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FRANCIS H. LEGGETT Built in 1903 1,606-ton steel steam schooner Captain C. Maro Hands lost 60 in 1914 Click image to enlarge. Photo inscribed verso as leaving Samoa, CA. with Eureka in background. From the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society© |
"The year was 1914, just after midnight on the morning of September 18, when the steel steam schooner Francis H. Leggett foundered in a raging gale 50-miles south of the Columbia River entrance. Of the 37 passengers and crew of 25 aboard the Leggett, only two were rescued. The vessel had left Hoquiam deeply laden with lumber for California, in charge of Capt. C. Maro, and upon encountering the heavy seas off the Oregon coast, her deck load shifted, she capsized and sank.
The Japanese cruiser Idzumo sighted the foundering steam schooner and dispatched a brief wireless message, which was intercepted by the Port of Portland station, the Portland––San Francisco liner Beaver, and the Associated Oil tanker Frank H. Buck. The warship, operating under wartime restrictions and searching for the cruiser Leipzig, made no effort to render assistance, however, and refused to give her location or any further details of the tragedy.
The tanker was the first to find the floating wreckage marking the spot where the Leggett had gone down, picking up a passenger, George Pullman of Winnipeg, who had been clinging to a plank for the many hours since the sinking.
The Beaver, Capt. Mason, arrived on the scene late that night, picking up James Farrell of Seattle, who had also clung to a floating timber.
Although the steam schooner Daisy Putnam and the Standard Oil tanker El Segundo also joined the search, no other survivors were found.
The Francis H. Leggett was one of the most modern of the new type of steam coasters, having been built only the previous year for the Hammond Lumber Co. At the time of her loss, she was under charter to Charles R. McCormick & Co.
The Beaver, Capt. Mason, arrived on the scene late that night, picking up James Farrell of Seattle, who had also clung to a floating timber.
Although the steam schooner Daisy Putnam and the Standard Oil tanker El Segundo also joined the search, no other survivors were found.
The Francis H. Leggett was one of the most modern of the new type of steam coasters, having been built only the previous year for the Hammond Lumber Co. At the time of her loss, she was under charter to Charles R. McCormick & Co.
The earlier loss of the Port Blakeley-built four-masted schooner Nokomis, built by Hall Bros, in 1895, provided a tragic and ironic footnote to the loss of the Francis H. Leggett.
The Nokomis, commanded by Capt. Jens Jensen, sailed from Astoria for Paita, Peru in January, lumber-laden. The captain was accompanied by his wife and two small children, one a babe in arms.
The schooner carried two mates, a cook, cabin boy, and six seamen.
Off the Columbia River, southwest winds of hurricane force struck the schooner, washing the Chinese cook overboard and driving her back towards Cape Flattery in damaged condition. Capt. Jensen put in at Port Townsend for repairs to sails and rigging and the vessel was then towed to sea, but bad luck continued to plague her.
Off the Cape, she fouled the tug and damaged her martingale, but this was repaired at sea and she continued on her voyage. After reaching latitude 20 North, she encountered heavy fog, and for some days Capt. Jensen was forced to rely on dead reckoning. On the sailing route between Pacific Northwest ports and the west coast of South America, prevailing winds made it most practical to cross the Line at about 110 degrees West Longitude in the vicinity, at 10 North Latitude, of Clipperton Island, a low-lying speck of land on the broad expanse of ocean. The Huerta government of Mexico had recently abandoned the light and fog signal on the island, and on the night of 27 February breakers were sighted dead ahead. Strong cross-currents made it impossible to put about, and the Nokomis crashed on a reef at the north end of the island. Heavy seas soon pounded her to pieces. All hands reached shore, but they were almost destitute, existing on brackish water, shellfish, and seagull eggs in addition to a few supplies which had drifted ashore,
After five months of privation, the second mate and three seamen volunteered to set out for Acapulco, 700 miles away, in a damaged boat. They reached their objective after incredible hardships, and the USS Cleveland was dispatched to rescue the castaways, all of whom eventually recovered from their ordeal.
After reaching San Francisco, Capt. Jensen left his family at the home of his father-in-law in Olympia and proceeded to Aberdeen, where Capt. Maro of the Francis H. Leggett had kindly offered him passage as his guest to San Francisco, where he planned to seek another berth as either master or mate of a sailing vessel. Capt. Jensen was among those lost in the foundering of the Leggett. Having survived shipwreck and almost unendurable hardships on distant Clipperton Island, he was fated to lose his life while practically in sight of his home and onboard a modern, full-powered steel steamship."
Source: The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Gordon Newell, editor. Superior Publishing.1965. No. 338.
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