Sea swallows Pride of Newport

16 NAUTICAL MILES OFF THE COAST OF NEWPORT BEACH — After leaving Newport Harbor about 8 a.m. Thursday, it took a tugboat about four hours to haul the remains of the Pride of Newport to the place where it will stay, for all intents and purposes, forever.

Upon arrival at the designated spot, two boats from San Diego’s Pacific Tugboat Service pumped water into the barge that was once a riverboat replica and landmark in Newport Beach. Intermittent pumping and a shove from the tugboat ended with the barge’s stern finally submerged a little before 2 p.m.

But once the hull started to sink in earnest, it probably took less than a minute for the bow to tilt up out of the water and the whole thing to slide quickly under, as if it were being sucked down.

A final splash, and then it was gone, with nothing but a slightly troubled patch on the water’s surface to show anything had been there.

In a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved spot more than halfway to Catalina, the barge sank 2,400 feet to rest on the ocean floor.

The boat was built in 1963 and opened the following year on the waterfront near East Coast Highway and Bayside Drive as the Reuben E. Lee restaurant. Over the years it housed several eateries, and when the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum moved in, in 1995, it was renamed the Pride of Newport.

But by 2006, the boat had far outlived its expected 20-year life span, and the nautical museum lost its lease on adjacent parking lot space. So the museum moved to the Balboa Fun Zone, and the boat was dismantled this summer. Being sunk off the coast of Newport Beach Thursday was the final leg of the barge’s journey.

Museum Executive Director David Muller said much of the boat was recycled, with some pieces now up for sale on eBay.

The port of Los Angeles has a scrap yard, but the U.S. Coast Guard wouldn’t allow the barge into the port because with the hull in poor condition, it might accidentally sink on the way, said Ted Griffith, chief executive of Pacific Tugboat Service. Muller said it would have been expensive to get the barge to Mexico to be scrapped.

Muller didn’t need a hankie Thursday — far from it.

“To me the sad part was seeing it dismantled,” he said. “Watching it go down now, it’s a barge.”

Once the barge went under, everyone was ready to move on. Muller, Griffith and a few others on the chartered powerboat enjoyed a sip of champagne to celebrate as they sped back to shore.

And the toast?

“To completion.”

ALICIA ROBINSON may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at [email protected].