The Graveyard – Victoria Model Shipbuilding Society

The Graveyard by Mike Creasy

If you’ve ever fished from Port Renfrew, you probably have seen the eager hikers walking stretches of the famous West Coast Trail that runs from Pt Renfrew up to Bamfield along some very rugged shoreline. There are even worse parts of coastline to the north - around Brooks Peninsula, for example, where you can almost feel the rocks reaching out to you – waiting to pull your boat closer to the white fangs of a thousand outstretched rocks. That’s on a nice day!

The stretch from Cape Beale to Port Renfrew is relatively benign by comparison, with high cliffs and rocky beaches dropping off quickly to 100 feet or more. So why is this particular area known as the Graveyard of the Pacific?

Around the turn of the century, sailing ships and underpowered steamers regularly plied the routes from San Francisco – the major terminus of US railways – to Victoria and Puget Sound. Ships would routinely stay well clear of the Oregon and Washington coastline, since they offered no easy shelter if weather should go bad. Out of sight of shore, navigation was done with sextant and patent log. Ocean currents had not yet been researched and catalogued as they are today, and even if the sextant observation was accurate, the perfect charts of today were not even yet a dream. This is the NOAA chart from 1895 – things are only generally in the right position.

So, in winter – with prevailing southerly winds, plenty of fog and long dark nights, old time Captains had to find a flickering light at Cape Flattery in order to make a right turn into the mouth of Juan de Fuca. If they turned too soon, the Washington coast awaited. Most, however, waited to see the light at Cape Flattery and it was this waiting that caused the ruin of many a fine ship because if they passed Flattery without seeing it, there was little warning that the Graveyard awaited. A light at Cape Beale (at the entrance to Barkley Sound) was established in 1874, but this light was too far west to be reliably seen from anywhere near Cape Flattery. A second light at Carmanah Point was built in 1891, 13 miles west of Port Renfrew, but this light too was often obscured by fog, low cloud and torrential rain or snow.

This was exactly the situation that faced Captain Oscar Johnston on the night of January 22, 1906, as her inched his way along through a frigid black night in a howling gale. His 1,600 ton steamer Valencia was three days out of San Francisco, carrying about 170 passengers and crew (the exact number was never determined) for Victoria and Seattle. By 9 pm, he calculated the ship should be near Cape Flattery, and he reduced speed and began taking soundings.

At 11:45, Captain Johnston found that his calculations were wrong. The Valencia drove ashore three miles east of Pachena Point, at the foot of a sheer rock bluff. In the confusion and blackness, Captain Johnston and his crew did what they could. Over the next few days, rescue ships and shore parties tried desperately to save the Valencia’s people, with little success. At least 117 died, all within sight of land.

As a result of the disaster (and a US Presidential Inquiry) the Dominion Government built a third light at Pachena Point, and began work to improve the rudimentary trail that had been built during the construction of a telegraph line to the light at Cape Beale.

The improved trail - as well as the new light - would quickly prove their worth, as ships and boats continued to make their unfortunate mark on the Graveyard of the Pacific. All those modern day hikers huddled around their West Coast Trail campfires should drink a toast to the many spirits said to still wander the beaches and trails, looking for help that never arrives.

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Bibliography

The Valencia Tragedy, Michael C. Neitzel, Heritage House Publishing, 1995

British Columbia Shipwrecks, T.W. Paterson, Stagecoach Publishing, 1976

NOAA Coast Survey Online Index of Historical Maps & Charts

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