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 Island. The Queen, another Pacific Coast Steamship Company vessel was arriving in Victoria and it was ordered to rush to the Valencia to offer assistance. The call was put out to all tugs in the area to help, however none were available and ones that were available were at Neah Bay and the communication line was broken and they couldn’t be called.
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
The Topeka, another vessel belonging to the Pacific Coast Steamship Company in Seattle Harbor was finally reached and ordered to rush to the Valencia.
Captain Cousins of the Queen arrived at Victoria, discharged all passengers and left for the Valencia at 5pm Tuesday afternoon. She arrived off Carmanah Lighthouse at 10pm and waited until morning to begin searching for the Valencia. Captain Cousins was told in Victoria that she lay 4 miles west of Carmanah Lighthouse. She wasted valuable hours searching before being instructed by the Carmanah Lighthouse keeper that she lay 18 miles west of Carmanah. During the search she passed two Canadian vessels, Czar and Salvor near the Carmanah Lighthouse. Keeping a mile or two from the shore, the Queen finally spotted the Valencia at about 930am Wednesday morning. She kept a safe distance from shore of about a mile to a mile and a half. The Czar, a small tug was spotted passing far out to sea and the Queen steamed about a mile further out to intercept her.
Soon another Canadian vessel arrived, the Salvor, a wrecking vessel. When the Queen first arrived on the scene the crew spotted survivors on the Valencia clinging to the rigging. Both the Salvor and the Czar stayed in the area briefly and reported later that they believed there were no survivors on the Valencia and departed at 1015am. The two ships intended to go to Bamfield and help organize a shore rescue.
After the Salvor and the Czar departed the weather worsened and fog came in and the Queen could no longer see the Valencia. She was now two to three miles from the Valencia and had yet to launch any boats to go to the wreck. At around 11am the Queen was steaming seaward abandoning the Valencia. She passed another steamer, the City of Topeka also owned by the Pacific Steamship Company and company officials on board ordered the Queen to return to Victoria and back to work as a cruise ship. Frank Bunker, in an interview posted in the Victoria Daily Colonist on January 31st, 1906, learned of the conversation between the Topeka and the Queen. Captain Paterson of the Topeka asked the captain of the Queen if they had seen anything of the wreck. The Queen responded that she is in near shore, saw life aboard, people in the rigging and she is about three miles west of the big waterfall. Paterson then ordered the Queen to proceed to Victoria, and take up your passengers. The City of Topeka then cruised along the coast but in no time came within sight of the Valencia.
The captain of the City of Topeka would later report that he couldn’t find the wreck due to thick fog, however the men on the cliff above the Valencia reported seeing both the Topeka and the Queen when they passed each other and the Queen ordered back to Victoria. Shortly after the Valencia broke and sunk, the second raft that had been launched at about 10am was spotted by the Topeka between 1 and 2pm. They picked up the 19 men on board who were all nearly dead from exposure from the water filled raft.
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
