The wreck of the S.S. Valencia off the west coast of Vancouver Island in 1906 is one of the worst maritime disasters along this dangerous stretch of coast, known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. The sinking resulted in the deaths of approximately 136 passengers and led to reforms in federal maritime safety and rescue policies.
The Valencia was built in 1882 by William Cramp and Sons. She was a small iron-hulled passenger steamer displacing 1,598 tons and built for service between Venezuela and New York City. She was eventually sold to the Pacific Coast Steamship Company and served as a coastal passenger liner on the U.S. West Coast.
On Saturday, January 20, 1906 the Valencia left San Francisco in good weather bound for Victoria, B.C., and Seattle. Captain Oscar M. Johnson, who had been with the company for 12 years, was Valencia’s new captain. She had 9 officers, 56 crew, and at least 108 passengers aboard. She passed Cape Mendocino in the early morning when the weather turned bad with poor visibility and strong southeast winds.
The ship’s captain was forced to rely on dead reckoning to determine the position of his ship. Captain Johnson, unfamiliar with the coast’s strong currents, missed the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and just before midnight struck a reef. The Valencia was 11 miles off Cape Beale on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.
The ship had sustained a large gash in the hull and water was rapidly pouring into the bilge. A huge wave lifted the Valencia off the reef, and she began to settle. Captain Johnson ordered her to run aground to prevent her from sinking. Turning toward shore, she was driven back into the rocks and left stranded in sight of the shore. She was only 100 yards off but with the raging surf and rugged shore, rescue would be difficult.
Panic set in and in the confusion, against the captain’s orders, all but one of the ship’s seven lifeboats were lowered. Two capsized immediately and one disappeared. One of the few survivors, chief freight clerk Frank Lehn, described the scene, “The screams of women and children mingled in an awful chorus with the shrieking of the wind, the dash of rain, and the roar of the breakers. As the passengers rushed on deck, they were carried away in bunches by the huge waves that seemed as high as the ship’s mastheads. The ship began to break up almost at once and the women and children were lashed to the rigging above the reach of the sea. It was a pitiful sight to see frail women, wearing only night dresses, with bare feet on the freezing ratlines, trying to shield children in their arms from the icy wind and rain.”
Twelve men made it to shore but three were washed away by the waves after landing. The remaining nine men scaled the cliffs and made their way through the thick forest until they came upon a cabin from which they were able to summon help. These men would later face criticism for not attempting to help secure a cable fired from the Lyle gun on board Valencia.
On board the stricken vessel a crew of volunteers were lowered in the remaining lifeboat with instructions to find a safe landing place and return to the cliffs to receive a lifeline from the ship. Instead, they decided to head toward the lighthouse on the cape. After hiking for two hours, they arrived, and the lighthouse keeper phoned to report the wreck. With word of the wreck, four ships were sent to try and rescue the survivors. The passenger liner S.S. Queen, salvage steamer Salvor, tugboat Czar and the steamship City of Topeka.
On the morning of January 24th, the Queen arrived at the site but was unable to approach due to the severity of the weather. Upon seeing the Queen, Valencia’s crew launched the ship’s two remaining life rafts but most of the passengers decided to remain on the ship, a fateful decision. Topeka cruised the waters off the coast searching for survivors and eventually found one of the life rafts carrying 18 men. At nightfall, the captain called off the search. The second life raft eventually drifted ashore on an island where four survivors were found.
An overland rescue had been launched and when they arrived, they could see dozens of passengers clinging to the rigging. As they watched, unable to help, the ship’s lone funnel collapsed, and the waves were now able to completely wash over what was left of the Valencia. A large wave broke over the wreckage and all the remaining passengers drowned.
A series of investigations into the tragedy found that the loss of life could be attributed to a series of unfortunate coincidences and a lack of lifesaving infrastructure along Vancouver Island’s rugged coast. The federal report called for the construction of a lighthouse and the creation of a coastal lifesaving trail with regularly spaced shelters for shipwrecked sailors. Construction of the lighthouse was begun and in 1908 the Pachena Point Lighthouse was lit. The trail was completed in 1911.
Valencia’s tragic end has made her the subject of several local ghost stories. In 1933, 27 years after the disaster, Valencia’s lifeboat No.5 was found floating in Barkley Sound. Where had she been all those years? The boat’s nameplate is now on display in the Maritime Museum of British Columbia.