Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1907-07-25
Pacific Ocean Grave for 100 Persons
Who Traleled on Steamer COlum-
bia From San Francisco.
In COLLISION At MIDNIGHT
WITH BIG LUMBER SCHOONER
With a Grinding Crash the San Pedro Sinks
Her Stem Ten Feet Into Her Victims
Port BOw-Nesrly All on Board Steamer
We're Asleep When Wreck Came.

San Francisco, July %. In one of the
worst marine disasters in the history of
the California cost, between 100 and $50
lives were lost, as far as has been learn
ed, by midnight collision between the
steamer Columbia and the steam lum-
Der schooner San Pedro, in Shelter Cove,
IL miles southwest of the MEDICINE
Humboldt county line, between IL and l
O'Clock yesterday morning. Only mea-
gre details of the tragedy have been re-
ceived, though every effort has been
made to get the facts. Scores of tele-
grams to Eureka, the nearest point of
Importance, remain unanswered. The
few details known here were brought
by the steamer Roanoke and the steam
schooner Daisy Mitchell, which arrived
In San Francisco this forenoon.
The Columbia, 3OO-foot steel vessel
of the San Francisco and Portland
Steamship Company, while bound from
San Francisco for Portland, Ore, with
lS9 passengers and crew of sixty. col
lided with and was rammed by the San
Pedro, a 170-foot wooden steamer.
southbound, for this city. The sea was
smooth, but the weather was foggy.
The San Pedro, looming out of the mist
few ship lengths away, bore down on
the Columbia at a high speed, despite
frantic efforts to clear. With a grind
ing crash, the San Pedro sank her stem
fully ten feet into the Columbia's port
bow.
Nearly all of the CoIumbia's passen-
gers and many of the crew were asleep
In the cabins and hunks when the crash
came. AS the San Pedro backed away
the sea poured in through the ragged
hole in the Columbia's bow above and
below the water line, and in five min
utes the Columbia sank to the bottom.
the deep waters of Shelter Cove cover
ing over the tops of the Columbia s
masts.
The story of that five minutes is vet
to be told and as it is told by some sur
Vivors the facts of the tragedy can be
but guessed at.
According to ]. S. Flynn, passenger
on the Roanoke, Captain Doran, of the
Columbia, succeeded in launching four
life-boats and two RATS before the Col
umbia sank. Flynn in an interview, it
quoted as saying that eighty-eight pas
sengers, all men, got away in that man.
ner, and were saved; that Captain Do
ran acted with great coolness in the
face of death, and went down with his
ship. Flynn is further quoted as saying
that not one of the hundred-odd women
passengers were saved,
Shortly after the collision the steam
ers Roanoke and George w. Elder and
the steamer Daisy C. Mitchell, all south
bound, came on the scene and stood by.
The Elder took the San Pedro inUtow
and the latest report announces their
arrival in Eureka. The stem of the San
Pedro was smashed to splinters, one of
her masts were snapped off at the deck,
she was settling and had a heavy list
when taken in tow. Captain Hansen
remained on board
The Daisy Mitchell offered assistance
to the Elder but this was declined. She
picked up a life-boat and a raft of the
Columbia and brought them to this city.
Near the scene of the wreck the Roa-
noke picked up life raft and found un-
derneath it the dead body of a passen-
ger, supposed to be Edward Butler, of
Portsmouth, N. H.
The officers Of the Merchants Ex-
change in this city, and of the various
newspapers have been besieged since
early morning by relatives and friends
Of the Columbia's passengers, but the
insistent and fearful requests for infor-
nation of the victims and the rescued
remained unsatisfied. Beyond the re-
ported facts that Butler was drowned
and that Captain Doran went down
with his ship, no details of casualties
have been received.
Assistant President Frye, of the
steamship company, said this afternoon
that the Columbia lies in deep water
and Is miles off shore, and that for the
present at least no attempt will be made
to raise her.
Captain Doran was regarded by the
officials of San Francisco and Portland
Steamship Company as one of the ablest
seaman who ever operated a vessel on
the coast. His career being free from
accidents, and this is the first disaster
that has befallen any vessel over WHICH
he held command.
Eureka, CAL, July 22.-Of the 249
people on the steamer Columbia, which
was run into and sunk early Sunday
morning by the lumber-laden schooner
San Pedro, IA were brought here to-
day by the steamer Elder. OF these lO7
were passengers and 81 members of the
crew of the Columbia.
In addition to these four lifeboats are