Frank F. Bunker was a first-class passenger aboard the SS Valencia, a passenger steamship that wrecked off the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on January 22, 1906. Bunker played a significant role in the aftermath of the shipwreck, leading a group of survivors known as the "Bunker Party" to safety.
The Valencia Disaster
1. The Valencia 2. The Voyage 3. The Boats 4. The McCarthy Boat 5. The Bunker Party 6. On the Valencia 7. The Rafts 8. The Turret Raft 9. The Rescue Ships 10. The Aftermath 11. The Survivors 12. The Lost
The West Coast Trail
Prologue 1: The West Coast Trail 2: When to Hike & Fees 3: Trailheads 4: Getting There 5: Considerations 6: Campsites 7: Shipwrecks 8: Routes 9: Sights & Highlights
At the time of the disaster, Bunker was in his late thirties and traveling with his family—his wife, 4-year-old daughter Dorothy, and 2-year-old son, also named Frank—from Berkeley, California, to Seattle, where he had recently accepted a position as assistant superintendent of the Seattle school district. The Valencia, en route from San Francisco to Seattle, struck a reef near Pachena Point due to navigational errors in stormy weather, initiating a chaotic and tragic sequence of events.
Bunker boarded lifeboat No. 6 with his family, four other passengers, and two crew members, including fireman Frank Richley, shortly after the ship ran aground just before midnight. The lifeboat was successfully lowered into the turbulent sea, but as it moved away from the ship, it was caught by a massive wave and capsized. Bunker and Richley managed to survive by clinging to the overturned boat and eventually reaching the shore, but his wife, children, and the other occupants of the lifeboat were lost to the icy waters.
Once ashore, Bunker found himself among nine survivors from two capsized lifeboats—No. 6 and No. 3—who had washed up at the base of a steep, 100-foot cliff approximately 250 meters north of the wreck. The group, freezing and soaked in the early hours of January 23, included Tony Brown, George Billikos, Yosuki Hosoda, Mike Stone, Charles Samuels, Albert Willis, Frank Campbell (who also lost his wife and stepdaughter), and Frank Richley. With daylight, Bunker took charge, identifying a scalable section of the cliff and leading the men up through difficult terrain dotted with roots and ferns. His leadership was critical, as he assisted each man during the climb.
After reaching the top, the group discovered a telephone line strung through the trees, which they followed through dense, uncharted forest, mistakenly believing they were on the Washington coast and heading toward Cape Flattery. Despite exhaustion, injuries (Richley had a sprained ankle), and the loss of shoes for some, Bunker drove the party forward.
After hours of trekking through thick bush and crossing swollen streams, they reached a lineman’s shack near the Darling River around 1pm on January 23. There, they used the telegraph to alert the outside world of the disaster, marking the first notification of the Valencia’s fate. Another group, the McCarthy Boat survivors, would report it an hour later from Cape Beale. The "Bunker Party" was later rescued by a relief party from Bamfield on January 26, enduring a grueling 12-hour hike back to civilization before being transported to Seattle via the U.S. Revenue Cutter Grant.
Bunker faced criticism during subsequent inquiries for not attempting to reach the cliff top opposite the Valencia, where a lifeline could have been secured to save more passengers. However, the remote and treacherous conditions of the west coast of Vancouver Island in 1906—lacking trails or immediate rescue infrastructure—made such an effort nearly impossible for the exhausted survivors. After the disaster, Bunker stayed briefly to assist with the search for bodies, though his family’s remains were never recovered. He later remarried in New York, had no more children, and dedicated his career to education until his death in 1944. His story reflects both the heroism and the haunting tragedy of the Valencia shipwreck, one of the deadliest in the Pacific Northwest’s "Graveyard of the Pacific."
The Bunker Party on January 26th, 1906
The Horrific First Hour
During the horrific first hour of the Valencia shipwreck six of the seven lifeboats were haphazardly launched. The first three, No.1, No.4 and the working boat No.7 were smashed against the side of the Valencia or dropped by one end. Mostly occupied by woman and children, nearly all drowned. The next three boats were considerably more successful, at least they made it away from the ship. One disappeared into the darkness and was thought to have gotten away safely. The lifeboat or its passengers were never seen again.
The other two boats made it a couple hundred metres from the ship before getting caught in the surf and flipped. Frank Bunker was on one of these, boat No.6 with nine people on board. Frank Bunker, his wife, 4 year old daughter Dorothy, 2 year old son Frank, fireman Frank Richley and four others. He recalled after the boat he was in was launched and they got away from the side of the steamer they had no difficulty in navigating into the open sea despite the cold, dark and stormy weather. They managed to get a couple hundred yards from the Valencia before being caught by a breaker and casting most on board into the freezing ocean. Frank Bunker, his wife and son managed to survive, though Dorothy was never seen again. Moments later the boat, caught in another breaker was thrown again. This time the boat smashed into the reef. Frank Bunker managed to survive by crawling out of the surf and clinging to the base of a cliff. The rest of his family were never found.
“When I reached shore after being thrown from the boat and losing my wife and children I was dimly conscious, almost unconscious in fact. I dimly remember being sucked out by the undertow, and finally got strength enough to grasp a rock and then I crawled along at the edge of the water looking for my wife and children. I then crawled up and tried to get above the high water mark. I heard a shout and knew that someone else had escaped. It was Richley, the fireman. I crawled toward him in the darkness, and soon we heard halloos and knew that others were on shore. Soon nine of us got together and lay on the rocks. I guess it was about 1 o’clock in the morning, and pitch dark, with rain and sleet falling fast. We huddled up one against the other on the rocks in the bitter cold to keep ourselves warm, and shivered until daylight.”
Frank Bunker would later recall that they, “landed from a quarter to a half mile from the wreck. The coastline was exceedingly steep.” The Call newspaper on 31 January, 1906 would quote Bunker describing what the nine survivors from the wrecked boats did next,
“My party climbed the bluff at a considerable distance from the wreck. We thought to get into the interior and arouse the inhabitants and then get back to the bluff, be we found no inhabitants. We found a rude trail along the telegraph line. We were in doubt as to whether the Valencia had any means of shooting a line and whether she was near enough to reach the bluff. Our judgement said to follow the telegraph line to the first station and get help by land and sea and to then return over the trail to the bluff, but when we found the station and telephoned, my party was brave, but completely exhausted. It was a physical impossibility for any of us to get back over the trail that night.”
According to his recollection it was somewhere around 1pm Tuesday, January 23rd when he spoke to Mrs. Paterson of the Cape Beale Lighthouse on the telephone. This was thirteen hours after the Valencia wrecked and the first the world would learn of the disaster. He tried to make her understand that there had been a wreck that a steamer had gone on the rocks. She called her husband, who said he knew where he was. He told him there were nine in his party and that there were 100 people on board the wreck. This is when the Bunker Party first learned they were on Vancouver Island and not along the coast south of Cape Flattery in the US.
The 24th of January edition of The San Francisco Call newspaper wrote: “The Bunker family were moving from Berkeley California to Seattle, where Frank Bunker was to soon begin working as Assistant Superintendent of Schools. Mrs. Bunker was formerly a Miss Bull of Tulare, and the two were married six years ago. Two children were born to the couple – Dorothy, a pretty girl of 4, and Frank, aged 2. The Bunker family had planned to make their home in the north, his position with the school department of Washington being a lucrative one; but the sea disaster put an end to a happy outlook. Bunker was formerly vice principal of the San Francisco Normal School and is very well known in this city. The family lived for some time on Baker Street, opposite the park panhandle. Later he took up his residence in Berkeley. Mrs. Bunker was a young woman and was very well known to the residents of Tulare, where she was born. Bunker is a native of Los Angeles, having received his early education there. He advanced rapidly in educational work.”