Out of service 1948 Class and type Fore-and-aft schooner NRHP Reference # 70000643 Length 50 m Beam 11 m Architect Hans Ditlev Bendixsen | Fate Dismantled, 2009 Location Seattle, Washington Added to NRHP 1 July 1970 Draft 3.66 m Year built 1897 | |
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Builders Hans Ditlev Bendixsen, California Similar Northwest Seaport, Arthur Foss, Center for Wooden Boats, Lake Union Park, Virginia V | ||
Wawona was an American three-masted, fore-and-aft schooner that sailed from 1897 to 1947 as a lumber carrier and fishing vessel based in Puget Sound. She was one of the last survivors of the sailing schooners in the West Coast lumber trade to San Francisco from Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.
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Wawona was built near Eureka, California on Humboldt Bay by Hans Ditlev Bendixsen, who was one of the most important West Coast shipbuilders of the late 19th century. The vessel was 165 feet (50 m) long with a 35-foot (11 m) beam. Her masts were 110 feet (34 m) tall.
She was berthed at South Lake Union Park in Seattle adjacent to the Center for Wooden Boats. She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Washington State Heritage Register, and was an official city landmark. However, after efforts to restore the decaying ship failed, she was dismantled in March 2009. In 2012 artist John Grade used parts from the ship in a massive 65-foot sculpture called Wawona in the Grand Atrium of Seattle's Museum of History & Industry. Wood from the ship was also used to create the museum's front desk and the bar at the museum's Compass Cafe.
Lumber
From 1897 to 1913, the schooner carried lumber from Grays Harbor and Puget Sound ports to California. One of her captains, Ralph E. "Matt" Peasley, inspired a series of popular novels.
Fishing
From 1914 until 1947, except during World War II, Wawona sailed to the Bering Sea with a crew of 36 to fish for cod. In 1935, her captain, Charles Foss, died at the wheel during a storm in the Aleutian Islands.
Restoration and dismantling
In 1964, sixteen years after the vessel's retirement, a group of Seattle citizens, headed by Kay Bullitt, formed Northwest Seaport and purchased Wawona as a museum ship. The schooner was made available for public visits during her ongoing restoration.
In 2006 her masts were removed for safety reasons.
In early 2009, it was announced that Wawona would be towed to a dry dock to be dismantled on March 2. Some of the vessel's features were preserved as museum pieces.
Wawona was hauled to the Lake Union Drydock on 4 March 2009 and was dismantled. The only remaining West Coast lumber transport sailing ship is C.A. Thayer, which is in San Francisco as of 2012.