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Historic Shipwreck Profile: Additional Information on Wreck Event

Flavel

Steam Schooner


Newspaper clipping from San Francisco Examiner 15DEC1923 p5 col6 shipwreck Flavel

Source: San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA), 15 December 1923, p 5, col 6.
Courtesy of Newspapers.com.

Transcription:

15 RESCUED IN SHIPWRECK

Driven by a heavy wind and battered by high seas, the little steam schooner Flavel was dashed upon the rocks at Cypress Point, eight miles south of Monterey, early yesterday morning.

Unable to save their craft, the fifteen members of the crew took to their lifeboats and were landed safely at daybreak at Monterey.

Although officials of the Hammond Lumber Company, owners of the vessel, declare it is a total loss, Red Stack tugs from this city have rushed to the scene with the hope of salvaging the ship.

Commanded by Captain Harry Johnson, the Flavel sailed from Gray's Harbor December 9 for San Pedro. Her cargo consisted of 1,118,249 feet of lumber. The ship itself is valued at $250,000.

The point where the Flavel ran ashore is known as a "graveyard" for coast vessels. The place is located on the 17-mile drive, and is known as the "Loop the Loop."

It was at 12:10 yesterday morning that the craft hit the rocks. Unable to summon help by radio, as the vessel is not so equipped, Capt. Johnson blew his siren in distress.

The blasts from the whistle were heard by H. J. Lyons and wife of Pacific Grove as they were motoring home from a dance.

Lyons, unable to see the lights of the Flavel in the rain squall, went to the beach and lighted a fire from drift wood. He then sped to Monterey and spread the alarm. The Normandie, a fishing boat, went to the scene and picked up the small boats with the crew.

The Flavel was built in 1917. She is of 544 tons and 209 feet in length.

Captain Cecil Brown, representing the Marine Underwriters, was dispatched to the scene early yesterday to conduct the salvage operations.

As a result of the wreck the Del Monte Properties company, which owns the property where the Flavel went ashore, has claimed the steamer and cargo as salvage, according to an Associated Press dispatch from Monterey.


Newspaper clipping from Santa Cruz Evening News 17DEC1923 p1 col4 shipwreck Flavel

Source: Santa Cruz Evening News (Santa Cruz, CA), 17 December 1923, p 1, col 4.
Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

Transcription:

BUILDING BOOM EXPECTED ALONG THE MONTEREY COAST

MONTEREY, Dec. 17.—(AP)—The last entry in the log of the good ship Flavel, wrecked in a fog near here Friday night while carrying a deck load of lumber from Aberdeen, Wash., was written by Father Neptune last night, when the ship broke open and settled beneath the water.

Lumber, one million feet or more, piled along the beach for a distance of three miles, is expected to cause a building boom in this region.


Newspaper clipping from Santa Cruz Evening News 17DEC1923 p2 col5 shipwreck Flavel

Source: Santa Cruz Evening News (Santa Cruz, CA), 17 December 1923, p 2, col 5.
Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

Transcription:

MANY CLAIM RIGHT TO SHIP NEAR MONTEREY

MONTEREY, Dee. 17.—(AP)—Adventurers who would claim the wrecked hulk of the good ship Flavel, rock-torn and wave-racked in the ocean near here, appeared from all sides today, all, armed with the admiralty ruling which they claim gave them the right to both the ship and its fast dwindling cargo of good sound Washington state lumber.

The latest claimant, Paul Flanders, a young and wealthy adventurer from the Carmel colony near by, was on the scene early and with the announcement that he had hired James Meeham, a boss, stevedore at Pebble Beach, Meeham's launch and grappling outfit, boarded the Flavel today and raised his flag as the owner of the wrecked ship and everything on board.


Newspaper clipping from Santa Cruz Evening News 17DEC1923 p6 col1 shipwreck Flavel

Source: Santa Cruz Evening News (Santa Cruz, CA), 17 December 1923, p 6, col 1.
Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

Transcription:

GRIFFEN VIEWS WORK OF SALVAGING CARGO OF WRECKED FLAVEL

C. H. Griffen, of the Homer T. Hayward Lumber company, yesterday visited the wreck of the Flavel, which went on Monterey reef last Thursday night.

Efforts to pull the Flavel from the reef yesterday were unavailing, Mr. Griffen stated. The vessel has broken in two places and is slowly going to pieces.

Mr. Griffen said that while standing on the beach watching the wreck pound on the reef, the keel of the vessel worked from under it and came floating ashore, a great strip of timber, thirty feet in width and a hundred and fifty feet in length.

The deck load of the vessel is coming ashore and is being salvaged as rapidly as possible. Mr. Griffen estimates that if two or three hundred thousand feet of the cargo of a million feet of lumber is salvaged the owners and salvagers will have done well.

Disputes Settled

The dispute as to the ownership of the vessel since salvage proceedings have begun has been amicably settled, Mr. Griffen stated, the Hammond Lumber company, owners of the vessel and her cargo, to receive one and the Del Monte claimants to receive two-thirds of the salvaged property.

It is reported that the Homer T. Hayward Lumber company has purchased all salvaged lumber of value.


Reviewed: September 08, 2023
Web Site Owner: National Ocean Service

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