The wooden hulled ship buried in sand on the North Spit of Coos Bay has been identified by archeologists as the George L. Olson.
The story of the George L. Olson is outlined below:
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, 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 horse power steam engine and was designed to carry 1.4 million board feet of lumber at a time.
The Ryder Hanify was put into service in May 1917 hauling lumber. It completed several voyages during that year, including a shipment of lumber to South America in October, 1917.
On December 6, 1917, the Ryder Hanify, along with six other lumber carrying ships, was sold to the French government. The French government renamed the Ryder Hanify the Gabriel.
On March 9, 1922 an announcement was made in the Los Angeles Times that Oliver J. Olson , a “prominent lumber and steamship owner” had purchased two steam schooners from the French government and was now refitting them for the lumber trade. This included the Gabriel, which Olson renamed the George L. Olson.
The George L. Olson worked as a lumber carrying schooner in the Northwest for over 20 years until June 23, 1944 when it struck Coos Bay’s North Jetty and drifted aground on Guano Rock inside the Coos Bay channel. There were no casualties when the ship wrecked, but the ship was declared a total loss. At the time it wrecked, the George L. Olson was loaded with about 1.4 million board feet of lumber.
Salvage of the ship’s lumber cargo was conducted for the next six months. Five hundred thousand board feet of lumber recovered off of the ship was used to construct the Baptist Church in Charleston.
In December 1944, the hulk of the George L. Olson was towed to sea and was cut adrift with the intention she beach on the North Spit. During the following years, build-up of the foredune in the area covered the wreck.
The BLM, along with State of Oregon Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, the Coos County Historical and Maritime Museum, and NOAA, continue to consult with the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office to review options and make plans for the ship’s future. BLM and Museum staff continue to document the ship with photographs.