Captain George Flavel

By: Jon Drury

Narrated by: Jon Drury, Joelle Drury

Astoria, Oregon, owes its existence as much to a little-known ship captain as its namesake, John Jacob Astor. Captain George Flavel happened upon the ramshackle village at the mouth of the Columbia River in the fall of 1849, bringing goods during the California Gold Rush. As he subsequently captained and piloted three different ships along the Pacific coast, he learned that the perilous Columbia River Bar, the "graveyard of the Pacific", barred the entrance to most mariners. Hazards abounded. Powerful tides and currents merged with the river's flow, storms, and winds to produce towering waves and an ever-shifting bar - a living, breathing peril to lives, shipping, and cargo. But Flavel recognized that a wise and knowledgeable pilot could master this peril and possibly build a career, a future, and the town of Astoria at the river's mouth.

©2020 Jon Ellis Drury (P)2021 Jon Ellis Drury