Thomas Carrick, the first assistant engineer on the Valencia survived on the second raft picked up by the Topeka. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about him after the disaster, "Thomas F. Carrick, the first assistant engineer, who is among those reported picked up on a life raft by the steamer Topeka, is a native of San Francisco and resides when in this port at 1505 Sanchez street with his father, Daniel F. Carrick, and three sisters, the Misses Rose, Nellie and Jennie Carrick."
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
"A coincidence connected with Carrick's employment on the Valencia is the fact that he served his apprenticeship on the same ship ten years years ago, advanced to the grade of oiler, then left her for years, returning in the summer of last year. In the meantime he had passed the necessary examination and secured first assistant engineer's papers."
"This is not his first experience in a shipwreck. When a small boy his father, who was chief engineer of the Montara, of a vessel captured by the Japanese during the recent war, took the lad for a trip to Puget sound ports. She went aground but for the prompt assistance of tugs would have become a total loss."
"Mr. Carrick has a sister residing at Seattle and word was received from there yesterday that the engineer would proceed to her home upon his recovery from the dreadful exposure to which he was subjected during the many hours that he and his companions were adrift on the life raft in the open sea."
In the chaotic first hour of the wreck, Carrick was in charge of the No.7 lifeboat and narrowly escaped death. Timothy McCarthy, boatswain on the Valencia recalled,
“No.7 was a wrecking boat and was small. She was in charge of Assistant Engineer Carrick. As she was lowered, one end became unfastened, and the people in her were spilled into the sea, all losing their lives except Carrick, who was pulled on board by his shipmates.”
9:30am Wed 24 Jan, The Queen Finds Valencia
The Valencia wrecked just before midnight on Monday, January 22nd. About 34 hours later, at about 9am Wednesday morning the situation on the Valencia was horrific. Battered by waves, the ship was breaking apart and sinking lower into the crashing ocean. Rescue ships had appeared in the distance, however no attempt at rescue had been made. Carrick later recalled,
“The first ship that hove in sight was the Queen. The weather was nice until that time, but the wind shifted and a choppy sea set in. The Queen stood off about a mile and a half. I saw two boats swinging from the davits as if they were in readiness to be lowered.”
Knowing the ship could collapse under the waves at any moment, the crew decided to launch the last two life rafts. The rafts are designed to float and remain stable, however those on board would be constantly soaked from waves crashing over the sides. The survivors on the Valencia were already freezing cold, hungry and thirsty and most refused to get on the rafts. The first of two rafts left the Valencia half full, with just 10 men on board. Not expected to get far, it broke over the breakers and out to sea with surprisingly little difficulty. The second raft was then packed with Thomas Carrick and 18 other men and set off twenty minutes after the first. Breaking into the open sea they paddled furiously toward the distant ships.
In an interview days later Carrick described the horrific scene on the Valencia before he jumped overboard to get on the raft:
“The raft we left on was the last thing aboard the ship for anyone to get on. The Valencia was broken up and the two parts of her were ten to fifteen feet apart, the stern working toward the shore. The foremast was standing, but there was no one in the rigging. The only persons washed overboard that I saw were a woman and her child. The seas were very heavy and knocked us down unless we had something to hold to. There was only about fifteen feet of the hurricane deck left for us to stand on, and I should judge that there were fifty to seventy-five persons on this.”
The battered raft headed out to sea toward the rescue ship, the Queen in the distance. To their horror the Queen sailed away. When they lost sight of it they turned toward the land. Freezing and constantly wet they were tossed by the waves and two hours later, close to dead from exposure, they sighted another ship, the Topeka and were finally rescued. Carrick remembered the moment the City of Topeka was sighted. "An incoherent shout from one of the passengers drew our attention and following his pointed finger we saw what afterwards proved to be the Topeka.”
Freight clerk Frank Lehn recalled the excitement at that moment.
“How we did work at the oars; every man strained at them for his life. The cold waves washing over us and the sleet beating on our heads was forgotten. Nearer and nearer we came to her and we shouted with all our strength, but as the wind was against us we could not make ourselves heard. The steamer was stopped and let drift with wind and current. Suddenly she started and turned out to sea. We almost gave up. If she had gone away, we would have died right there. But she came nearer us every moment. We had one of the men standing in the centre waving a boat hook with a shirt on it. At last their whistle blew as a token that they had seen us. How we shouted for joy. But by that time we could hardly move. The cold went through us and the rain seemed to pierce our very marrow. Finally, the steamer put out a boat, and when they at last made fast a rope and started to tow us to safety, I think I must have collapsed like everybody else on the raft.”
Close to Death Before Rescue
Carrick also remembered how desperately close to death they were.
“It seemed as though her arrival was a merciful messenger from God. In a few minutes she was alongside, but some of the men lay inert and powerless to grasp lines cast from the Topeka. Finally, all were hauled aboard and every attention was shown us by the rescue party. If the Topeka had not arrived when she did we would probably have been lost, all of us were rapidly succumbing to the intense cold.”
The Nineteen Topeka Raft Survivors
The Valencia survivors with Thomas Carrick on the second life raft, which became known as the Topeka Raft were: waiter Charles Hoddinott, baker Charles Fluhme, passenger Cornelius Allison, fireman William Doherty, passenger George Harraden, passenger A.H. Hawkins, third cook John Johnson, coal passer W.D. Johnson, first assistant freight clerk Frank Lehn, passenger Joseph McCaffrey, waiter Patrick O’Brien, second officer Peter Peterson, fireman Paul Primer, messman Walter Raymond, quartermaster Martin Tarpey, passenger Grant L. Willitts, waiter James Walsh, and fireman John Segalos.
Valencia Second Life Raft January 24th, 1906
The barely alive men on the raft had no way of knowing that the Valencia crumbled into the sea about one hour ago, killing all the remaining survivors. They wouldn’t hear that news for a couple more hours. When they asked about the first raft, they were dumbfounded to hear it must still be out there. They barely survived three hours of hell on the second raft, the first raft, later called the Turret Raft was still going through hell. A horrific journey considerably more brutal and lasting 26 hours. When the Topeka Raft was getting rescued, the nightmare on the Turret Raft was just beginning.