Savage Seas

Savage Seas. A Workhorse of the Pacific Comes to Grief. The Point Arena was built in 1887. This sturdy steam schooner carried large loads of cargo yet was nimble enough to navigate the tiny "dog hole" ports of California's central coast. , On August 9, 1913, the Point Arena was loading tanbark at Pigeon Point when rough seas forced her onto the rocks, tearing a hole in her hill. "The stunned seamen could only watch the Point Arena sink into the churning water." , The wreckage of the Point Arena was a danger to other ships and was burned. "It just would not have looked good to have a wrecked ship in front of a lighthouse." , This five-ton section of the Point Arena hull washed ashore at Año Nuevo and was uncovered by storms in 1983., Death and Destruction , 100 Years of Shipwrecks Between Año Nuevo and Pigeon Point , 1853 Carrier Pigeon (naming Pigeon Point) , 1865 Sir John Franklin , 1866 Coya , 1868 Hellespont , 1868 Congress appropriates $90,000 to build a lighthouse , 1871 Pigeon Point fog signal bellows , 1872 Pigeon Point Lighthouse beams , 1872 Año Nuevo Island steam whistle blows , 1887 J.W. Seaver and San Vincente , 1890 Crude lighthouse erected on Año Nuevo Island , 1986 Colombia , 1913 Point Arena comes to grief , 1916 Skeleton light tower with Fresnel lens built on Año Nuevo Island , 1925 Pilgrim , 1929 San Juan , 1932 Western Spirit , 1934 Ohio No. 3 , 1948 Año Nuevo Island Station replaced by whistle buoy still in operation , 1953 BARC 1