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 18thcentury. 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 2021, when the tides and weather seem right, they embark. As
they plunge through the currents that have taken so many lives,
Randall commemorates the brave 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.
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