Adam Rolph
Adam Rolph was a first-class passenger on the Valencia heading back to his wife and five children in New Westminster where he lived for twenty years. The Daily Colonist reported that Rolph had recently resigned his position as bookkeeper at the St. Mungo Cannery, Fraser River, and went to San Francisco to engage in a business venture there. Mrs. Rolph received a letter from him that his plans had miscarried and that he was returning on the Valencia. Rolph was one of ten men on the first of two rafts that left the ship just two hours before it collapsed into the sea killing an estimated 65 people still on board. After six hours of drifting along the coast and submerged in freezing water, Rolph jumped overboard to try to swim ashore. Connors remembers: “I saw him dashed against the rocks, we were unable to help him.” Days later his body was found washed ashore.