SS Pacific
Encyclopedia
The SS Pacific was a 876-ton sidewheel steamer built in 1851 most notable for its sinking in 1875 as a result of a collision southwest of Cape Flattery, Washington. The Pacific had an estimated 275 passengers and crew aboard when it sank. Only two survived. Among the casualties were several notable figures, including the vessel's captain at the time of the disaster, Jefferson D. Howell, the brother-in-law of ex-Confederate
President Jefferson Davis
.
and San Francisco, the Pacific was among the many vessels who ferried miners from California to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush
in 1858. She was damaged from a grounding in the 1860s and was repaired but was retired from service. The onset of the Cassiar Gold Rush in far northern British Columbia saw her returned to service in the period 1872 to 1875, by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
, on a regular run from San Francisco to and from Victoria, British Columbia
and the American
cities of Puget Sound
.
Around 8 p.m. on the evening of November 4, the Pacific hit the SS Orpheus, although both vessels continued on their course and the captain of the Orpheus later testified he was unaware of the collision. With only a few lifeboats usable, some crew joined what women had managed to get into one, in one case going so far as to throw out the husband of one woman despite her pleas to let her husband stay. None of the lifeboat parties survived, and went down soon after many of the 300-odd people struggling in the cold water went down, the women first among them because of the heavy, elaborate clothing then in fashion. An estimated 20 survived the sinking and managed to survive a while by clinging to large pieces of wreckage, and all but two of these eventually succumbed to hypothermia
, as did one of the remaining pair, leaving Henry Jelley as the only one of two survivors.
Jelley, of Port Stanley, Ontario
, had been a surveyor for the exploratory surveys of the then-planned Canadian Pacific Railway
in British Columbia, survived by clinging to the wheelhouse where he had seen another survivor, a man from Maine
who had been in the Cariboo goldfields and like Jelley was on his way home to the eastern part of the continent via the transcontinental railway from San Francisco. The other survivor succumbed to cold by about 4 a.m. of the Saturday morning following as the wreckage drifted closer to Vancouver Island. Only three miles from shore, Jelley was rescued by the American bark Messenger
at 10 a.m. and brought ashore at Port Angeles, Washington
, returning shortly thereafter from there to Victoria, just across the Strait of Juan de Fuca
. He was one of two survivors who testified at the inquest into the sinking.
The other survivor was a crewman, Neil Henley of the Hebrides
, who had been rescued by the United States customs ship SS Oliver Walcott, of 1100 tons burthen. Like Jelley, Henley had survived by climbing onto some wreckage, where he joined the captain, three other crew members, two male passengers and a woman. All the others succumbed to the cold, but Henley survived from the Thursday evening of the sinking until Monday morning.
Testimony by the crew of the Orpheus indicated that its Captain Sawyer had been drinking, and had been unsure of his location and had come alongside the Pacific in hopes of consulting with the latter's captain, with the collision damaging the Pacifics rigging in the process. Rather than wait to see what damage might have been done to the other vessel, Captain Sawyer sailed the Orpheus away after determining his own ship was not damaged, a fact that was observed to contribute greatly to the loss of life of those on board the Pacific. The Orpheus just afterwards ran aground in Barkley Sound
, after Sawyer had confused the Cape Beale lighthouse there with that of Cape Flattery.
A separate American inquiry exonerated Captain Sawyer, despite protestations from the Victoria press, on the unfounded basis that the Orpheus had been unable to assist the Pacific because of panic on board that ship after the collision. In fact, no one on the Pacific had been aware of the damage until after the Orpheus was already sailing away. Sawyer later died at Port Townsend in 1894.
steamers, and J.H. Sullivan, who had been Gold Commissioner
of the Cassiar mining district. Most of the freight was coal and potatoes.
British Columbia historian Frederick W. Howay estimated that there was $100,000 on board, but this may have been the same as a known $40,000 in the possession of the aforementioned Captain Otis Parsons and was one of those who went down with the ship. This number is believed by contemporary British Columbia historian Garnet Basque to have been much higher, based on an 1861 manifest of another voyage of the Pacific on November 18 of that year, as quoted in the Victoria Colonist in Basque's chapter on the Pacific disaster in his book Lost Bonanzas of British Columbia:
Basque observes that whatever its amount, the "Treasure of the SS Pacific" "lies in only 12 to 13 fathoms off water off Cape Flattery".
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
President Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
.
History
Originally in service on passenger runs between PanamaPanama Railway
The Panama Canal Railway Company is a railway line that links the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean across Panama in Central America. It is jointly owned by the Kansas City Southern Railway and Mi-Jack Products...
and San Francisco, the Pacific was among the many vessels who ferried miners from California to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush
Fraser Canyon Gold Rush
The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River. This was a few miles upstream from the Thompson's confluence with the Fraser River at present-day Lytton...
in 1858. She was damaged from a grounding in the 1860s and was repaired but was retired from service. The onset of the Cassiar Gold Rush in far northern British Columbia saw her returned to service in the period 1872 to 1875, by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants, William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland...
, on a regular run from San Francisco to and from Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
and the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cities of Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
.
Sinking
On November 4, 1875, she boarded passengers and freight in Victoria for the regular run to San Francisco in the climate of an unregulated and highly competitive market where passage was often offered for free just to hurt the competing shipping line's business (the regular Victoria-San Francisco fare was $5 - about $200 in modern currency). Loaded to the gunwales and listing badly, efforts to right the ship included filling lifeboats with water to bring her to trim, and then doing the same with the lifeboats on the other side to re-compensate when the vessel began to list too heavily in the opposite direction. No lifeboat drills were held, and at a subsequent inquest it was revealed that even if the lifeboats had been available for use, only 145 passengers could have been saved, with at least another 155 left on board to go down with the ship (the official estimate of the number of passengers was 275, but as children paid no fare the death toll is believed to have been much higher).Around 8 p.m. on the evening of November 4, the Pacific hit the SS Orpheus, although both vessels continued on their course and the captain of the Orpheus later testified he was unaware of the collision. With only a few lifeboats usable, some crew joined what women had managed to get into one, in one case going so far as to throw out the husband of one woman despite her pleas to let her husband stay. None of the lifeboat parties survived, and went down soon after many of the 300-odd people struggling in the cold water went down, the women first among them because of the heavy, elaborate clothing then in fashion. An estimated 20 survived the sinking and managed to survive a while by clinging to large pieces of wreckage, and all but two of these eventually succumbed to hypothermia
Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
, as did one of the remaining pair, leaving Henry Jelley as the only one of two survivors.
Jelley, of Port Stanley, Ontario
Port Stanley, Ontario
Port Stanley is a community in the Municipality of Central Elgin, Ontario, Elgin County, located on the north shore of Lake Erie at the mouth of Kettle Creek.-History:...
, had been a surveyor for the exploratory surveys of the then-planned Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
in British Columbia, survived by clinging to the wheelhouse where he had seen another survivor, a man from Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
who had been in the Cariboo goldfields and like Jelley was on his way home to the eastern part of the continent via the transcontinental railway from San Francisco. The other survivor succumbed to cold by about 4 a.m. of the Saturday morning following as the wreckage drifted closer to Vancouver Island. Only three miles from shore, Jelley was rescued by the American bark Messenger
SS Messenger
SS Messenger may refer to one of two Type C2-S-B1 ships built for the United States Maritime Commission: , built by Moore Dry Dock in Oakland, California; later became USS Sheridan ; scrapped in 1969 after explosion , built by Consolidated Steel in Wilmington, California; scrapped in 1969...
at 10 a.m. and brought ashore at Port Angeles, Washington
Port Angeles, Washington
Port Angeles is a city in and the county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The population was 19,038 at the 2010 census. The area's harbor was dubbed Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles by Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza in 1791, but by the mid-19th century the name had...
, returning shortly thereafter from there to Victoria, just across the Strait of Juan de Fuca
Strait of Juan de Fuca
The Strait of Juan de Fuca is a large body of water about long that is the Salish Sea outlet to the Pacific Ocean...
. He was one of two survivors who testified at the inquest into the sinking.
The other survivor was a crewman, Neil Henley of the Hebrides
Hebrides
The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive...
, who had been rescued by the United States customs ship SS Oliver Walcott, of 1100 tons burthen. Like Jelley, Henley had survived by climbing onto some wreckage, where he joined the captain, three other crew members, two male passengers and a woman. All the others succumbed to the cold, but Henley survived from the Thursday evening of the sinking until Monday morning.
Testimony by the crew of the Orpheus indicated that its Captain Sawyer had been drinking, and had been unsure of his location and had come alongside the Pacific in hopes of consulting with the latter's captain, with the collision damaging the Pacifics rigging in the process. Rather than wait to see what damage might have been done to the other vessel, Captain Sawyer sailed the Orpheus away after determining his own ship was not damaged, a fact that was observed to contribute greatly to the loss of life of those on board the Pacific. The Orpheus just afterwards ran aground in Barkley Sound
Barkley Sound
Barkley Sound, also known historically as Barclay Sound, is south of Ucluelet and north of Bamfield on the west coast of Vancouver Island and forms the entrance to the Alberni Inlet...
, after Sawyer had confused the Cape Beale lighthouse there with that of Cape Flattery.
A separate American inquiry exonerated Captain Sawyer, despite protestations from the Victoria press, on the unfounded basis that the Orpheus had been unable to assist the Pacific because of panic on board that ship after the collision. In fact, no one on the Pacific had been aware of the damage until after the Orpheus was already sailing away. Sawyer later died at Port Townsend in 1894.
Aftermath
In addition to Captain Howell, who had been a Confederate naval officer as well as brother-in-law to the Confederacy's president, there were several notable persons in British Columbia history among the casualties. These included lumberman Sewell "Sue" Moody, founder of Moodyville, Captain Otis Parsons who had just sold off his fleet of Fraser RiverFraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...
steamers, and J.H. Sullivan, who had been Gold Commissioner
Gold Commissioner
Gold Commissioner was an important regional administrative post in the Colony of British Columbia.In the 1860s, Governor Douglas had three priorities to protect the two colonies he governed: to protect the boundaries, to uphold law and order and to provide access to the gold fields...
of the Cassiar mining district. Most of the freight was coal and potatoes.
British Columbia historian Frederick W. Howay estimated that there was $100,000 on board, but this may have been the same as a known $40,000 in the possession of the aforementioned Captain Otis Parsons and was one of those who went down with the ship. This number is believed by contemporary British Columbia historian Garnet Basque to have been much higher, based on an 1861 manifest of another voyage of the Pacific on November 18 of that year, as quoted in the Victoria Colonist in Basque's chapter on the Pacific disaster in his book Lost Bonanzas of British Columbia:
-
- The steamship Pacific went to sea yesterday morning, from Esquimalt, at 9 o'clock. She had on board nearly 200 miners and others as passengers from this place, and 120 United States soldiers from the Sound [Puget Sound]. Wells, Fargo and Co. shipped 205,998 dollars in gold dust. The total shipment, including the amounts in private hands, will reach 400,000 dollars (£80,000).
Basque observes that whatever its amount, the "Treasure of the SS Pacific" "lies in only 12 to 13 fathoms off water off Cape Flattery".
External links
- Location Analysis, Cargo Detail, Related Documents
- The SS Pacific founders off Cape Flattery with a loss of 275 lives on November 4, 1875, HistoryLinkHistoryLinkHistoryLink is a website that is an encyclopedia of Washington State history. The site has more than 4,500 stories. There are 500 biographies and more than 14,000 images....
- The Pacific Tragedy of November, 1875, Gare Maritime