Ira Albee, Sam Morse, Joe Younker and Ed Macey with little Frank Younker on the log 1904 , South Slough, Oregon.

Late in the Saturday afternoon of January 20, 1912 the North Star was making its last stop along Coos Bay before heading out to South Slough. It had stopped at Marshfield (where Ira Albee was picked up after his work shift at the draw bridge), North Bend, and then it traveled down the bay to Empire where some of the passengers, including a Miss Wickman, got off the boat. In addition to the captain, Joe Younker, there were still five passengers aboard the North Star: Ira Albee, William Brainard, Tom Ferrei, Richard Tanner and Louis Molassi.

Shortly after leaving the dock at Empire, the boat began to drift. It remains unclear whether the engine or the loss of the propeller was the cause of the problem on that winter afternoon. About 5 o'clock p.m. Joe Younker blew the distress whistle four times. Mayme Younker heard the whistles from her home on Younker's Point in South Slough. She watched up the bay through a strong telescope, and saw her husband and five passengers throw out the anchor. Then she saw them splice another rope to the anchor rope, because it was not holding the North Star stationary. However, despite this remedy the North Star continued to drift. The tide was pulling strongly.

Realizing the six men were in peril, Mayme Younker sent a summons to her brother, Robert Wyman, and F. J. Bingham, who were working at the excelsior mill (a sawmill which made wood into packaging material) located near her home. They closed down the sawmill operations, and left on their launch boat, the Pilot. In addition, at this moment the men at the U.S. Life Saving Station had launched a surfboat. By this time the North Star was seaward of Buoy Number 4, which is a real danger point about three quarters of a mile above the mouth of the bay.

Suddenly, the men of the U.S. Life Saving Station turned around, and headed back to the station to get a power boat. The first boat to reach the bar was the Pilot, with Wyman and Bingham aboard. Unfortunately, the Pilot arrived five minutes too late to be able to offer aid. The North Star had already capsized on the bar, where the strong ebb tide merges with the ocean swells, causing big breakers. One giant wave struck the North Star, and capsized it. Two of the six men aboard were thrown into the icy water, while the other four jumped into the frigid sea just before the vessel capsized. Winter darkness settled over the area, and the tide continued to ebb for three hours after the accident. The boat eventually got washed ashore upside down and broken onto the north jetty. However, the bodies of the six men aboard her were never found.

Joe Younker was was 50 years old. He had just finished paying off his boat, when his passing left his wife, Mayme, a widow and his four children fatherless. Ira Albee was 43 years old, when this tragedy occurred. Ira usually made his trips to and from Marshfield over land, but the heavy rains and muddy roads were presumed to have caused him to board the North Star this time. Ella (Wyman) Albee was Ira Albee's wife (Mayme Younker's sister), who had passed away exactly one year previously from kidney trouble. Their only begotten son, Thomas Wyman Albee, was 18 years old at the time, and he was an eyewitness to the unfolding disaster. Wyman Albee was out lighting the harbor lights when it all happened. He said that he saw four of the six men aboard the North Star jump just before the craft capsized.

William Brainard left behind a wife and four sons ages six and under. Mr. Brainard was an engineer on a donkey engine in a logging camp. He had come to town to get an organ, which he had purchased for his kids. Richard Tanner left behind his wife, Mary, and six children. They were living at the junction of Hinch Road and the Seven Devils Road. Tanner was also an engineer, who ran a donkey engine. Tanner had just recovered from a broken leg, which he had injured in the logging camp. He had gone to town on Saturday to pick up a box of delayed Christmas presents for his family from his mother in Los Angeles, California. These dolls and toys were later found washed ashore. There was bitterness felt by some of Tanner's family and friends who believed the U.S. Life Saving Station crew could have rescued the North Star victims in time.

Tom Ferrei was a young single man whose family lived on a point of the slough called Ferrei's Landing. He was returning home when the tragedy happened. The sixth victim, Louis Molassi, was an immigrant from Italy who had been working in the logging camps, saving money to purchase a piece of land. He had suffered a broken leg, had spent time in Mercy Hospital at North Bend, where he boarded the North Star. Since he had fully convalesced, he was on his way back to work when he lost his life.

After Joe Younker and the five other men lost their lives in the tragic wreck of the North Star in 1912, Mayme Younker moved her family to Charleston, Oregon. Mayme's eldest son, Frank Younker stayed on at Younker's Point where his maternal grandparents, the Wymans lived, and began earning his own keep by joining an older family friend in a fish seining operation. Later, Frank logged for an excelsior mill.

After the North Star disaster, Mayme Younker purchased the Vega, which continued boat service on the slough until the time when roads and cars made transportation upon land the better way to travel.

[Caldera, Melody (editor). South Slough Adventures. Friends of South Slough. South Coast Printing, Inc., Coos Bay, Oregon. 1995. Pages 98, 122-126, 150-153, 167-170, 182.]

Ira Albee "FATHER" repaired in Partners to Preserve our Pioneer Cemetery: Phase I

Ira Albee was lost in Coos Bay when the North Star capsized. This monument is a cenotaph - his body was not recovered.