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WAWONA (schooner)
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Wawona, 2007, needing major restoration
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| Location: | Seattle, Washington |
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| Built: | 1897 |
| Architect: | Hans Bendixsen |
| Architectural style: | Other |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 70000643 [1] |
| Added to NRHP: | July 1, 1970 |
The three-masted, fore-and-aft schooner Wawona sailed from 1897 to 1947 as a lumber carrier and fishing vessel based in Puget Sound. The schooner was built in 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. From 1897 to 1913, she 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.
Wawona was 165 feet long with a 35-foot beam. Her masts, before being cut down, were 110 feet 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 the vessel was an official city landmark.[2] However, after efforts to restore the decaying ship failed, she was dismantled in March 2009.
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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.
In 1964, sixteen years after the vessel's retirement, a group of Seattle citizens formed Northwest Seaport and purchased Wawona as a museum ship. The schooner was made available for public visits during her ongoing restoration.[3]
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. That move, however, has been postponed for up to a month because there's no room at the drydock. (KOMO 1000 News Radio, Seattle) Some of the vessel's features will be preserved as museum pieces.[4]
Wawona was hauled to the Lake Union Drydock on March 4th, 2009, and has since been dismantled.