Martin Tarpey was a quartermaster on the Valencia and one of the Topeka Raft survivors. Born on 21 April 1882 in Philadelphia, his parents were Irish immigrants Michael J. Tarpey and Annie Corbett. Tarpey first went to sea when he was 17, shipping out of Philadelphia on a sailing ship. In 1900 he moved to the west coast and for three years served in the Canadian Pacific fleet. In 1903 he joined the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, advancing to quartermaster by 1906. In that role, he served aboard the Valencia during its disastrous final voyage from San Francisco to Seattle. It was his first trip on the vessel.
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
The Valencia departed San Francisco on January 20th, 1906. Weather deteriorated as the ship progressed northward: Saturday was fair, but Sunday brought haze and a stiff wind. No sun sightings were possible after Sunday morning, preventing accurate celestial observations. The last land Tarpey recalled seeing was Cape Mendocino; he did not spot the lightship there. Crew and passengers reportedly believed they had seen Cape Blanco, though Tarpey was unsure.
Tarpey was on watch from noon to 6 p.m. on Monday, January 22, standing lookout on the bridge alongside the captain and second officer. The lead line (for sounding depth) was not in use during his afternoon shift but was deployed later that evening. Six-hour watches were standard. Just before midnight, the ship struck rocks in thick, dark conditions with heavy seas. Tarpey, preparing to return to his midnight watch, heard the impact. He dressed quickly, went to the wheelhouse, and overheard the captain order "full speed astern."
The captain directed Tarpey to his assigned lifeboat (No. 1), which had been lowered to the saloon deck and filled with passengers. Tragedy struck immediately: the boat overloaded with 25–30 people, something gave way (likely tackle or davits), and all aboard were hurled into the churning sea. Only two were rescued. Passenger Grant Willitts remembered these first moments after the Valencia first struck:
"In an instant all was excitement. There were the shrieks of the frightened men and women, the wail of little children and the hoarse orders of the officers of the ship. The vessel reeled like a drunken man, slid over the reef and struck again.”
“The command to back her off was given and she went astern at full speed but it was too late. The water was pouring in like a mill race. The wind swung the vessel’s stern to the beach and her head to the waves. This saved many lives, as she was then swept back to the shore, and struck once again in such a position that she remained partially above the water and on an even keel. Every wave washed clear over her and many people who hastily rushed on deck went to their death without time to murmur a prayer. The order was given to get out the boats. Two of them on the weather side were launched and were smashed like eggshells as soon as they struck the water. Then came the attempt to get out the lee boats."
“Purser O’Farrell took charge; four women and a number of men went into the boat. I do not know how many, but she was practically full. Just as they were lowering the other the davits broke, and the stern of the boat fell to the water while the bow hung in the air. Everyone was precipitated into the sea and swept away in an instant. For a second or two I caught a glimpse of an agonized face then another, and yet another, as they were washed by me. The waves dashing over the ship swept the deck loose and every swell lifted it. We clung to the rigging of the deck house. The ship struck in a bad spot. She was directly at the foot of a precipitous bluff that comes sheer to the water’s edge."
Approximate Location of the Valencia Along the West Coast Trail
Surviving the Night: Tuesday Morning 23 Jan 1906
Remaining on board were an estimated 90 to 110 people. They had just witnessed 60 to 80 people drown or disappear into the night and 6 of their 7 lifeboats destroyed or lost. Survivors later testified that this all occurred within 30 minutes of backing onto the reef. With the time just a few minutes after midnight and the ship’s power gone, they had only two small hand lamps to wait out the night. The survivors were mostly located in the dining saloon and what food that could be salvaged was shared around. Most of the food and supplies on the Valencia were already under water or inaccessible. Throughout the night the ship was hammered by the ocean and quickly breaking apart, settling lower. By Tuesday morning water was rising into the saloon and passengers had to move higher and higher on the ship. People packed into the small staterooms on the saloon deck and most were forced onto the hurricane deck.
That first morning, daylight revealed a horrific sight which freight clerk Frank Lehn later described:
"The bodies of the drowned, which must by that time, must have numbered fully sixty, were seen floating around the beach and dashing up against the iron bound cliff, which loomed so close to us. The bodies were caught by the waves, thrown against the rocks and then caught by the undertow and drawn back. The sight was horrible."
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. Thomas Carrick, first assistant engineer on the Valencia 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.” Joseph McCafferty, a passenger would later testify in the Valencia inquiry, “When the steamers Queen, Salvor and Czar came in sight he thought that it would be a matter of only a short time before all were rescued. Frank Lehn described what he remembered:
"Along about 9 o'clock we sighted a steamer in the offing. She came to within about a mile of us and lay there. At first we thought we were saved. There was joy among us poor castaways then. The women in the rigging pulled off their dresses to wave to the steamer, and the men shouted with joy. But the steamer kept off in the distance and we soon saw that she could not approach closer. In a short time she was joined by a tug. Now we expected aid, for a light draft vessel could have reached us. But she, too, kept away. No man can understand the agony of watching these two vessels out there, and knowing that they were anxious to aid us but were unable to do so."
"Here we were clinging to the rigging or to the bits of the deck house which was left, and there was the steamer and the tug about a mile off anxious to help us. This was worse than death. The poor women felt it the most keenly. But they showed a heroism that put the men to shame. Most of them prayed, and I hope their religion gave them comfort. Few of them murmured. All were noble and self sacrificing. But it was a terrible experience to see those two ships in the offing and then to look at those women in the rigging, almost frozen by the flying spray and rain and only half clothed. Every little while when a great roller would come over us some poor devil in the rigging or on the deck would be swept away or dashed on the rocks."
Valencia's Last Two Life Rafts
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 raft to be launched had only 10 men on board as everyone else was afraid to get on and expected rescue to come quickly now that a ship had arrived. Boarding the raft from the Valencia was done by jumping from the ship into the freezing ocean far below. This, along with many other reasons may explain why the raft was only partly filled.
First assistant engineer Thomas 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.”
12pm Wed 24 Jan, Spotted by Topeka!
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.”
Topeka Boat & Valencia's Second Life Raft January 24th, 1906
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.”
Valencia Second Life Raft Rescue
Nineteen on Raft Rescued by Ship
Nineteen on raft rescued by ship was the headline in the Buffalo Evening Standard on its January 25th, 1906 edition which described the rescue:
The Topeka picked up a little craft at 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon, six miles off Cape Beale, with 19 survivors of the Valencia on board. The men were in pitiable condition and almost dead from exposure... They were half frozen and practically unconscious from the exposure. The raft was sighted about 12 o'clock. A terrible sea was running. One minute the raft was poised on top of a wave and the next it would be lost from view in the gully formed by the mountainous breakers. The men, on their frail support, battled bravely with a pair of oars to reach the City of Topeka, which could not run any closer to them...The sight of the poor creatures on the raft brought tears to the eyes of the sailors on the vessel. In the stern of the raft sat sat an old man, with snow white hair and pallid features. Three other men were lying in a senseless heap in the rear, washed by every swell and retained solely by the bodies of the other men, who were closely packed. Time and time again great seas swept over them. The work of rescuing them was dangerous. The men were too exhausted to tie a rope about themselves.
Cornelius Allison is recognizable in this photo of the survivors from the second raft boarding the City of Topeka at approximately 1pm on January 24th, 1906, 37 hours after the Valencia wrecked. He is the white haired man sitting in the boat with the white life jacket on. He had just been pulled out of the water after falling off the raft when attempting to board the ship.
The Nineteen Topeka Raft Survivors
The Valencia survivors with Martin Tarpey on the second life raft, which became known as the Topeka Raft were: watier James Walsh, waiter Charles Hoddinott, baker Charles Fluhme, passenger Cornelius Allison, first assistant engineer Thomas Carrick, 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, passenger Grant L. Willitts and fireman John Segalos.
Later Life and Career
Tarpey continued with the Pacific Coast Steamship Company after the disaster, advancing through the ranks: from quartermaster to fourth officer, third officer, second officer, and chief officer of the Seattle-San Francisco liner SS Congress (a position he held for over a year). By December 1914, at age 32, he was one of the youngest masters in major steamship services, taking command of the freighter Eureka (chartered by W.R. Grace & Company for Puget Sound-West Coast trade) after shifting from the Congress in San Francisco. In 1917 he married Anges C. Mullins.
Awarded Navy Cross in World War I
Lieutenant Commander Martin F. Tarpey, United States Navy was awarded the Navy Cross in World War I for distinguished service in the line of his profession while commanding the U.S. Transport Charles, operating between Southampton, England and France, engaged in the exacting and hazardous duty of transporting troops and supplies through waters infested with enemy submarines.
Lieutenant Commander Martin F. Tarpey, USN Reserve Force awarded the Navy Cross in 1918 – Photo Courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command.
"HERO OF VALENCIA WRECK GETS SHIP"
In 1921 the Victoria Daily Times had an article about Tarpey, "hero of the Valencia wreck", on his new position as captain. The article gets some details of the disaster quite wrong and exaggerates Tarpey's role as a hero. It is a nice article nonetheless.
"Captain Martin F. Tarpey, hero of the Valencia wreck, and more recently port captain of the Admiral Line at Seattle has been appointed to the command of the latest addition to the Admiral Line trans-Pacific fleet, the S.S. Bay State, and has left for New York to take over his new ship. Captain Tarpey is a comparatively young man, but ever since the terrible Valencia disaster in 1906, his name has stood high in maritime annals. When the Valencia was wrecked off the west coast of Vancouver Island she had 167 souls aboard. All perished except 26. Of the 26 survivors, five escaped in a boat that was driven ashore. Three others were washed ashore by the waves. Captain Tarpey, then a young quartermaster, was instrumental in saving the rest of the survivors, numbering 18, by cool and daring work, getting them away from the ship on a life raft. The shipping world rang with his name."
Martin Tarpey passed away on 3 July 1961 at the age of 79. He was buried alongside his wife Agnes in the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California.