. . . a shipwreck The George L. Olson,
formerly the Ryder Hanify, found her ignominious end on the shores of the North
Spit of Coos Bay. The North Spit of Coos
Bay is a sliver of land that separates the
western part of the horseshoe-shaped Coos
Bay from the Pacific Ocean proper. Here is
what the Bureau of Land Management,
Coos Bay, had to say about the wreck:
“The BLM research suggests there is
strong evidence that the mystery shipwreck
is the bow-section of the steam schooner
George L. Olson. Comparing historical
photographs of the George L. Olson with
current pictures of the shipwreck, both
ships have three portholes with three chain
plates aft of the portholes. The location of
the Samson Post, Hawespipes, and the
black vertical bumpers are identical. The
pattern made by the through hull iron
fasteners also appears identical.
“The George L. Olson was originally
named the Ryder Hanify. The steam
schooner Ryder Hanify was built for J.R.
Hanify and Company of San Francisco by
the W.F. Stone shipyards of Oakland,
The homeschool
formula: 12SW was designed to carry 1. 4 million board
– 9D = 3SW + feet of lumber at a time. “The Ryder Hanify was put into service
9P, i.e., 12 in May 1917 hauling lumber. It completed several voyages during that year, including
hours of school a shipment of lumber to South America in October 1917. In December 1944, the hulk
work minus 9 of the George L. Olson was towed to sea nd was cut adrift with the intention she
hours of beach on the North Spit. During the following years, build-up of the fore dune
dawdling equals in the area covered the wreck.” 1 As you see, time rushed past the hard-
3 hours of school working Ryder Hanify, and at some time in her life she was named the George L.
work plus 9 Olson. Very little is known about the ship’s working life, and in the end, only twenty-
hours of play seven years after she was built, she was cast off, a useless hulk, literally to be
buried by the sands of time! (For any who
are not familiar with sailors and their ways,
their boats might have a masculine name,
but you will not find a sailor calling his
boat “he.”)
The main lesson in the great shipwreck
adventure was concerning the rules of
California. The ship was launched on
January 22, 1917. At 223 feet long and
nearly 44 feet wide, the Ryder Hanify was
one of the largest ships built to date at
the Stone shipyard. The boat was powered
by a 1,000 horsepower steam engine and
