Wheeler was a schooner-rigged unpowered lumber barge that operated during the year 1901, making only a few voyages before it was wrecked near Yaquina Bay with the loss of one life.

Wheeler were controversial and resulted in the arrest (charges were subsequently dismissed) of the captain of the tug that had been towing the barge before it was wrecked.

[9] Returning from San Francisco, on February 14, Vosburg towed Wheeler into Tillamook City by way of the then recently dredged Hoquarton Slough.

[11] Bar conditions delayed the departure from Tillamook Bay, but eventually Wheeler in tow of Vosburg reached San Francisco on March 7, 1901.

[12] On April 9, 1901, Vosburg and Wheeler departed Nehalem for San Francisco again, this time with about 400,000 board feet of lumber loaded on the barge.

[13] On Sunday, April 29, 1901, word was received in Tillamook City, by telephone call, that in trying to cross the Nehalem River bar in the tow of Vosburg, Wheeler went ashore on the south spit, and would probably be a total loss.

[20] Through Tuesday and Wednesday the winds grew worse, sea conditions were very rough, and both vessels were laboring heavily.

[20] By Sunday, December 1, 1901, a new steel cable had been installed on Vosburg, and the tug was scheduled to coal up the next day in preparation to going out in search of the lost barge Wheeler.

[21] Wheeler was sighted again, however, by the crew of the Yaquina Bay Life-Saving Station, early in the morning of Wednesday, December 4, 1901.

[22] When the towing cable broke, at about 70 miles off shore on November 27, the barge displayed lights and put up part of the main sail to keep the bow into the wind.

[22] Wheeler made a zig-zag course, governed by the wind strength and direction, back east towards the Oregon coast, eventually spotting the Yaquina Head Light at about 7:00 pm on Tuesday.

[22] When the crew on Wheeler decided to attempt to enter Yaquina Bay, the barge could not be maneuvered through the entrance, and instead it drifted over into the breakers on the south spit.

[22] A big wave rolled the barge over, and two men, seaman M. "Mike" Yederman (or Olderman[23]), of Nehalem, and the African-American cook, J.W.

[24] Olderman, badly bruised and cut on his face and legs, clung on to a plank until he was washed inshore where he was rescued by a surfman from the life-saving crew.

[24] The drowning of Cole was the only loss of life in Oregon waters among documented vessels in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903.

[26][27] From Nehalem, Vosburg proceeded south to attempt to salvage the wreck of the Wheeler and its cargo, arriving at Yaquina Bay on the morning of December 12, 1901.

Roberts, assistant inspector of the U.S. life-saving district of Oregon and Washington, who had made the inquiry into the circumstances of the wreck, wrote in his official report: The abandonment of the barge by the master of the tug Vosburg is to be condemned.

[24]On December 27, 1901, Chris Ahues, the former master of Vosburg, was arrested in Astoria by Deputy U.S. Marshall Roberts based on an information filed by a sailor, Algol Peterson, charging that through criminal negligence and misconduct, the former captain had caused the death of J.W.

[29] A preliminary hearing was held before United States Commissioner Thomson on the afternoon of December 28, 1901, and the case was dismissed because there was insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution.