The SS Valencia And Its Path Toward Collision
Wikimedia CommonsThe SS Valencia was an iron-hulled passenger steamer that collided with a reef in 1906.
Originally constructed in 1882, the SS Valencia was a passenger steamer vessel built to travel between New York City and Venezuela.
But in January 1906, the vessel was journeying between San Francisco and Seattle, taking over the route for another ship that was undergoing repairs.
On January 21st, the SS Valencia was traveling with 108 passengers and 65 crew members when it hit a patch of bad weather near Cape Mendocino. The ship’s crewmen were unable to accurately pinpoint their location, causing the ship to drift into a reef on the night of January 22nd.
The impact ripped through its hull, filling it with water.
The captain ordered the crew members to lower six lifeboats, but didn’t give the order to abandon ship. Amidst the panic and confusion on board, however, people began boarding the lifeboats anyway. Three were improperly manned, and the people in them ended up drowning. Of the three that were properly launched, one disappeared and the other two capsized.
A number of crew members were able to safely evacuate and successfully abandon ship. They later found their way to the Cape Beale Light Station, where they told the keeper what happened.
Tragically, most aboard the ship died, and only 37 people survived. Media outlets reported it as the worst maritime disaster in the “Graveyard of the Pacific,” the area of Vancouver Island where the vessel hit the reef.
Curiously, in 1933, about 27 years after the disaster, authorities discovered the missing lifeboat in Barkley Sound, in surprisingly good condition. However, there was no sign of the passengers who had used it to escape.
According to legend, local fishermen reported seeing the SS Valencia’s missing lifeboat being rowed by skeletons in the years following the disaster.
Similar stories came from sailors on other vessels, reporting that they saw the ghost ship of the SS Valencia with its deck manned by skeletons.
