rBritish Columbia Historical News British Columbia Historical Federation JOURNAL OF THE B.C. HISTORICAL FEDEIt.TIoN P0 Box 5254, STATIoN B., VIcT0IUA BC V8R 6N4 PUBLISHED WINmR, SPRING, SUMMER, AND FALL A CHARITABLE SOCIETY UNDER THE INCOME TAX ACT EDITOR: FRED BEACHES ExECuTIvE P0 Box 130 WH0NNOcX BC, V2W 1V9 HONOY PATRON PHONE (604) 462-8942 HIs HONOUR, THE HoNoisnLE GARDE B. GARD0M, Q.C. [email protected] HoNoisY PRESIDENT LEONARD MCCANN, VANCOUVER MARITIME MUSEUM BOOK REVIEW EDITOR ANNEYANDLE OFFICERS 3450 WEST 20TH AVENUE PRESIDENT: RON WELwO0D VANCOUVER BC, V6S 1E4 R.R. # x,S-22 C-I, NELSON BC ViL 5P4 PHONE (604) 733-6484 PHONE (250) 825-474 [email protected] [email protected] FIRST VICE PRESIDENT: WAYNE DESROCHERS #2 - 6712 BARER ROAR, DELTA BC V4E 2V3 CONTRIBUTING EDITOR PHONE (604) 599-4206 FAx. 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SHIRLEY CUTHEERTsON #306 - 255 BELLEvILLB STREEr,VICTORIA BC VSV 4T9 PHoNE (250) 382-0288 FAx (250) 387-5360 BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL NEws PUBLISHING COMMITTEE see column on left side Visit our website: http://www.selkirk.bc.ca/bchflmainl.htm BiuTIsH C0wMI3IA Volume 32, No.3 Summer 1999 HIsToJucAL $5.00 NEWS ISSN 1195-8294 Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation 2 Victoria and the Loss of the Pacific Fellow Editors of Publications by Robert C. Belyk of Member Societies: 7 Knox McCusker: Dominion Land Surveyor E invite you to send by VC. Brink and Elizabeth Rutherfrd c1us what you consider to be the best article on local his— 11 Joseph Whidbey: a Nearly Forgotten tory you published in your soci Explorer of the Pacific Northwest ety’s newsletter or journal in by John M. Naish 1998. 16 Managing Multiple Narratives: Many of the articles published Alexander Mackenzie at Nuxalk Territory, 1793 by you are worth a wider read- by Sam Dunn ership and we are therefore in terested in reprinting a selection 24 “On Account of Loss Suffered by Fire” of the articles considered best in Human Aspect on The New Westminster’s future issues of British Columbia Great Fire Historical News. by Dale and Archie Miller I look forward to receiving your “Writing the Coast”: 26 submissions; just send inc a pho Bertrand BC Sinclair’s Stories tocopy of the article as it ap— Richardj by Lane peared in your journal. For pub lication we do require, of course, permission in writing from the author(s) and your association. 30 Book Reviews Fred Braches 38 Federation News - Merritt 1999 Editor 42 News and Notes Any country worthy of a future should be interested in its past. W. Kaye Lamb, ‘937 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SUMMER ig 1 Victoria and the Loss of the Pacjflc by Robert C. Belyk Princess Sophia on Alaska’s Vanderbilt Reef in 1918, Robert C. Belyk is an In their book on the loss of the CPR coastal liner end of what once had been a vibrant northern author and freelance Coates and Morrison argue that the sinking hastened the return to bring their energy to the North Yet writer with a special society.1 None of the 353 people on board the vessel would the sinking of the sidewheeler Pacfic less than 12 interest in western the Sophia disaster was foreshadowed 43 years earlier with recover, the loss of so many people on board the history.This article is hours out ofVictoria. Although the city would eventually based on his research vessel shook the Vancouver Island community to its core. of shipwrecks of the West Coast from northern California to e have no heart to-day to dwell on can transcontinental railroad from California to Alaska. Mr. Belyk the disaster that has hurried into eter the East Coast where he would take a ship to wishes to thank the Wnity so many of our fellow citizens,” Ireland to visit his mother. New Westminster wrote the Victoria British Colonist on 9 Novem Francis Garesche, Wells Fargo agent and pri Public Library and the ber 1875.2This was no exaggeration for the news vate banker, had also booked passage on the Pa British Columbia paper hadjust received word that the sidewheeler c!fic. He had been responsible for underwriting Archives for their sunk off the Washington coast taking mining exploration in northwestern British Co assistance. Pacfic had many on board to their deaths. The vessel had lumbia, and his new office building in down in leftVictoria five days earlier bound for San Fran townVictoria was a measure of his confidence loss of cisco. With less than five thousand residents in the province’s resource economy. The specula the communitVictoria was overwhelmed by the Garesche symbolized the reduction of industry. news. “I think I knew one hundred of the per tive capital available to the gold mining earlier that Sons who took passage that day,”3 Victoria news The failure of the Bank of California for rmn paper editor DavidW Higgins recalled many years year pointed toward general uncertainty had come later. ers in the West.The period of optimism gradually play a Only two men survived one of the worst mari to an end, and mining would province’s export sector. time disasters on the West Coast. Although the smaller role within the indirectly involved in exact death toll will never be known, a reason Others had been only Ottis Parsons had recently able estimate puts the total between 250 and 300 the gold rush. Captain riverboat and was returning people. “Taking the number of persons lost and sold his interest in a States. With him were his wife the smallness of the community from which they to the United Ken Coates and Bill their 18-month-old child. were drawn,” the Colonist wrote, “the wreck of Jennie, and Morrison, The Sinking ofthe where a very the most terrible calamities Unlike earlier gold discoveries Princess Sophia: Taking the the Paqflc is one of became rich while most miners left with lit- North Down with Her the world has ever known.”4 While this state few gold, the Cassiar gold field was rela (Fairbanks: University of ment may have been more than the truth, there tie or no Press, 1991). distributed.The Colonist estimated Alaska is no doubt that the newspaper was expressing tively evenly 2 British Colonist (Vic of Daily had never been a that most miners came away with an average 9 November 1875. the feelings of its readers.There toria), $1,300. While the newspaper’s calculations ap 3DavidWHiggins,”Into the worse day in Victoria’s history. exact, the sum each miner obtained Jaws of Death” The Mystic Many of those on board were prominent men pear hardly (Toronto: 1904) 319. vis—à-vis the pay scales of the Spring in British Columbia mining circles. At this time was considerable While many of the stories that many of accounted for about 75 per day. It was not surprising, therefore, make up Higgins’s mineral extraction that the miners who embarked on the Pacific were in memoirs seem apocryphal, cent ofprovincial exports.Dennis Cain and Frank to celebrate. his chapter on the sinking Lyons were co-discoverers of the Cassiar gold a mood of the PacJIc appears in con P Moody, the principal partner in the fields and had left the North before freeze-up.