Graveyard of the Pacific

Shipwreck and Survival on America’s Deadliest Waterway

By: Randall Sullivan

Narrated by: Lynch Travis

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Off the coast of Oregon, the Columbia River flows into the Pacific Ocean and forms the Columbia River Bar: a watery collision so turbulent and deadly that it’s nicknamed the Graveyard of the Pacific.

Two thousand ships have been wrecked on the bar since the first European ship dared to try to cross it. Since then, the commercial importance of the Columbia River has only grown, but despite the construction of jetties on either side, the bar remains treacherous.

When Randall Sullivan and a friend set out to cross the bar in a two-man kayak, they’re met with skepticism and concern. But on a clear day in July 2021, when the tides and weather seem right, they embark. As they plunge through the currents that have taken so many lives, Randall commemorates the brave sailors that made the crossing before him—including his own abusive father, a sailor himself who also once dared to cross the bar—and reflects on toxic masculinity, fatherhood, and what drives men to extremes.

Rich with exhaustive research and propulsive narrative, Graveyard of the Pacific follows historical shipwrecks through the moment-by-moment details that often determined whether sailors would live or die, exposing the ways in which boats, sailors, and navigation have changed over the decades. As he makes his way across the bar, floating above the wrecks and across the same currents that have taken so many lives, Randall Sullivan faces the past, both in his own life and on the Columbia River Bar.

©2023 Randall Sullivan (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

Place names pronunciation butchered

The book is a first person narrative by a Pacific Northwest resident, yet the reader mispronouces so many place names it's impossible to get immersed in the story. It would have been so simple to check the list of names with literally anyone in the area. The whole thing gives the impression of a cheap knockoff. Finally had to stop listening when the childhood back story took over. Is this a local history or a biography?

Uneven Storytelling

I enjoyed learning about the history of the Columbia River and the stories of various shipwrecks over the years. However this interesting history kept getting broken up by the author’s personal stories (somewhat random and meandering) which were of little interest to me.

The narration was OK but unfortunately mispronounced several local names and places, like the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

Too much focus on the two men. Not enough on the shipwrecks

There is an important story about the Columbia River bar embedded here, but the author gets much to enamored by his own story. And the reader must never have been in the Northwest for he didn’t know how to pronounce place names like Yakima or even Oregon.

A disappointment

I keep thinking it would get better but it never did. Some parts were ok, but then the author would change gears and talk of himself getting beat up as a kid. The stores of the rescues were good but brief. I never got comfortable with the narrator not sure why, that could have helped. Overall not worth the hype nor the use of 1 credit.

Enjoyed this one

Randall Sullivan never disappoints, happy that this one is in audio. Listened on my commute.

This needed an editor- to screen from publication

The story meandered about two clueless older guys crossing the bar in a Hobie Mirage Kyack, a couple paragraphs for no real reason about 2 paragraphs on the columbia river geography, too much detail about an abusive father and some interesting history about the columbia bar seemingly taken...plagiarized..from the excellent book ASTORIA (cant recommend enough..a fascinating historical account of the founding of the city / fort of Astoria..).
The adventure of crossing the bar was strangely without much detail.... I have crossed the bar several times in 40-50 ft boats and found it sometimes terrifying, sometimes flat and lake -like (depending on how well you time the crossing with tides) but there are very interesting features of the river that are absent in this book. The characters in this book seemed foolish and willfully ignorent with a mission that had no point...
The narrator was ok , but mispronounced a number of words he should have been able to have researched proper pronunciation as a professional narrator.
I lost interest in this odd story with no seemingly point. WIll return the title if I can.