Fleet of Flowers

On Memorial Day of each year, since 1945, Depoe Bay has hosted the FLEET OF FLOWERS. This colorful ceremony is recognized as one of the most impressive observances held in the United States.

We got to help put together the wreaths for the ceromony. Following an on-shore ceremony at Depoe Bay Harbor, the fleet of flower laden boats passes under the spectator lined Highway 101 bridge.

This is the boat that Ralph and I road out to the ceremony.

As they proceed through the channel into the ocean, they pass the Coast Guard boat and then form a circle within sight of shore.

The floral tributes are then cast onto the water, after a Coast Guard helicopter lowers itself into the center of the circle and drops a wreath.

The memory of a tragic event on October 4, 1936, prompted this solemn ceremony. At sea this day was the troller, Norwester, skippered by Ernest McQueen (AKA McWilliams), and with two teenage boys aboard; his son Walter, and Walter's friend, Gene McLaughlin. A storm began to increase its intensity, accompanied by dense fog and approaching darkness. Meanwhile, Roy Bower and Jack Chambers had only minutes before returned from fishing. They were watching from the bridge when they caught a brief glimpse of the Norwester through the fog and heavy seas. They immediately set out on Bower's "Cara Lou", hoping to help the struggling boat to safety. The storm raged all night, thwarting efforts by other fishermen to put to sea. By the morning, however, McQueen had brought the Norwester into port; battered, but still afloat, with all hands safe. They had ridden out the worst of the storm tied to an offshore buoy. The "Cara Lou" was found awash later that day, with Bower and Chambers both dead from exposure. A few days later, relatives and friends scattered their ashes, along with flowers, on the ocean that had taken their lives. Bower and Chambers were posthumously awarded the Carnegie Medal for heroism. This ceremony two years ago was where Ralph had his wife Carol's ashes put to sea. Coral and Ralph made a special wreath in her memory for this years ceremony.