Ocean King
The four-masted bark Ocean King was built at the N. L. Thompson shipyard in Lower Village, Kennebunk, under the exacting supervision of master carpenter Benjamin Jackson. Thompson was known to be a shrewd businessman, which means he was intent on increase. He had moved his shipyard from Kennebunk to Lower Village in 1856 capitalizing on a downturn by acquiring shipyard parcels out of bankruptcy. The Ocean King was launched from the Lower Village on October 6, 1874 at a cost of $150,000 (approximately $4,125,000 in 2024). Between 1875-1883 she was owned by the J. Henry Sears & Co., Boston, MA and employed in the New York - San Francisco - Liverpool route. These routes suggest people and cotton were the cargo. She was laid up at San Francisco for 3 years after the owners went out of business in 1883.
The ending saga begins in 1887 when Ocean King was a lowly collier (coal carrier). The fateful last voyage in April began as described by the Daily Colonist newspaper of Victoria, British Columbia: The Ocean King, which was commanded by Captain Sawyer, was towed to sea on the 28th ult. with 4,000' tons of V. C. Co.'s coal, the largest cargo ever taken out of Nanaimo by a ship. (The abbreviation ult. means the month preceding. V.C. Co. is the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company.)
Note that it was the ‘largest cargo’ onboard a vessel 263' long, 43' wide, and 30' deep. Newspapers at the time of Ocean King’s demise refer to Ocean King as the largest American ship afloat (The Atlanta Constitution; The Ypsilantian), third largest American sailing vessel ever launched (Daily Colonist), and the largest American ship built (Decatur Daily Republican).
On May 1, the Ocean King was disabled and sprung a leak in a gale thirty-five miles west of Cape Arago, Oregon. It caught fire about a week later during the same gale. The sealing schooner Angel Dollie picked up all twenty-six sailors fifty miles from Cape Blanco, Oregon. At Cape Flattery, Washington they were transferred to the steam launch Cosmo which returned them to Port Townsend, Washington on May 12. After 15 days, they returned to their point of departure, unharmed by the ordeal.
In the image of the Ocean King, the clouds forming turret-like towers arising from a common base are called castellanus. Their presence highlights a likelihood of developing storms.
