A week after the wreck of the Valencia, The Daily Colonist of Victoria ran a cover story about the aftermath of the disaster and the horrific scenes that continued to be found. Sydney Van Wyck of San Francisco, who arrived by the tug Wyadda to search for his sisters body was interviewed about the experience. He described bodies found washed ashore terribly mutilated and decomposed. “One body was found yesterday, not identified. This brings the total number recovered to 28. Ten had been previously brought here and eight arrived last night.”
Many bodies were taken to the beach at Darling River to be picked up by boat. “The majority were in badly decomposed condition, some with part of the head and skull missing.” Another search began near the Valencia and no bodies were found, however “following where the sea-gulls were thickest found five bodies floating over a mile from the wreck.” Lineman Logan reported a woman’s body was spotted in the breakers about 100 feet off shore, but they were unable to get close. “Lieut. Stromberg said he would get it if he had to swim for it. He and four men clambered over the rocks, and after many trials secured the body, but the rising water cut them off and they had to spend the night on the rocks without provisions. They were taken off the next day.” While the Wyadda continued searching for bodies it became possible to take a close look at the Valencia and the unbelievably difficult location she came to be in. Van Wyck recalled, “When the Wyadda was bound down with the five bodies recovered by the Perry this morning she stopped off the wreck and we sent in a dory with two Nome beachmen who got off three bodies which Capt. Smith had ready. Capt. Patterson and myself, with some seamen again visited the wreck, and went to the inside of it, within fifteen feet of the high cliff, which is 150 feet high and with about 30 feet of an overhang – making it impossible for anyone who reached shore from the wreck to climb it.”
Sydney Van Wyck’s continued the story of the search for his sister, “The boat again went over the wreck and I broke off a piece of the spar. The hull was seen plainly, and its plates were seen broken. No bodies were seen. I sure that all is being done this is practicable, though if it were a more settled community more men and steamers could be secured to more adequately search for victims. There were some theories that my sister’s body have been looted of rings, and clothing, but I do not think so. I will leave tomorrow for San Francisco with my sister’s body, which has been positively identified, a local dentist having carefully examined her dental work and compared it with descriptions, and expect to reach San Francisco on Wednesday.”
The Valencia was equipped with six lifeboats and a smaller working boat. These seven boats could hold up to 181 people. Just enough to accommodate the estimated 178 crew and passengers aboard. There ...
A week after the wreck of the Valencia, The Daily Colonist of Victoria ran a cover story about the aftermath of the disaster and the horrific scenes that continued to be found. Sydney Van Wyck of ...
Shortly after 3pm on Tuesday afternoon on January 23rd the Valencia’s owners in Seattle received a message that the Valencia had gone ashore somewhere west of the Carmanah Lighthouse on Vancouver ...
All but one of the seven lifeboats were launched during the first hour of the Valencia disaster, between midnight and 1am, Tuesday, January 23rd, 1906. Of the estimated sixty passengers and crew that ...
The Revere shipwreck lays at the bottom of Port San Juan between Thrasher Cove and Owen Point. Thrasher Cove is the first or last West Coast Trail campsite you will encounter. She was a large 3 ...
Just as you pass the 49 kilometre mark of the West Coast Trail you will pass the Wempe Brothers shipwreck. A 4 masted, wooden schooner of 681 tons, quite a large sailing vessel for her time. The ...
The Puritan was a 4 masted schooner of 614 tons sailing inbound from San Francisco in ballast. She was heading for Port Gamble in Washington to pick up a load of lumber when the crew failed to ...
The Daily Colonist newspaper on the 3rd of May, 1906 reported, “On Monday another body of a victim of the wreck of the Valencia, the decomposed corpse of a child, was picked up by Mr. Logan in the ...
The Duchess of Argyle shipwreck lays at the bottom of the sea at the mouth of Cullite Cove near the 58 kilometre mark of the West Coast Trail. Cullite Cove is by far, one of the best campsites on the ...
When shipping in and out of Juan de Fuca Strait rapidly increased in the mid 1800's and an alarming and costly number of ships were lost, the need for a inland trail was realized. It would take decades, and many more brutal and costly shipwrecks in the waters leading to
The West Coast Trail is incredible. Everything about it is amazing. From the wildly, incomprehensibly enormous trees to endless jaw dropping views. And it's tough. Very tough. It is a trail that shouldn't exist. Hiking trails always form out of the easiest route worn ...
The West Coast Trail hiking season is confined to just five months due to the dangerously stormy weather during the winter months. In the winter the days are short, tides are high and heavy rain and strong winds are frequent. Hiking the trail in the summer is tough ...
There are three entry/exit points for the West Coast Trail, however the midway entry/exit point at Nitinaht Narrows is for hikers only hiking part of the trail. The two main entry points are at Pachena Bay in the north(Bamfield) and Gordon River in the south(Port ...
There are lots of options to getting to the West Coast Trail. The trail is linear so you have to arrange to get to the trailhead as well as from your exit trailhead. Most West Coast Trail hikers drive to one trailhead then bus to the other and hike back to their car. ...
The West Coast Trail is a very tough hike. About one out of one hundred hikers don't make it, they need to be rescued. That's why there are so many fees. By the time you are done preparing and registering, you laugh at how hiking got so expensive. Isn't hiking usually ...
A week after the wreck of the Valencia, The Daily Colonist of Victoria ran a cover story about the aftermath of the disaster and the horrific scenes that continued to be found. Sydney Van Wyck of San Francisco, who arrived by the tug Wyadda to search for his sisters body was interviewed about the experience. He described bodies found washed ashore terribly mutilated and decomposed. “One body was found yesterday, not identified. This brings the total number recovered to 28. Ten had been previously brought here and eight arrived last night.”
1. The Valencia 
