Crowd with TENPAISAN MARU aground, breeches buoy returns empty to ship — 11/24/1927 — #G1143_1
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Photograph Copyright Anderson & Middleton Company
United States — Washington (State) — Copalis
Pacific Ocean
The Japanese steamship TENPAISAN MARU was driven ashore at Copalis Beach by a southwest gale on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1927. The 5416-ton vessel, which had been built at the J.L. Thompson shipyard and launched in 1911 was a total loss. However, no lives were lost. The entire crew was safely rescued by a breeches buoy rigged by Coast Guard rescuers on the beach. A lightweight line was fired to the ship from a small cannon called a Lyle gun. This small line was used to pull a bigger line which was made fast to the ship and anchored to the beach. A strong pulley attached the breeches buoy to the big line, and the ship's crew and officers sat one-at-a-time in the buoy to be pulled ashore by a line attached to it and pulled by volunteers on the beach.
A label attached to this photograph reads " Shipwreck of the SS Tenpaisan Maru - It was predawn Thanksgiving morning in 1927 when the SS Tenpaisan Maru, a Japanese freighter, went aground north of Copalis Beach, Wash. on the Pacific Coast. Photographer Bliss B. Jones was on the scene to record the U. S. Coast Guard shooting a line aboard with a Lyle gun and rigging a breeches buoy to take the crew safely off the stricken ship. This print was made via a paper negative from the original 3.25x4.25 glass plate."
