Columbia River Maritime Museum

Last look around the museum

There was so much to see at the Columbia River Maritime Museum! There were, as expected, classic model ships, a micro view of maritime life.

No maritime museum would be complete without a little scrimshaw. This interesting piece was carved on an ostrich egg.

Our original plan was to breeze through the maritime museum and then explore the beautiful little city of Astoria, where it’s located. Perhaps we’d have a little lunch and then head on to our family visit in Portland. Nope. We spent hours in the museum and never made it onto the boats exhibited outside. This is one of the few shots I took of Astoria, before the museum. Sweet looking place, no? We’ve must go back. And, yes. We’ll hit the museum again, too.

Here’s a link to the museum if you want to learn more about it.

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Final reminder to City Daily Photo bloggers: The photo challenge for February 1st is If you had to leave forever the city from which you usually post, what would you miss most?
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History in boats

While the fishing industry commands a big spot in Northwest maritime history, the Columbia River Maritime Museum reaches into many aspects of maritime life to paint a comprehensive picture of life on the water. The boat above, a replica of the Spanish launch Buena Ventura, is an illustration of Spanish exploration of the Northwest coast. It was used in 1775 by the Spanish schooner Sonora as it surveyed and explored this region .

Beyond the Buena Ventura in this picture is a wall-mounted exhibit on tools and techniques used in traditional navigation. In addition to static displays video monitors describe and explain how the tools are used.

This is the pilot house of the U.S.S. Knapp, a Navy destroyer built in 1943. It was decommissioned in 1957 and scheduled to be cut up and sold for scrap metal in the early 1970s. The owner of the company that was to dismantle the Knapp donated the entire bridge and pilot house to the Maritime Museum, no small feat.

The entire bridge, shown here, weighs 13 tons. It was barged down the Columbia River, trucked ashore, and placed by a giant crane on the site of the museum. The museum building was then constructed around the bridge. Thus it’s not an overstatement to call this exhibit the centerpiece of the museum. It is in a room filled with exhibits depicting World War II and includes a period radio broadcasting Franklin Roosevelt’s historic Pearl Harbor speech.

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Message to City Daily Photo bloggers: The photo challenge for February 1st is If you had to leave forever the city from which you usually post, what would you miss most?
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Working boats

The first big exhibit in the Columbia River Maritime Museum is focused on fishing and includes three full sized fishing boats. Mannequins and fishing gear help illustrate the work and tools of commercial fishing.

This is a typical salmon troller. DH was excited to look into it and examine the gear (though he noted that some pieces were missing in the set-up).

This is a Columbia River gill netter, a sailing boat used in pre-motor-power days. The lines of this boat are gorgeous. A nearby wall and recordings portray life in historic canneries.

Mid-winter is often a good time to stay indoors. Lately I’ve thought about an indoor adventure we had last year, a trip to the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon. We had no idea what to expect. When we found it I was surprised and happy to see lots of windows and an open, sweeping design.

Beyond the museum are docks where two Coast Guard cutters were docked as well as a decommissioned museum light ship (a ship that functions as a lighthouse). But I was intrigued by what I saw in the huge front window. It looked like a big boat in action, tilted at a crazy angle.

This is the action side of the boat in the Museum’s front window, a Coast Guard cutter in a simulated rescue. It’s quite a compelling exhibit. At the mouth of the Columbia River is the Columbia River Bar, a treacherous area where the river meets the Pacific Ocean in one of the most dangerous spots on the globe. It’s called the “Graveyard of Ships” and it’s not hyperbole. The Coast Guard is the last hope for some unlucky sailors here and a diorama like this helps present the scale and scope of dangers faced by seafarers and those who protect them.

I’ll show you more of what’s inside the museum in the next couple of days.