New-York tribune., 1901-08-28
DISASTERS IN ALASKAN WATERS.
HAVE GONE DOWN SINCE KLoNDIKE
IRISH BEGAN.
RUSH BEGAN.

The laundering of the twin screw steamer Isl
auder the crack liner of the Canadian Pacific
Navigation Company's Victoria-Skagway fleet
after striking an iceberg off Douglas Island is the
most serious disaster which has occurred since the
rush TO the Rlondike gold fields began In 4sSo
1t is believed that sixty-seven OF her passengers
and crew went down with the vessel or were
drowned I'm the icy water while trying to reach
the shore of the island. The only disaster con-
nected with the rush to the gold helds which cost
more lives the terrible slide on Chilcoot Fass'
in the winter OF 1897 More than one hundred per-
sons were buried under the avalanche of ice and
snow which swept without warning from the sum-
nit of the pass Sleeps Camp.
Scores Of steamers and sailing vessels in the
Alaskan trade have been wrecked through various
causes but the passengers and crews usually man
aged to escape Many vessels have gone ashore
and proved total wrecks without costing single
life. In fact. there have been only four marine
disasters since the rush began which have caused
serious loss OF life. The vessels lost were the
Clara Nevada with a loss of thirty-fve the
schooner Jane Gray with a loss OF thirty-four: the
Jessie. with a loss OF sixteen, and the Ill fated
Islander
on February G. 1898, tho steamer Clara Nevada,
bound for Skagway with tweve-K londikers and a
full crew. encountered terrible storm In Berner
Bay few miles north of the place where the
Islander wrecked last week. She was the
old United States Coast Survey steamer Hassler'
her having been changed when the govern
sold
pany. Her boilers had given much trouble on
the voyage that q number of passengers left her
at Juneau. the midst OF the gale. which was
accompanied by a binding snowstorm. her boilers
exploded. The noise of the explosion was heard in
Seaward City. and a number Of persons patroIied
the beach for hours afterward. but no bodies came
ashore. There We're survivors. and il will never
be known just how passengers and crew met death.
A few bodies recovered later. some of which
were badly burned. Lack Of evidence the only
Of the boat.
The second disaster. the laundering Of the
schooner Jane Gray off Cape Flattery. was also
due TO sending out old vessel. She had been an
Alaskan whaler in her early days, and had been
IN the ''boneyard in San Francisco Bay for
number Of years. The demand for boats FOR the
Klondike trade pressing. and the Jane Gray
hoated off the flats and sent TO Seattle. She
nearly foundered going up the coast. A big deck
house built for the accommodation of the sixty
prospective miners who willing to take pas
sage on her. This made the schooner still more
Unseaworthy.
Late in May, 1S9s. a tug towed her out to the
Straits Of Fuca. Two days later, when she was
less than fifty miles off the coast. her hull seams
began open up There storm. and the
captain did realize the danger. The passen-
gers most Of whom seasick in hunks below,
not awakened until 1t evident that the
vessel was foundering Most of them refused to
respond the hasty warning which yelled
from the deck Those who made the deck escaped
in a steam launch. which TO have taken OF
the mining parties up Alaskan river They
reached the coast without serious difficulty. The
rest. thrty-four in all stayed in their hunks and
The wreck was never located, and the bodies were
not recovered Five players on the best football
team which the University Of Washington has ever
The wreck Of the steamer Jessie is shrouded in
as much mystery as is that of the Clara Nevada.
She a wheel river steamer built I'm
Seattle by Kentucky mining company She was
BenrlnS
without difficulty When the towing steamer pro-
ceeded on her voyage TO st: Michaels the miners
were getting their steamer in shape. few days
the wide mouth OF the kuskokwim River. The
bodies OF several OF the sixteen victims washed
searching part sent out in is8 discovered the
booty in their possession. and for time it was
government MT investigation establfshed the fact Of
Indians Of ali saTe the robbery chaTee the
Steamers running from Puget Sound to skagway,
but little rough weather. Their course lies
between the islands Immediately off the mainland
For the greater part or the voyage there is land
within a mile or TWO on either side of the vessel.
strong man can throw a stone from one shore to
There are many dangerous reefs running out
from the islands and these have caused most OF
the disasters High seas are unusual in these pro
nave nave oeen a6ie 10 land land an OF the PASSENGERS IN
beached and the passengers dropped ashore with
The Islander was wrecked by striking a large
iceberg. and if she had been headed for shore as
soon as she was free from the ice there would
probably have been little loss of life. Icebergs.
large and small are numerous in the channels
along the Alaskan coast at this time OF year.
Most of them blown down from BehTing Sea.
Some are huge blocks of ice. which have broken
from Muir and other glaciers along the coast. The
Islander is the first Alaskan steamer TO be lost
through striking iceberg though there is hardly
a steamer in the feet which has not had brush
with these floating ice mountains. The old wooden
steamer Al-Ki. of the Pacific Coast Steamship
Company's fleet. hits berg almost every trip. She
has reputation for IT. and her coming into port
with a broken nose is no longer news TO Seattle.
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