The Valencia Tragedy

Contributor to newspapers and magazines in Canada, Britain and United States on travel- and transportation themes.

Author: Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific's greatest ship (Erin: Boston Mills, 1992).

Reviewer for CBRA since 1993.

Disaster at sea has been the source of numerous books, and the flow
shows no sign of diminishing. British Columbia has seen its share of
major shipwrecks, one of the most tragic being the loss, in 1906, of the
American steamship Valencia on the west coast of Vancouver Island. This
commendable examination of “the most shameful incident in Canadian
maritime history” (as it was aptly described at the time) tells a tale
of misfortune, ineptitude, indifference, cowardice, and want of
compassion, all of which contributed to the largely needless deaths of
more than 100 of the Valencia’s 170 passengers and crewmen. (There was
courage, too, but it played a minor role.)

The steamship met her fate through a navigational error while en route
from San Francisco to Victoria and Seattle. She struck a rocky outcrop,
and then drifted toward the cliffs a few miles from Cape Beale. Three
rescue ships turned away (without making a serious attempt to assist
anyone), leaving dozens of people to die. Details of the final voyage
and the subsequent investigations have been thoroughly researched and
skilfully organized. Accompanying the text are more than 40 photographs
of varying quality. The author is to be commended for recreating a
tragedy that too few people know about.