Editor’s note: Originally published July 13, 2021. Republished June 30, 2022

Shipwrecks, right? You know the drill. Buried treasure. Sunken galleons. The tattered remains of sails, a damaged hull, haunted by ghosts and sharks, overgrown with seaweed and rippled with barnacles.

This is what shipwrecks evoke in the collective consciousness. They’ve been part of humanity’s stories and lore since very early times. 

So when I heard tell of a row of shipwrecks just off the coast of Everett, I had to investigate. I wanted to know why they were there, how they got there. What had these boats been like when they were in prime condition?

What’s remarkable is that I had never seen these boats before. Or, so I initially thought. I actually had seen them out in the bay, glimpsed from Legion Memorial Park. The row of ships forms a breakwater to the north of Jetty Island. From the park’s bluff, however, they look like a long line of pilings, especially at high tide.

I went out to explore with Live in Everett co-founder, Garret Hunt. He has an inflatable boat with an electric motor.

We left on a bright May morning as the tide was going out, hoping to catch the ships when they were exposed and approachable by foot. After a half-hour pushing against the current, we arrived at the sandbar to the north of the island. It was about a mile from the 10th Street Boat Launch. (The water is so shallow at low tide you can practically walk from Jetty Island to the ships).

The sandbar was really more of a sinking sandbar. After beaching the boat, we waded, sometimes calf-deep, toward the row of semi-sunken and blistering vessels.

Walking/wading among the boats was a powerful experience. They rose up like monoliths. The wood was blistering, splintered by the sun. The hulls were knotted with thick barnacles and mussels and one boat even had a well-established tree growing out of the top. There was the powerful stench of the sea at low tide. Crabs scuttled away underfoot as we waded in wonder. 

There are many rusted parts of the boats that I didn’t recognize (I’m not much of a historic boat guy), but the gnarled wood and metal forms were bizarre. There was a constant trickling sound as the ships leaked water in rivulets with the outgoing tide.

I learned later that these boats are actually identical barracks boats. They were moored in Lakes Washington and Union after World War II. After the war, they were purchased (presumably by the Port of Everett) and towed north to form the breakwater off of Jetty Island. The cabins were removed and taken up to Kayak Point, where they served as lodging for several decades. Now that’s a cool story.

The Equator was once part of the breakwater, too. I wrote a whole article on this remarkable boat that you may want to read. But if you want the bullet points: Robert Louis Stevenson, coconuts, ghosts, Hawaiian royalty, a dentist, and termites. That about covers it.

The tide was coming in, so we decided to head out. I was really glad I finally got to see these old shipwrecks up close.

Coming back from the breakwater with Garret, I felt again a big appreciation for our city’s maritime history. We saw ospreys and curious harbor seals. A few months ago I bought a foldable kayak and I’ve been enjoying my recent time on local waterways, exploring the Snohomish River, the delta, the estuaries and shorelines of Possession Sound.

If you’d like to visit the shipwrecks, I recommend taking a trip out there. It makes for a remarkable journey, and a great photo op. These remarkable boats are an oft-overlooked feature of our seaside story in Everett.

Bon voyage!

Like local history? You may enjoy the Vintage Everett Facebook group. It’s a great place to share and learn about the stories from our city’s past. 

Richard Porter is a writer for Live in Everett.