At 4:30 Captain Saunders left his cabin and walked out onto the deck, glancing up at the aft sail. Lt. Tuttle approached with a stern look on his face.
“We’re taking a pounding, sir!” he shouted. “I think that we are hitting an early season storm.”
A look of grave concern was written all over the captain’s face. “We can try to outrun it,” he said. “The winds are favorable, as long as the swells don’t get any worse.”
At 5 o’clock the swells became higher, about fifteen to twenty feet, and the constant pounding was beginning to take its toll on the ship and its crew. The sky was now dark with storm clouds, and a misty rain began to fall.
“I don’t know how much more of this we can take,” the Lieutenant told the captain. The crew was holding onto the railings or anything else that they could grasp as the ship bounced around with each mounting wave. The captain tried to keep his balance as the ship moved and jerked around violently, but it was becoming more difficult as the ocean waves began to crash over the ships bow, flooding the deck.
“What’s our position, Mr. Tuttle?” Captain Saunders yelled, trying to be heard over the wind and crashing waves.
“We’re about 30 miles north of Bodega Bay, along the Sonoma Coast, sir.”
The ships cook came out of the galley and reported to Captain Saunders that the ship was rocking back and forth so violently that it was impossible to prepare dinner. The captain mumbled back that dinner would be impossible to digest in this kind of weather.
Mr. Bradley struggled at the helm to hold the ships course. As each huge wave pushed the ship upwards, he had to hold the wheel firmly to keep the ship steady. He had guided the Winslow through many storms before, but each one presented new challenges and unforeseen dangers. Suddenly a very strong wave smashed over the port side of the Winslow. The ship listed to the starboard side, and water gushed over the entire vessel, completely engulfing it. All the men on board held on tightly to the rails or to rigging to keep from being washed away.
“We’ve lost rudder control!” Mr. Bradley yelled, as the ship emerged from this onslaught. The captain and Lt. Tuttle rushed over to the helm. Lt. Tuttle tried the wheel. It turned freely but without the normal tension. He glanced at the captain with a look of alarm. “No response, sir! We’ve lost the rudder!”
Captain Saunders grabbed the wheel and turned it rapidly in both directions several times. He looked at Lt. Tuttle and Mr. Bradley with all the color drained from out of his face. The wind and the rain now was relentless, and the ship seemed to rock in every direction. The three officers of the Winslow looked at each other in disbelief.
Captain Saunders shouted out emergency orders. “We’ve got to get the sails down fast! This wind will carry us into the rocks!”
“Drop all sails!” Lt. Tuttle commanded.
Several crewmen responded. Once the sails were down, the ship was no longer moving forward. However, they were now drifting towards the rocky shore. Immense waves continued to sweep over the deck, and with no rudder or sails, they were at the mercy of the storm. The men were now holding on tight as the ship bounced around like a cork in a pan of boiling hot water.
Lt. Tuttle looked over at the captain. He was standing amid ship, clutching the railing on the starboard side. He glanced back at the Lieutenant with a look of despair on his rain drenched face. “We must abandon ship!” he said. Lt. Tuttle nodded.
He repeated the captain’s orders, stumbling across the deck trying to keep his balance. “Abandon ship! All hands, abandon ship! To the life boats, men!”
The crew made their way as best they could across the deck toward the life boat on the starboard side. Lt. Tuttle and Mr. Bradley lowered the davits and cranked the boat down so that it was at the same height as the side railing. The crewmen climbed on board the life boat one at time until it was full. Mr. Seals, the last man in the boat, was put in charge.
The boat was let downwards to the raging water below. It swung back and forth violently with the ships motion. Once in the water the chains were released and the men rowed vigorously to get away from the Winslow before the ship rammed them.
There was a smaller life boat on the port side. Bradley, Lt. Tuttle and the captain were about to launch it when the most powerful wave yet crashed over the deck, knocking all three men off their feet. The small boat was lost. The ship once again listed onto its starboard side. The load had shifted in the hold, so that the ship now remained on its side. They were sinking rapidly below the waves.
They held on tightly onto the rails on the main deck. Several empty barrels came rolling out from the galley. Mr. Bradley glanced over at Captain Saunders and shouted, “We’re going to have to swim to shore! If we can grab some of these barrels, we can fasten them together to make a raft!”
“Good plan, Mr. Bradley,” the captain shouted back. “You find some rope and we’ll see if we can gather some barrels.”
The deck of the sinking ship was now tilted at a 45-degree angle towards the starboard side, making it extremely difficult to walk. It was like walking on a steep barn roof during a storm.
The captain and Lt. Tuttle carefully inched their way to the galley. Once to the wide door they were able to prop themselves against the gangway railing. The galley was rapidly filling with water. They somehow were able to grab three barrels that were floating towards them. A minute later Mr. Bradley entered with some rope. He fastened it around the barrels, binding them together.
The ship was by now more than halfway submerged, and only its port side was still above the surface. Just as they were about to cast off on their make-shift raft, they heard a faint cry that came from somewhere inside the galley.
“Someone’s still inside the ship!” Lt. Tuttle cried in disbelief. The captain looked towards the interior of the galley, then he shouted out, “Save yourselves, men! Somebody’s trapped in here!”
“No, captain! The ships going down fast. You don’t have time!” Lt. Tuttle shouted in alarm.
“Help me, please!” Came the cry again.
“That’s Travis, our young steward!” Captain Saunders said.
“Why wasn’t he evacuated?”
The captain pushed away from the makeshift raft, causing it to move through the galley door and out onto the flooded deck. Once outside of the galley the make-shift raft hit against the hull of the sinking ship several times. Mr. Bradley and Lt. Tuttle held on with all their strength. They finally cleared it, then the tall waves pushed them in the direction of the shore.
Back in the galley, Captain Saunders swam towards the trapped boy. Travis was under several crates that had fallen.
“Travis?”
“Captain! Please help me!”
The bow of the ship suddenly lurched downwards. Time had run out. The Winslow began to slip below the waves. The captain reached out and grabbed onto Travis’ hand. The cold ocean water rushed in and flooded the galley.
The crew had by now made it safely to shore. They were standing near some jagged rocks within a small cove, watching what was happening to the Winslow. They could only see the bottom of the stern for several minutes. Suddenly the entire ship dipped below the waves. The men looked stunned as they stood there silently, straining their eyes in the hopes of seeing any sign of life. The Winslow had submerged…She was gone.
Suddenly one of the men spotted Lt. Tuttle and Mr. Bradley in the pounding surf, and he shouted to the others, “There they are!” All eyes were now on the men as they struggled to make it to shore. Another crewman cried, “They’re holding onto barrels. I only see two men!”
They waited anxiously as the men holding onto the barrels made it to shore. Mr. Seals and several other crewmen ran into the dangerously high water to assist the struggling men as they washed ashore. They pulled Mr. Bradley and Lt. Tuttle off the barrels and brought them up to a flat rock outcropping where it was dry. Both men were very weak. They had come very close to drowning in the menacing storm.
Mr. Seals placed a hand on Lt. Tuttle�
�s cheek. He was cold as ice. He was beginning to show signs of hypothermia. Mr. Seals removed his cloak and wrapped it around the Lieutenant. One of the crewmen covered Mr. Bradley with his jacket.
All the men looked towards the ocean in hopes of finding more survivors. “The captain and the steward are missing!” Mr. Bradley said weakly. “What was his name?”
“The stewards name is Travis Beacon,” Mr. Seals replied.
Mr. Seals went over by the side of Lt. Tuttle. “Did you see the captain get off?”
Lt. Tuttle shook his head slowly. “No.” He sadly looked towards the ocean.
He thought of how he and the captain had only five hours earlier been talking in his cabin about his plans for marriage.
“Do you know what happened to the captain?” Mr. Seals repeated.
Lt. Tuttle looked up into Mr. Seals gray eyes. “The captain went back to save Travis.” He said. “I don’t think that they got off the ship before she went down.”
Mr. Seals looked down and kicked the hard ground. This was the worst day imaginable…a day that would never be forgotten.
The dim light of day gradually faded from the overcast sky. The wind and rain continued throughout the night. They searched for any signs of the captain and Travis for several more hours, but as the night grew late they gave up all hope.
Mr. Bradley sent four men to seek out help. They returned in the morning with a search party of approximately 20 men from nearby ranches. They scoured the ocean cove most of the morning without finding any trace of the missing men.
The following day the headlines in the San Francisco Chronicle read:
SHIP LOST NORTH OF FT. ROSS
A three masted schooner, the Winslow, was lost
in an early season storm off the Sonoma coast on
Saturday evening. The Winslow was bound for
Oregon from San Francisco.
The captain, Christian Saunders, and the ship’s
steward, Travis Beacon, were lost with the ship.
The remainder of the crew were rescued. One Lt.
Tuttle of the ship credited the captain’s quick actions
for saving the rest of the crew.
Chapter Four
Woodland, California
Annie was eating a grilled cheese sandwich at the kitchen bar when several loud blasts made her heart jump…it was an eruption of a string of firecrackers coming from the front lawn. Annie ran to the front door and out onto the porch.
Steven Taylor, a boy in her class, was standing in the street. His newly found friend, Johnny Pratt, was with him. Together they roamed the neighborhood, and they were usually up to no good.
Steven was Annie’s worst nightmare. He always teased her in class and made life as miserable for her as he could. He had been playing pranks on Annie since third grade.
Annie ran towards the two boys, shaking her fist at them. “Stop setting off fire crackers in front of our house!” she screamed.
They laughed at her hysterically. “Look, it’s Annie bug brain!” Steven jeered.
He had been calling her “bug brain” since 4th grade, when Annie had presented her insect collection to her class.
“Get out of here, Steven! Leave me alone or I‘m going to report you!” Annie warned.
Steven and Johnny laughed even louder as they walked down the street, chanting, “Annie, bug brain! Annie, bug brain!” again and again.
“Oh, I hate them! “Annie said under her breath, as she slammed the door and went back into the house. She was getting frustrated with this summer vacation, having to put up with Steven and his antics, on top of being very bored with nothing to do.
She spent the rest of the afternoon reading and playing some computer games. By 5:30 Annie began to watch out the living room window. She knew when it was almost time for her mom to arrive home from work. She was a little late tonight….
A blue SUV pulled into the driveway. “Mom’s home!” Annie yelled as she watched the SUV come to a complete stop.
Down the hallway, she could hear the monotonous sounds of a video game coming from her brother’s room.
Outside her mother walked towards the front door, clutching three bags of groceries. Annie could hear a thud at the door as the doorbell rang, then the sound of a plastic bag bursting open and cans falling, rolling across the front porch.
Annie ran swiftly over to the front door and opened it. She looked at her mom’s face; she looked flustered over the broken grocery bag. Her brother Logan burst from his room and ran down the hallway to the door in less than five seconds flat. Logan took the bags from his mother and set them down on the kitchen counter, which was just a few feet from the front door.
Annie and Logan scrambled after the fallen cans, and they brought them in and set them down on the counter top.
“Oh, what a wonderful way to start my vacation,” Natalie groaned as she put the groceries away. Annie and Logan pitched in and helped.
Annie glanced over at her mom. “Wow, this is your vacation! I’ve been so bored this summer. There’s nothing to do hanging around the house all day. Let’s go somewhere! I need to get away from that Steven Taylor, he keeps setting off firecrackers…. I want to go on a trip somewhere! Please, mom!”
Natalie looked a little irritated. “Annie, I told you before that we can’t afford to go anywhere this summer. Our money is real tight right now…”
“But mom, Logan and I are bored. This is the middle of the summer and there’s nothing to do… and all our friends have gone on trips by now…”
“I wish that we could Annie, but it’s just not in the cards for us right now.”
Annie and her mother looked at one another. Her mother was an attractive woman of 32, straight auburn hair that flowed down to her shoulders, blue eyes.
Everyone said that Annie looked a splitting image of her mother, except Annie had green eyes from her dad.
Annie looked away from her mother’s gaze. “Can’t we just take a short trip somewhere, mom?” She asked.
Natalie frowned. “You know that since your dad died we only have one income, and we don’t have enough money for a long trip right now.”
Dan Obrien was suddenly taken from his young family two years ago, when Annie was ten and Logan eight. He died on a cold rainy wintery night, when his work truck was involved in a pile-up on I-5.
The sudden loss of her husband left her with the kinds of difficulties that many single parents face. She now had to support her family on her job as a medical radiologist. Money was indeed tight.
“Mom!” Annie was protesting. “Please, I want to take a trip somewhere this summer! We could go camping…that won’t cost too much, would it?”
Natalie looked very thoughtful as she put away the groceries, as though she was considering this idea. “Camping? Hmm…I just don’t know about that, Annie. We really don’t have any camping gear and we’ve never done this before… except when you kids were very young and your father was here.”
“Hey!” Logan exclaimed. “We could borrow some camping gear from Brian Karaman. They have sleeping bags and a couple of tents!”
Logan looked more like his dad. He had wavy sandy hair and brown eyes, and freckles on his cheeks and a short pudgy nose.
“I don’t know,” Natalie replied. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask the Karamans. They did borrow our lawn mower last week.”
The children’s eyes lit up. “Let’s ask them!” Annie cried.
Natalie pursed her lips as she placed one last can up on the cabinet shelf.
“Okay, maybe after dinner. But if they lend us their camping gear, we’ll have to find someplace to camp that’s not too far away.”
Natalie cooked some frozen pot pies for dinner. While they ate they discussed places where they might go camping if the Karamans would lend them camping equipment.
Logan wanted to go to Clear Lake. Annie wanted to visit the redwoods. By the time dinner was over, no decision had been made.
Once the table was c
leared and the dishwasher was loaded, Annie convinced her mom to call the Karamans. “Okay, I’ll call them,” Natalie said. “Logan, do you have their phone number?”
Annie and Logan stood just behind their mom as she made the call. They were both bursting with excitement. “Oh, please!” Annie exclaimed, clenching her fists. “Please, Lord, let them lend us at least one of their tents!”
“Hello, Joanne?” (pause) “How are you?” (another pause) “This is Natalie, Logan’s mom….”
She talked to Mrs. Karaman for a while; just small chit chat, and Annie and Logan were beginning to grow impatient.
“Mom!” Annie cried. “Go on and ask her!”
Natalie let out a gentle laugh. “The kids and I decided that we’d like to go camping, but we don’t have any equipment. We were wondering if we could borrow some of your camping gear?”
(another pause)
“Oh, thanks, Joanne, Annie and Logan are just bursting at the seams to go camping this summer. I guess that we do need to get out more often. I have a weeks’ vacation so this should be loads of fun!”
Natalie spoke on the phone to Mrs. Karaman for a few more minutes. As she was hanging up Annie asked, “When can we go get the camping gear, mom?”
Natalie looked at Annie and smiled. “Joanne said she’s going to have her husband get it ready for us. We can pick it up anytime tomorrow. A camping trip may be a great idea. I think that it is time that we got away from the routine of the everyday grind.”
Annie and Logan’s faces beamed with excitement. “Yes! We’re going!” Annie shouted with glee.
“I can’t wait!” Logan echoed.
“We still need to decide where we are going,” Natalie reminded them. “We could check out some places right now. A map might help……. I’ll go get my laptop so we can look for some campgrounds.”
Natalie brought her laptop to the table and opened the Google Earth App. Annie and Logan stood on each side of her as she navigated to a map of Northern California.
Ghost of Ocean Cove Page 3
