The Tragic Wreck of the Leonor
Survivors and debris on the coast near La Push tell a harrowing story of a ship lost to the jagged rocks during a gale.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Judge M. V. B. Lamoreux and his wife recently returned from a trip to the coast, where they witnessed the site of the wreck of the Leonor. The vessel went down on the morning of October 4, about two or three miles north of the mouth of the Quillayute River. The debris was strewn along the beach for a half mile on either side of the wrecked vessel. It is a wonder how any person could have possibly escaped alive, as the ship struck a breastwork of jagged rocks in a heavy gale. A part of one side of the ship, thirty feet in length, was lifted upon a ledge of rock fully forty feet high. The captain was swept overboard by a wave, and his wife, who had nearly reached shore, was also lost. A sailor, who had been in several previous shipwrecks, showed great presence of mind by wrapping a block of matches in oilcloth and tying it inside his hair to ensure a fire could be started for the survivors upon landing.
“Heavy timbers two and three feet in diameter were snapped square off seemingly as easy as a person could break a twig.”
Shipwrecks were a frequent and terrifying reality for early coastal communities in Washington, where rugged terrain and isolation made rescue efforts incredibly difficult. Today, the Olympic Peninsula coastline remains just as wild and dangerous, though modern navigation has largely moved the dangers of commercial shipping into the digital age.
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