Where is the Lady Grace?

Sunken vessel in Hoquiam River slated for removal nowhere to be found

By Dan Hammock • December 25, 2019 3:30 pm
KAT BRYANT | GRAYS HARBOR NEWS GROUP The Lady Grace, an 80-foot commercial fishing vessel that sank in the Hoquiam River in March 2018, has disappeared as contractors were bidding for its removal.
KAT BRYANT | GRAYS HARBOR NEWS GROUP The Lady Grace, an 80-foot commercial fishing vessel that sank in the Hoquiam River in March 2018, has disappeared as contractors were bidding for its removal.

Where is the Lady Grace?

The 80-foot commercial fishing vessel, which sank in the Hoquiam River March 2, 2018, qualified for Department of Natural Resources Derelict Vessel Removal Program funds in early November. The city, and the program, were excited that, after more than a year and a half, it was going to be out of the river, and in short order.

A contractor bidding on the removal went to the scene last week. And the Lady Grace, whose mast was visible above the water’s surface off the west bank just upriver from the Riverside Bridge and the Hum Dinger drive-in for all that time, was nowhere to be found.

“We don’t know how, what, where or why, but the ship has sailed,” said Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay.

The contractor arrived at the location earlier last week and couldn’t find any sign of the Grace. Shay said city code enforcer Dorian Wylie went to see for himself, and there was nothing where the Grace once was.

“The contractor said this has happened before. When the DNR publishes notices that boats will be removed, they simply disappear,” said Shay.

Jerry Farmer, a member of the Derelict Vessel Removal Program, said he finds it difficult to believe the vessel was salvaged. It’s an 80-foot vessel, not something one could sneak out of the river. It may have moved with the tide, shifted deeper in the river.

Shay, on the other hand, said he has his “fingers crossed that it’s gone for good.”

Bottom line, it’s not where it’s been for 21 months. The City of Hoquiam had spent a lot of time and effort, along with the derelict vessel program, to secure 100% funds for its removal. Those funds came from a special request to the Legislature last year for funds specifically for larger vessels.

Farmer said the program was looking forward to the removal, it being such a large vessel and the first time the program has worked with the city. Still, “we applaud the City of Hoquiam” for its work to use the department’s program to have the vessel removed from the river, he said.

Since July 5, 2017, seven vessels have sunk in the river on property owned by Mart Liikane at 200 Monroe St., just upriver and on the same side of the river as the Hum Dinger. The first was the Donna, followed by the Perwyn July 26; the Two Sisters Nov. 6, 2017; the Grace; two unnamed vessels Oct. 17, 2018; and a former Navy patrol boat Dec. 25, 2018.

Each incident prompted a response from the Department of Ecology Spills Program to contain and, when possible, remove the oil and fuel leaking from the vessels. The Lady Grace was pumped out shortly after she sank, said Farmer.

Any funds that would have been allocated for the removal of the Lady Grace will remain in the DNR derelict vessel account, said Farmer. If the vessel is indeed still in the river, and is located, the city would have to contact the program again. If the funding is still in the program’s account, it could still be used for the Grace, but if it has been used on another large vessel elsewhere, the program would have to go back to the Legislature to see if it could get some more.