The 310-ton steam schooner POINT LOMA stranded on Long Beach, Washington, near Seaview on February 28, 1896, while en route from Grays Harbor for San Francisco with lumber and in charge of Capt. Conway. The coastal lumber carrier had been struck the previous day by one of the worst gales of the year. At midnight the engine broke down, the sails blew away and the wooden hull began leaking so badly that the boiler fires were extinguished. As the wind and high seas carried her toward the beach, rockets were fired, alerting the Fort Canby lifesaving crew. High seas made it impossible to launch the surf boat, but a line fired from the beach reached the grounded steamer and the 17-man crew was rescued by breeches buoy. The POINT LOMA, which became a total loss, was one of the early vessels of her type built at San Francisco in 1888, showing sailing ship lines, two masts with fore-and-aft sails and a swinging cargo gaff. She was the first to establish regularly scheduled steamship service between that port and Grays Harbor. At the time of her loss she was owned by the Grays Harbor Commercial Co., an association of the mill owners belonging to the Pacific Pine Lumber co., which operated a large lumber mill at Cosmopolis, Washington. (pg. 6) Notes from Gordon Newell, ed., The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co, 1966).

• Subjects (LCSH): Point Loma (Steamboat); Steamboats--Washington (State); Marine accidents--Washington (State); Hoquiam River (Wash.); Rivers--Washington (State)