CANADIAN EXPORTER
Wrecked, 1 August 1921
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CANADIAN EXPORTER Willapa Harbor, WA. 1 August 1921 |
From: H. W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, Newell; Superior, 1966.
CLALLAM
127769
672 G.t. 135' x 33' x 12.1'
Built by Edward Heath Shipyard, Tacoma.
Value: $80,000.
Christened 15 April 1903.
Wrecked; 8 Jan. 1904.
Capt. George Roberts
Lost: 51-56,
Between Smith Island and San Juan Island, WA.
8 January 1904.
"A sinister jinx followed the Puget Sound Navigation Company's steamer CLALLAM from her cradle to the grave. When she was launched at Tacoma in 1903, a young lady swung a bottle of champagne at her bow at the christening and missed. The vessel slid down the ways with the American flag flying at her masthead upside down, the conventional signal of a dying ship.
Among her early passengers was an old bell sheep, which made nearly every round-trip from Seattle to Victoria. It would lure sheep aboard at Seattle and off at Victoria for the market there.
The old sheep always had fulfilled the mission cheerfully and seemed to enjoy it, but one day it balked at the gangway and no persuasion could induce it to go aboard, and she watched the ship steam out of Elliott Bay with sorrowful eyes.
The CLALLAM, then queen of the mosquito fleet, set out across the straits from Port Townsend in a stiff southwest wind, with storm signals flying. Little did those who saw her disappear in the storm dream that they were seeing the last of the proud CLALLAM.
The following morning this dispatch appeared in the morning papers.
'Victoria, B.C. 8 Jan. 1904 --The steamer CLALLAM got within half an hour of port this afternoon, and since then, Victoria has been wondering what became of her.
She was seen rolling in the heavy seas until about four miles east of Clover Point, making no headway, and seemingly in distress.
An hour later, with her jib set forward, she was seen running before a heavy southward gale on a flood tide, her engines seemingly disabled and drifting before the wind.'
The agent at Clover Point sighted her, but could not induce the little harbor tugs to go out. The Canadian steamer IROQUOIS set out from Sydney and the RICHARD HOLYOKE and the SEA LION set out from the American side.
It later developed that the CLALLAM's chief engineer, Scott A. de Launay had reported a sprung deadlight, but nothing had been done about it. She doubtless was overwhelmed by the great seas that smashed her deadlights and filled the hold.
Capt. Roberts launched the boats and put the women and children in them. All were lost. One young mother floated by holding up her baby. A man came over the side of the CLALLAM on a rope and had a tenuous hold on the baby when a great wave washed it away.
Capt. Roberts set the crew to bailing and then the tugs appeared, got lines aboard and began towing the CLALLAM to Pt. Townsend. Roberts felt the CLALLAM sinking and signaled the tugs to cut loose and stand by to rescue the passengers. The signal was misunderstood and the CLALLAM went down.
More than 50 of the 90 people aboard were lost, the most tragic marine catastrophe in the history of Puget Sound.
An investigation showed that the CLALLAM carried no rockets or flares to signal for help. Her owners were fined, as were the owners of most of the other Puget Sound steamers, for operating without fog horns, flares, fire axes, or proper lifeboat equipment".
C. T. Conover, The Seattle Times.
2 March 1952
Tugboat crews rescued c. 34 survivors; they were transported to Seattle by the Alaska Steamship Co. steamer SS DIRIGO.
Bits and pieces of wreckage was sold at auction for $296.
CONGRESS
Capt. N.E. Cousins
Owner: Pacific Coast Steamship Co.
Burned: 14 September 1916.
Three miles off Coos Bay, OR.
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S.S. CONGRESS |
"There were all the makings of a terrible marine tragedy on that 14th day of Sept 1916. The $2,000,000 liner CONGRESS of the Pacific Coast Steamship Co was afire 3 miles off Coos Bay, with 423 souls aboard.
The liner was out of San Francisco, Seattle-bound when the fire was reported in the after hold.
It grew in intensity, spread among the general cargo, and ate its way through the hatch coves. The officers attempted to play down the situation but on board, nothing remains a secret for long. Passengers began evacuating their cabins, the saloon was emptied, the deck games ceased, and conversation became low and whispering in all sections of the ship.
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S.S. CONGRESS 1916, Oregon Coast. Original photo from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society© |
The purser was hounded as were the stewards. A mask of grave concern had now come over the captain's face and he conveniently avoided the passengers.
Fire at sea can be a terrible thing. If allowed to go unchecked, it can result in a terrible ordeal. Thus no stone was left unturned by the ship's master.
When all reports were in, he was convinced that the fire was out of control. He headed directly for the wireless room. 'Sparks!' Get out an urgent call for assistance.'
The anxious passengers under the all-seeing eye of the crew were herded to their lifeboat stations, clad in the jackets. As they went, the ship's whistle blasted its weird warnings. Outside of some emotional women, the operation went like clockwork.
Both excitement and fear prevailed among the passengers. None among them had ever been forced to take to lifeboats while on the high seas. Fortunately, the water was calm. One after another the boats were lowered from the davits until a sizable fleet hovered about the liner like ducklings turned away from their sick mother.
The fire blazed hotter and hotter as the breeze fanned it. The liner was like a blast furnace. So enthralled were the survivors with the fire that many were unaware of the arrival of the rescue lifeboat from Coos Bay.
Other ships including the government dredge OL. P.S. MITCHIE arrived on the scene. The lifesaving craft flitted like a water-bug transferring survivors to the larger vessels. Soon all of the passengers and crew of the CONGRESS had been evacuated from the lifeboats.
Now the CONGRESS was aflame from stem to stern. The salvage tug SALVOR arrived and tried to get near the liner. The heat raised paint blisters on the tug and she retreated, content to let the fire run its course.
Never did a ship burn more thoroughly and not sink. Everything above the waterline was consumed except the steel hull and superstructure that was seared and scorched into a smutty black. The liner got so hot that witnesses said it actually glowed red through its steel plates. No living thing could get within 50-ft of her.
The blackened ghost was towed to Seattle and rebuilt for the China Mail Steamship Co at a cost of $2,000,000, the amount for which she was originally constructed. It required 14 months to complete the job.
Renamed NANKING she entered service to the Orient. But shadows of opium smuggling and white slavery crept into the life of the liner. Several times on arrival at San Fran she was libeled for $1,000,000. For this and other reasons, her owners folded financially.
Next, the ship reverted to her original owners as the EMMA ALEXANDER and again entered coastwise passenger service. She was laid up in the late 30s, and not restored to service until World War II. The British took her over as the transport EMPIRE WOODLARKS, and she weathered the ravages of the hostilities. In a half-century of service, the fire off the Oregon coast in 1916 was her only serious setback."
From: Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast. Gibbs, James A., Jr. Binfords & Mort. 1957.p 1950-52.
From: Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast. Gibbs, James A., Jr. Binfords & Mort. 1957.p 1950-52.
CORONA
ON 207806
Capt. and owner John Courage of Seattle, WA
3 m gas schooner built by Hall Bros in 1883 at Port Blakely, WA.
394.36 G.t./ 374.65 N.t. burden
142.6' x 34.6' x 11.3'
Wrecked; 15-mi WSW of Noyes Island, AK.
The crew of 11 saved by TORDENSKOLD.
20 August 1929.
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CORONA All crew saved. |
Value $23,000 + 2,500 lbs of halibut. Vessel insurance $10,000. Cargo insurance none.
COTTONEVA
(ex- FRANK D. STOUT)
ON 215145
Blt 1917,
by St. Helens Shipbuilding Co.,
St. Helens, OR.
190' x 43' x 15.4' Steam Sch.
Owned by E. H Stahlbahm, S.F.
Wrecked 10 February 1937
Location: N 42° 44.589 W 124° 29.568
Battle Rock,
Port Orford, OR.
Lives lost: none.
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COTTONEVA 215145 1917-1937 Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.© |
A number of well-known PNW vessels vanished from the maritime scene in 1937, both through accident and at the hands of shipbreakers. The steam schooner COTTONEVA, purchased only a week earlier at a foreclosure sale by Charles R. Ayers of San Fran, stranded off Port Orford, OR on the night of 10 Feb 1917 during a 75-mile-an-hour gale. The 26 crew members were removed safely by breeches buoy, but the wooden vessel became a total loss. The COTTONEVA had been bound for Grays Harbor from L.A., at the time of her stranding.
Text from H. W. McCurdy's Marine History of the PNW; Gordon Newell, editor. Superior.
203502
Pacific Coast Steamship Co.
Capt. C.P. McCarthy of Seattle, WA.
A steam schooner built at Hall Bros. Shipyard, WA. 1906.
Lost: 18 Jan. 1915
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Steam schooner DELHI, Lost 18 January 1915. Original photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.© |
The DELHI hit an uncharted rock and stranded at Straits Island reef, AK. Salvagers towed her to Prince Rupert, BC where she was rendered worthless with a huge hole torn out of the bottom timbers. Loss set at $140,000. The crew of 27 survived. Text: H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the PNW. Newell, Gordon, editor.
Capt. C.J. Dugan
Lost 12 January 1913
Coos Bay, OR.
Lost: 24 seamen
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CZARINA 126693 1,045 G.t. 793 N.t. 216' x 30.8' x 14.1' 475 indicated horsepower. Original photo from the Saltwater People archives© |
"The most disastrous shipwreck from the standpoint of loss of life in the Coos Bay area occurred in 1910. The CZARINA crossed out over the Coos Bay Bar, bound for San Francisco with coal, cement, and lumber.
As she crossed the bar tremendous breakers mounted to great summits, crashing and foaming. Pitching like a pump handle, the ship poked its nose into one, hoisted it aside and tackled the next. It was a touchy game and one that might have been victorious for the steamer had not its steering apparatus become disabled.
It took only seconds for the seas to move in for the kill. The CZARINA was literally thrown on the north spit, an open target for the laughing tempest. The steamer scraped over the shelves of sand, each breaker wedging her tighter than the last. When she became immobile the seas really settled down to business. Gray, gruesome, liquid acclivities bore down on the imperiled ship. Holes were opened in her decks, the boats were torn from their davits, the cowls, railings, and fittings carried overboard. Water scudded through the superstructure, down the passageways, into the holds. The onslaught was indescribable.
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CZARINA 1883-1913 Original photo from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society© |
The nearby lifesaving station was alerted, but the seas were so savage that rescue was a virtual impossibility. Beach equipment was rushed to the scene but even as it was assembled the desperate men on the CZARINA were already in the rigging of the foremast trying desperately to escape. The 220' iron vessel was foundering amidst the breakers and her heavy cargo fastened her to the bottom.
By this time hundreds had gathered on the beach. All wanted to render aid but were completely helpless. In the sea mist far out in the breakers, beyond the reach of the line-throwing gun, they could see the helpless seamen clinging for their very existence. Few can imagine their agony in their last precious minutes. Numbed by the chill air and soaked by driving salt spray, their cries for help froze in their mouths. One by one they were swept from their perch. After each rolling sea, the numbers would lessen. They appeared like spiders being spun from a web. Before the brief but terrible ordeal had ended the rigging was void of all life--24 men were carried to their deaths. There was but one survivor, the chief engineer who miraculously reached shore.
The CZARINA wreck became a silent one. People had little desire to discuss it. It is a torment to watch men die before one's very eyes and yet be unable to do anything about it.
The CZARINA was valued at $75,000 and was a staunch iron-hulled vessel, an 1883 product of Sunderland, England."
Text from: Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast. Gibbs, James A. Jr.
Binfords & Mort,1957.
By this time hundreds had gathered on the beach. All wanted to render aid but were completely helpless. In the sea mist far out in the breakers, beyond the reach of the line-throwing gun, they could see the helpless seamen clinging for their very existence. Few can imagine their agony in their last precious minutes. Numbed by the chill air and soaked by driving salt spray, their cries for help froze in their mouths. One by one they were swept from their perch. After each rolling sea, the numbers would lessen. They appeared like spiders being spun from a web. Before the brief but terrible ordeal had ended the rigging was void of all life--24 men were carried to their deaths. There was but one survivor, the chief engineer who miraculously reached shore.
The CZARINA wreck became a silent one. People had little desire to discuss it. It is a torment to watch men die before one's very eyes and yet be unable to do anything about it.
The CZARINA was valued at $75,000 and was a staunch iron-hulled vessel, an 1883 product of Sunderland, England."
Text from: Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast. Gibbs, James A. Jr.
Binfords & Mort,1957.
DODE
ON 81534
Capt. Charles Stanley
Built Hoquiam 1896
Wrecked: 20 July 1910
Marrowstone Point, WA.
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DODE (ex- Schooner WILLIAM J. BRYANT.) Her 300 HP engine was salvaged for tug FOREST CROSBY. 98.8' x 21.6' x 7.9' Original photo from the Saltwater People Log.© |
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