I stumbled across this video.... what a gem - very fascinating - what historical treasure you've bestowed upon us. Bloody shame the schools and PBS does not bless far more with this information. Great work. I enjoy our small sailing boats although I stayed a night on the Balclutha in the SF harbor, however these are a class to themselves.
We moved around a lot when I was a child, and I realized early on that the only way to get a decent education was to become autodidactic. Information is readily available for anyone who looks for it.
I was born in the town of North Bend, Oregon. The original name of the town was Yarrow. I grew up just blocks from the Simpsons Park in a house at the end of Montana Avenue. Just beyond our home was the shore of the bay. During the Columbus Day Storm of 62 the surge came up as far as our sea wall and some of the waves were blown against our home. My dad was an ambulance driver and was working throughout the storm. Fond memories of my childhood.
Coos Bay has been my home since 1946 and with the exception of 22 years in the navy it still is. Thank you for your video. As a retired photographer I would like to point out that glass plate negatives were just that, glass plate negatives. It is great that you were able to save so many of them. None of this was taught in history classes at Marshfield High School. Too bad, because it would give out kids a better understanding of the community. RLB USN (ret)
15:00 By absolute chance your video started playing because I had to leave the room for a while and a few videos continued to "auto play" and suddenly I see a painting of the wall hanging ship I have on my wall!!! Mine is a molded plastic sculpture from 1962 painted in gold and I've always wondered what ship it might be. The rolled up sail and the shape of the flags and the rigging all match. I'm so glad that this video played today. And my TV hangs directly beside the ship hanging on the wall. Thank you for valuing history. -✌🏼
Wow. What a find. Seriously what an amazing story. And to save it on such narrow luck! What it would have been like to be around when these tall ships sailed
Ship's interiors are in what I am interested. Photos of the exteriors are easy to find but living spaces are RARE. Please do a documentary on interior spaces of ships.
What a surprise ! My grandfather,Oscar Oberg,,shown with his oldest so ,Carl was skipper of the Admiral while his family was growing up.I have pictures of my mother and her five siblings playing aboard on the stacks of lumber higher than their heads.They spent several summers making the coastal run. Thankyou
Thanks, and what a great job you did. I want yo sail the world and love tall ships. I just moved to oregon from wyoming and bought a wood fishing vessel called the Legend. Built in Canada and launched in 1961 built of oak and port orford cedar. Look forward to more of your shows
I am just getting into building large realistic ship models and came across your videos. I am sure you heard this many many times before but I just have to add in my HUGE THANK YOU for finding and sharing this information. Outstanding Steve just nothing shy of Outstanding. Best Wishes your way
Thank you for your diligence and Patience. I'ved learned so much in a proud moment of positive Energies of history. I'm glad to know this gained wonderful knowledge. 💪🎇
Unbelievable industry and production, almost incomprehensible, all done by hand, no power tools. Man I'd probably kill to have one of those models! I'll be learning more. I got aboard the USS Constitution in Boston I was impressed haha ( they captured me and forced me to be part of the crew haha I wish!)
The sailing vessel mentioned in the video Tropic Bird is featured in a story told in the book Captain Scaggs (by Peter B Kyne). It is a humorous book based in SF Bay in the early 1900's about a steamboat captain and his crew.
Steve thanks for this post. Its just great ;o) You might find a flood of back and white photos posted in the news groups tall ship that I have collected for 10 years. I am a submariner and you need this to keep it alive. I love to sail in bad weather the most!
I live on Kruse ave here in Coos Bay, I'm sure it's named after John Kruse, their not another Kruse in the county, it started out as a wooden road next to the Coal Bank slough. I noticed on the list of ships, his last ship had his name and Bank as the builders, the slough leads back to some coal mines, the rocks I heard was used to make the jetty, You can't head north from North Bend with out crossing the McCullough Bridge, my family name.
@@rogerscottcathey They had him listed as John, is that what his Danish name is. He's buried about 4 blocks from my home Marshfield Pioneer Cemetery Coos Bay, Coos County, Oregon, USA PLOT Row DD, Block 55, Plot 2 He was also remembered for constructing a schoolhouse in Old Town, Thats in North Bend, Marshfield High school is next to Marshfield Pioneer Cemetery.
I think I may have more info on who Originally got the glass negatives from the print shop . He was told to throw them in the trash and as a young man he took them home to Airport heights and they have traveled 2200 miles then back to the Bay .
Good to see you again, some day I will post the rest of my ship build videos and stop starting new projects, hope all is well in your dock or harbor. Atb Lawrence
I've been searching in vain to find a documentary I saw as a young guy back in the 80's. The movie doc follows one of the last tall ships to perform commercial fishing I believe. While the documentary was narrated in English I'm pretty sure the crew were Danish/Norwegian/Finnish/or Swedish. I remember that food was not plentiful and the crew ate a LOT of raw fish. I remember that I watched sailors just kinda rip a head off and chomp down a whole uncooked herring towards the end of the documentary. I'm not certain, but I vaguely remember the movie having to do with the end of wind-powered fishing on schooners and clippers instead of new industrialized methods and Diesel engines. It was the last of its generation to continue fishing into the 1970's. Does anyone remember this movie? I want to say it was a documentary on either HBO or Showtime in the mid to late 1980's. Anyone?
I wonder why the Portland went to New Zealand loaded with lumber. All that way across the Pacific when NZ had so much of its own lumber anyway. You'd hate to run into a hurricane with that lot on board.
for a complete answer to that see the Book By Tom Cox mills and markets he deals with exactly that. however the short answer is that one the lumber was loaded on a large ship it was just as easy to ship to Australia or the far east as San Fransisco.
Thank you for posting this valuable information. I am a NW native and this is the first time in all my years, that I have ever heard of these vessels! A real piece of history that got no mention what so ever in school. Sad, I suppose teaching socialism was more important than American History even back then.....
Very interesting. I wasn't aware of John Kruse, am unsure the relationship if any with K.V. Kruse. I know K.V. Kruse had a brother, the two of them having started out in Denmark, and worked in San Francisco for a time. Kruse and Banks was established in 1905. Knud Vladimar Kruse was our great grandfather. My Dad had letters from his grand uncle who lived at that time in South America. We have many photos.
John Kruse and KV Kruse were not related - it's a coincidence that Asa would hire two ship builders with same last name. The John Kruse relatives still live in Coos Bay area.
Just plain great! I would suggest that glass negatives were not daguerreotype, usually printed on metal. And please pronounce Coos with an "s" --- not "z" --- sorry to nit pick, but what amazing work you have done.
I respectfully submit that the name of this bay is Coos (said like moose or loose, please) Bay, not Cooz bay. It is a proper name and not subject to spelling/pronunciation rules. Thank you from a native of Coos (cooss) County.
At the 6 minute mark you call Coos Bay in 1854 "Unsettled" and pristine. Wrong - Coos Bay (which comes from the Coosan languages, Kuukuus or Kuukwis, our name for the region and it means 'south') was ringed with dozens and dozens of villages, and many villages and fish camp sites up Coos River, and people had been living here for thousands of years.
Then about a min later he talks about the tragic loss of his bother, I wonder if he was a victim of that Pristine unsettled land resisting their settling there. LOL Have you ever heard of the Muskogean people, their legend is they came from the west big mountains of snow they were called "Ani'-Ku'sa or Ani'-Gu'sa, or Coosa, the Choctaw are part of the Muskogean speaking people, their legend says they were led by a great medicine man and a Red Pole(staff) that guided them to the Mississippi valley and the Coosa river, it took many years to get there from the mountains of snow. Do you think there might be a connection.
Steve...I've had a heck of a time getting in touch with you...about many of your projects..namely your Western Shore I am excited to build a large scale model of her myself. Great job!
you can always reach me through my web site tallshipsofsanfrancisco.com/index.html will have copy of the plans for the ‘shore’ in a book to be published
Steve Priske Thanks Steve...I've tried your website with no avail....I'll try again. Again thanks for producing the book...I'm from Newberg Oregon and after my Navy days..settled here in Bremerton. My Passion is the McKay ship Glory of the Seas...which I am planning a summer expedition to acquire timbers from her remains south of Seattle, that I will display along the model I am creating of her. Your work on the Western Shore will be my springboard for this build. I'll try again to contact you on your site. Rob
Steve Priske Steve..one more thing..I came across a small booklet entitle, *The Simpsons of shore acres*. It outlines the family Simpson in Coos Bay and the lumber empire they built, not to mention some of the ships they built. Arago books 1991. Rob
I have a copy, as well as Coos and Curry County History (and a couple books by Dick Wagner), however, none have the complete list of tall ships built on Coos Bay, and none are ‘maritime’ books (which is why most all tall ship aficionados have never heard of this fleet of 72 ships). All best, Steve
Hey Steve, Your final remark, "...that ships of sail built on the Pacific Northwest were possibly the finest wooden ships of sail ever built!". I respect your patriotism, but you seem to forget (and I know John Kruse was Danish), that in Denmark, the towns of Marstal, Ring Andersen Shipyard in Svendborg and Thuroe, for sure match the beauty, the tall ships of the Northwest represent - in my opinion.
well, timber was plentiful, guess they used White Oak, for structural members, spruce, oregon sparsYes pins were always high, you cannot make fast with pins under water
I had a dream vision about this place when I was a kid, long before I knew it existed. Me and some immigrants were hiding under the dock. Fearing our lives. We went underwater and held our breath while someone walked by. I remember everything vividly still. Recently this year I realized why and what was going on there. I was triggered because of my brother-in-law who works at the casino. I think they trafficked humans too😢
just like in San Francisco in during the heyday of tall ships, there was a Barbary Coast - right between North Bend and Marshfield (today Coos Bay) and where the Casino is today. Just like at Barbary Coasts all over the world, at this place they'd wait till the lowlifes got really drunk, then "whacked" them over the head, dropped them through a trap door to under the wharf and onto a ship of sail, desperate for crew. Of course the sorry sods wouldn't make up till much later at sea, no choice but to be part of crew - or they'd throw you overboard!
Fantastic info, good work! Though one of the first lines about Asa getting chased off by hostile Indians and going back to settle the area later perpetuates a pervasive incorrect notion that a place isn’t settled unless it’s done by white people. Who chased him off in the first place?
This is the best documentary of the shipbuilding history of Coos Bay North Bend. Amazing.
Mister, you sure build a fine model!
Thanks again for all your hard work on this project and town.
Loved this. Steve's work is breathtaking.
love it ive sailed in and out of coos bay 2 times and i live in reedsport oregon did not realize coos bay area built all them nice ships
It's so sad when a beautiful 3, 4, and 5 masts ship is lost. Thank you for posting this video of some not so well known ships. They will be missed.
I stumbled across this video.... what a gem - very fascinating - what historical treasure you've bestowed upon us. Bloody shame the schools and PBS does not bless far more with this information. Great work. I enjoy our small sailing boats although I stayed a night on the Balclutha in the SF harbor, however these are a class to themselves.
We moved around a lot when I was a child, and I realized early on that the only way to get a decent education was to become autodidactic. Information is readily available for anyone who looks for it.
I was born in the town of North Bend, Oregon. The original name of the town was Yarrow. I grew up just blocks from the Simpsons Park in a house at the end of Montana Avenue. Just beyond our home was the shore of the bay. During the Columbus Day Storm of 62 the surge came up as far as our sea wall and some of the waves were blown against our home. My dad was an ambulance driver and was working throughout the storm. Fond memories of my childhood.
It had a name before Yarrow - Duugwattich. A Hanis (Coos) village named for a reed that used to grow there, duugwa (probably a species of Eleocharis).
Sooo very interesting. I've lived in Coos Bay my whole life. 45yr.😊🫡
Fascinating story.Much history to be learned.
splendid! splendid!!
Coos Bay has been my home since 1946 and with the exception of 22 years in the navy it still is. Thank you for your video. As a retired photographer I would like to point out that glass plate negatives were just that, glass plate negatives. It is great that you were able to save so many of them. None of this was taught in history classes at Marshfield High School. Too bad, because it would give out kids a better understanding of the community. RLB USN (ret)
hopefully some of these will be donated to the Oregon Sate archives or the University of Oregon .
Thanks again for your interest
Excellent ... Thanks for posting 👍🏼 ✨
Interesting and worthwhile!
15:00
By absolute chance your video started playing because I had to leave the room for a while and a few videos continued to "auto play" and suddenly I see a painting of the wall hanging ship I have on my wall!!!
Mine is a molded plastic sculpture from 1962 painted in gold and I've always wondered what ship it might be. The rolled up sail and the shape of the flags and the rigging all match. I'm so glad that this video played today. And my TV hangs directly beside the ship hanging on the wall.
Thank you for valuing history.
-✌🏼
Wow. What a find. Seriously what an amazing story. And to save it on such narrow luck!
What it would have been like to be around when these tall ships sailed
Thank you this is amazing history you saved awesome presentation 👍👍
Ship's interiors are in what I am interested. Photos of the exteriors are easy to find but living spaces are RARE. Please do a documentary on interior spaces of ships.
Impressive history research.
Well done
What a surprise ! My grandfather,Oscar Oberg,,shown with his oldest so ,Carl was skipper of the Admiral while his family was growing up.I have pictures of my mother and her five siblings playing aboard on the stacks of lumber higher than their heads.They spent several summers making the coastal run. Thankyou
Thank you
Thanks, and what a great job you did. I want yo sail the world and love tall ships. I just moved to oregon from wyoming and bought a wood fishing vessel called the Legend. Built in Canada and launched in 1961 built of oak and port orford cedar. Look forward to more of your shows
I am just getting into building large realistic ship models and came across your videos. I am sure you heard this many many times before but I just have to add in my HUGE THANK YOU for finding and sharing this information. Outstanding Steve just nothing shy of Outstanding. Best Wishes your way
I was born in Coos Bay, OR 1984. My roots remain but my desires are outbound. Thank you for this video! 😊
Thanks for the content
my neck is tingling how wonderful, i love our history so exciting. congratulations well done!!!
Not very exciting for the native Americans Indians,
They didn't circle globe.
They circling flat water, on a flat plain.
Simple..look at maps.
Water don't curve, shake off that washing.
Thank you for your diligence and Patience. I'ved learned so much in a proud moment of positive Energies of history. I'm glad to know this gained wonderful knowledge. 💪🎇
I have had the best experience of the last 2 years, Well done, Sir.
You are simply amazing Steve. You masterfully bring this area's history into the light of the present.
Unbelievable industry and production, almost incomprehensible, all done by hand, no power tools. Man I'd probably kill to have one of those models! I'll be learning more. I got aboard the USS Constitution in Boston I was impressed haha ( they captured me and forced me to be part of the crew haha I wish!)
An amazing history, for sure.
Boats are a lot like people, they either sink, or run aground. Spectacular history lesson.
An Absolute Spectacular video!
Great video! I'll watch the rest! Thanks!
The sailing vessel mentioned in the video Tropic Bird is featured in a story told in the book Captain Scaggs (by Peter B Kyne). It is a humorous book based in SF Bay in the early 1900's about a steamboat captain and his crew.
Steve thanks for this post. Its just great ;o) You might find a flood of back and white photos posted in the news groups tall ship that I have collected for 10 years. I am a submariner and you need this to keep it alive. I love to sail in bad weather the most!
What an intro!
Fabulus find.
Coos Bay,....who would have thought...?
How cool this is
Beautiful models.
I live on Kruse ave here in Coos Bay, I'm sure it's named after John Kruse, their not another Kruse in the county, it started out as a wooden road next to the Coal Bank slough. I noticed on the list of ships, his last ship had his name and Bank as the builders, the slough leads back to some coal mines, the rocks I heard was used to make the jetty, You can't head north from North Bend with out crossing the McCullough Bridge, my family name.
The name was K.V. Kruse.
@@rogerscottcathey They had him listed as John, is that what his Danish name is.
He's buried about 4 blocks from my home
Marshfield Pioneer Cemetery
Coos Bay, Coos County, Oregon, USA
PLOT
Row DD, Block 55, Plot 2
He was also remembered for constructing a schoolhouse in Old Town, Thats in North Bend, Marshfield High school is next to Marshfield Pioneer Cemetery.
@@MrBlazingup420 : That was another Shipwright, no relation to KV Kruse who came later. The video informed me after my comment.
I think I may have more info on who Originally got the glass negatives from the print shop . He was told to throw them in the trash and as a young man he took them home to Airport heights and they have traveled 2200 miles then back to the Bay .
Fantastic history thank you 🙏
Was John Kruse related to the Kruse Family in Roseburg? Like Jeff Kruse, is he related?
Best of the best
Good to see you again, some day I will post the rest of my ship build videos and stop starting new projects, hope all is well in your dock or harbor. Atb Lawrence
Thankyou. Fascinating.
I've been searching in vain to find a documentary I saw as a young guy back in the 80's. The movie doc follows one of the last tall ships to perform commercial fishing I believe. While the documentary was narrated in English I'm pretty sure the crew were Danish/Norwegian/Finnish/or Swedish. I remember that food was not plentiful and the crew ate a LOT of raw fish. I remember that I watched sailors just kinda rip a head off and chomp down a whole uncooked herring towards the end of the documentary. I'm not certain, but I vaguely remember the movie having to do with the end of wind-powered fishing on schooners and clippers instead of new industrialized methods and Diesel engines. It was the last of its generation to continue fishing into the 1970's.
Does anyone remember this movie? I want to say it was a documentary on either HBO or Showtime in the mid to late 1980's. Anyone?
I wonder why the Portland went to New Zealand loaded with lumber. All that way across the Pacific when NZ had so much of its own lumber anyway. You'd hate to run into a hurricane with that lot on board.
for a complete answer to that see the Book By Tom Cox mills and markets he deals with exactly that. however the short answer is that one the lumber was loaded on a large ship it was just as easy to ship to Australia or the far east as San Fransisco.
WELL DONE.
Thank you for posting this valuable information. I am a NW native and this is the first time in all my years, that I have ever heard of these vessels! A real piece of history that got no mention what so ever in school. Sad, I suppose teaching socialism was more important than American History even back then.....
I am a registered tribe member of CLUSI, glad to meet you!
If you enjoyed this, you might like to read Henry Dana's earlier account of sailing on the West Coast in "Two Years before the Mast".
Wonderful, this is awesome
Very interesting. I wasn't aware of John Kruse, am unsure the relationship if any with K.V. Kruse.
I know K.V. Kruse had a brother, the two of them having started out in Denmark, and worked in San Francisco for a time. Kruse and Banks was established in 1905. Knud Vladimar Kruse was our great grandfather. My Dad had letters from his grand uncle who lived at that time in South America. We have many photos.
John Kruse and KV Kruse were not related - it's a coincidence that Asa would hire two ship builders with same last name. The John Kruse relatives still live in Coos Bay area.
Just plain great! I would suggest that glass negatives were not daguerreotype, usually printed on metal. And please pronounce Coos with an "s" --- not "z" --- sorry to nit pick, but what amazing work you have done.
How do I find the right person to investigate a possible plane crash I located on google maps?
Imagine cutting a mast with a broad axe?
spruce, oregon spars and yes pin were always above bulwarks, reason, you canna make fast with pins underwater
I respectfully submit that the name of this bay is Coos (said like moose or loose, please) Bay, not Cooz bay. It is a proper name and not subject to spelling/pronunciation rules. Thank you from a native of Coos (cooss) County.
At the 6 minute mark you call Coos Bay in 1854 "Unsettled" and pristine. Wrong - Coos Bay (which comes from the Coosan languages, Kuukuus or Kuukwis, our name for the region and it means 'south') was ringed with dozens and dozens of villages, and many villages and fish camp sites up Coos River, and people had been living here for thousands of years.
Then about a min later he talks about the tragic loss of his bother, I wonder if he was a victim of that Pristine unsettled land resisting their settling there. LOL
Have you ever heard of the Muskogean people, their legend is they came from the west big mountains of snow they were called "Ani'-Ku'sa or Ani'-Gu'sa, or Coosa, the Choctaw are part of the Muskogean speaking people, their legend says they were led by a great medicine man and a Red Pole(staff) that guided them to the Mississippi valley and the Coosa river, it took many years to get there from the mountains of snow. Do you think there might be a connection.
Used to have bonfires on basendorf beach
Tall Ships of Coos Bay c.1856 - 1920
Steve...I've had a heck of a time getting in touch with you...about many of your projects..namely your Western Shore I am excited to build a large scale model of her myself. Great job!
you can always reach me through my web site tallshipsofsanfrancisco.com/index.html
will have copy of the plans for the ‘shore’ in a book to be published
Steve Priske Thanks Steve...I've tried your website with no avail....I'll try again. Again thanks for producing the book...I'm from Newberg Oregon and after my Navy days..settled here in Bremerton. My Passion is the McKay ship Glory of the Seas...which I am planning a summer expedition to acquire timbers from her remains south of Seattle, that I will display along the model I am creating of her. Your work on the
Western Shore will be my springboard for this build. I'll try again to contact you on your site.
Rob
Steve Priske Steve..one more thing..I came across a small booklet entitle, *The Simpsons of shore acres*. It outlines the family Simpson in Coos Bay and the lumber empire they built, not to mention some of the ships they built. Arago books 1991.
Rob
I have a copy, as well as Coos and Curry County History (and a couple books by Dick Wagner), however, none have the complete list of tall ships built on Coos Bay, and none are ‘maritime’ books (which is why most all tall ship aficionados have never heard of this fleet of 72 ships). All best, Steve
Hey Steve,
Your final remark, "...that ships of sail built on the Pacific Northwest were possibly the finest wooden ships of sail ever built!". I respect your patriotism, but you seem to forget (and I know John Kruse was Danish), that in Denmark, the towns of Marstal, Ring Andersen Shipyard in Svendborg and Thuroe, for sure match the beauty, the tall ships of the Northwest represent - in my opinion.
"Chased off by hostile indians" yes the people who lived there, I'm sure they sorted that problem the following year.
I was raised on Libby Homestead
Not sure your source but we’re all related.
well, timber was plentiful, guess they used White Oak, for structural members, spruce, oregon sparsYes pins were always high, you cannot make fast with pins under water
actually white oak wasn't used much Oregon ship builders, other woods were more abundant and just as durable when
Hi Steve Remember me? Becky fr staples in cb? HELLO!!
Hi you, of course I remember. So miss living up there. If you’re on Facebook friend me?
ok I only see one that is you (pan am)
Becky Robertson
That’s me, flew for Pan Am for ten years and just posted photo of those years on Face Book
I had a dream vision about this place when I was a kid, long before I knew it existed.
Me and some immigrants were hiding under the dock. Fearing our lives. We went underwater and held our breath while someone walked by.
I remember everything vividly still. Recently this year I realized why and what was going on there. I was triggered because of my brother-in-law who works at the casino.
I think they trafficked humans too😢
just like in San Francisco in during the heyday of tall ships, there was a Barbary Coast - right between North Bend and Marshfield (today Coos Bay) and where the Casino is today. Just like at Barbary Coasts all over the world, at this place they'd wait till the lowlifes got really drunk, then "whacked" them over the head, dropped them through a trap door to under the wharf and onto a ship of sail, desperate for crew. Of course the sorry sods wouldn't make up till much later at sea, no choice but to be part of crew - or they'd throw you overboard!
Fantastic info, good work! Though one of the first lines about Asa getting chased off by hostile Indians and going back to settle the area later perpetuates a pervasive incorrect notion that a place isn’t settled unless it’s done by white people. Who chased him off in the first place?
One of the greatest failures of the United States education is to not teach about the amazing early naval history of our country.
Slow down, too fast.
Fantastic history thank you 🙏