One night earlier this fall, California’s First Theatre in Monterey is filled to near-capacity, and the draw – aside from the historic theater itself – is the chance to learn more about shipwrecks in and around Monterey Bay.
State Parks Interpreter Aaron Gilmartin welcomes the crowd of about 100, and introduces State Parks Guide Stuart Thornton III, who will “be taking you through the rough seas of Monterey Bay as we hopefully make it safely to shore by the end of the presentation.”
Thornton begins: “This region posed many problems for mariners… ”
Those problems include rocky points that ship captains might mistake for the entrance to Monterey Bay, causing them to cut toward shore too soon. There are the big waves, which can get up to 30 feet tall in the winter, and the coastal fog, shrouding the horizon.
Thornton’s presentation is focused on wrecks of which he could find images to help illustrate, and he starts with the Natalia, a ship sailing north from Mexico that had anchored in Monterey when the waves picked up suddenly, causing the ship’s anchor chain to break and setting it adrift toward Seaside before meeting the seafloor.
“If it wasn’t for the valiant efforts of a young cook, many people would have lost their lives,” Thornton says, before quickly adding, “Three people did in fact lose their lives.”
It being 1834, there’s no photo of the Natalia, but Thornton shows a painting of the boat sinking, waves crashing over it. “If the deck of your boat is under so much water you can’t see it,” Thornton says, “you’re probably in serious trouble.”
Monterey resident Jose Abrego salvaged wood from the Natalia to build a home in Monterey – Casa Abrego, which still stands today.
The list of vessels is long. Thornton moves on to the Commodore Rodgers, a wounded whaling ship that was intentionally grounded in Monterey in 1837 in order to save its cargo of sperm whale oil, and then the St. Paul, a steamer full of cattle bound for San Simeon that ran aground at Pt. Joe in Pebble Beach in 1896. Thornton’s voice picks up in excitement as he gets to the Rhoderick Dhu, which ran aground at Asilomar in 1909 and became a short-lived shoreline attraction, with onlookers picnicking on the beach alongside a horse and buggy.
But perhaps the wreck that most tickles the crowd is the Frank H. Buck, an oil tanker that got stuck on the rocks at Pt. Pinos in 1924 – the Buck had previously run aground twice elsewhere – which likewise became a shoreline attraction until it was successfully refloated, before sinking near San Francisco Bay more than a decade later after its captain ran the Buck into the President Coolidge.
A fun fact surfaces with the story of the Flavel, a steamer loaded with lumber from Washington state that wrecked at Cypress Point in Pebble Beach in 1923. Commercial fishermen were nearby and “when they saw the quality of this lumber in the water, they stopped fishing for fish and started fishing for lumber.”
Thornton moves forward through history until ultimately reaching the present, and he offers an opportunity for discovery. If one walks a mile to the beach at the Salinas River National Wildlife Refuge, then about a 20-minute walk north on the beach from there, one can see a wreck of a barge that ran aground in the early 1980s when the Salinas River was flooding.
“Luckily there wasn’t a lot of fuel in the vessel, so it’s just been left there ever since,” he says. “If it’s a low tide, you can actually jump up onto the vessel. I’ve seen fishermen there just casting away.”
After Thornton wraps up, he launches into a short, easy quiz for the audience – correct answers are awarded with a Monterey State Historic Park pencil. He’s asked whether it was the same captain on the Frank H. Buck during its repeated mishaps; Thornton says he’ll look into it.
Right as everyone’s getting up to leave, someone asks Thornton whether he has any good shipwreck-related advice.
“Always wear a life preserver.”
The theater fills with smiles.
The hope from officials at Monterey State Historic Park is to repeat those smiles. Gilmartin says they are working to organize more events like this at the First Theatre, which is open to the public for special events.
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