Mary D. Hume sank on November 13, 1985, on the south bank of the Rogue River during a restoration effort to convert her to a museum ship for the Curry County Historical Society; she now rests in shallow water with portions of the hull and superstructure exposed at low tide near Gold Beach, Oregon. Designed as a coastal freighter and towboat, she was built of timbers cut from the Coast Range and floated down the Rogue River. The keel was cut from a single beam of Port Orford cedar measuring 10 by 36 inches (25 by 91 cm) and 140 feet (43 m) long; frame timbers were hand-cut from Port Orford cedar roots, and planking was secured with wooden pegs called trunnels. Built by Robert D. Hume, a pioneer businessman of Ellensburg—present-day Gold Beach—and christened after his wife, the ship was launched in 1881 as a schooner-rigged auxiliary steamer: 96 feet (29 m) long, with a 22-foot (6.7 m) beam, a 9-foot (2.7 m) draft, and a displacement of 150 tons. Her steam engine was salvaged from the Varuna, another Hume vessel that wrecked on the Rogue River bar.

Mary D. Hume was first engaged in the coastal trade, hauling cargo between San Francisco and Gold Beach. In 1889 she was sold to the Pacific Steam Whaling Company of San Francisco and re-rigged as a brigantine for Arctic whaling at Herschel Island in Mackenzie Bay, off the north coast of Canada. On the first Arctic voyage the mainmast and fore-topmast were lost in a gale south of the Aleutian Islands; after repairs in Unalaska, she proceeded north and from 1890 to 1892 caught 37 whales valued at $400,000. The second voyage, from 1893 to 1899, ranks among the longest whaling voyages in American history; on the return, four boats were lost in a storm and torn-off hatches caused leaks that stopped the engine. In 1900 she was sold to the Northwest Fisheries Company as a cannery tender in Alaskan waters; four years later she sank in ice in the Nushagak River on Bristol Bay, was salvaged, and was taken to Seattle for repairs. Around 1906 to 1908 she was acquired by the American Tug Boat Company of Everett, Washington, beginning a long career towing barges and logs on Puget Sound. Two-story crew housing was added in the early 20th century, and in 1954 the steam engine was replaced with a 600-horsepower diesel. In 1973 the American Tug Boat Company was acquired by Crowley Maritime Corporation of Seattle, and Mary D. Hume continued working as a tugboat.

In 1977 Mary D. Hume was retired as the oldest commercial vessel in service in the Pacific Northwest and the last Arctic steam whaler built on the West Coast still afloat. Recognizing the ship’s historical significance—her ties to the southern Oregon coast and to Robert D. Hume’s pioneering role in the salmon-canning industry—Crowley Maritime reconditioned the vessel and donated her to the Curry County Historical Society. She returned to Gold Beach and was moored near her original construction site, where a support cradle was built beside the dock in preparation for permanent display as a museum ship. On November 13, 1985, however, a lifting sling broke during the attempt to place her in the cradle, and she sank in shallow water. All subsequent salvage attempts failed; the vessel remains derelict, partially exposed at low tide. Read more here and here. Explore more of Mary D. Hume and the Rogue River here: