The Sinking of the SS Clara Nevada
By: Robin Barefield
Tags: True Crime, Crime, Alaska, History, Murder

The Sinking of the SS Clara Nevada

Was the wreck of the Clara Nevada a terrible accident or the greatest mass-murder in Alaska history?

SS Clara Nevada

Superstitions swirl around boats, and some captains believe bizarre myths. Renaming a vessel remains foremost among the maritime harbingers of bad luck, and if you dare change the name of your boat, you must follow a strict protocol to avoid certain doom. The Clara Nevada did not even complete her maiden voyage under her new name. Is this boat the case study to prove the truth of the old mariner’s superstition, or did her captain plot her demise?

On February 5, 1898, the SS Clara Nevada departed Skagway, Alaska, headed for Juneau and then Seattle. Hurricane-force winds of 90 knots (100 mph 161 km/h) pummeled the vessel with following seas of twelve to fifteen feet (4–5 m) as the helmsman attempted to navigate the infamous Lynn Canal of Alaska’s Inside Passage. When the decrepit old ship reportedly struck a rock and sank, the news surprised no one. Searchers found the body of only one man, the ship’s purser, but news reports speculated no one survived such a horrific accident.

The loss of the Clara Nevada at first seemed a tragic but foreseeable accident, and no one doubted the negligence of the ship’s owners and captain. Before long, though, folks began asking questions, and the Seattle newspapers speculated wildly about the disaster. Crewmen believed to have died in the wreck turned up alive and well. Even the captain materialized and wasted little time beginning his next venture to ferry prospectors to the goldfields.

What happened on February 5, 1898, aboard the Clara Nevada? Was the wreck an accident, or did the captain and a few crewmen perpetrate the worst mass-murder in the history of Alaska?

The Klondike Gold Rush

Chilkoot Trail

In 1886, three prospectors struck gold in a stream near the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers in the Yukon Territory. A year later, the gold rush hit full stride as men and women headed north to claim their fortunes. The streets of Seattle teemed with hopeful prospectors seeking passage north on any available vessel. Few worried about a ship’s seaworthiness since their only concern was to get to the goldfields as fast as possible.

Various routes existed for reaching the Klondike goldfields, but the most popular one involved an ocean voyage from Seattle to the twin boomtowns of Dyea and Skagway, Alaska. From Skagway, prospectors either climbed the steep Chilkoot Pass ice stairway or followed the longer, easier trail through White Pass. Once the stampeders crested the passes, they stepped into Canada. The Klondike gold rush occurred in Canada, not Alaska, but the fastest routes to the gold required challenging treks through Alaska into Canada.

Port of Seattle

Not enough boats were available in Seattle to handle the crowds of people demanding passage to Skagway. Businessmen eager to make a buck obtained marginal vessels, those not seaworthy enough to handle winter storms in the North Pacific or ships already retired and headed to the scrap yards, and they forced these derelict boats into service. Many of these ships should never have been allowed to haul passengers, and Steamboat Inspection Service officials seemed not to notice when owners overloaded their vessels with passengers, animals, and freight.

Experienced captains and crewmen became a sought-after commodity on the docks of Seattle, and boat owners stooped to hiring anyone willing to take a job on an unseaworthy vessel. Under-trained crewmen on overloaded boats made the voyage from Seattle to Skagway a dangerous journey. No ship better represents this situation than the Clara Nevada.

The Clara Nevada

The Clara Nevada, christened the Hassler in 1872, sailed under the command of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Service with the mission to chart the waters along the Alaska coast. The vessel, a three-masted, iron-hulled steamship, spanned 151 ft. (46 m) in length and had a beam of 24 ft. 6 in. (7.47 m). When the Hassler’s iron hull began to disintegrate after 25 years of service, the Geodetic Service decommissioned the vessel in May 1895. Two years later, the McGuire brothers bought the Hassler for $15,700 and quickly renamed the ship the Clara Nevada.

The greedy McGuire brothers of the Pacific and Alaska Transportation Company suffered poor reputations, and they spent little money refitting the ship or equipping it with adequate lifeboats and safety equipment. The brothers hired low-wage seamen who were reportedly drunk and obnoxious for most of the maiden voyage of the Clara Nevada. The McGuire brothers, like many other Seattle boat owners of the day, did not object to overloading their vessel with animals, freight, and passengers. Those who travelled on the Clara Nevada from Seattle to Skagway in January 1898 reported a harrowing voyage.

The Voyage from Seattle to Skagway

Captain Charles H. Lewis

The Clara Nevada, under the command of Captain Charles H. Lewis, departed the pier in Seattle and immediately collided with a federal revenue cutter. The next day, the captain rammed the dock in Port Townsend, Washington, almost certainly instilling his passengers with little confidence in his abilities. The ship’s boilers experienced constant problems on the voyage, and at one point, the Clara Nevada briefly caught on fire.

The Clara Nevada stopped in Juneau overnight to unload freight and stayed a few hours longer than planned so that the crew could work on the boilers. In Juneau, the mystery of the Clara Nevada begins. According to several sources, the vessel carried dynamite, stored deep in its hold bound for the Treadwell mine on Douglas Island near Juneau. The law forbade transporting dynamite with passengers, so researchers believe the crew hid the dynamite beneath the other freight. When the vessel reached Juneau, though, no dynamite was unloaded for the mine. Historians think either the Treadwell mine did not send a representative to accept the dynamite, or perhaps, the captain decided not to unload the explosives due to the presence of a steamship inspector on the dock. Whatever the reason, if there was dynamite on the Clara Nevada when the boat departed Seattle, it remained on board when the ship left Juneau, and no one unloaded dynamite in Skagway. Since the boat planned to return to Juneau on its voyage south, perhaps the captain planned to offload the explosives then.

When the Clara Nevada reached Skagway, the captain again rammed the dock, shattering four pilings. The disgruntled passengers readily disembarked, and many felt lucky to have survived the voyage from Seattle.

The Last Few Hours of the Clara Nevada

We will never know what happened to the Clara Nevada once the vessel departed Skagway, but the ship had little going in its favor. It was well past its prime, and according to those with intimate knowledge of the vessel, the Clara Nevada should have been scrapped instead of carrying passengers across the rough waters of Alaska in the winter. The captain lacked skill at running the vessel as demonstrated by his poor docking abilities, and the unqualified, often inebriated crew could provide little assistance in the case of an emergency. The worst decision Captain Lewis made, though, was to depart Skagway in the middle of a storm producing hurricane-force winds. Even large ships hold-up in such weather, so it remains a mystery why Lewis thought the rickety, old Clara Nevada could handle heavy seas and high winds.

No one knows how many people sailed from Skagway on the Clara Nevada, and the only passenger list presumably went down with the ship. Reports of the number of passengers on board the ill-fated vessel vary between 25 and 150. Alaska historian Steve Levi has extensively researched the sinking of the Clara Nevada, and most consider him the leading expert on the ship. In his book, The Clara Nevada; Gold, Greed, Murder and Alaska’s Inside Passage, Levi estimates approximately 57 passengers boarded the Clara Nevada in Skagway, and the ship carried a crew of thirty.

Several sources reported that the Clara Nevada steamed south from Skagway, carrying $165,000 in raw gold (estimated at over $13 million today). The gold belonged to one or more prospectors on the ship, and Levi makes the point it would likely have been in the form of gold dust.

If we believe undocumented but numerous eyewitness reports, then a dilapidated ship with a dubious crew carried a small fortune in gold and a load of dynamite when it steamed out into a violent storm in the frigid North Pacific. This premise would make an excellent opening for a novel, but the plot thickens, and with the help of frequent articles in the two Seattle newspapers, the legend of the disaster of the Clara Nevada grew daily.

On the afternoon of February 6, 1898, the SS Clara Nevada departed Skagway in a roaring storm with hurricane-force winds out of the north. When the ship passed through Berner Bay near Eldred Rock, about 30 miles (48.3 km) south of Skagway, it ran aground on Eldred Rock. A witness eight miles (12.9 km) away claimed he saw an orange fireball erupt, and embers fly into the sky. Reporters afforded this eyewitness account a great deal of weight, but Levi questions how the man could have seen the boat wreck from his position. The man did sound the alarm, though, telling others a ship hit Eldred Rock and exploded. Due to the storm and heavy seas, it was too dangerous to launch a rescue until the following day.

The deputy collector of the United States Customs in Alaska, Inspector T.A. Marquam, chartered the steamship Rustler to investigate the reported accident. On the shore near Eldred Rock, he found clothing, photographs, furniture, and lumber. He also discovered life preservers and a hatch cover printed with “Hassler,” the original name of the Clara Nevada. When Marquam reached Eldred Rock, he saw the distinct outline of a vessel 24 ft. (7.3 m) below the surface of the water. A diver inspected the ship and noted a black hole in the hull in the location of the boiler room.

The Investigation of the Wreck

Seattle reporters speculated one of the boilers exploded when the Clara Nevada hit Eldred Rock, blowing a hole in the bottom of the hull. This conclusion made sense because the boilers repeatedly malfunctioned on the trip from Seattle to Skagway. When the diver reported the hole had a black edge, though, people wondered why an exploding boiler would cause a blackened hole. Black marks more likely indicated fire. When reports leaked about the illegal dynamite aboard, a new theory emerged. Perhaps one or more lanterns aboard the ship overturned and started a fire on the Clara Nevada. If the blaze reached the dynamite, an ignition of explosives would not only explain the blackened hole but also would mesh with the eyewitness account of a fireball sending sparks into the air.

After an investigation, the Steamboat Inspection Service determined unsecured lanterns overturned in the pitching, rolling seas, catching the ship on fire. While the captain and officers battled the blaze in a frantic attempt to keep it from reaching the dynamite, they lost track of the vessel’s bearings, and the storm pushed the Clara Nevada broadside onto the reef at Eldred Rock, where the ship split open and sank. The Inspection Service investigators deduced the fire must have started before the boat hit the rock because divers found fire hose on the ship’s deck, and the hose was attached to the hydrants and coupled to the pumps.

Questions

While researching the wreck of the Clara Nevada, Historian Steve Levi uncovered numerous inconsistencies in the records. Authorities presumed everyone on the ship died, but a few of the crew apparently escaped the disaster because their names appear in the 1900 census. Foremost among the survivors was Captain C.H. Lewis, who went on to captain another vessel. How did these men survive the sinking of the Clara Nevada?

Levi also questioned what happened to the $165,000 in gold reportedly stowed on the Clara Nevada when the boat went down. The vessel sank in shallow water, and numerous divers have explored the wreckage, but no one has ever found the gold. It is possible the rumor of gold on the boat was false, but it there was gold on the Clara Nevada, what happened to it?

Only months after the loss of the Clara Nevada, Captain C. H. Lewis bought the river boat, William H. Evans, and headed to the Yukon River where he planned to ferry prospectors and gear to Dawson City. Unfortunately, his captaining skills had not improved, and he ran aground on a sandbar in the Yukon. He stayed on the boat for over a year but finally abandoned ship when it became apparent the Evans would break apart before the Yukon flooded enough to allow the vessel to float.

A Theory of Robbery and Murder

Levi does not believe the tragedy of the Clara Nevada occurred by accident. Instead, he thinks the sinking of the vessel represents the largest mass murder in the history of Alaska. Levi admits he has only circumstantial evidence to support his theory, but he backs it up with compelling source material.

Levi postulates thieves deliberately sank the vessel to cover up the robbery of $165,000 in gold dust. He suggests the thieves lit a small charge of dynamite in the boiler room, and they also set several fires on the boat, hoping the fires would distract the passengers and crew until the dynamite exploded. Levi also believes the plan to steal the gold went awry due to the raging storm.

Levi suggests most of the gold dust would have been in the purser’s safe, and only the purser or the captain could have accessed the safe. He believes a small amount of dynamite, perhaps only one stick, caused the explosion and notes even if the supply of dynamite accidentally caught on fire, it would not have exploded without a blasting cap and a fuse attached to each stick. If dynamite caused the hole in the hull of the Clara Nevada, someone must have attached a blasting cap to one or more sticks and lit the fuse.

Levi thinks Captain Lewis and three other crew members decided to rob the Clara Nevada. They opened the safe, removed the gold to a lifeboat, lit the fuse for the dynamite, and then just before they lowered the lifeboat into the water, they set several fires onboard the vessel. In the confusion, they believed no one would miss them. Levi gives the thieves the benefit of the doubt and assumes they hoped the passengers and crew would abandon ship before the Clara Nevada sank. According to Levi’s theory, the thieves believed once the vessel disappeared beneath the surface, everyone would think the gold sank with the vessel.

While this daring robbery might have been straightforward on a calm night in warm seas, the robbers must have fought to move 900 lbs. (408 kg) of gold into a lifeboat on decks coated with ice, while waves crashed over the railings, and the boat pitched in raging seas. Then, they had to lower the lifeboat and get away from the Clara Nevada before the dynamite blasted a hole in the hull.

Levi does not think the thieves made it to shore with the gold. He states the men were in an old lifeboat with 900 lbs. (408 kg) of gold in heavy seas, and the weight of the gold probably splintered the boat. Levi carefully followed the exploits of Captain Lewis after the sinking of the ship and found no evidence suggesting the captain suddenly came into a small fortune of gold, so he believes the men lost the gold before they reached shore. Since Levi found proof the robbers survived the sinking of the Clara Nevada, though, he suggests the lifeboat went down close enough to shore to allow the men to swim the remaining distance.

In his book, Levi describes how he thinks the gold dust was packaged and even points out where he believes it came to rest when the thieves abandoned their lifeboat to swim to shore. If some lucky diver finds the gold in the area where Levi suggests it landed, the location will lead credence to Levi’s theory. For now, though, the wreck of the Clara Nevada remains a mystery. Was it an accident, or was it mass murder?

A Ghost Ship

Eldred Rock Light House

After the loss of the Clara Nevada, Congress ordered the construction of a lighthouse on Eldred Rock and activated it in 1906. During the construction of the lighthouse, workers claimed they saw a ghost ship at dusk far out in the canal. On the evening of March 12, 1908, another violent storm roared down Lynn Canal. When the assistant lighthouse keeper, John Currie, walked outside the following morning, he was shocked to see a ship stranded on the north end of the island. The storm had washed The Clara Nevada up onto Eldred Rock where it remained for a few hours before again sinking beneath the waves.

We will probably never know what happened to the Clara Nevada, but this horrible tale reminds us of an era of greed when the lure of gold caused humans to do terrible things and take unimaginable risks they otherwise never would have considered.

Sources

The Clara Nevada; Gold, Greed, Murder and Alaska’s Inside Passage. Levi, Steven C. 2011. History Press. This book was my main source for this article. It covers the sinking of the Clara Nevada and the exploits of Captain C.H. Lewis in much more detail than I’ve included here. The author also describes the challenges involved in trying to research a maritime disaster in Alaska in the late 1800s. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn more about the Clara Nevada or get a feel for the atmosphere in both Seattle and Skagway during the Klondike gold rush.

Gold on the Clara Nevada: Cold Case Gets Hot. National Underwater and Marine Agency. Available at: https://numa.net/2014/05/gold-on-the-clara-nevada-cold-case-gets-hot/

Eldred Rock Lighthouse, Alaska. Lighthousefriends.com. Available at: https://lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=828

Clara Nevada. Hougen Group. Available at: www.hougengroup.com/yukon-history/yukon-nuggets/clara-nevada/

The Clara Nevada’s sinking may always remain a mystery. 08–26–2012.James, David. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Available at: www.newsminer.com/the-clara-nevada-s-sinking-may-always-remain-a-mystery/article_b217c23-97Of-58cd-972d-411d91575508.html

The 2007 Hassler Expedition; The Hassler’s last days and the wreck of the Clara Nevada. National Marine Sanctuaries. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. Available at: https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/maritime/expeditions/hassler/last_days.html

SS Clara Nevada.Shipwrecks in Pacific Waters: 1800s. Maritime Heritage. Available at: https://www.maritimeheritage.org/ships/SS-Clara-Nevada.html

Clara Nevada. Skagway Stories. Available at: www.skagwaystories.org/2011/02/04/clara-nevada/

Haunted Inside Passage: Ghosts, Legends, and Mysteries of Southeast Alaska. Dihle, Bjorn. 2017. Alaska Northwest Books.