Elleda Wilson: Lost reckonings
Dec. 1—The British barque Carmarthen Castle, heading from Wilmington, California, to Portland, wrecked on Dec. 2, 1886 in Nestucca Bay on the Oregon Coast, 40 miles below the entrance of the Columbia River Bar, the Los Angeles Herald reported.
But no one knew about it until a telegraphic dispatch was received by Wilson & Co. of Los Angeles, from Captain Richards, master of the vessel: "The Carmarthen Castle shifted her position this morning and listed over to seaward. The sea is making a clear breach over the deck, and the gear and vessel is washing in shore. From present appearance there is no hope to save the ship."
Sending that dispatch to Los Angeles was no easy feat, and it took a few days to get there. The message had to be carried 50 miles on horseback to the nearest telegraph office — which meant finding a horse and rider first.
"It is supposed that the crew is saved," the Herald concluded. "The belief here is that the captain lost his reckonings during the thick weather and drifted on the beach."
A June 1887 note in the The Morning Press of Santa Barbara, California, said: "Lying on the Little Nestucca (Oregon) beach is the wreck of the English ship Carmarthen Castle. She was one of the largest iron ships that ever sailed from England. She can be easily boarded at low tide."
