The Ship That Came Back From the Grave

(Part 2)
As we’ve seen, the old steamer Clara Nevada appeared to be doomed from the moment she cleared her Seattle dock in February 1898. Bound for the Klondike gold rush with passengers and freight, she somehow made it to Skagway.

It was on her return trip, this time with a full load of 100 passengers, that she struck uncharted Eldred Rock in Alaska’s infamous Lynn Canal and was lost with all aboard.

Or, so it seemed at the time!

Almost all of those who were aboard, passengers and crew, died in the wreck, that much appears to be certain. But perhaps not everyone, according to tantalizing evidence that has come to light over the past 125 years.

Her captain, to name one, appears not to have gone down with his ship but to have died years later in his hometown of old age!

How could that possibly be?

And what of the Clara Nevada’s reputedly rich cargo of gold, worth millions of dollars today?

It’s one of those stories that, as Alice of Wonderland fame said, gets curiouser and curiouser....

You can read all about it in next week’s Chronicles.

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PHOTO: The S.S. Clara Nevada was unfit to sail, but sail she did—into disaster—because of the frantic need for shipping during the Klondike gold rush. This hectic Seattle dock scene gives an idea of the excitement that prevailed at the time. —Seattle Public Library