The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem

Courtesy of the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem

A Lost Manila Galleon

SCOTT S. WILLIAMS, CURT D. PETERSON, MITCH MARKEN, AND RICHARD ROGERS

FOR CENTURIES, people have known of the wreck of a large vessel on or near the shores of Nehalem Spit, south of Neahkahnie Mountain in Tillamook County, Oregon. In addition to the Nehalem-Tillamook and Clatsop Indians who witnessed the wrecking and passed its history on to later generations, there are eyewitness accounts of wreckage in the surf near the river mouth and on the spit.1 There are also artifacts, such as beeswax blocks and ship’s rigging pieces, known or believed to be from the so-called Beeswax Wreck, is a large beeswax block that was found near the Nehalem Spit with Spanish 2 PICTURED HERE in museums and private collections throughout the Pacific Northwest. What shipping marks carved into it. This block was donated to the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum has not been known, however, is the name of the vessel, its port of origin in 1952 and is in the museum’s permanent collection. It is one of the best preserved and most or nationality, or where it was going. Over the centuries, various scholars well known chunks of beeswax from the area. and treasure hunters have proclaimed the wreck to be a Spanish galleon, a Portuguese or Dutch merchant or pirate ship, or a Chinese or Japanese junk.3 Shipwrecks are valuable, not for any treasure they may have carried but because they serve as time capsules that can provide information about the THE SEARCH BEGINS: OF WHAT NATION WAS THE OREGON lives and activities of their passengers and crew and the larger societies in SHIPWRECK? which those people lived — information that is often missing in written history. In 2006, a volunteer group of archaeologists, historians, geologists, Historians and wreck enthusiasts, drawing on nineteenth- and early- and community members set out to apply the methods and principles of twentieth-century accounts, have written extensively about the Beeswax archaeological and historical research to determine the nationality of the Wreck.6 During the 1980s and 1990s, archaeologists in Oregon became Beeswax Wreck, its port of origin and likely destination, the identity of the interested in the wreck and the artifacts it left behind on the nearby vessel, and its final resting place.4 The group founded a non-profit research beaches and in Indian archaeological sites.7 Some of this research is organization, eventually becoming the Maritime Archaeological Society, useful, while other pieces of it are little more than speculative fantasy the sponsor of the research.5 This article outlines our research process and born of uncritical acceptance of earlier sources or misunderstandings of conclusions, supporting our hypothesis that Santo Cristo de Burgos is most the Pacific trade prior to 1800, particularly the Manila trade conducted by likely the ship that wrecked on Nehalem Spit. the Spanish between the Philippines and Mexico. One of the first goals of

192 OHQ vol. 119, no. 2 © 2018 Oregon Historical Society Williams, Peterson, Marken, and Rogers, The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem 193 the Beeswax Wreck Project was to systematically research and document still be seaworthy, meaning they were fully capable of crossing the Pacific, the known historical and archaeological materials related to the wreck. To but they operated primarily in the China Sea between the rich trade ports this end, the project team compiled an archaeological research design to of China, Japan, and other Asian nations.11 guide future research.8 Japanese junks, in contrast, were not built for open seas and rough The Spanish Empire was fond of record-keeping. Those documents weather. This was due to the Edict of Sakoku, issued in 1635 by the make it possible to know which Spanish ships sailed in any given year Tokugawa Shogunate, which closed Japan to visiting ships and mandated and, often, who their captains and crews were, the dates they left Manila, that Japanese vessels not be capable of traveling great distances over and when the ships arrived (if they did) in Acapulco. The galleons were the open water. This edict resulted in many Japanese junks trading along the economic lifeblood of Spain’s Manila colony, and any loss of a ship was east coast of Japan, getting dismasted or losing their rudders in storms, extensively investigated, often for years, in an effort to recover the cargo and then being left to drift helplessly on the Kuroshio-North Pacific Current or at least to learn the ship’s fate. The archives therefore include extensive until they either sank or washed ashore somewhere along the coast of records on which ships were lost, never seen again after leaving Manila.9 western North America.12 Finally, and most simply in light of the beeswax, The number of those that went missing without a trace is surprisingly small, Chinese and Japanese merchants did not use Spanish shipping symbols considering the 250-year span of the trade and the vast distances that the for their cargoes. The presence of those symbols indicates the Beeswax Manila galleons traveled. Wreck was a Spanish Manila galleon, eastbound for Acapulco and loaded Although previous researchers postulated that the Beeswax Wreck was with cargo from Asia. a Portuguese or Dutch vessel, or an Asian junk drifting across the Pacific, The same arguments hold true for Portuguese and Dutch merchants: the Beeswax Wreck Project focused on the Spanish Manila trade primarily they did not trade in large quantities of beeswax, because they had no because of the signature artifact that gave the wreck its name and notoriety: need to. The Spanish shipped beeswax from Asia to the New World to the large blocks of beeswax found at Nehalem and nearby beaches, with make candles to light churches and wealthy people’s homes. There were so-called “mysterious” symbols carved upon them. Those symbols actually no native honeybees in the Americas at that time, and the Catholic Church are not at all mysterious — to those who study the history and archaeology required beeswax candles in liturgy. The Dutch and Portuguese, trading of Spanish trade in the Americas and in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. westward to Europe, had no need or market for large quantities of beeswax, The symbols are Spanish shippers’ marks, carved into the soft beeswax as and what beeswax they did carry was not marked with Spanish shipping a label. The carved labels allowed sellers to track their cargoes and col- symbols. European pirates — regardless of their nationalities — would lect their profits when the ship reached port. All the galleons’ cargo was be unlikely to load beeswax as stolen cargo, considering the much more so marked, either with paper labels or with marks carved onto the shipping valuable cargoes of silks, spices, and porcelains that galleons and other boxes or jars. Because beeswax is weatherproof, it did not need to be care- traders of the west Pacific carried. As some of the earliest chroniclers of fully packed, like silks or other textiles, and the shippers’ personal symbols the Beeswax Wreck asserted, there is no doubt the vessel was a galleon of could be directly marked on the blocks.10 the Manila trade, eastbound to the Americas with a cargo of luxury goods While Chinese and Japanese merchants did trade in beeswax, they did from Asia destined for the markets and the wealthy citizens of New Spain in Central and South America.13 not do so in the large volumes that the Spanish were known to carry on the Manila galleons. Neither the Japanese nor the Chinese were actively THE SEARCH NARROWS: A MANILA GALLEON, BUT WHICH ONE? trading in the Americas at the time of the Beeswax Wreck, so any junks that reached the continent would have had to drift across the Pacific Ocean on Having established from the material evidence that the Beeswax Wreck must the Kuroshio-North Pacific Current, which flows northward off the east coast have been an eastbound Manila galleon, the question becomes “which gal- of Japan and south of the Aleutian Island chain. Of these “across the ocean” leon?” Only four of the nearly 300 galleons that left Manila during the 250-year drift wrecks in the Pacific and on the American West Coast, only Japanese period of the trade were truly lost to the Spanish. Many galleons wrecked, sunk junks, rather than Chinese vessels, are the known sources. Chinese junks in storms, or were captured by hostile nations, but the Spanish were aware were extremely well built and could weather storms and rough seas and of the majority of those losses and often knew where the ship sank, or who

194 OHQ vol. 119, no. 2 Williams, Peterson, Marken, and Rogers, The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem 195 ated with the wreck, particularly luxury Chinese export porcelains destined for the markets of New Spain, however, are datable by their stylistic motifs to much shorter spans of time. Although the wreck site itself has not been found, it is known to be the source of a large collection of ceramic sherds. This collection of over 1,500 sherds has been amassed over the past twenty-five years by local beach- combers around Nehalem, and it consists of Chinese export porcelains and Asian stonewares. Many of the pieces are quite small and waterworn, but many also contain design elements that form distinctive patterns that changed in fashion over time. Such elements include certain types of

Courtesy of the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum leaves, vines, or flowers, or details such as people, geometric patterns, and even reign marks. Comparing these design elements to known styles from dated periods allows archaeologists and art historians to determine when the pieces from the shipwreck were manufactured, and thus allows us to date the wreck with relative precision.16 The porcelains associated with the Beeswax Wreck date to the Kangxi period, meaning they were manufactured sometime between 1661 and 1722; this rules out the two wrecks from the sixteenth century as the vessel lost at Nehalem. Accepting that the Beeswax Wreck is a Manila galleon, it must be either the Santo Cristo de Burgos or CHINESE PORCELAIN SHERDS from the Nehalem Spit wreck are pictured here. The design the San Francisco Xavier. motif indicates the porcelain goods carried by the ship were made during the reign of the Kangxi The Santo Cristo de Burgos and the San Francisco Xavier wrecked only Emperor between 1661 to 1722 and were intended for export to European markets. These fragments twelve years apart, and in the world of archaeology, twelve years is a very are part of the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum collection. small span of time to pin down without a securely dated artifact, such as a coin or a cannon with a date inscribed on it. Coincidentally, here in the Pacific Northwest, an event occurred in the year 1700, between the two wrecks, that has helped us determine which of the two missing galleons the Beeswax Wreck is most likely to be. captured it. With that knowledge, the Spanish could sometimes mount salvage On the night of January 26, 1700, the large subduction zone off the North- operations to recover at least part of the cargo as well as any survivors. Of west Coast known as the Cascadia Subduction Zone, released its pent-up the four missing eastbound galleons that sailed from Manila, no wreckage energy in a great earthquake that resulted in a trans-Pacific (far field) tsunami, was ever found, and no survivors ever turned up to account for the vessels.14 as recorded in Japan.17 Subduction zones such as the Cascadia can store up Those lost vessels fall into two chronological groups: the San Juanillo great amounts of strain energy over several hundred years, releasing massive and the San Juan were both lost in the sixteenth century, in 1578 and 1586, earthquakes, with moment magnitudes greater than 9.0 on the Richter Scale respectively.15 The Santo Cristo de Burgos and the San Francisco Xavier with associated tsunamis.18 The earthquake of January 1700 was one of these were lost at the turn of the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, in 1693 mega-quakes, and it is known to have generated a tsunami that was about and 1705, respectively. The gap of more than a hundred years between the twenty-five feet in shoreline runup height.19 In addition to the tsunami, the two groups was key to narrowing down which vessel was most likely the earthquake’s tectonic subsidence caused portions of today’s Washington and Beeswax Wreck. Radiocarbon dating, while incredibly useful for archaeol- northern Oregon coast to sink as much as five feet, leading to widespread and ogy, is of limited use for dating shipwrecks within the past 500 years, due rapid beach erosion.20 After several years of beach retreat after the tsunami to fluctuations in the radiocarbon curve during that period and the resulting (totaling 100 to 400 meters), the later uplift would result in not only beach chronological range of radiocarbon dates. Chinese porcelain artifacts associ- recovery but also burial of the steeply eroded beach, or scarp.21

196 OHQ vol. 119, no. 2 Williams, Peterson, Marken, and Rogers, The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem 197 Scott Williams Because the earthquake occurred between the losses of the two missing galleons, the tsunami and the post-subsidence beach erosion had a major impact on where the shipwreck remains ended up, and therefore can help us determine which of the two missing galleons was responsible for the Beeswax Wreck. A ship wrecking after the tsunami, for example, could have left wreck debris along the eroded beach but not above the reach of the highest tides and storm waves, where only an older tsunami could have reached.

THE SAN FRANCISCO XAVIER HYPOTHESIS

Our initial hypothesis regarding the identity of the wreck was that it must post-date the tsunami, because we assumed that a near-shore wreck or beach wreck struck by the tsunami would be so widely scattered as to be effectively destroyed. The post-tsunami wrecking of theSan Francisco Xavier also made sense from a historical point of view. William Schurz, the historian most often noted as the “dean” of Manila galleon history, wrote in his seminal 1939 history of the Manila trade that the Santo Cristo de Burgos burned near the Marianas Islands in the west Pacific, as was reported by archival accounts of survivors who made it to the Philippines.22 With the Santo Cristo de Burgos thus accounted for, the only missing galleon that fit into the chronological period of the known artifacts was the San Francisco Xavier of 1705. THE GREAT CASCADIA EARTHQUAKE and tsunami of 1700 left a distinct layer of sediment With this hypothesis in hand, we began to investigate the effects of on the Nehalem Spit in the form of rounded cobbles and dark sand transported by giant waves the earthquake and tsunami on the spit. This phase of the project relied from the Nehalem River — a layer is still visible between much lighter windblown sand layers on geology and geomorphology, rather than archaeological or historical that pre- and post-date the tsunami event. Scientific investigation of this distinct stratigraphy and its juxtaposition with galleon wreckage provides important clues that the tsunami washed investigations. Collaborating with the Geology Department of Portland State over the spit soon after the wreck. Archaeologists have determined that this wave carried University, we undertook ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys of the beeswax blocks from the wreck, depositing them around Nehalem Bay, where Native and Nehalem Spit to look for buried evidence of the post-subsidence (subsid- non-Native residents later recovered them — suggesting a wreck before 1700. ence being the sudden drop in land that caused the tsunami) retreat scarp and to establish whether the length of the spit had changed substantially over time. GPR allows investigation into the buried features of sand deposits prior to ground-truthing with coring or excavations, and it reveals detailed profiles of sand deposits to depths of up to thirty feet.23 We found the beach cobbles and boulders, poorly sorted and spread in a thin sheet. In some retreat scarp buried under the more recent foredune, some 200 meters from places, these cobbles were covered by windblown sand, and in others, the modern shoreline, and determined that the spit had extended south they were exposed and cut through by eroded recreational trails. Enough to its current position during the recent geologic past.24 Any wreck debris patches were exposed to indicate that a large area of the spit was covered left along the eroded ocean beach strand lines (high-water marks) of the by a thin, sheet-like layer of cobbles and coarse river sand. Nehalem sand spit during the early 1700s would now be buried under at least The archaeologists on the research team assumed the rounded rocks thirty feet of accreted foredune sand deposits, along the length of the spit. were from a large river flood, but the geologists noted the rocks were too While conducting the GPR study, the researchers noted an interesting high in elevation on the spit to have come from any flood the river could geological feature: over portions of the spit, between the river and the produce. In addition, the cobbles and boulders were deposited in a variety high foredune of sand built up along the beach, were exposed patches of of up-ended orientations within the coarse sand deposits, indicating hyper-

198 OHQ vol. 119, no. 2 Williams, Peterson, Marken, and Rogers, The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem 199 concentrated sand flow transport and deposition, as would occur during study area. That beach erosion moved the storm wave strand line (wrack catastrophic tsunami surges. line) about 100 to 200 meters landward of the present shoreline. The post- River floods, in contrast, tend to leave gravel bars and deposits of earthquake strand lines are now buried under the prograded beach (that similarly sized materials. The geologists had seen the pattern in an earlier area built up toward the sea) and modern foredunes (those dunes nearest investigation of potential tsunami cobble deposits on the spit, but local resi- the sea), with the cobbles deposited by the tsunami and the wreck debris dents explained that the cobbles and boulders were the remains of a road behind them. constructed to build stone jetties at the river’s mouth in the early twentieth These factors proved key in understanding the known and reported century. The archaeologists noted, however, that water-rounded cobbles distribution of shipwreck materials across and over the spit. They also led and boulders make poor roads, and the cobbles were too widespread to to a surprising conclusion: the Beeswax vessel wrecked prior to the tsu- be the remains of a road from that era. Likewise, the material was obviously nami, rather than after it. There is no other way to account for the reported not discarded ship’s ballast, because it was thinly spread over a very large distribution of wreckage across the spit and into the bay. The spit did not area rather than concentrated near a landing or dock. After ruling out river erode low enough for normal ocean processes such as winter storm waves floods, road-building, and discarded ship ballast as sources, the researchers or high tides to wash any wreckage either onto the spit or over the eroded came to the realization that the water-rounded cobbles and boulders, up to foredune. If the Beeswax ship had wrecked after the tsunami, its wreckage thirty inches long and 210 pounds weight, represented what tsunami special- would never have made it off the beach and onto the spit or into the bay, ists call a “cobble drape deposit”: a thin, widespread deposit of river and/ where generations of beachgoers have found pieces of wax and debris. or beach cobbles deposited onto the spit by overtopping tsunami flows.25 Deposited into the back dune area by the tsunami wave, above the reach Such tsunami drapes occur over other sand spits and beach ridges in the of storm waves and high tides, the wreckage, including the beeswax, stayed study region, such as the Alsea Bay sand spit, the Seaside beach ridges, the in place and therefore was able to be found by Native peoples and, later, Neskowin sand spit, North Sand Point, and Olympic Peninsula.26 by Euro-Americans. In addition, the windblown migrating dunes alternately The elevation of the post-tsunami Nehalem Spit had been high enough buried and exposed ship timbers and beeswax, meaning that every year, (eighteen feet plus or minus six feet above mean sea level) to protect it from new deposits were exposed and others buried, resulting in a situation where 28 subsequent river flooding or ocean storm waves. Until the latter half of the different wreck materials could be found over a span of centuries. twentieth century, the Nehalem Spit was unvegetated, allowing windblown That the Beeswax vessel wrecked prior to the tsunami of 1700 was surprising for two reasons. First, we had assumed that a tsunami of the size of sand to migrate across it as dunes. Starting in the 1950s, the Oregon Parks the 1700 event would have either destroyed or scattered the wreckage so and Recreation Department began planting non-native vegetation to stabilize widely that it would never have been found. Second, as noted earlier, Schurz the dunes and “improve” the spit for recreation, and these plantings spread had written that the only late-seventeenth-century galleon that went missing and locked the dunes in place. This action left some parts of the cobble (the Santo Cristo de Burgos) burned in the western Pacific, close enough to drape deposit exposed and other parts buried, allowing us to investigate Marianas Islands that charred timbers were found there and survivors made the relationship of the drape deposit to the historic dune surface. their way back to the Philippines in a small boat.29 If the Santo Cristo de Burgos burned in the west Pacific, it should not have THE SANTO CRISTO DE BURGOS HYPOTHESIS wound up on today’s Oregon coast with living crew, unless somehow the The presence of the cobble drape deposit allowed us to determine the fire was extinguished after the survivors had escaped the burning ship. We elevation of the spit’s surface above sea level when the tsunami washed considered that possibility, but it seemed very unlikely for several reasons. over it in 1700. It also gave us an indication of the minimum run-up height First, Manila galleons carried few small boats (as they took up precious cargo of the tsunami wave over the Nehalem Spit. The GPR surveys successfully space and were not needed), and launching one from a burning ship would identified the erosion scarp carved into the beach backshore following the have been difficult even if one was available. Second, if the galleon burned co-seismic subsidence (the level of land drop during the earthquake).27 As badly enough to have timbers wash ashore in the Marianas Islands, it seems previously mentioned, the co-seismic land subsidence of about one meter, unlikely that the vessel could have been saved, much less jury-rigged to following the great earthquake, caused widespread beach erosion in our continue sailing across thousands of miles of open ocean to wreck on the

200 OHQ vol. 119, no. 2 Williams, Peterson, Marken, and Rogers, The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem 201 Oregon coast. Perhaps the fire had been a small one or the supposed sur- Besides these accounts of the wreck of the vessel itself, there are the vivors had instead deserted an undamaged ship, rather than abandoning a beeswax blocks and candles for which the Nehalem Spit is famous. It was burning one, and the vessel continued across the Pacific; this scenario also the blocks and candles of beeswax that so intrigued the early explorers seems unlikely. and settlers on the north Oregon coast and that caused so much interest We discovered that the Spanish archives contain a letter from the Gover- in the wreck. People in the nineteenth century were fascinated by the idea nor of Mexico to the King of Spain, written in 1699, six years after the Santo that a single ship, particularly an unknown “ancient” ship, could have been Cristo de Burgos left Manila, informing the King that despite six years of large enough to carry so much beeswax. Debate raged for several decades searching the islands of the west Pacific and the coasts of New Spain, there as to whether the material was truly beeswax from a wrecked ship, or was was no trace of any survivors or wreckage from the vessel. The fire story instead a natural deposit of mineral wax associated with underground oil was becoming more unlikely and more suspicious, especially as Schurz did deposits. Many learned and educated people of the day could not accept not report the source of his story, and earlier researchers, such as Blair and that so much beeswax could come from a single ship, or that it could be so Robertson (1909) and Dahlgren (1916), reported only that the Santo Cristo widespread over the spit and up the reaches of the river valley, occurring 30 de Burgos had disappeared without any knowledge of its fate. (Additional in areas above the reach of high tides or storm waves and in places several information on this hypothesis is included in this issue’s article on the gal- feet underground.36 This disbelief was despite the clear evidence of the leon’s fate, passengers, and crew, “The Galleon’s Final Journey: Accounts beeswax having been molded into large blocks, the shipping marks, bees of Ship, Crew, and Passengers in the Colonial Archives.”) trapped in the wax, and the occurrence of candles with wicks. It was incon- Santo Cristo de Burgos The historical record is clear: the left the Philip- ceivable, particularly for Americans, to imagine that some nation might have 31 pines on July 1, 1693, and was never seen again — at least, by the Spanish. built large ships capable of carrying so much cargo across the Pacific; by Santo Cristo de Burgos Schurz’s claim that the burned and that survivors the time American settlers arrived in the latter half of the nineteenth century, returned to the Philippines to tell the tale is based on his uncritical accep- the Manila trade had ended (in 1815) and Spain was in decline as an empire. tance of an apocryphal story first published in1925 by Percy Hill, an American Based on the archival, historical, archaeological, and geological evidence 32 Santo Cristo de Burgos expatriate living in the Philippines. The is the best gathered to date, we know the following four facts. First, there was a wreck candidate for the Beeswax Wreck, as it is the only galleon that went missing at Nehalem, as historically reported. Second, the wreck happened before in the seventeenth century before the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami of 1700, as evidenced by the porcelain cargo it was carrying and the presence 1700, and the dates from artifacts known to be associated with the Beeswax of wreck materials both in places where only the tsunami of 1700 could Wreck indicate a mid- to late-seventeenth-century vessel.33 These artifacts deposit them and within the tsunami deposit. Third, the wreck happened include radiocarbon-dated beeswax samples and the porcelain cargo, after 1650 and more likely after 1680, based on the manufacturing dates of which provides a chronologically tight dating span of roughly twenty years, the porcelain cargo. And fourth, the ship was a Manila galleon, because from 1680 to 1700.34 To date, we have not found wreckage at Nehalem that only Manila galleons carried such quantities of beeswax and Chinese export definitely confirms theSanto Cristo de Burgos sank there. Nevertheless, porcelain for the markets in New Spain. The only vessel sailing the Pacific the weight of evidence strongly supports the identification of the Beeswax that fits these four facts is theSanto Cristo de Burgos. Wreck as the Santo Cristo de Burgos. First, we know that a vessel did wreck at Nehalem. There are oral histo- BEESWAX AND ITS RELATION TO THE TSUNAMI ries of eyewitness accounts of the wreck from the Nehalem-Tillamook and Clatsop Indians, and those histories continued until the colonization of the Some researchers have argued that the Beeswax Wreck may have been Oregon coast by non-Indian peoples, who recorded them in writing. There an unknown, unrecorded galleon, rather than the Santo Cristo de Burgos.37 are also recorded eyewitness accounts of a portion of a wrecked ship in Because the Manila trade was so tightly regulated, and because the Spanish the ocean just off the Nehalem River, close enough to shore to be briefly bureaucracy was so well developed, there were no “unknown” Manila galle- exposed at very low tides.35 ons. While a small, independent merchant theoretically could have attempted

202 OHQ vol. 119, no. 2 Williams, Peterson, Marken, and Rogers, The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem 203 have the understanding to realize that such “flood” events were actually caused by tsunami deposition.39 Jesse Nett If it had not been for the tsunami’s depositing wreck debris and beeswax at elevations of four to six meters (twelve to fifteen feet) and higher above sea level, the Beeswax Wreck material, like that of so many other nearshore or beach wrecks, would have gradually broken up and been scattered by waves, leaving nothing for later people to find. It was the very fact that such large quantities of beeswax were present on the Nehalem Spit that drew early explorers, travelers, and settlers to comment on and write about the Beeswax Wreck and its possible origins. There were other places along the Northwest coast where Euro-Americans recorded seeing the timbers of old ships washed onto beaches, but such wrecks were usually mentioned only in passing and assumed to be lost whalers or Asian junks, when remarked on at all.40 At Nehalem, however, it was the sheer volume of the beeswax and the guessed-at antiquity of it that fired the interest and imagination of decades of travelers and settlers. It is estimated that during the latter half of the nineteenth century, local people collected anywhere from six to twenty tons of THIS MAP DOCUMENTS the distribution of beeswax chunks and debris wreckage across beeswax and shipped it to markets in Astoria, Portland, San Francisco, and Nehalem Spit. The tsunami of 1700 washed the beeswax into elevations above the reach of even Honolulu.41 waves and tides, inland from the ocean shore. Some parts of the wreck were also deposited on the spit and later covered with sand. SEARCHING FOR THE WRECK ON LAND AND AT SEA

Knowing which ship wrecked at Nehalem and when it wrecked provides us clues of what to look for and even where to look, but the ocean is a large and difficult place to conduct archaeological surveys. This is particularly true a smuggling voyage from Manila, it is very unlikely given the distances involved of the exposed Oregon coast, open to the full expanse of the Pacific Ocean’s and the tight control over the trade by the Manila merchants. It is even more swells and winds. In addition, Nehalem is relatively remote, as Oregon coastal unlikely that such a vessel would have been carrying such a large cargo of communities go; and the Nehalem River–mouth bar is shallow, dangerous, beeswax when there were more profitable cargoes to smuggle. As noted and difficult to cross most days of the year. The nearest good harbor is at earlier, no other nation at the time traded in large quantities of beeswax, and Garibaldi, twenty-five miles to the south, making the round trip from Garibaldi certainly not in blocks marked with Spanish shipping symbols. to Nehalem and back in small boats difficult. Fog and swells can roll in on The megaquakes of the twenty-first century in Indonesia and Japan pro- short notice, making navigation hazardous in the small, open-dive boats that vide modern examples of how tsunami waters can carry debris inland (as can approach the chaotic surf-line against offshore sand bars and onshore much as one mile overland) and deposit it on both inflow and outflow strand sea cliffs in the vicinities of the Nehalem Spit and Neahkahnie Mountain. lines. The nineteenth-century accounts of wreck debris and where it was To date, we have spent over ten years researching the Beeswax Wreck found often referred to the wreckage appearing to have been deposited in and searching for any remains that might provide the final proof that the vessel a “flood” or “freshet,” because the materials were found above the levels of was the Santo Cristo de Burgos. The first few years of our research were spent the highest tides.38 Non-Native people did not recognize the occurrence on searching on land, and when we realized that the wreck predated the tsunami the Pacific Northwest coast of large tectonic events with resulting tsunamis of 1700, our efforts shifted to looking offshore.42 Our current hypothesis is that until the 1980s, and so, earlier researchers and casual observers did not the ship grounded in shallow water and broke up, with its upperworks washing

204 OHQ vol. 119, no. 2 Williams, Peterson, Marken, and Rogers, The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem 205 onto the beach and then being washed over and onto the spit by the tsunami. bottom. If that is the case, we may never find it — but we think that is less If this model is correct, the lower hull of the vessel, with its ballast, cannons, likely than the ship grounding or sinking, because of the historic accounts and spare anchors, should still be offshore of the beach somewhere, buried in of relatively intact portions of wreckage just offshore and on the spit and the sand. We plan to continue our search there, using remote sensing equip- because of the concentration of beeswax on the spit. ment to detect buried cannons or anchors. If we can locate such targets, we will investigate them with a remote operated vehicle, or ROV, equipped with a camera that we can guide from the surface. Divers will then investigate any promising targets, to confirm the target and record it with photographs and detailed measurements. Any cluster of objects on the sand bottom offshore NOTES of Nehalem beach or sand spit would constitute a target; the difficulty will be in determining which algae or marine-growth covered objects are rocks The Beeswax Wreck Research Project has on file at Oregon State Parks and Oregon and which might be ballast piles, corroded anchors, or cannons. Remotely benefited from the generous support of the Department State Historic Preservation Of- Maritime Archaeological Society, the Nehalem fice (SHPO). observing wreck debris in the rocky ocean bottom offshore the headlands or Valley Historical Society, Naga Research 5. See Maritimearchaeological.org, or coves north of Manzanita might not be possible, due to the strong currents Group, White’s Electronics, D Wellman Survey- email at [email protected] . and waves crashing against the rocky cliffs. ing, SEARCH Inc., Oregon Heritage Commis- 6. James Gibbs, Shipwrecks of the Pacific What happens if we find lower hull deposits of a galleon? The wreck, as a sion, Clatsop County Cultural Coalition, Laika, Coast (Portland, Ore.: Binford & Mort, 1957); and the countless hours of donated time and James Gibbs, Disaster Log of Ships, (Seattle: historical shipwreck and archaeological site, belongs to the State of Oregon labor by numerous individuals. The authors Superior Publishing Co., 1971); James Gibbs, — it cannot be salvaged or even archaeologically excavated without a permit would also like to acknowledge the support of Oregon’s Salty Coast, (Seattle: Superior Pub- and close oversight and cooperation by the Oregon State Historic Preserva- the staff of the Oregon Parks and Recreation lishing Co., 1978); Dennis Griffin, “A History of tion Office and Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Manila galleons, Department, both in Salem at the State Historic Underwater Archaeological Research in Or- Journal of Northwest Anthropology furthermore, were government-owned ships of the Kingdom of Spain. The Preservation Office and at Nehalem State Park. egon” 47:1 1. Scott Williams, “The Beeswax Wreck, A (Spring 2013): 1–24; Ruby Hult, Lost Mines and modern country of Spain is the legal owner of the wreck and its cargo, and Manila Galleon in Oregon, USA,” in Early Navi- Treasures of the Pacific Northwest (Portland, that nation would therefore have to provide permission for any archaeological gation in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Maritime Ore.: Binford and Mort, 1960); Don Marshall, investigations or recovery as well. (See the article in this issue, “The Mountain Archaeological Perspective, ed. Chunming Oregon Shipwrecks. of a Thousand Holes: Shipwreck Traditions and Treasure Hunting on Oregon’s Wu (Singapore: Springer Science + Business 7. Stenger, “Physical Evidence of Ship- Media, 2016), 151–52. wrecks on the Oregon Coast in Prehistory,” North Coast,” for further discussion of maritime law and shipwrecks). 2. E.W. Giesecke, Beeswax, Teak and 9-13; Woodward, “Prehistoric Shipwrecks For those of us researching the Beeswax Wreck, the goal has never been Castaways: Searching for Oregon’s Lost Pro- on the Oregon Coast? Archaeological Evi- to recover artifacts or “treasure.” Instead, we are most interested in solving tohistoric Asian Ship (Nehalem, Ore.: Nehalem dence.” the mysteries of what ship wrecked on the north Oregon coast more than Valley Historical Society, 2007). 8. Williams, “A Research Design to Con- Oregon Shipwrecks three-hundred years ago and why, and of how the survivors might have 3. Don Marshall, duct Archaeological Investigations at the (Portland, Ore.: Binford and Mort, 1984); Allison Site of the ‘Beeswax Wreck’ of Nehalem Bay, interacted with and integrated into the Native American communities they Stenger, “Physical Evidence of Shipwrecks on Tillamook County, Oregon (2007).” would have encountered once they made it to shore. It is unlikely we will the Oregon Coast in Prehistory,” CAHO: Cur- 9. See Emma H. Blair and James A. Rob- ever know why a Manila galleon wrecked so far north of the usual eastbound rent Archaeological Happenings in Oregon ertson, eds., The Philippine Islands, 1493–1803 sailing route, as there was no reason for the crew to be exploring the Pacific 30:1 (Spring 2005): 9–13; John Woodward, : explorations by early navigators, descriptions “Prehistoric Shipwrecks on the Oregon Coast? of the islands and their peoples, their history Northwest coast and nothing short of sheer desperation would have induced Archaeological Evidence,” Contributions To the and records of the Catholic missions, as related them to try to land on such an unknown shore. It is likely the ship was dam- Archaeology of Oregon 1983–1986, ed. Ken- in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, aged in a storm and drifted uncontrollably to wreck on the Oregon coast. If neth M. Ames (Portland: Association of Oregon showing the political, economic, commercial wreck deposits can be found offshore, they may reveal whether the ship’s Archaeologists Occasional Papers, no. 3, 1986). and religious conditions of those islands from 4. Scott Williams, “A Research Design their earliest relations with European nations to rudder was intact, or if the crew tried to set anchors before wrecking. It is to Conduct Archaeological Investigations at the beginning of the nineteenth century / trans- possible, however, that the galleon wrecked on the rocks off Arch Cape the Site of the ‘Beeswax Wreck’ of Nehalem lated from the originals, vol. 1–55 (Cleveland: or Neahkahnie Mountain, scattering pieces over a wide area of the ocean Bay, Tillamook County, Oregon (2007),” mss. A.H. Clark Co., 1903–1909) for translations of a

206 OHQ vol. 119, no. 2 Williams, Peterson, Marken, and Rogers, The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem 207 large collection of Spanish archival documents. records of January 1700,” Nature: International 25. W. Chambliss, M. Lehman, A. Strans- ‘Beeswax Wreck’,” 13. Although radiocarbon See Erik W. Dahlgren, The Discovery of the Journal of Science 379 (January 1996): 246–49; beary, K. Motola, L. Hickerson, and C. Pe- dating for teak trees is not useful because Hawaiian Islands (New York: AMS Press, 1977, Brian Atwater, The Orphan Tsunami of 1700: terson, “Entrainment forces measured on they live for such a long period of time, the reprint of Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksells, 1916), Japanese Clues to a Parent Earthquake in the largest boulder transported by the last technology can date beeswax, which is pro- 41–116, for a list of galleon sailings. North America (Seattle: U.S. Geological Sur- Cascadia earthquake paleotsunami (1700 CE), duced over a much shorter time. 10. William Mathers, Henry Parker, and vey Professional Paper 1707, 2005). Nehalem Spit, Manzanita, Oregon, USA,” Pro- 35. See Cameron La Follette and Douglas Kthleen Copus, Archaeological Report: The 18. Kenneth M. Cruikshank and Curt D. ceedings of the Oregon Academy of Science, Deur, “Views Across the Pacific: The Galleon recovery of the Manila Galleon Nuestra Se- Peterson, “Late-stage interseismic strain vol. 71 (2012), 31–32. Trade and Its Traces in Oregon,” in this issue nora de la Concepcion (Sutton, Vt.: Pacific Sea interval, Cascadia subduction zone margin, 26. Peterson et al., “Distal runup records of Oregon Historical Quarterly 119:2 (Summer Ventures, Inc., 1990), 444–45. USA and Canada,” Open Journal of Earth- of latest Holocene paleotsunami inundation 2018): 160–91. 11. Bert Webber and Margie Webber, quake Research 6:1–3 (February 2017): 1–4, in alluvial flood plains”; Curt D. Peterson, 36. Samuel Cotton, Stories of Nehalem Amazing True Tales of Wrecked Japanese http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation. G.A. Carver, J.J. Clague, and K.M. Cruikshank, (Chicago: M.A. Donohue and Company, 1915), Junks (Medford, Ore.: Webb Research Group aspx?paperID=74177 (accessed April 2, 2018). “Maximum-recorded overland run-ups of 45–49; Orrin F. Stafford, “The Wax of Nehalem Publisher, 1999), 35–36. See also Charles 19. Curt D. Peterson, Scott S. Williams, major nearfield paleotsunamis during the Beach,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 9:1 W. Brooks, Japanese Wrecks Stranded and Kenneth Cruikshank, and John Dube, “Geoar- past 3,000 years along the Cascadia margin, (Spring 1908): 24–41. Picked up Adrift in the North Pacific Ocean, chaeology of the Nehalem Spit: Redistribution USA and Canada,” Natural Hazards 77:3 (July 37. Jon Erlandson, Robert Losey, and Ethnologically Considered as Furnishing of Beeswax Galleon Wreck Debris by Cas- 2015): 2005–26, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069- Neil Peterson, “Early Maritime Contact on Evidence of a Constant Infusion of Japanese cadia Earthquake and Tsunami (~A.D. 1700), 015-1689-7 (accessed May 9, 2018); Curt D. the Northern Oregon Coast: Some Notes on Blood Among the Coast Tribes of Northwest- Oregon, USA,” Geoarchaeology: An Interna- Peterson unpublished data, 1983. the 17th Century Nehalem Beeswax Ship,” ern Indians (San Francisco: California Acad- tional Journal, 26:2 (February 2011): 219–44. 27. Peterson et al., “Geoarchaeology of in Changing Landscapes: “Telling Our Sto- emy of Sciences, 1876). 20. R.A. Meyers, D.G. Smith, H.M. Jol, the Nehalem Spit,” 230. ries”— Proceedings of the Fourth Annual 12. Webber and Webber, Amazing True and C.D. Peterson, “Evidence for eight great 28. Peterson et al., “Geoarchaeology of Coquille Cultural Preservation Conference, Tales, 35. earthquake-subsidence events detected the Nehalem Spit.” Jason Younker, Mark A. Tveskov, and David 13. Elliott Coues, ed., New Light on the with ground-penetrating radar, Willapa bar- 29. Schurz, The Manila Galleon. G. Lewis, eds., (North Bend, Ore.: Coquille Early History of the Greater Northwest: the rier, Washington,” Geology 24:2 (February 30. Blair and Robertson, Philippine Is- Indian Tribe, 2001), 46; Stenger, “Physical Evi- Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry Fur 1996): 99–102, https://doi.org/10.1130/0091- lands, 1493–1803, 309; Dahlgren, Discovery dence of Shipwrecks on the Oregon Coast in Trader of the Northwest Company and of 7613(1996)024<0099:EFEGES>2.3.CO;2 (ac- of the Hawaiian Islands, 98–99. Prehistory,” 9–13. David Thompson Official Geographer and cessed May 9, 2018); Curt D. Peterson, Debra L. 31. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y 38. Ruby El Hult, Lost Mines and Trea- Explorer of the Same Company 1799–1814, Doyle, and Elson T. Barnett, “Coastal flooding Deporte, Archivo General de Indias, Filipinas sures of the Pacific Northwest (Portland, Ore.: vol. 2 (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1897), 768, and beach retreat from coseismic subsidence 26,R.4,N.18 (DOC.5) Carta de Juan del Pozo Binford and Mort, 1973), 32–33; John Hobson, 841; Washington Irving, Astoria; or Anecdotes in the central Cascadia margin, USA,” Envi- Bobadilla, contador de la Real Hacienda, “North Pacific Prehistoric Wrecks: Well Known of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains ronmental and Engineering Geoscience 6:3 refiriendo que la causa de no haber llegado Pioneers Write Concerning Them,” Oregon (London: Richard Bentley, 1836), 39. (August 2000): 255–69, https://doi.org/10.2113/ el galeón Santo Cristo de Burgos fue la salida Native Son, vol. 2 (October 1900), 223. 14. Dahlgren, Discovery of the Hawaiian gseegeosci.6.3.255 (accessed May 9, 2018). precipitada y sin embarcar todos sus marine- 39. Ken Scheidegger, Oregon State Uni- Islands, 44, 47, 98–99, and 111; Shirley Fish, 21. Curt D. Peterson, Kenneth M. Crui- ros que hizo Bernardo Iñíguez para evitar las versity Marine Geology, personal communica- The Manila-Acapulco Galleons: The Treasure kshank, R.B. Schlichting, and S. Braunsten, fianzas que se le exigían, Manila, 30 de julio tion. The results initially were presented by Ships of the Pacific, with an Annotated List of “Distal runup records of latest Holocene pa- de 1694, image 992. Scheidegger and C.D. Peterson at a series of the Transpacific Galleons1565 –1815 (Central leotsunami inundation in alluvial flood plains: 32. Percy Hill, Romantic Episodes in Old conferences in 1982 and 1983. Milton Keynes, UK: AuthorHouse, 2011), 494, Neskowin and Beaver Creek, Oregon, Central Manila: Church and State in the Hands of 40. Hubert H. Bancroft, The Works of 505, and 506. Cascadia Margin, USA,” Journal of Coastal a Merry Jester—Time (Manila, Philippines: Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. 28, History of the 15. Ibid. Research 26:4 (July 2010): 622–34, https://doi. Sugar News Press, 1925). See also Cameron Northwest Coast, Vol. II, 1800–1846 (San Fran- 16. Jessica Lally, “Analysis of the Beeswax org/10.2112/08-1147.1 (accessed May 9, 2018). La Follette and Douglas Deur, “The Galleon’s cisco: The History Company, 1886), 531–33; Shipwreck Porcelain Collection, Oregon, 22. William L. Schurz, The Manila Gal- Final Journey: Accounts of Ship, Crew, and Horace Davis, “Japanese Wrecks in American USA,” in Early Navigation in the Asia-Pacific leon (New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., 1939, Passengers in the Colonial Archives,” in this Waters,” The Overland Monthly, 9:4 (San Region: A Maritime Archaeological Perspec- 1959), 259. issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly, 119:2 Francisco: John H. Carmany and Company, tive, ed. Chunming Wu (Singapore: Springer 23. Ground-truthing is the act of excavating (Summer 2018): 210–49. 1872): 353–60. Business + Media, 2016) into the ground to either physically see what 33. Lally, “Analysis of the Beeswax Ship- 41. Stafford, “Wax of Nehalem Beach,” 17. Kenji Satake, K. Shimazaki, Y. Tsuji, and the stratigraphy is or to recover samples. wreck Porcelain Collection, Oregon, USA.” 26–32. K. Ueda, “Time and size of a giant earthquake 24. Peterson et al., “Geoarchaeology of 34. A Research Design to Conduct Ar- 42. Williams, “The Beeswax Wreck, A in Cascadia inferred from Japanese tsunami the Nehalem Spit.” chaeological Investigations at the Site of the Manila Galleon in Oregon, USA,” 160–62.

208 OHQ vol. 119, no. 2 Williams, Peterson, Marken, and Rogers, The Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem 209