunities developed into adventures, the party of 100 entrepreneurs, dissolved into perhaps 100 different destinies, most of them beginning among the mines of the Sacramento, or the Yuba, or the Feather, or the American rivers. Eventually some returned to the east, having made their fortunes, or lost them; some stayed in California. Some went north to Oregon. Gilman worked in the mines, but being handy, also worked as assistant engineer on the steamer San Joaquin plying the Sacramento river. With his earnings, he eventually bought his own small boat, which he employed like the San Joaquin, for towing small barges up the Sacramento River, and the neighboring river systems.

2

Abernethy & Clark was a mercantile shipping firm, with its headquarters in Oregon City on the Willamette River, and with a wharf and a storefront office in San Francisco, on the waterfront. The firm had its origins in the mercantile shipping expertise of Oregon’s first and only Provisional Governor, George C. Abernethy, who during his tenure as governor was a principal in the shipping concern known as the Brig Henry Association.1 With the advent of Oregon’s territorial status, Gen. Joseph Lane was appointed first Territorial Governor, and Abernethy resigned his gubernatorial office in 1849, continuing his shipping business as Geo. Abernethy & Co. One of his noteworthy vessels was the ill-fated bark Desdemona, which ran the coasting trade throughout the 1850’s, until it ran aground on shoals of the Columbia River estuary, in December, 1856 –– leaving behind only its name… on the Desdemona Sands:

Handbill advertising cargo from the Desdemona. From, S. R. Winch, Photostatic Copies of Historic Oregon Documents. Image Courtesy Reed College Archives 1 See Abernethy Papers, OHS MSs 929.

3

Abernethy entered into a business partnership with William Clark, forming the concern Abernethy Clark & Co., which regularly transported lumber and agricultural goods from Oregon, to the Bay area, and returned with items – usually manufactures from the East coast – for sale in the Willamette valley.

Gifford, Private Signals of the Merchants of New York and San Francisco (1852?) Image Courtesy: The Bancroft Library

The image above shows the Abernethy Clark & Co. mercantile shipping colors – their private signal -- as among those of the firms prominently engaged in shipping in San Francisco. The inset illustration depicts a pier in San Francisco, with the bay and Yerba Buena Island in the distance.

On the roster, the General Warren was an impressive wooden schooner-rigged screw steamer: she had 1 deck, 2 masts, a square stern, and billethead; she drew 309 13/95 tons, and was 148 ft x 23 ft. 6 in. x 9 ft. 4 in.; boasting 2 high-pressure coal-fired engines, with diameter of cylinders 1 ft. 6 in., length of stroke 2 ft., driving two sidewheels. She had been built at Portland, Maine, in 1844, and was in New York in 1850, but was sent to the Pacific coast, arriving at San Francisco on July 20, 1851, thirty-one days from Panama. She entered the coastwise service north of San Francisco.2

From a captains-eye view, the General Warren was a tub – a virtual hulk -- owned by Abernethy & Clark, she was dramatically degraded for a vessel listed as only 8 years old. She was, indeed, a schooner-rigged side-wheel steamer, double-masted, and of 309 tons, if you were reckless enough to take her out, loaded to capacity. She had been built in Portland, Maine, but already by 1850 was sent from New York, to work the “coasting trade” in the Pacific -- “one of a number of rotten old tubs that had come around from the east during the gold excitement in California.” Many of these were abandoned by their crews, in San Francisco Bay, in the rush to the gold fields. The General Warren had arrived on July 20, 1850, been purchased by agents of Abernethy & Clark, and began running between San Francisco and Astoria. “She should have been condemned long before she brought her passengers and crew to such an untimely end.” 3

2 Citation: [Posted online to the Emigration-Ships Mailing List, by Ted Finch] 3 McCurdy, “Ocean Tragedies of the Northwest Coast,” Overland Monthly, October, 1909, p. 295.

4

James McCord was a purchasing agent of the firm of Abernethy Clark & Co., and had gone to San Francisco from Oregon City and bought the steamer Redding to take north. McCord hired Capt. Gilman to bring the Redding from San Francisco to Astoria, where it was to be docked: Abernethy Clark & Co. planned to use the steamer to tow sailing vessels from Astoria to Oregon City, and back downriver.

Upon reaching Astoria with the Redding, Capt. Gilman intended to return to San Francisco on another A & C vessel, the schooner-rigged side-wheel steamer General Warren. The General Warren, Capt. Thompson, had arrived from San Francisco with a crew of 16 men, no boys, making the trip in a lightning 6 days; inbound, it cleared the Astoria Custom House, John Adair, Collector, on January 11, 1852, with a required donation to the Marine Hospital. From there she had proceeded – presumably under steam tug -- to Portland, and been loaded with a cargo, including Tualatin valley wheat. But now, when Capt. Gilman saw her at dockside, ready for the return trip to San Francisco, about two weeks later, he decided not to book his passage on the General Warren: to his experienced judgment, the vessel was considerably overloaded. Nevertheless, according to the Astoria Custom House records, the General Warren, Capt. Thompson, bound for San Francisco, was cleared on January 28th, 1852, the $1.30 fine being collected by John Adair, Collector of Customs for the District of Oregon.4 The General Warren crossed the bar of the Columbia river early on the afternoon of January 28th, being taken out by pilot Captain George Flavel, who returned in a small boat as soon as she crossed the bar.

Capt. George Flavel was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He had been in command of the Goliah running between Sacramento and Portland, Oregon. In 1851 he was granted a branch pilot license by the Columbia River Bar Pilots Commission. He bought the schooner California in San Francisco and brought her to the Columbia River, and put her on the bar as a pilot boat, in opposition to the Mary Taylor, which was captained by J.G. Hustler. In due time, he secured full control of the bar pilotage and in 1852, when Hustler received his pilotage license, he went to work for Capt. Flavel.

Capt. Flavel became a leading citizen of Astoria, and many aspects of his history are well known – although the story of his service during the Rogue River Indian Wars of 1855-56, is yet to be fully told. The image below shows a steam-tug towing a full-rigged sailing vessel: one unlike the General Warren, which was a schooner in its rigging, but was augmented with steam boilers and side-wheels

Unlike this vessel, which is being towed out across the bar, Capt. Flavel in acting as pilot for the General Warren, actually took the helm, and commanded the vessel out through the channel of the Columbia; and after completing the pilotage, boarded a small boat which was rowed back to Astoria. The General Warren crossed the bar and made sail for San Francisco. 4 Astoria Custom House Records, MF Reel 4, F210 48, 71-72; Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

5

THE WRECK and PERIL of the GENERAL WARREN. However, as was and is common in the winter off the Oregon coast, there was a stiff wind from the south -- a “Pineapple Express”, or, now, a La Nina -- which became a headwind as the General Warren headed down the coast for bound for San Francisco.

By midnight, the foretopmast was carried away by this wind, and Capt. Thompson decided to put back to Astoria. But now the horrible truth was manifest to all: the General Warren indeed had a cargo of wheat from the Oregon farmlands, loaded at Portland and bound for the San Francisco markets. But it was loose wheat, not bagged, and with it the vessel was badly overloaded – just as Capt. Gilman had observed from the dock in Astoria, when he declined to book passage. Now, two weeks after loading, the loose wheat not only absorbing the water leaking through the old vessel’s hull, but in the storm-tossed sea, it flowed like the water itself, and choked the pumps -- so that the vessel made water fast.

Upon the General Warren’s return to the bar, a canon was urgently fired to signal for a pilot, and Capt. Flavel, the pilot, once more came aboard. But by now as it was nearly 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and the weather was bad, and as the ebb tide was running, Flavel advised Capt. Thompson not to attempt to cross the bar. The passengers, who were anxious – to say the least – to get on land, sent a committee to Capt. Flavel, asking him to take the ship in. When he explained the danger, one of the committee said: “We didn’t know that cowards could serve as pilots.” To which Capt. Flavel responded, “If you must insist on going I will try to take you in, but will not be responsible for what happens.”

Again at the helm of the General Warren, Flavel crossed in over the bar at 5 o’clock, the bar under darkness of the gathering storm; but the General Warren had by now become so water-logged that she ran low in the water and was unmanageable: she could not make her way against the strong ebb tide. Capt. Flavel ordered Capt. Thompson to anchor in the channel; and Capt. Thompson – only now -- told Capt. Flavel, that the steamer was so old and “tender” that she couldn’t live in such a sea, and that, he felt, that it was best to beach her immediately. Capt. Flavel headed the vessel for Clatsop Spit and beached her at about 7 o’clock. The story eventually made the papers nationwide, and the New York Times presented this side of the crisis:

A statement published by the survivors sets forth …, she put back for Astoria, crossed the bar in safety, but subsequently struck, in consequence of the engineers not being in their stations when an order to back the vessel was given, in order to avoid the breakers which were discovered in the uncertain darkness of the storm. Soon after striking, the vessel sheered off into ten fathoms water, but was found to leak so badly that it was reported she could not live half an hour, and she was beached accordingly on Clatsop spit, at about 7 o'clock in the evening.5

By now, a total darkness had fallen upon the mouth of the Columbia, the waters raging against the fragile construction of Abernethy Clark & Co.’s miserable ship. The New York Times reported;

Immediately upon her grounding, all hands, both passengers and crew, commenced heaving overboard the deck load, for the purpose of easing her. The surf broke over her with such violence that the main saloon was stove, and was first being detached from the hull. The starboard quarter boat was washed from the davits; the larboard boat -- the only means by which the lives of so few were saved -- was, by the extreme exertions and activity of Capt. Thompson, preserved. With the utmost difficulty he conveyed it forward and had it secured. At about nine o'clock, all that portion of the vessel abaft the foremast was carried away, the sea making a clean breach over the remainder. Up to this time no lives had been lost, the entire ship's company and passengers having mustered on the forecastle and in the fore rigging, trusting that that [sic] the wreck would hold together until daylight, when assistance might be procured from the shore. The sea was increasing in violence, and finding that the wreck was rapidly going to pieces.

As the paper stated, by 9 o’clock everything abaft the foremast was carried away. The Oregon Spectator reported that Capts. Flavel and Thompson decided to send to Astoria for help, “And one of the boats, in an attempt to launch it, was dashed to pieces …”6 The second boat was readied for the rescue mission. Only the strongest could man the boat against the ebb tide and the churning sea; only the bravest would volunteer.

The New York Times account again stated: 5 New York Times, March 16, 1852; Off Astoria, OR Steamer General Warren Disaster, Jan 1852. 6 Oregon Spectator, Febraury 10, 1852, p. 2;2.

6

In the selection of the boat's crew for this perilous expedition, Captain Thompson was cautious to choose men in whose return he could implicitly rely. As there was a strong ebb tide, the boat was doubly manned, in order to expedite her movements and assist in passing the breakers, which there was little hope of their ever crossing in safety. This last measure was resorted to by the Captain, knowing that it would be the only chance of saving the lives of those left on board. The passengers and crew who were not selected for the boat service made no effort to crowd into the boat, preferring the chance of being saved, by remaining upon the wreck, to the peril of passing the breakers in the boat. There was no excitement, no confusion; all that was accomplished was done in the most systematic and orderly manner.

Capt. Flavel volunteered to take charge of the small boat – though it looked as is the boat could not live in the heavy sea. The Times later reported,

The boat encountered great difficulty in passing the breakers, having shipped a sea, from which she incurred great danger of being swamped. The weather still being very thick, she was compelled to run entirely by the roar of the breakers. After about an hour's labor, the heights of Chinook (called Scarborough's claim,) were discovered. The pilot, upon finding his exact position, steered for Astoria where he fell in with the brig Francisco, lying at anchor off Tansy Point. Upon inquiry of the captain of the brig if he had a boat which could prove of assistance to the wreck, he was informed that the only boat belonging to the vessel was too small to live in the breakers. The pilot then proceeded with his crew to Astoria …

Finally making port in Astoria, in the early hours of the morning, Capt. Flavel appealed to Capt. Beard of the bark George and Martha, to send a large whale boat to rescue the passengers aboard the General Warren. Capt. Beard sent his first officer and an able crew – by now it was about 5:00 A.M.7 -- but when they reached the spit, the General Warren was no longer in sight: it had broken up and drifted away. Wreckage was flotsam on the waters.

Untitled, by Clevland Rockwell Image Courtesy, Clatsop County Historical Society

This image again looks east over the mouth of the Columbia, from a more southerly point, bringing the dome of Mt. St. Helens into alignment over the bluff of Tongue Point -- a few miles upriver from Astoria, on the Oregon side of the river.

Capt. Chas. Thompson, Purser Johnson and engineer O’Neil as well as a number of the seamen, stewards and cooks, were drowned. A large number of the passengers were drowned. Among those who were saved, were Capt. Flavel, the bar pilot, who was in charge of the small boat, and the following volunteers, who had gone with him to what looked like certain death: Edward Beverly, first officer; William Irons, second officer; James Murray and Isaac Sparrow, seamen; and J.G. Wall, E.L. Finch, Henry Marsh, Mathew and James Nolan – all of whom were passengers. 7 Oregon Spectator, February 10, 1852, id.

7

The New York Times has the list this way:

The following are the names of the persons saved:

GEORGE FLAVEL, Pilot; EDWARD BEVERLY, First officer; WM. IRONS, Second officer; JAMES MURRAY and ISAAC SPARROW, seamen; JOSEPH HALL, E. L. FINCH, HENRY MARSH, MATTHEW NOLAN, JAMES NOLAN, passengers.

The following are the names of the persons lost, so far as ascertained:

R. J. PROVIN; THOMAS MICKLE; MR. BENSON; MR. RANDOLPH, of Oregon City; ALANSON POMEROY, of Tualatin Plains; MR. STANLEY; MR. MONTGOMERY; MR. MILLER; MR. FULLER; JOHN F. DUNCAN, of Mo.; M. LUTHER, of Clyde, N. Y.; MR. SHLOSS, of Humboldt; A. COOK; D. A. BUCK; HUMBOLDT; GEO. HATCH, porter; MR. NELSON, steward; MR. JEMISON, steward; MR. O'NIEL, engineer; AUGUSTUS STANLEY, Marietta, Ohio; CAPTAIN CHARLES THOMPSON; MR. JOHNSON, purser; JOHN DELLON, Musquetine Co., Iowa; W. H. HART, late of Vancouver, formerly of Iowa; WM. JONES; MR. WALL.

The body of MR. LUTHER had been found with over $400 upon it.8

In October, 1854, two years after the General Warren was lost, the whole stern frame of the vessel was found on the beach sixty miles to the north of the wreck, an example that shows the prevailing littoral current around the Columbia Bar.9

8 New York Times, March 16, 1852, p. __. 9 James Gibbs, Pacific Graveyard. Portland: Binfords and Mort, 1950, p. 153-190.

8

EPILOGUE According to the New York Times article of March 16, 1852, the General Warren was owned by the firm Garrison & Fretz, of Panama. This is incorrect. Likewise the Oregon Spectator failed to mention the ownership of the General Warren, or that responsibility for overloading the vessel with cargo and then overbooking 42 passengers – or even booking any -- lay with the firm of Abernethy Clark & Co. The Spectator, of course, was “the governor’s paper” per George Law Curry, and was run by the Oregon Press Association, of which Gov. Abernethy was a founding member. No one reported what Abernethy& Clark did with the passenger list, or whether there was, in fact, later legal-style poaching by agents of the firm, upon the Donation Land Claims retained by the relatives of the lost, that were still “in process” before the General Land Office at Oregon City. The Times also listed MR. WALL among the lost. In fact, General J.G. Wall was one of the passengers who volunteered to man the small rescue boat. General J.G. Wall, one of the passengers who had volunteered to go in the small boat to secure help at Astoria, was born in Dublin, in 1827, and went to sea when a boy of 14. He settled at Crescent City, in 1850. He had been visiting friends at Oregon City, and was returning to California on the General Warren that fateful January 28, 1852 – when he was asked by Captain Flavel to serve as a member of the crew of the small boat. When visiting in Crescent City some years ago, I met a number of business associates and friends of General J.G. Wall, who was a partner in the firm of Hobs, Wall &Co., one of the prominent lumber companies of northern California. General Wall built and operated the vessels, the Crescent City, the Del Norte, the J.G. Wall, the Ocean Pearl and a number of other vessels. He was still said to be living in 1909 – the last survivor of the wreck of the General Warren – when the McCurdy article for Overland Monthly ran.10 Captain Gilman, in place of boarding the General Warren and returning to California, became an engineer on the steamer Multnomah, running to Oregon City, where he remained from 1852-55. Later, with Captain Ainsworth and J.C. Kamm, he built the Carrie Ladd, which ship was really the beginning of the Oregon Steam Navigation Co.’s fleet. Captain Gilman later built the Gilman Hotel in Portland. Captain Gilman died in Portland on July 19th, 1891.

THE PRECEDING STORY IS TAKEN LARGELY FROM THE NOTES AND PAPERS OF PORTLAND, OREGON NEWSPAPERMAN AND HISTORIAN FRED LOCKLEY, IN FILES MAINTAINED BY THE

OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY RESEARCH LIBRARY -- MSS 2168.

© 2011 ROCH STEINBACH -- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 10 See Note 3.