La Merced, Shipwreck

Joe Mabel CC BY-SA 4.0,.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=103303771

In the Northwest corner of the USA lies Puget Sound, one of the largest fjords in the world (technically a deep fjord estuary). On Fidalgo Island, in the town of Anacortes lies the ship La Merced (“Mercy”).

The ship La Merced was a large four-masted wooden schooner, built at Benicia, California, in 1917. She was about 232 ft (71 m) long. She was built during the World War I shipbuilding boom and soon became associated with Standard Oil, carrying petroleum products.

Her career was unusually varied. She carried cargo on the Pacific coast and on longer voyages, including petroleum outward and grain on return voyages. In the late 1920s she was converted into a floating salmon cannery for use in Alaska.

By the 1960s she was obsolete. In 1966, instead of being completely broken up, her hull was moved to Lovric’s Shipyard on Guemes Channel in Anacortes. She was beached and surrounded with rock. The interior was filled with sand, mud and other material, turning La Merced into a breakwater for Lovric’s boatyard. She has since sprouted a grove of trees.

“Shipwreck Day” is celebrated in Anacortes every year on the 3rd Saturday of July.