OLYMPIA — The wooden wheel taken from the Port Townsend-based schooner Adventuress is still missing, and the search is active.
“We are not ready to give up,” said Catherine Collins, executive director of Sound Experience, the educational foundation that manages the 99-year-old vessel. “We think it’s out there and is most likely still in the Olympia area.”
The Adventuress was tied up at Percival Landing, a public dock in Olympia, when the theft occurred Oct. 7.
When crew members woke up that morning, they discovered the wheel missing.
Collins doesn’t think the action was a prank.
Whoever stole the wheel, she surmised, knew what he or she was doing because it’s not easy to sneak onto the Adventuress silently and remove the wheel from its mounting.
Underwater search
Divers this week searched the area around the dock for more than five hours but did not find the missing wheel, though they recovered an outboard motor, bicycle and flat-screen computer monitor.
Collins said the missing wooden wheel is about 3 feet in diameter and weighs about 40 pounds.
It cost about $1,000 to build about 10 years ago and would probably cost $2,000 or $3,000 for a new one if the old wheel is not recovered, Collins said.
The value of the wheel is intrinsic because its hub was part of the wheel that was in place when the schooner began sailing in 1913.
“The wheel has sentimental value, but its worth goes beyond that,” Collins said. “We want to recover it because of its connection to the original ship.”
The theft occurred on a day when an educational sail was scheduled to begin, and the crew was able to secure a loaner wheel from a Seattle antiques dealer that will be in place until the end of the sailing season, scheduled for early next month.
Since the theft, several people have come forward to offer a donation of a ship’s wheel in their possession that is hanging on a wall or being used as a coffee table, Collins said.
Appreciate offers
“We appreciate all the people who have offered to help, but this is not something that can be easily replaced,” she said. “The wheels that are hanging in someone’s home won’t work because it’s not an easy fit.”
Collins is optimistic about the wheel’s recovery, saying, “We are making an aggressive effort to get it back,” but acknowledges it may need to be replaced.
She has contacted the Edson Co. of New Bedford, Mass., which built the stolen wheel, about building a replacement and plans to visit that factory in November.
The Adventuress and its loaner wheel are scheduled to return to Port Townsend on Sunday and complete several educational programs before a haulout scheduled for mid-November.
Sound Experience is offering a cash reward for the return of the wheel and the promise of no criminal charges filed.
Laura Wohl, a spokeswoman for the Olympia Police Department, said there are no active leads as to the wheel’s location, but the department is continuing the search.
For more information, phone Collins at 206-353-6119 or email catherine@soundexp.org.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
