Clallam (ship)
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The Clallam was a 1903 commissioned passenger ship of the American-Canadian shipping company Puget Sound Navigation Company, which was used in the Pacific Northwest and brought passengers , cargo and mail from Washington State to the Canadian province of British Columbia . On January 8, 1904, the clallam capsized in a storm in Juan de Fuca Street off the coast of the US state of Washington and sank . 56 passengers and crew members were killed. It is one of the largest shipwrecks in the region after the sinking of the Valencia in 1906 and the worst incident involving a ship in the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet .
The ship
The steamship Clallam was 51.2 meters long, 10.1 meters wide and had a draft of 3.9 meters. It was launched on April 15, 1903, and was completed on July 3 of the same year. The clallam belonged to the American-Canadian steamship company Puget Sound Navigation Company (PSNC), founded in 1817, which was mostly called Black Ball Line because of the black dot on its house flag . This shipping company's steamers and ferries transported passengers and cargo from Puget Sound in Washington to the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia .
Together with her sister ship Majestic , the Clallam served the route Seattle - Port Townsend - Victoria . The Puget Sound Navigation Company ships on this route were also known as the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet. The Clallam was the largest and most luxurious ship in the fleet. It ran from Pier 1 at the bottom of Yesler Way every day except Sunday at 8:30 a.m. in Seattle. The return journey always started on the same day at 7.30 p.m. in Victoria.
The hull of the 51 meter long ship was made of the wood of the Douglas fir , a species of plant in the pine family , which is very seawater resistant. The Clallam was propelled by a low-pressure steam engine with 600 HP (441 kW ) via a screw, which helped it to a maximum cruising speed of 13 knots (24 km / h). The construction of the clallam had cost 80,000 US dollars at the time. The ship had 44 cabins in which a total of 250 passengers could be accommodated. It could accommodate up to 500 people on excursions where no cargo was transported. The rescue equipment included six lifeboats , 530 life jackets , four life buoys and six emergency lights.
The Clallam got its name from the Klallam , a group of four different tribes of North American Native Americans who belong to the Beecher Bay First Nation . Also, the county Clallam County in Washington state is named after them.
Omens and omens
During the short period of service of Clallam there were several events which by many as evil omen counted and sign. On the day the ship was christened , April 15, 1903, two of these incidents occurred. When the United States flag was hoisted at the stern of the ship, it was posted upside down - an international distress signal. 14-year-old Hazel Beahan, daughter of a meteorologist in the US Army Signal Corps , acted as godmother . As were the mounts sold off, which slid Clallam so fast down that Miss Beahan had no time, the traditional bottle of the ramp champagne to have smashed the hull of the ship. These events were viewed as bad signs by many superstitious seafarers and residents of the coastal region.
Another event took place on the morning of the last departure of the clallam . The ships of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet regularly carried sheep to Port Townsend and Victoria, always led by a trained sheep with a bell around their neck. That morning the leading sheep, which had already made several previous voyages, strictly refused to board the clallam . This incident became known as The bell sheep premonition (in German about "The premonition of the sheep with the bell").
The last ride
beginning of the journey
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On Friday, January 8, 1904 at 8:30 a.m., the Clallam left Tacoma for another crossing to Victoria via Seattle and Port Townsend. The command was 55-year-old Captain George Roberts, who had been at sea for 29 years and had been the captain of the clallam from the first voyage . He had previously commanded the 473 GRT Rosalie . After Seattle and Port Townsend more passengers and cargo had been taken on board, put Clallam at 12:15 pm in Port Townsend on where the customs formalities had been completed, and suggested a northerly course in the Strait of Juan de Fuca , a . She had 92 passengers and crew on board, an unusually low number. Her arrival in Victoria was scheduled for 4 p.m.
On that day, one of the worst storms in a long time occurred in the region. The winds reached a speed of 58 km / h on Juan de Fuca Strait and 97 km / h near Tatoosh Island off Cape Flattery . The strong winds were accompanied by heavy rainfall and occasional snow. Despite the bad weather, the crossing was initially uneventful, but after casting off in Port Townsend the weather had calmed down somewhat. However, when the clallam reached the entrance to Juan de Fuca Street at Point Wilson, it was hit by violent gusts of wind and again found itself in a churned sea. The ship made it through open water about 35 miles before she came within sight of Victoria Harbor. At around 2 p.m., the chief engineer, Scott A. DeLaunay, informed Captain Roberts that water had entered the hull and had already reached the engine room . The cause may have been a leak in the hull caused by the storm and into which the sea was now pouring. Closing the watertight doors seemed to have fixed the problem, but the leak was in the worst possible place. Although the pumps were activated, the engine room was flooded after a short time.
Around 3 p.m. the water had reached the adjoining boiler rooms and extinguished the fire, so that the clallam was now unable to maneuver on the waves. Roberts had the jib and staysail put in place to keep his ship on course. The ship rocked in the heavy seas and Captain Roberts feared that the clallam would not hold out much longer and would break apart. At 3:30 p.m. he therefore gave the order to prepare the three lifeboats for lowering on the side facing away from the wind . With it still light and Discovery Island only two miles away, he thought this was the best decision.
The first lifeboat hit the railing while it was being lowered, capsized and threw its occupants into the stormy sea. The second managed to escape safely from the ship, but was caught by a high wave and sunk. On the third boat, the ropes got tangled and, as on the first, everyone in it was thrown overboard. None of the boat occupants survived. All of the women and children aboard the clallam were in these three boats. The three boats on the weather side could not be lowered into the water. The passengers who remained on board began to scoop out the flooded compartments with buckets. On the orders of First Officer George W. Doney, parts of the cargo were thrown overboard to make the ship lighter. Meanwhile, the wind pushed the ship in a north-westerly direction towards Smith Island and San Juan Island .
Rescue attempts and demise
At 3:45 p.m. Edward E. Blackwood, an employee of the Puget Sound Navigation Company of Victoria, went to Clover Point. He wanted to keep an eye out for the clallam as it was running late. He saw the ship floating four miles from Victoria with torn sails and incapacitated. He wanted to help the clallam with a tugboat , but none was available. Blackwood contacted the Canadian Pacific Railway around 5:00 p.m. asking for assistance. Thereupon the steamer Iroquois was dispatched, which looked in vain for the clallam until 11 p.m. When at 5.30 p.m. Captain John B. Libby, the managing director of the Puget Sound Navigation Company in Seattle, learned of the accident , he let the tugs Richard Holyoke and Sea Lion sail in the direction of the accident site. At 10:35 p.m. the Richard Holyoke found the damaged steamer between Smith Island and San Juan Island. Captain Roberts on the bridge of the Clallam informed Captain Robert Hall on the Richard Holyoke that he had taken in water, but not that his ship was already sinking. Hall had both ships connected by a hawser .
The Sea Lion , commanded by Captain Charles C. Manter, did not arrive until 1:00 a.m. the following day. Shortly after their arrival, Captain Roberts called to the tugs to loosen the cable as the clallam was sinking. He ordered all people still on board with life jackets on deck. Liferafts were unleashed with axes and many passengers were still holding onto the railing when the ship sank. The Clallam capsized around 1:15 to port and went eight miles north of Point Wilson with the stern first beneath. During the sinking, the superstructure and the navigating bridge broke away from the hull and were torn away.
The two tugs immediately launched their lifeboats and took 36 people, 14 passengers and 22 crew members on board. 56 people, including all 17 women and each of the four children on board, died. The castaways were taken over by the Dirigo , a steamer of the Alaska Steamship Company, and brought to Seattle. In the weeks after the sinking, a total of 28 bodies were recovered. Among the dead were Jeannie and Jessie Galletly, wife and daughter of the site manager of the Bank of Montreal in Victoria, Captain Thomas Lawrence, captain of the steamer Scotia ¸ Charles W. Thompson, president of the Washington Co-operative Mining Company and the Montezuma Mining Company, and Kansas City musicians Albert Prince and Guy Daniels , who toured the United States for three years.
Wreck and investigation of the accident
On January 12, 1904, four days after the disaster, the Princess Beatrice , a passenger steamer on the Canadian Pacific Railway, discovered large pieces of wreckage on the coast of Darcy Island in the Trial Islands group. The entire main deck of the clallam, including the bridge and superstructure, was found. The beach was also searched for fatalities, but none were found. Edward Blackwood instructed the salvage company British Columbia Salvage Company therefore, the wreckage of Esquimalt bring. Most of the debris sold at auction in Victoria on March 15, 1904, valued at $ 296. The main deck went to the owners of the local Lyceum Theater for $ 25 for a plan to show it off as part of an exhibition.
Only a few days after the sinking, on January 18, 1904, the investigation of the disaster by the United States Marine Inspection Service began . It was chaired by Captain Bion B. Whitney and Captain Robert A. Turner. During the hearings, which lasted through February 3, almost all surviving officers, crew members and passengers were heard. The final report of the investigative commission was published on February 13, 1904. The commission concluded that the sinking of the clallam had resulted from water entering the hull through the damaged bilge or open sea cocks and putting out the fires in the boilers, leaving the ship dead and unable to navigate. So it was helplessly exposed to the storm. In addition, the strong waves hit the windows of the dining room and the galley on the main deck, flooding the ship. This led to the capsizing of Clallam .
The crew of the Clallam , especially Captain Roberts and Chief Engineer DeLaunay, were blamed for the magnitude of the tragedy. Roberts has been criticized for launching the lifeboats without an officer on board and for not asking the rescue ships to tow him to the nearest sheltered harbor. His failure to inform the tug masters that the clallam was already sinking was also criticized. DeLaunay did not see that the sea valves were closed, which had rendered the work of the pumps useless. It was also asked why no signal or emergency rockets had been launched. As a result, Scott DeLaunay's license was revoked, while Captain George Roberts lost his master's license for a year . DeLaunay appealed. The press in the Pacific Northwest was not satisfied with this result and believed that both men should be convicted of manslaughter .
On February 11, 1904 one was in Victoria forensic investigation held that the cause of death of the victims of Clallam should consider -Unglücks. Dr. Edward C. Hart. The focus was only on the passengers who had been killed by the capsized lifeboats. On February 19, the forensic experts found Captain Roberts guilty of manslaughter through gross negligence. However, he was not sentenced to imprisonment. DeLaunay have been accused of incompetence and neglect of his duties. In addition, the clallam was not in a seaworthy condition.
literature
- Newell, Gordon R. Ships of the Inland Sea . Binford and Mort, Portland, Oregon, 1960
- Newell, Gordon R. The HW McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest . Superior Publishing, Seattle, 1966
- Hacking, Norman R. and Lamb, W. Kaye. The Princess Story - A Century and a Half of West Coast Shipping . Mitchell Press, Vancouver, 1974
- Kline, MS and Bayless, GA Ferryboats - A Legend on Puget Sound . Bayless Books, Seattle, 1983
Web links
- Entry in the Washington encyclopedia HistoryLink (English)
- The steamship Clallam (picture)
- STEAMSHIP CLALLAM SINKING, Jan. 1904 ( New York Times report of Jan. 8, 1904)
- FIFTY-ONE DIE AT SEA - THE CLALLAM SINKS OFF COAST OF WASHINGTON ( New York Times report of January 10, 1904)
- Entry in the Miramar Ship Index
- Last trip passenger list on www.rootsweb.ancestry.com