Our first book, nearly two years in the making, is now available in hardcover and Kindle. Shipwrecks of the Pacific Northwest was released on March 1, 2020 (just as everything was about to shut down for the coronavirus!) Our book release party as well as all scheduled talks at museums and bookstores around the region are still currently on hold. You can purchase the book online or directly from many local PNW bookstores. If you are a reviewer or a member of the press, we are available so please reach out to us.
Our goal was to make the book approachable and interesting for a larger audience so we tried to pull together a more narrative, cohesive style rather than presenting a collection of essays or archaeological reports with multiple authors. We are greatly indebted to all of the primary researchers who volunteered countless hours to make this book a reality. I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to my co-authors Scott Williams, Jeff Smith, Christopher Dewey, Tod Lundy, Jim Sharpe, Jeff Groth, and Robert Johnson.
So what is this book about? Tales of famous local wrecks have passed into legend, but we wanted to see the real story from primary sources and archaeological evidence. Many of the existing books repeat rumors about buried treasure or insurance fraud without providing any evidence. And nearly all of the chapters end at the time of the wreck event. As an archaeology group, we want to know what happened afterwards and what remains of those wrecks today. The book will cover about a dozen wrecks, some well known and others nearly forgotten, between Willapa Bay in Washington and Tillamook Bay in Oregon. The time period ranges from the wreck of Oregon’s Spanish galleon in the 1690s to a Yuleship carrying Christmas trees for Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. Our chapters include all of the excitement and drama of the storms, survival, and loss but they also detail our investigations, surveys, and remote sensor data on what remains of those wrecks today.
We hope this book will be a helpful addition to the body of research on shipwrecks of Oregon and Washington: Shipwrecks of the Pacific Northwest: Tragedies and Legacies of a Perilous Coast.
Jennifer Kozik
Editor & Co-Author