The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1906-01-25
ALL DROWNED ON
BOARD THE WRECKED
STEAMER VALENCIA
One Hundred and Forty Persons Are
Drowned in the Wreck.--0nIy Fiji
teen Were Saved---AIl Efforts to
Rescue Were IN Vain.

Bamield, Jan. 24.-The Valencia
has broken up ana sunk. All on board
are lost.
One hundred and forty persons have
beeh drowned in the wreck of the
Valencia. Only fifteen were saved.
Seventy of the others lost their lives
in the first attempt TO save the pass
engers in life boats. The others, i'm
prisoned upon the doomed vessel te-
meath rocky cliff, went to their death
when the ship succumbed to the
pounding of the waves and crumbled
to pieces beneath them.
All efforts of rescue were in vain.
Steamships and tugs were hurried to
the sc enc but were either too late or
unable to reach the side of their COM
rade. 1t was fifteen hours after the
vessel struck at midnight Monday be.
fore news of the disaster reached the
distant telegraph station at Cape
Beale. the entrance to Barclay Sound,
far up the west coast of Vancouver
Island. Many more precious hours
were required to get vessels under way
and make the long run, and in the
meantime the wind and the sea and the
rocks were doing their grim work.
From the start it seeGed impossible
that any could be saved. Mariners
knew the terrors of that rocky coast
and off Cape &FIattery they felt the
force of the sea. They were hopeless
but they did their best. The brief
bulletin from the cable station at Bam.
field creek that all are lost and the
vessel brok:n up only confirms their
opinions.
Thirty yards from the shore the
passengers and crew were as helpless as
if they had been iu mid-ocean. AL
most in touch of land, an attempt to
reach it meant death against the rocks
or drowning in the surf that battled
against the cliffs. The life boais S with
the exception of two, were swamped
in the swirl of water alongside when
the first attempt to launch them was
made. In these two the fifteen ex-
hausted survivors finally reached
landing and found shelter long the
lnhospitable coast in time to save them
from death through exposure. The
rest dared not risk it.
Hour after hour they must have liv-
ed in all agony OF dread and futile
hope. Only those who believed in
miracles could have hoped tnat aid
would reach them in time.
Huddled in the upper works of the
vessel, with the waves breaking across
the main deck benhate them, the
seventy whom death mad hesitated
co claim, waited for the end. They
had seen half of their companions die
in the water. There were husbands
who had seen their wives drown al
most in reach of their hands and moth.
ers who had seen their children swept
overheard. There were officers who
were doing their best and lying like
gentlement to their passengers but
grimly resolved to die. And there
was the rocks and the waves and the
cold.
Outside the world grieved foi the
dead and worried for the living with
the silence lending an added horbor.
It was like murder being committed
within locked room. Nothing could
be done iu time. And all the time the
staunceh Valencia hung upon the rocks
which had Wounded her and was
rapidly pounding to pieces.
Every effort was made TO rescue the
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