QUARTERDECK
REVIEW WINTER 1984-85
VOL. 12
1792 MARINE DRIVE, ASTORIA, OREGON 97103
NO. 1
LAUNCHING THE ILWACO BEACH LIFEBOAT DURING A DRILL, CIRCA 1900 A growing toll of shipwrecks on the Columbia River bar and along Washington's North Beach (Long Beach) Peninsula prompted the U .S. Lifesaving Service (formed in 1871) to establish lifesaving stations at Fort Canby on Cape Disappointment and at North Cove, Washington in 1877. The Northwest's growing economy and population had brought with it increased ship traffic and, consequently, more frequent disasters along the dangerous Northwest coast. Some vessels were lost while trying to cross the Columbia's bar, but many inbound ships mistook the entrance to Willapa Bay for the river's
mouth, while others suddenly discovered that they had come too close to the coast in bad weather and were then driven on a lee shore by wind and currents (a hazard to which sailing vessels were especially vulnerable). At first, the only paid employee at each station was a boathouse keeper. Rescues depended on rounding up a volunteer crew to man the oars until 1882, when the Fort Canby Station hired its first crew of full-time surfmen. Thereafter, lookouts could be maintained at vantage points along the coasts, and (continued on page 6}