The Sinking of the American Steamship Clallam

The sinking of the American steamship Clallam while en route to Victoria is one of the worst in provincial record. But, more than a century later, there’s so much more to this tragedy than just the date, place and circumstances of her foundering in a storm in Juan de Fuca Strait.

From a storyteller’s viewpoint, there are two equally compelling sidebars: How her company agent spotted her in distress from the rooftop of Victoria’s Driard Hotel and how he tried, in growing desperation, to send help by way of ships berthed at Esquimalt.

How he finally persuaded the captain of the Gulf Islands steamer Iroquois to brave the gale, only for him to have to turn back for fear of losing his own ship.

How, 14 years later, the circumstances of the loss of the Clallam’s passengers had a direct bearing on a captain’s decision not to abandon his own ship during a lull in the weather; a decision that led, only hours later, to the greatest loss of life in British Columbia maritime history.

You can bet that not a single shopper in downtown knows the eerie connection between the Clallam disaster and one of the city’s leading department stores.

I’ll tell you all about it next week.

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Photo caption: The small passenger liner Clallam was only six months old when she was lost with great loss of life in January 1904.—Wikipedia photo