USLS Dreadnaught

The USLS Dreadnaught was a motor lifeboat of the United States Lifeboat Service, remembered for its role in the notable rescue of crewmen of the Rosecrans, a tanker that was wrecked when it ran aground the sandbar formed when the silt-laden outflow of the Columbia River met the Pacific Ocean.[1][2][3][4][5]

Rosecrans rescue

The Rosecrans ran aground, in bad weather, on January 7, 1913.[1][2] The Dreadnaught was under the command of Coxswain Oscar S. Wicklund and based at Coast Guard Station Point Adams, on the south bank of the mouth of the Columbia. Another motor lifeboat, the USLS Tenacious, under the command of Alfred Rimer, was based at Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment, across the river.

The Rosecrans was able to broadcast just one distress call, and her location was not immediately known.[2] It took three and a half hours before a lookout was able to find her. Once found the lifeboats encountered great difficulty crossing the bar to reach the wreck.

The Tenacious capsized, crossing the bar, droning her primitive engine, forcing her crew to fall back on human-powered oars.[2] Both lifeboats were able to reach the vicinity of the wreck. By the time they reached her only her masts remained above water. Only three of her crew of thirty-six still clung to her. The seas were too high to save the crew members, except if they were to leap from the mast into the waves, and trust the crews of the lifeboats to pluck them from the sea. The Dreadnaught circled the wreck multiple times, while encouraging the survivors to jump. On her fifth circuit the Dreadnaught also capsized and lost power.

Two of the survivors eventually jumped into the water, and were saved, and the Dreadnaught retrieved a dead body of another crewman.[2] Coxswain Wicklund decided that the bad weather made it unsafe to land, so he proceeded to a lightship which was permanently moored off the River's mouth. The rescued crewmen and the crews of the lifeboats were all able to board the lightship, but both lifeboats were swamped and sunk, before the storm subsided.

In 2005 the Michigan Lifeboat Conservancy received a donation of a lifeboat of the same class as the Dreadnaught, that they believed was the dreadnaught, and began the process of restoration to its original appearance.[6]

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References
  1. Stephen Wood (2016-05-16). "Park Happenings: The U.S. Life-Saving Service, and the shipwreck Rosecrans". Chinook Observer. Retrieved 2017-12-16. On Jan. 7, 1913, the steamship Rosecrans ran aground on Peacock Spit at the mouth of the Columbia River.
  2. Douglas Kroll (2014-09-15). A Coast Guardsman's History of the U.S. Coast Guard. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781612518763. Retrieved 2017-12-16.
  3. "Account of the wreck of the Rosecrans taken from the 1913 Annual Report of United States Life-saving Service, 66-74" (PDF). United States Life-saving service. 1913. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
  4. Edward Stratton (2016-05-16). "A Hollywood ending for daring surfmen". Daily Astorian. Long Beach, Washington. Retrieved 2017-12-16. The Rosecrans grounded on Peacock Spit, a shoal at the entrance to the Columbia, on Jan. 7, 1913. After grounding, the ship made three or four S.O.S calls, before the captain ordered them halted, fearful sparks would start a fire on board. The Rosecrans did not blow its whistle, either, and it took several hours for rescuers to find the ship in the bad weather.
  5. Finn J.D. John (2015-06-21). "Cursed or not, S.S. Rosecrans". Offbeat Oregon. Retrieved 2017-12-16.
  6. "1909 US Life Saving Service Boat Donated to the conservancy". Michigan Lifeboat Conservancy. 2005. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
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