The last few months I’ve been working toward becoming a certified science diver for NOAA. Later this year I am planning to take part in what is expected to be the first of a number of NOAA missions to document shipwrecks located within the Olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary. We heard recently mission planning for that trip is being centered around documenting the remains of the shipwreck Skagway.
Quoting directly from NOAA’s OCNMS website, history on the Skagway is as follows:
“The steam schooner Skagway, originally named the Stanley Dollar, was built in Seattle in 1908. Designed for the coastal trade, she was steel hulled, 240 feet long and capable of carrying 1,500,000 board feet of lumber.”
“In 1925 she was sold to the Alaska Steamship Company and renamed Skagway. On December 16, 1929, en route from San Francisco to Seattle with a cargo of glycerin, alcohol and paint, a fire broke out in the hold. As the crew worked to extinguish the flames, Captain Strandquist took the ship close to shore to avoid a strong east wind that was fanning the fire. She ran aground on the rocks just west of Cape Flattery. The Coast Guard cutter Snohomish rescued the captain and crew, but the ship and her cargo were a total loss. Afterward the captain and crewmembers exchanged bitter accusations of incompetence, drunkenness and misconduct.”
