Graveyard of the Pacific

A vivid portrait of the Columbia River Bar that combines maritime
history, adventure journalism, and memoir, bringing alive the history—and
present-- of one of the most notorious stretches of water in the world

Off the coast of Oregon, the Columbia River flows into the
Pacific Ocean and forms the Columbia River Bar: a watery collision so turbulent and deadly that it’s nicknamed the
Graveyard of the Pacific.

Two thousand ships have been wrecked on the bar since the
first European ship dared to try to cross it in the late 18th
century. For decades ships continued to make the bar crossing with great peril,
first with native guides and later with opportunistic newcomers, as Europeans
settled in Washington and Oregon, displacing the natives and transforming the
river into the hub of a booming region. Since then, the commercial importance
of the Columbia River has only grown, and despite the construction of jetties
on either side, the bar remains treacherous, even today a site of shipwrecks
and dramatic rescues as well as power struggles between small fishermen,
powerful shipowners, local communities in Washington and Oregon, the Coast
Guard, and the Columbia River Bar Pilots – a small group of highly skilled
navigators who help guide ships through the mouth of the Columbia.

When Randall Sullivan and a friend set out to cross the bar
in a two-man kayak, they’re met with skepticism and
concern. But on a clear day in July 2021, when the tides and weather seem
right, they embark. As they plunge through the currents that have taken
so many lives, Randall commemorates the brave sailors that made the
crossing before him – including his own abusive father, a sailor himself who
also once dared to cross the bar – and reflects on toxic masculinity,
fatherhood, and what drives men to extremes.  

Rich with exhaustive research and propulsive narrative, Graveyard
of the Pacific follows historical shipwrecks through the moment-by-moment
details that often determined whether sailors would live or die, exposing the
ways in which boats, sailors, and navigation have changed over the decades. As
he makes his way across the bar, floating above the wrecks and across the same
currents that have taken so many lives, Randall Sullivan faces the past, both
in his own life and on the Columbia River Bar.