Steamship strikes iceberg and sinks, killing 40 people
On Aug. 17, 1901, the Vancouver World reported the Canadian Pacific steamship Islander was late arriving from “the north,” but “is expected this afternoon.”
It never arrived. After leaving Skagway, Alaska, at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 14, the Islander struck an iceberg near Juneau about 2:15 a.m. on Aug. 15 and sank.
Forty people drowned, including 23 passengers, 16 crew members, and the ship’s captain, Hamilton R. Foote.
“The most appalling catastrophe in the ocean-going history of British Columbia was brought to the city this evening,” said a dispatch from Victoria in the Aug. 19
Vancouver Daily Province. “The steamer Islander, the pride of the C.P.N. fleet, the lucky flagship of many years in the Alaskan service, struck an iceberg and sank in 15 minutes in 40 fathoms of water on Thursday last with a terrible record of lives lost.”
Nearly 120 years later, it seems incredible that news of the disaster didn’t reach Vancouver for three days. But the telegraph line from Alaska to the continental United States wasn’t linked up until 1904 — three years after the Islander went down.
The news arrived with the steamer Queen, which reached Victoria at 8 p.m. on Sunday.
“Hardly had she touched the wharf when the purser shouted to some acquaintance on the deck that the Islander had gone down,” said the Province. “Immediately the news flew like wildfire and the city in the course of an hour or two was in a state of ferment.”
According to the initial story, there were 107 passengers and a crew of 71 aboard. Most were asleep when the 240-foot-long ship “struck heavily.”
“Pilot Le Blanc who was on the watch reported that water was pouring in below at a rate which made it impossible for the pumps to handle it and which stamped the vessel as doomed,” the Province reported.
“Steward Simpson rushed below as well as did the other officers and with axes battered down doors and other parts of the passageways in order to expedite the freeing of imprisoned passengers, who now began to pour up ladders in a wild state of excitement.”
Lifeboats were lowered as the ship sank, bow first.
“Many lives were undoubtedly lost by the suction caused by the sudden appearance of the vessel,” said the Province.
“Dr. Phillips of Seattle, with his wife and child, was in his stateroom … he rushed out and hurriedly returning told his wife and daughter to dress. They ran for the deck and just then the ship lurched and sank, and the wife and child were caught by the suction of the air shaft and carried to the bottom.
“Dr. Phillips was struck above the eye by the air shaft which prevented him from getting into the shaft, thus saving his life. He was thrown into the water, coming up under the cabin door, onto which he climbed with engineer Brownlee.”
Captain Foote “leaped from the bridge just as the vessel was sinking.”
He made it to a raft, but it was so crowded he said “There are too many of us here. Goodbye boys.”
“He then swam off and disappeared forever,” said the Province.
Among the dead was Barbara Ross, the wife of the Yukon’s head of government, James H. Ross. The World reported Mrs. Ross “was found with the body of her little girl close-clasped in a last embrace.”
The little girl was actually a boy, William. Dr. John Duncan of Victoria was last seen trying to assist Mrs. Ross, her son and her niece.
“The whole four drowned, so it is likely Dr. Duncan lost his life directly as the result of his efforts for the others,” said the World.
The accident occurred in misty or foggy weather, in the dead of night, which made it hard to see what was happening. The vessel was near Douglas Island, but a World story said “no one could see the beach” nearby. Finally, “one of the boats hard the ripple of a little stream which ran into the water from the hillside,” and a landing was made.
But when the lifeboats returned to pick up people who had been left behind, it was often too late.
“The cries of those who were left in the water was something awful,” said one of the passengers who had been rescued.