Graveyard of the Pacific: shipwreck and survival on America's deadliest waterway

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Sullivan, Randall

Sullivan, Randall

Fuquay-Varina Community
Green Road Community
North Regional
Oberlin Regional
Southeast Regional
Wake Forest Community
Zebulon Community

Adult Non-Fiction

Cary Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Eva H. Perry Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Fuquay-Varina Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Green Road Community - Adult Non-Fiction
North Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Oberlin Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Southeast Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Wake Forest Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Wendell Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Zebulon Community - Adult Non-Fiction

"A vivid portrait of the Columbia River Bar that combines maritime history, adventure journalism, and memoir, bringing alive the history-and present-of one of the most notorious stretches of water in the world. Off the coast of Oregon, the Columbia River flows into the Pacific Ocean and forms the Columbia River Bar: a watery collision so turbulent and deadly that it's nicknamed the Graveyard of the Pacific. Two thousand ships have been wrecked on the bar since the first European ship dared to try to cross it in the late eighteenth century. For decades ships continued to make the bar crossing with great peril, first with native guides and later with opportunistic newcomers, as Europeans settled in Washington and Oregon, displacing the natives and transforming the river into the hub of a booming region. Since then, the commercial importance of the Columbia River has only grown, and despite the construction of jetties on either side, the bar remains treacherous, even today a site of shipwrecks and dramatic rescues as well as power struggles between small fishermen, powerful shipowners, local communities in Washington and Oregon, the Coast Guard, and the Columbia River Bar Pilots-a small group of highly skilled navigators who help guide ships through the mouth of the Columbia. When Randall Sullivan and a friend set out to cross the bar in a two-man kayak, they're met with skepticism and concern. But on a clear day in July when the tides and weather seem right, they embark. As they plunge through the waves, Sullivan ponders the generations of sailors that made the crossing before him-including his own abusive father, a sailor himself who also once dared to cross the bar-and reflects on toxic masculinity, fatherhood, and what drives men to extremes. Rich with exhaustive research and propulsive narrative, Graveyard of the Pacific follows historical shipwrecks through the moment-by-moment details that often determined whether sailors would live or die, exposing the ways in which boats, sailors, and navigation have changed over the decades. As he makes his way across the bar, floating above the wrecks and across the same currents that have taken so many lives, Randall Sullivan faces the past, both in his own life and on the Columbia River Bar"--

Book

Books

dd7a4da5-bc5f-808b-2c9b-9a9ec1b9cbf2

9780802162403

2025-05-14T09:18:00.845Z

-1

Non Fiction

Non Fiction

979.7 SULLI

Wake County Public Libraries

Cary Regional
Eva H. Perry Regional
Fuquay-Varina Community
Green Road Community
North Regional
Oberlin Regional
Southeast Regional
Wake Forest Community
Wendell Community
Zebulon Community

9780802162403

2023

Atlantic Monthly Press

grouped_work

Columbia River Bar (Or. and Wash.) -- History
Columbia River Estuary (Or. and Wash.) -- History
Shipwrecks -- Columbia River Estuary (Or. and Wash.)
Sullivan, Randall

Graveyard of the Pacific : shipwreck and survival on America's deadliest waterway

Graveyard of the Pacific : shipwreck and survival on America's deadliest waterway / Randall Sullivan

Graveyard of the Pacific

shipwreck and survival on America's deadliest waterway

History
Shipwrecks
Sullivan, Randall