In 1865, one of the West Coast’s deadliest maritime disasters claimed over 200 lives. A remnant of that wreck, the ship’s wheel, now hangs among the many adornments at Dan and Louis Oyster Bar, where it has been displayed for nearly 100 years.
Dan and Louis Oyster Bar opened in downtown Portland in 1907. Nearly 120 years later, it remains in operation at the same location, now run by five generations of the Wachmuth family.
Inside, nearly every wall and corner displays decades of its seafaring history.
This screen grab from inside Portland's Dan and Louis Oyster Bar shows a small sample of the eclectic, nautical decor. The restaurant has been family-owned since 1907.
Cameron Nielsen / OPB
Describing the interior, co-owner Michelle Wachsmuth offers four words: “Nautical, Portland, Wachsmuth, oysters.” In other words, a little bit of everything.
She says, at some point in the 1930s, someone started to decorate with oyster plates, “The original owner, Louis C., did not like that they were junking up the walls. So what do customers do when they hear there is an internal struggle? They bring you a plate from everywhere they ever went.”
Over the years, the collection grew to hundreds of nautical knick-knacks and historic treasures, including a rare wheel from a deadly 1800s-era shipwreck.
This screen grab shows the wheel of the S. S. Brother Jonathan, lost at sea in 1865. The wheel is on display at Dan and Louis Oyster Bar in Portland.
Cameron Nielsen / OPB
In July 1865, the side paddle wheel steamship, the S.S. Brother Jonathan, wrecked off the coast of Crescent City, California, while on its way from San Francisco to Portland.
Only one small lifeboat escaped the wreck, leaving over 200 people dead with just 19 survivors.
This undated image shows men posing with the recovered wheel from the lost ship, the S.S. Brother Jonathan, which wrecked off the coast of Crescent City, CA, in 1865.
Courtesy of the Del Norte County Museum
According to Michelle Wachsmuth, the story goes, “The wheel washed ashore with the dead man still clinging to it.”
Newspaper accounts of the time back that up.
An article in the Sunday Oregonian from 1865 regarding the shipwreck recovery states: “One of the bodies which came ashore was that of a quartermaster who had grasped in his two hands handles of the pilot wheel, and it required force to open his hands and release them.”
Wachsmuth says that in the 1930s, the original owner’s son purchased the recovered wheel from a restaurant in Newport and brought it to Dan and Louis Oyster Bar.
For years, it remained on display in the lobby. About 10 years ago, Wachsmuth noticed the 150-year-old artifact was showing signs of decay and moved it to a high shelf, where it remains on display but is safely out of reach.
For decades afterward, divers searched for the lost ship and the millions in gold coins it was thought to be carrying. Their efforts paid off in the 1990s, when the ship and about 1,2000 coins were recovered by salvagers.
Learn more about the 1865 shipwreck in the Oregon Experience documentary, “The Wreck of the Brother Jonathan.”
