The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-09-03
S. S. OHIO ON
ROCKS
WELL KNOWN NONE LINER
WENT DOWN NEAR
KETCHIKAN.
Purser, Wireless Operator and
Three Others Lose Lives She
Carried 131 Passengers and a
Crew of 82-Weather Was
Thick and Sea Rough.

Seattle, Aug. 2S-The following
message was received by the Alaska
Steams hip Company last night from
Capt. John Johnson, master, and Capt.
Samuel F. Snow, pilot, this being the
first information coming from the Of
ficers in charge:
"Ohio struck rock 1 a. m. August
&c, off Steep point. Afterward ran her
ashore in Carter bay. Now lies sub
merged in six fathoms forward, twelve
fathoms aft. Purser, wireless opera
tor, quartermaster, one steerage pass
enger and one soldier missing. Ship
damaged on port side on bottom. Some
bulkheads gone. Impossible to say
extent of damage. Captain and four
men standing by ship. Passengers and
crew landed by fishing boat Kingfsher
at Swanson bay. Capt. Snow on Rup-
ert City, southbound. Send instruc-
tons to Carter bay
While threading her way through
the narrow and dangerous passage of
Finlayson channel, the steamship
Ohio, Capt. John Johnson, of the Alas
ka Steamship Company's fleet, found
her grave in Carter bay, B. c., be.
tween 1 and o'clock Thursday morn.
ing Striking rock off Steep point,
she was so badly damaged that she
sank in Carter bay within half an
hour, before she could be beached.
Five persons lost their lives in the
mishap, the identity of three of whom
had not been learned at late hour
last night. The known dead are: Pur.
ser Frederick J. Stephen, of 1923 Sum-
NIT avenue, Seattle, and George E.
Eccles, of Winnipeg, wireless operator.
The others include one of the four
quartermasters, soldier passenger
and a steerage passenger.
Aboard the Ohio when she crashed
were 131 passengers and eighty-two
members of the crew. Pilot Sam F.
Snow was on the bridge. AS soon as
it was seen that the vessel was in i'm
minent danger she was headed for
Carter bay, a short distance to the
east, but she plunged to the depths be-
fore shore could be reached.
Immediately after the crash the
boats were lowered, the women being
steerage passenger were lost by the
upsetting of boat during the work
of rescuing the passengers. Purser
Stephen and Operator Eccles remain
ed by the vessel when she sank, and
it is believed that the quartermaster
lost his life in the same manner.
At the time of the. disaster the
weather was dirty and the sea rough.
That only five persons of the 213
aboard were lost is regarded as SUBJ
stantial proof that splendid discipline
prevailed. The stories of the wreck
show that those who lost their lives
died as heroes. In the dead of night,
with a storm raging, on precipitous
those familiar with the surroundings
that but two passengers were lost
This fact is taken as evidence that the
officers exhibited splendid presence of
mind, the crew full obedience and the
passengers extreme GOODNESS in the
face of imminent danger.
The secene of the disaster is Steep
point, Finlayson channel, between
Sarah island and the mainland, at the
southern entrance to Hiekisk mar
rows. Carter bay, where the Ohio
lies, is short distance to the east
where vessels sometimes anchor in the
face of southerly gales. 1t is in Brit.
ish waters. It is $50 miles north of
Seattle on the usual inside passage
route, and exactly 100 miles south of
Ketchikan.
Vancouver, B. c., Aug. 30.-With
her decks crowded with passengers in
various stages of undress, the Mac