The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1910-05-30
Ocean Graveyard Since Seventies
Undersea Obstruction at Entrance of Straits of San Juan
de Fuca Responsible for Many Wrecks.

Victoria, May 3O.-That there is
graveyard of steamers at the entrance
to the straits of San Juan de Fuca is
the theory advanced by local shipping
men apropos of the reports from
Ucluelet of an undersea obstruction
encountered by the whalers of the
steamer Orion six miles south of
Ucluelet, which they conjectured
might be the hulk of the long lost war
sloop Condor, with which 14O British
sailors went down.
Il have watched the accounts of the
loss of the steamers missing after
their departure from these shores
carefully" says a marine authority.
"and am convinced that the most prob
able cause of the repeated disasters is
a pinnacle of rock. somewhere north
west of Duentze Head there is prob
ably such a pinnacle. and the loss of
the Condor and of the steamers Mat
teawan, Montserrat, Keewatin and
others that have disappeared, leaving
but scant wreckage found long after
to indicate their fate. has in all prob
ability been due to their colliding with
this pinnacle. II investigations were
made, say by sweeping with a chain
between two vessels. this obstruction
should be definitely placed.
Probably Heaped Together.
THE wrecks of these almost for
gotten craft lie probably heaped to-
gether in this graveyard of ships, and
If wrecking vessel went to inves-
tigate the result ought to be of large
advantage to the wreckers. If they
located the wrecks they would recover
chain and other materials which
would handsomely reward them
The people of Ucluelet are excited
over the reports of the steamer Orion
concerning the obstruction she ell
countered. There is. however, nothing
beyond the fouling of the whaler's
cable and that the cut end came up
covered with paint to base the loca-
ton of wreck upon. Nearer to the
village is the well-known wreck be-
meath the water of the iron-hulled
Pass Of Melfort. which drove against
the cliffs of Amphitrite Point on a
dark winters night and foundered
with all hands.
1t is certain that the bones of many
ships lie off the coast of Vancouver
island. A few tattered and broken
hulls still perched along the beach re-
main as monuments. Some years ago
Captain T. P. H. Whitelaw, the veter-
an wrecker. combed this graveyard
specifically and brought up anchor
chains and other finds that told of
wrecks beneath the waters.
Wrecks Since the Seventies.
| In the seventies the first trading
posts were established and the first
! missionaries went to blaze the way OF
settlement and civilization in this re-
gion. Father Brabant was one of the
first coast missionaries, and soon after
he went to Hesouoit in 1874 he was
called upon to bury twelve bodies
swept ashore from the Malleville, a
Cape Cod brigantine that had dashed
against the shore. Since then there
have been many wrecks, since then
many vessels have been lost or aban.
doned there
From some boats have reached the
/ shore; of others no vestige has been
found. Often but name board pick
ed up has told of a ship lost with all
on board. The bark Dominion left
Honolulu for Victoria some years age
and was not heard from. Then. while
a missionary was walking along the
sandy beach in front of his humble
home at Clo-oose. where the Indians
have a village fronting the ocean, he
found name board marked ..Domin
lon.
OF others believed to be under these