Newspapers

The San Franciso Call - 19 Aug 1901

The Islander Disaster

Islander crashes into a northern iceberg in the night and sixty-five lives are lost in the sea off the Alaskan coast

Passengers shriek from icy waters

Heartrending Scenes as the Big Vessel Goes Down

Heroes Strive to Save Men and Women from Engulfing Sea

Survivors Arrive at Victoria and Furnish Details of the Great Disaster Near Douglas Island

The Drowned

Passengers:

E. Mills
Mrs. J. C. Henderson, Victoria
Mrs. R. Ross, Governor Ross's wife: baby and niece
Dr. Duncan
Mr. Bell
Mrs. Captain Nickerson
Mrs. J. W. Smith, Vancouver
J. L. Bethen, Vancouver
Mrs. Phillips and child, Seattle
Mrs. J. L. Wilson, Seattle
J. M. Douglass, of Kelley, Douglass & Co., Vancouver
W. H. Kealey and two sons of Koksila
W. G. Preston and bride, Seattle
P. Burke
H. P. Burke
Neil Folk
Doll and two children
Mrs. Hall, Victoria
Mrs. Nicholson, wife of Captain Nicholson
Mrs. W. Smith, Vancouver
Mrs. J. L. Wilcox, Seattle

Crew:

Captain Foote
George Allen, third engineer
Horace Smith, second steward
S. J. Pitts, cook
two Chinese
Buckholder and Burk, oilers
two fireman
night saloon watchman Kendall
Joe Beard, second pantryman
George Mills, barber
Hugh Porter, coal passer
M. Folk, saloon waiter

Victoria, B. C., Aug. 18 - The steamer Islander, the crack Alaskan vessel, was wrecked last Thursday at 2 o'clock in the morning by stiking an iceberg off Douglas Island. Sixty-five persons were drowned. An extra edition in the Juneau dispatch says:

"The word reached Treadwll at 8:30 a. m. by a party of passenters, headed by chief engineer, who walked up the beach, a distance of twenty-five miles, to appeal to the city for help. The Treadwell steamer Lucy and the Juneau steamer Flossie promptly responded. The flossie arrived in from the scene of the wreck at 12 o'clock with her flag at half-mast and six dead bodies on board, and the passengers.

"The description of the disaster by the survivors is heartrending, and those who live to tell the story are each and every one heroes and worthy of being called men and women. The Islander struck an iceberg, and so severe was the shock that every door was jammed fast in the staterooms, and the ill-fated passengers, numbering 107, and a crew of seventy-one were forced to break through the windows to reach the deck.

Heroic Work of a Steward

"Steward Simpson lost ten in his department, and his description of the wreck is very clearly given. He was awakened by the shock and could not get out of his stateroom until he broke out of the window. He reached the bridge, where Pilot Lablond was on watch, and with the mate ordered out the lifeboats, as she was then filling fast and the chief engineer reported the pumps unable to take care of the water. he also went below with an ax, broke down the lower stateroom doors and stayed with his work unti the water forced him to go to the upper deck.

"By this time the ship's boats were loaded and had got away, and while the officers were getting out the last life raft, Captain Foote called to all hands to clear the ship as she was about to go down. This was the captain's last order, as at that moment the ship sank, and the captain, leaping clear of the wreck, was ..."

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