Bits 'n' Pieces: Ranger shines light on mystery of carronades

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site chief ranger and historian Greg Shine in April helped a team from the Public Broadcasting Service show “History Detectives” investigate whether a pair of carronades found near Arch Cape on the Oregon coast could have belonged to the U.S. Schooner Shark. Now television audiences are about to learn whether they cracked the case.

Shine told the history sleuths about the background of the Shark, a U.S. Navy vessel moored at the fort. It shipwrecked near what is now Warrenton, Ore., in September 1846.

Shine shared an 1848 Congressional report and an October 1846 newspaper story detailing how portions of the hull and carronades from the Shark were found washed up on the beach south of present-day Tillamook Head, miles from the wreck site.

Fort curator Tessa Langford and museum technician Heidi Pierson helped prepare maps for the show. So, did the carronades in question belong to the Shark?

“There is certainly circumstantial evidence that would support the carronades being associated with the Shark,” said Shine, 40, a Portland resident. “However, other wrecks, including the USS Peacock, also present a possibility.”

To see the conclusion of the investigation, watch “History Detectives” on PBS (Comcast Channel 10) at 9 p.m. Sept. 15 It will air nationally on Monday but will be a week behind in Southwest Washington due to an Oregon Public Broadcasting pledge drive.

Bridging two cultures

Fulbright scholar Nataliya Shpylova is far from her home in Ukraine, but she’s taking comfort in some familiar landscapes while studying at Washington State University Vancouver.

“I like Vancouver because sometimes it reminds me of the Ukraine,” said Shpylova, 28, a postdoctoral fellow and teacher at Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University in Cherkacy, Ukraine. She specializes in American literature, particularly the writings of Richard Brautigan.

Shpylova arrived in Vancouver in August and will stay here for 10 months working with John Barber, co-director of the Digital Technology and Culture Program at WSU Vancouver. This is the first time the university has hosted a Fulbright scholar.

Shpylova said she’s excited to work with Barber because he’s an expert on the life and works of Brautigan, an American author who wrote about the counterculture movement of the 1960s and ’70s. In addition to her research with Barber, Shpylova looks forward to learning more about American culture and the differences between the American and Ukrainian educational systems.

From puppets to science fiction

Mary Robinette Kowal left the Vancouver area for New York last year to pursue professional interests in puppets and set design. She comes back for a visit this month, though, as the recent recipient of a major award for science fiction writers. What happened?

Kowal, who served for six years as lead designer for Vancouver’s Tears of Joy Theatre, still works on puppets. But she also has been dabbling in short stories, and those efforts paid off recently with her selection in August as the “best new writer” at the World Science Fiction convention in Denver, where the winners were given statues called Hugos.

“(The Hugos) are to science fiction and fantasy what the Oscars are to film,” Kowal, 39, relayed in a recent e-mail. She was chosen for her body of work to date, which includes such titles as “Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” “For Solo Cello, op. 12” and “Evil Robot Monkey.” Her accolade is officially called the John W. Campbell Award, not a Hugo, even though the process for selection and panel of judges are the same.

Kowal, who also has won two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence, the highest award for American puppetry, is coming back to this area in mid-September to attend a writers workshop.

Bits ’n’ Pieces appears Mondays and Fridays. If you have a story you’d like to share, call 360-735-4561.