Chunk of Coal

The other day I picked up a chunk of coal on the beach and started wondering about it. We find these now and then, but only in a certain stretch at the west end.

"It's vintage coal," said a local guy we know. "Vintage coal from Newcastle, in fact, still washing up from the ship that caught fire at Cojo back in the 1890s."

Really? You can't believe all the stories you hear around here, but I was curious about this one. The beach tar in this area is notorious: natural marine oil seepage from the Santa Barbara Channel deposits those sticky black globules that we try to avoid stepping on. But this is coal, not tar, certifiable coal, and a nice hefty lump of it too. I decided to look into Local Guy's story, and it turns out to be true. I do believe we are looking here at vintage coal from Newcastle.Here's what happened:

In November of 1893, a four-masted ship called the Gosford, on its way to San Francisco from Liverpool, attempted to anchor at Cojo, just east of Point Conception, its cargo of coal on fire. The official "wreck report" (honestly, what can't you find online?!) reads as follows:

FINDING and order of a Naval Court, held at Santa Barbara, California, on the 28th and 29th days of November 1893, to investigate the circumstances attending the loss of the British sailing ship "GOSFORD," of the port of Glasgow, official No. 98,687, when on a voyage from Liverpool to San Francisco, and the cause of such loss, and to enquire into the conduct of the master, certificated first and second mates, and the crew of said vessel.

The "Gosford" was a steel vessel, barque rigged, of 2,136 tons registered tonnage, official No. 98,687, built at Greenock in 1891, and belonging to the port of Glasgow. It appears from the evidence given before this Court that she sailed from Liverpool on or about the 7th day of July 1893, bound for San Francisco with a cargo of about 3,500 tons of coal and a crew of 36 hands all told.

The voyage proceeded safely until when about 380 miles off the coast of California, on the 18th day of November 1893, the cargo was found to be on fire. Every effort was made to extinguish the fire, and a portion of the cargo was jettisoned, water poured on the fire, and every effort made to extinguish it. Finding that the fire was getting headway, the master and officers decided to proceed to the nearest land, which was Point Concepcion, and the vessel was finally beached at Cojo anchorage, about three miles east of Point Concepcion.

The Court determined that the schooner's master, William S. Chapman, had navigated his vessel in a proper and seamanlike manner and done everything in his power to avert the casualty. Officers and crew appeared to have conducted themselves properly and "used their utmost exertions" to save the vessel and its cargo. It was deemed that the ship was not overloaded and had been sufficiently manned and seaworthy when it departed Liverpool.

The report does mention measures that might have helped, such as tubes reaching down through the cargo to the keelson to monitor the temperature, and installation of bulkheads as barriers, because "the evidence shows that as fast as the burning coals were removed the other coal fell in on the men, which could not have occurred had there been bulk heads." But all were exonerated, although everything was lost.

Efforts to salvage some of the valuable cargo were costly and unsuccessful. An 1894 article in the Los Angeles Herald describes a Captain McGinn arriving by stagecoach from Gaviota to announce the total loss by fire of his wrecker, the San Pedro, while attempting to remove coal from the Gosford. There were six tons of coal and 30 tons of wreckage on board when the fire occurred:

The captain made every possible effort to scuttle the wreck, so as to save the machinery, then lay by until daylight, when he left the scow to its fate and returned to Gaviota, coming here by stage. The three men will take the Corona north for San Francisco tomorrow evening. The San Pedro is a total loss, with everything on board, the valuable machinery she carried, making the loss a heavy one. She was owned by Rogers A Co. of San Francisco and valued at $12,000, with $6000 insurance. It sounds like Captain McGinn never stopped musing about the Gosford.

In 1895, this article appeared in the San Francisco Call :

Remnants of the Crown of England Recovered— The Last of the Great Ship Gosford. -SANTA BARBARA, Cal., Oct. 28.— Captain McGinn, formerly master of the wrecking scow San Pedro, left here this morning on the schooner Cleone, bound for Santa Rosa Island, where he will take on a cargo of wreckage gathered by his men from the Crown of England, which will be carried to San Francisco. While on the island the captain will make a thorough survey of the wreck, with a view to future operations. The captain states that there is no longer any visible sign of the wreck of the Gosford, the great coal ship lost on the coast in the vicinity of Gaviota nearly two years ago. For a year and a half the Gos'ford, with its hull apparently intact and masts erect, lay on the rocks 'in the vicinity, in constant sight of all coast vessels. It was a valuable ship, and it is estimated that efficient work at any time during this period might easily have saved its owners from $40,000 to $50,000 worth of material, for the Gosford was comparatively easy of access. But for some extraordinary reason no attempt was ever made to save any portion of the ship's block and tackle or any part of its hull, and it has now gone to the bottom.

Contemporary divers who have returned to the scene, 30 to 50 feet underwater, report that most of the Gosford's stern is now gone, but the bow is relatively intact. There are interesting artifacts scattered about, and the remnants of a small fishing boat wreck rest nearby. The hull of the Gosford and its cargo of coal have become an artificial reef over the years, forming the base structure for a dense forest of kelp supporting large numbers of fish and invertebrates.

And contemporary beach walkers still report finding chunks of that cargo in the sand nearby.

So there you go. Vintage.