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Survivors of Steamship VALENCIA alongside the CITY OF TOPEKA, Cape Beale, Vancouver Island, 1906
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| Title | Survivors of Steamship VALENCIA alongside the CITY OF TOPEKA, Cape Beale, Vancouver Island, 1906 |
| Photographer | Unknown |
| Date | 1906 |
| Contextual Notes | The iron steamer VALENCIA was built in 1882 at the Cramp yard. She was temporarily diverted from Alaska service to replace the CITY OF PUEBLO on the San Francisco - Puget Sound run and, on January 21, 1906, left San Francisco with 164 passengers and crew. Dense fog was encountered all the way up the coast, and an unusually heavy northerly drift prevaled along the coast. By late on the night of the 23rd, the steamer was many miles off her course and, at midnight she crashed on the rocks ten miles east of Cape Beale on the coast of Vancouver Island. A precipitous cliff rose above the reef upon which she impaled herself, and a rising southeast gale swept heavy seas across her decks. There was no way to escape the fast disintegrating wreck except by the life rafts, most of the boats being dashed to pieces as soon as they were launched. Outlying reefs and shoals made it impossible for other vessels to approach the wreck from seaward, particularly in the face of the storm, which increased and veered around to southwesterly after the VALENCIA struck. Many of the victims were swept overboard from the decks. Others, lashing themselves in the rigging, died more slowly, of cold and exposure. Of the 164 persons aboard, 38 were saved, 126 lost. (pg. 124) Notes from Gordon Newell, ed., The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co, 1966). |
| Subjects (LCSH) | Lifeboats--British Columbia--Cape Beale
Marine accidents--British Columbia--Cape Beale
City of Topeka (Steamboat)
Steamboats--British Columbia--Cape Beale
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| Location Depicted | Canada--British Columbia--Cape Beale |
| Digital Collection | Transportation Collection
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| Order Number | TRA765 |
| Ordering Information | To order a reproduction, inquire about permissions, or for information about prices see: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/services/reproduction-info
Please cite the Order Number when ordering. |
| Negative Number | UW25660z |
| Repository | University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division. |
| Repository Collection | Ships Collection |
| Object Type | Photograph |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from a photographic print using a Microtek Scanmaker 9600XL at 100 dpi in JPEG format at compression rate 3 and resized to 768x512 ppi. 2001. |
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