National Park After Dark - The Graveyard of the Pacific: Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

Episode Date: February 14, 2022

The West Coast Trail on Vancouver island is a beautiful trail that attracts backpackers from all over the world every single year. But this trail wasn't created for them. It was created for a different reason, to rescue survivors of shipwrecks off the coast from some of the most dangerous waters in the Pacific. In 1906 one of the most devastating shipwrecks occurred. Due to bad weather conditions and mistakes in navigation, it crashed onto a reef, just out of reach of land. Passengers and crew members did everything they could to get to safety but the violent waves fought them every step of the way. Onlookers had no way to reach them to help, and stood by helplessly as people perished. For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Beam: Got $20 off of $75 or more when you use our link and code NPAD at checkout.June's Journey: Download the app free today on the Apple App Store or Google Play.Prose: use our link for a free in-depth hair consultation and 15% off your first order.Deep Cover: Listen to Deep Cover wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally. Breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders.

That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Some of the most beautiful places in the world hold some of the most devastating history.

National parks preserve these beautiful areas of wildlife, landscapes, and places of cultural importance so that they remain there. Each national park you visit has a series of trails that you can walk along. A way to see the park in all of its entirety. To emerge yourself within the landscapes. Have you ever walked along these trails and stopped to wonder? Why the trail is there? Is it there solely for the purpose of exploring the park? Or does it have other uses? When you travel to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, you head to some of the most beautiful landscapes in all of British Columbia. Inside this park resides one of the most traveled trails in all of Canada, and it has been labeled as one of the best trails in the entire world.

While it has become a backpacker's paradise, it wasn't created for that. This trail was created to be a source for rescue missions after the worst maritime disaster in the Pacific killed over 100 people. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Is this a maritime national park? It's not, but it is a national park inside Canada that is on the coast, and our story takes place in the ocean. That is, I don't know what is going on, but like, I'm doing for the first time a maritime-centered bonus story for Patreon this month. Really?

I feel like, I feel like we do this. We're just like on a weird wavelength where we both find similar things to do at the same time for some reason. I know. And I've been trying to be good and not tell you it. Like, as I'm thinking about it. But cool. Okay.

So going to Canada and going to a completely new park that I have never even heard of. Yeah. And it's a really, really cool park. I did a lot of research on it, so I'm probably going to talk about it for a little while today because it's really inspiring to want to visit there. And I think everyone should, and I'll explain why. But before we get started, happy Valentine's Day, everyone. It is February 14th, the day of love.

And we love you all. And I thought of doing a happy episode for Valentine's Day and love. I forgot and I picked probably one of the most morbid stories I've ever told on the podcast. So if you are in a happy, loving mood, I might suggest waiting on this episode for a warning, but it is really interesting and absolutely nothing to do with Valentine's Day. But happy Valentine's Day, everyone. That is so funny because Cassie was sending me all of these really nice, inspiring stories, just lighthearted, really cute.

And she's like, we should do something like this for Valentine's Day. We're like, yeah, definitely. Like, let's do it. And then so I sit down and I'm ready for it. And she tells me that intro, I'm like, I feel like there is, this is, we're going into left field here. So I'm excited nonetheless, but I guess Valentine's Day will take place on another, another day. Yeah, we'll do a lighthearted episode some other time.

This is not, this is not it. But it's very interesting. It's true. It's real. And you can see the site where. it all happened too. Okay, we'll take us there because I'm excited to go to Canada. I'm so close to Canada and I keep wanting to go, but because of the restrictions and COVID things and spikes and border situations, I haven't been able to go yet. And where this park is is actually relatively close to you.

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is located in the southwest corner of Canada in British Columbia. and it sits along the Pacific Ocean on the western side of Vancouver Island. I can touch that pretty much. Yeah, it's really close to you. Wow. Okay. Vancouver Island has been on my list. I have a list too.

It's not just Cassie. But it's been on my list for quite some time. Ever since years and years ago, I read a book about the sea wolves that have specially adapted to life in the intertidal zones. No way. I talk about the sea wolves on Vancouver. Just briefly. But yeah, I specifically added into the story because of you. Oh my, again, same wavelength. Thank you for doing that. But yes, I love them and I'm so glad we're going to talk about them. Yeah. And maybe you have more information because I very briefly skimmed over it. But I had to add them into our story because they

are there. But so it is on Vancouver Island. It covers 511 square kilometers, which is 180. and 97 square miles. It originally became a provincial park in the year 1930 and a provincial park is similar to U.S. state parks where it is designated by a province. And it became this park because at the time national parks were becoming really popular like Banff and Yoho were getting a lot of visitation and people are getting really excited about it. And originally the Canadian National Park Association came up with the idea to make this part of Vancouver Island and National Park in 1929. But the government decided against it because of how remote and inaccessible it was at the time that they were talking about it. But they still wanted this to be a protected area. So it was created as a provincial park instead. And then in

1959, a highway was developed in the area which brought thousands of new visitors to the beaches. Because the waters of this area served as a prime surfing location, it brought people in from all around the world and they even started having surfing competitions in the area. Because of so much tourism being brought here, the conditions of the beaches started to deteriorate. Because there were more people there, there was lots of trash being left behind and people even left their cars in the sand that had sunk in there and just left them on the beaches. So there was a lot of stuff that started going on because so many people were gathering here. And they recognized the damage that was happening to the shoreline in the forest. So that created this really big push to make this area into a national park. And eventually

in 1970, after the West Coast National Park Act was enacted, the government established it finally as a national park. Sounds like that was the best move to make. I always wonder, like, when you see abandoned cars like that, they're always in the most random places. I'm like, how did this get here? It's like, why? And why is it just left here? We could probably do a whole podcast on that abandoned vehicles of their stories. No one claimed that because we're going to do that. Just kidding. I have no interest in cars, but on the nature preserve, that's next to my house.

I remember growing up seeing cars back there, old, like very old, rusted out. You could barely tell what make and model it was. And they were all shot up because people were like shooting at them and stuff. I'm like, how the hell did this get here? Like it in inaccessible places too, wasn't just. on the side of the trail. It's weird. I don't like that.

Yeah, it's like, why is this here? How did it get here? Very strange. Yeah, so this was happening in the beaches. And I'm assuming that they're all gone now since this is a national park. And this area does have a lot of history of native people as well, which we've discovered in all of our national parks, that there's a huge history of native people there. And there still is there today.

There's a lot of different indigenous people that live there and thrive there. And cultures are still. very, very alive in and around this park. And they actually created a program known as First Nations that has been implemented inside of this park to conserve the land and cultures that reside here. And they all work together to preserve the national park. That's awesome. Yeah, it's really cool. And I feel like that has to be something that's going to happen in the U.S. soon. Like, I feel like there's a big push for that. All the research that we've done, I feel like it's cropping up more and more about different cultural and education programs that are held within national parks

and historic sites. I feel like within recent years, it seems to have been on an upswing, which is great. And we can go, yeah, we'll leave that subject to another episode. We can dedicate hours to that. Definitely. And this park has a lot of that history, which we're not going to go into today because this story is going to take up a lot of time. But I encourage people, if you are interested in it, definitely look it up. There's tons of stories. Here there's a lot of culture in the Pacific Rim National Park Preserve. Here, geologically, it's brimming with vegetation and wildlife. There's tall spruce trees.

There's giant red cedars. There's tons of different ferns that just lay all over the ground floor. It's lush, it's green. In the ocean, they see huge humpback whales. They see starfish around its beaches. There's just marine life. And then there's the wildlife on the land, which is the Vancouver coastal seawolf. which is one of the biggest ones.

And the sea wolf is a subspecies of gray wolves that roam the island, which I'm sure you know. Mm-hmm. These wolves are so different than mainland wolves because they mostly feed on seafood. 90% of their diet is seafood. So they feed on salmon, barnacles, clams, seals, river otters. They'll feed on whale carcasses. And these wolves are actually like long-distance swimmers. Yes.

It's wild. They're not sedentary to this island. island, they actually will migrate and they'll swim from island to island following the salmon. So depending what year it is and where the salmon are is where they're located. They're just the coolest. As far as you are seeing in real time specialized adaptations that the wolf is going through to its environment here. To survive. It's just, it's insane. And I love, I think, I don't have the book near me, but I'm pretty sure it's, I forget what it's called. Maybe I'll post it later. It's like a heart. It's of like a coffee table book. And it's all about the sea wolves on Vancouver Island. And I loved

learning about them. And I follow a wildlife photographer who does a lot of work studying them. And just to watch them like flip over rocks in search for different little barnacles and things like that. It's just so different from the wolves that you picture in Yellowstone, going after elk or deer or moose. They're going after, like you said, sea life. Yeah. They're like a little. dog dolphins. They're like land dolphins on the... Land dog dolphins. But don't approach them. They're not friendly.

I think that needs to be said. Never approach wildlife, yeah. Even though they like seafood does not mean that they're not predators. Yeah, cool. I'm glad you mentioned them. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice.

Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. This park is really cool otherwise, too. It has this huge rocky West Coast mountain area. It has deep fjords. It has channels that are formed by the water retreating from glaciers. And it's actually made up of three different units. The first unit is the Long Beach, which has several beaches. It has

short hiking trails and a campground that you can go to to stay at. And here, there are boat launches and you can go paddleboarding, picnic areas. This is kind of the area of the park that's really family friendly and is also where the visitor center is. The second part of this park is called the Broken Group Islands Unit, which is 106 square kilometers or 41 square miles. And these are over 100 smaller islands that are within this section. And the waters between these islands are best known for amazing sea kayaking. So this is some of the calmest waters in the entire Pacific Ocean. The waters here are so calm that it often looks like glass.

And the water close to the shore has a thriving ecosystem. system. So there's colorful sea stars, there's crabs, there's lots of fish, and you're going through these really calm waters. It's a really popular place to go sea kayaking. I would imagine with calm waters and so much to see, it's like a win-win. It's beautiful. And then the third unit, which is what we're going to get into the most today, is called the West Coast Trail. And it's a 75 kilometer, which is 47 miles backpacking trail on the southwestern coast of Vancouver Island. Because this trail has beautiful rainforests, coastline, wildlife, and so much more, this trail has been rated one of the world's best hiking trails. It's open from May 1st to September 30th and you need a reservation to do it.

Part of this trail does go through native reservations and there are strict rules to staying on the trail. This trail was originally created in 1907 because people felt to need to create a trail that would head to remote parts of the island because of how many shipwrecks were happening off of its shoreline. This part of the shoreline outside of the National Park is known as the graveyard of the Pacific. And over 2,000 ships have wrecked in this area. And the graveyard of the Pacific goes farther down the coast like it goes down into Oregon and stuff, but this specific area is extremely dangerous and thousands of shipwrecks have happened. This trail was specifically created, however, because of the SS Valencia shipwreck of 1906, when the worst maritime disaster

in the Pacific happened and no one could get to the victims to help. Oh, no. And that's how we dive into our story and how it kind of takes place in a national park. It kind, well, close enough. I mean, something in a national park was created because of this. It counts. It definitely counts. I've been to, I think the closest to the graveyard of the Pacific that I've been to, it might technically be in it. I'm not sure. I'll look it up later, but I've been to Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington.

And it's beautiful. It has a lighthouse, but it has really, really rough waters. And I'm pretty sure I read some signs about the graveyard of the Pacific. So I'm very excited to learn more, especially because I'm on a ship theme. with my Patreon story. We haven't done ship theme episodes yet either. Ever. And now we're like two in one month we're going to be doing.

So here we are. Well, the SS Valencia was an iron hole steamer ship that was built in 1882. It was 77 meters in length, which is 252 feet. And it was originally built to provide services between New York City and Venezuela. It was created to carry passengers, cargo, and mail. In 1898, the ship was. sold to the Pacific Steam Whaling Company where it serviced between San Francisco, California, and Alaska. Then at one point, the army began using the ship during the Spanish-American War

and would help transport troops. The ship itself was privately owned and the owners would charge the army about $650 per day to use it. And then they actually used the ship for more civil services and it quickly became regarded by the public as being too small and too open to the elements. It was going out onto these rougher waters in the wintertime, and passengers didn't like the design of the ship at all. It was really difficult to handle during the winter months, and it was a lot slower than other ships for similar routes. The SS Valencia was designed with a very long bow, which made visibility harder and also made the boat itself a lot louder. Because of the design of the ship, the waves of the ocean would crash into the boat in a certain way that would make it extremely loud.

Like it was so loud that it was difficult to talk or hear other people. That's annoying as hell. Yeah, it's not a pleasant experience. It's kind of like people say that when they get into my Jeep. They're like, it is so loud in here. Really? As I'm like, what? It's fine.

That's my car right now, but it's because I have a wheelbearing issue. And it's like an airplane every time I go over like 20 miles an hour. Yeah, I think it's because I have a hard top. that has like freedom panels. And I also have like a soft top and also a sunrider. So there's various tops on it. So it's just, it's just loud, you know. I would hate that. It's a rough ride. It's not pleasant. It's not pleasant. I'm all about the pleasant luxury ride. So people were on this ship at this point in time as like a passenger ship for pleasure or just transportation. Just transportation. It wasn't like a cruise ship. But there.

There was an indoor area. You could sleep on it. There was plenty of space for about 200 people to be on the ship at a time. It was used for transport, but it was also mixed between military use as well. So these people who owned it at the time were kind of just using it for whatever purposes they could. But in 1901, the owners of the ship were actually arrested for embezzling money and selling overpriced tickets on the ship. They had been found to be carrying way more people than permits allowed them to, and the owners ended up being fined $9,000. After this fiasco, they decided to sell the ship to the Pacific Coast steamship company, and here the ship was duty to carry cargo and passengers to and from Alaska.

It was in January 1906 when the Valencia was temporarily used for a San Francisco to Seattle route while another ship was undergoing repairs. And again, it was carrying cargo and passengers. It was on a Monday, January 20th, 1906, that the SSF, Valencia set sail on its way to Seattle, carrying 108 passengers and 65 crew members, a total of 173 people aboard the ship. When the ship left San Francisco at 1120 a.m., it was a cold but sunny winter day. Good weather was expected for the trip, and for a while, it was very smooth sailing.

When the SS Valencia got to Cape Mendocino the following morning, 321 kilometers or 200 miles north of San Francisco. They were in the most northern part of California before heading into the Oregon coast, and the weather began to shift. First, a haze began to sweep over the ocean waters before a constant and heavy rain began. Visibility deteriorated quickly, and soon the thick fog hid the coastline entirely. Strong winds followed creating harsh waves that rocked the ship. This weather created a huge problem in navigating the ship's position.

The crew had to use compass courses and approximate distances to guess where they were and where they were headed. Because at this time in 1906, there's no GPS coordinates, there's no higher technology that we have now. And they were just going off of compass and guessing where they were based on how fast they were moving. Captain Johnson was in charge of navigating the ship, and he ordered the crew to steer just west of True North. and he began to track their speed. Although there was no visibility, the captain knew that if he followed a certain course, he would eventually reach Cape Flattery, the most northwestern point of Washington. Here there was a lighthouse that would direct them into the Strait of Wandae Fuca.

The Strait of Wandae Fuca is a body of water that is 154.5 kilometers, 96 miles, within the Salish Sea's outlet into the Pacific Ocean. This is the body of water they needed to be in to make it to Seattle. An entire day went by and the storm didn't let up at all. Heavy rains fell and the ship was hammered with unrelenting waves. Almost two days had passed and the visibility had not improved at all. Crew members and passengers couldn't see farther than the front of the ship. While navigating the ship, Captain Johnson noticed something particularly odd about the speed that they were traveling. According to their log, they were traveling at about 6% faster speed than they were supposed to be at.

Captain Johnson chopped this up to be an error in the readings, and when calculating his navigations for Cape Flattery, he reduced the mileage by 6%. With these new calculations, they were set to reach Cape Flattery at about 9 p.m. His plan when they got there was that they were going to be able to see the lighthouse and turn into the straight of Wandae Flucca and begin heading towards Seattle. As the storm persisted and the nighttime came, it was past 9 o'clock, and they had still not seen a lighthouse. Captain Johnson ordered the crew to test the water depth with a lead line. If they were close to shore and the straight, the water would be more shallow, and with no visibility, there was no way to tell just how close they were to the land. They found that at 1115 p.m., the water depth was over 100 meters, 330 feet. This meant that they had already passed the lighthouse. And they didn't see it? They were heading into an area that was notorious for unpredictable weather conditions, dangerous.

dangerous tidal rips, rocky reefs and sandbars that had caused thousands of shipwrecks, but they didn't know it. They didn't know exactly where they were, but they knew they had missed the lighthouse. They didn't know if they got turned around somewhere because they can't see anything. They don't know if they're going in a straight line. They thought they knew, but now it's too late. In actuality, they were 30 miles north of their original estimation. Captain Johnson had made a huge mistake in his calculations. During the winter months, the Pacific coast has a strong current that flows north, something that all experienced sailors of that area would know. This stream reaches speeds that are up to three nautical miles per hour, which would completely alter their estimated speed

and explain why they were moving so much faster. Instead of taking this into account, Captain Johnson had decided that the law was wrong, and he had recalculated everything based on what he thought was real and not what was actually real. At 11.30 p.m., they measured the water depth again, just 15 minutes after they had previously. This would tell them if they were getting closer to the shore or farther, and now they were sitting in water depths that were only 60 meters, which was 198 feet, which meant they were rapidly approaching a shoreline. The booming of the waves hitting the ship and the strong winds made it difficult to hear other crew members. The thick fog still filled the air and panic was beginning to fill the crew.

It was 11.50 p.m. now, and Captain Johnson yelled out to the crew to check the depths of the water again. Just as he ordered, a horrifying site emerged through the fog. A massive black shadow off a cliff stood looming in front of them. The captain looked up, my God, where are we? They were heading straight towards the rocks. He started yelling commands at the crew to execute an emergency starboard turn, but it was too late. The passengers and the crew heard the heavy grinding of the bow as the ship hurtled into rocky reefs. Going full speed ahead, I'm sure.

Full speed ahead. Their turn was not fast enough, went straight into it. Men, women, and children were on the boat, and all of them began screaming. Oh, my God. It's never on to just a sandy beach. It's never like, oh, we're approaching shore, but it's a nice slope. It's never not. That's why they're called should.

Shipwrecks, not ship vacations. Yeah. Oh my God, that's so terrifying. That is so terrifying. And when they first made impact, the ship barreled over the reef again and crashed. Again, it hit more rocks. The boat was now swaying and bashing into rocks and people were screaming and they were unable to stand because the waves were just rocking the ship back and forth.

So was it stuck on this reef? and it was being battered against the rocks over and over. Yeah, the way that I read was what happened is the bottom of the hull got stuck underwater submerged a little bit, but not far, on these reefs. And now the boat is stuck, can't move very well, and is just being hammered and swayed back and forth. And there's repetitive waves. Yeah, because there's huge waves, there's rain pouring down, there's no visibility. It's the middle of the night. It's the middle of the night. It's literally dark outside. And as the ship collided with the reef, its hull was actually punctured. And this is the bottom of the ship. And this is the part of the ship that is meant to be watertight, protects cargo machinery. And it is meant to protect the whole ship from structural damage. So when the hull gets damaged, it's really serious and it's really bad. And it began being filled with the frigid ocean water. This is January. The waters are freezing.

then the bow of the ship was shattered. In the first five minutes, over six feet of water rose onto the ship. The 1500-ton vessel was being thrown around by the waves like it weighed nothing. Captain Johnson realized the dire situation that they were in, and they needed to somehow get towards shore. The ship was sinking, and if the people of the ship went into the waters, they were surely going to die of hypothermia or drown from all the waves. At this point, they were only 100 yards away from the shore. They could see it in the fog.

They could see that big black cliff, essentially. And he ordered the engines into full reverse to actually go further onto the reef, to try and plow through the reef and go closer to the shore. But the steel of the boat screamed as the ship clawed its way through the rocks. The generators on the ship were starting to fail and lights were flickering until they completely went out. and left everyone in darkness. As they neared the shore, the captain wasn't certain that they were going to make it, and he ordered the crew to swing out the ship's six lifeboats and hang them from the railings of the lower deck.

Prior to their departure, Captain Johnson hadn't gone over the lifeboat drill, and they had had had new members of their crew who had never done this before. In the panic and chaos that was ensuing, crew members began loading passengers into the lifeboats before they secured them to the ship. As passengers rushed onto the boats, three out of six of them broke from half their ropes, suspending them vertically in the air and dumping people into the water. In almost an instant, the people in those boats were ripped away by the current. The crew then attempted to lower one of the lifeboats with women and men into the water.

Again, they experienced equipment failure, breaking the system, leaving the boat hanging in the air from the bow, dropping more passengers. crew members watched as horrified faces were swept away into the waters again. After that, they successfully put a lifeboat into the water. But without any experienced people with rowing on board, the waves capsized them and threw them all into the surf again. In a matter of only minutes, 60 people drowned. And this is now four of the six lifeboats that they have. Three of them.

Oh, three of them. Okay, well, 50% is still a huge blow. And imagine, I know you don't have much of a choice because you're on a ship that's sinking, taking on water, being battered, et cetera. But to see the first two lifeboats not to go well, and then they're like, all right, you're up. Yeah. You know, it's like, um, okay, I'll try this. You have no choice. Yeah.

Again, I get that, but it's just like what a decision, you know, and I know there's adrenaline and there's not any time to think in a situation like that. It's like, I'm going to weigh the pros and cons. You can't do that and you have to take the risk. But that is so terrifying. This is giving me Titanic vibes. And it's because of, I just imagine the scene of them cutting the ropes because out there's all these issues with the ropes and lowering lifeboats and this and that and all that.

And I know we've talked about this before, I think, gone a bonus story. I can't remember which one. But Titanic is my all-time favorite movie, hands down. I love it. If I can say this, it's my favorite tragedy of all time. Yeah, it's just a whole different monster that you don't hear about as much. And I guess, like, we don't have much experience because we're not on ships that often. Like, we're not seeing people.

Like, and you hear about these things. And you're just, the options are so limited when you're out at sea for, rescue. And they're just really, really intimidating and scary to put yourself in that situation. Do you remember randomly what I don't know whatever happened with this, but a few years ago, and I say if you, it could have been like five or six years ago, remember all those cruise liners were like capsizing and having issues? No. You don't remember that? There was like maybe three or four of them in like a year. All these like carnival cruises and things like that, they would literally just capsize and they were all these big disasters. Oh my God. No, I'm glad because I've been on a few

cruises with my family and I'm really happy I didn't know that before. I don't know what was up with that, but yeah, I remember just like not hearing anything about it. And then there was just this huge spike in a couple of issues with cruise liners and then it just kind of dissipated and went away. I remember hearing somewhere they were having electrical issues and engine issues and I remember one particular story where people got stuck out on the ocean for like I think like two weeks or I'm not sure don't quote me on like the exact time frame but they had to send in a rescue boat and their facilities had shut down they said like there were feces everywhere because people had nowhere to go to the bathroom and everyone was sick and I do remember that boats are scary boats are really scary and I don't like

them very much. Well, I don't think the story is going to make you like them anymore because the SS Valencia ended up using five of their lifeboats and basically just threw them to the water. Didn't help anyone with them. So now they only had one lifeboat left and there were still around 100 people left on the ship. They were still stuck on the reef. There were waves crashing around them and Captain Johnson made the decision to not use the last lifeboat until the morning when there was light. It's like, you know, it's way too dark out here.

The waves are insane. The weather's so bad, we have to wait out the night. And that was a really long and difficult night. Crew members tried to take care of the passengers and they actually fed them. They still had access to some of the food. The whole boat wasn't submerged in the water. It was just kind of slowly sinking at this point. And they actually had the members take shelter inside the saloon deck, which was shielding them from the rough winds because the saloon deck is kind of that deck that's on top of the ship with the windows. You can walk inside of it. You know when you go on like ferry boats and you have an option to go inside instead of sitting outside? Yes. That's kind of the saloon deck. So they were feeding people in there, shielding them from the weather, kind of trying to make the best out

of this really awful situation. When the morning came, the daylight showed just how much damage had been done to the ship. They could see now that the waves were slowly tearing apart the vessel and the water had started to enter into the saloon. Now everyone was forced to go to the ship's highest point, which was the hurricane deck. Here they had no protection from the rain or the wind, and they would have to wait here until they were rescued. While the situation was becoming worse and worse, they did have one sign of hope. The ship carried a Lyle gun. A Lyle gun was a line thrower that was powered by a short barreled cannon. This gun would allow them to shoot a line to shore that would allow them to connect a five-inch-thick from the boat to the shoreline, and then they would be able to use a system with a rescue device

called a breeches buoy. And a breeches buoy is essentially a life ring float that is attached to the rope that can carry one person at a time across it. It's almost like a zip line kind of thing where you attach someone in, you have your own ring floaty to keep you above water. It tries to hold you above water, but your feet can kind of dangle still into it. And it's a way to slowly let out each person onto the shore. Is when it hits the shore, when you set it off, is it held down by like a weight? So that's the problem. Is there had to be someone on the shore to get the end of the rope and secure it? Like attach it to something. You can't just shoot it onto it. It's just a limp rope at that point. There's nothing attached to it. So that was a big problem is,

needed to have someone on shore to collect it. And that brought on the question of who, who is going to go to the shore. It was 8.30 that morning when Captain Johnson asked for volunteers to get into the last lifeboat that they had left and to make the journey. After the devastation that had happened the night before, there weren't many people who wanted to volunteer to get into this life boat to go onto shore. But there was really no other option. There was no way to communicate with the outside world to tell people that they had crashed. And there was no one coming to rescue them so they had to try and get out of this on their own. So seven sailors stepped forward to make the attempt and they were all experienced boatsmen. If anyone was going to be able to get

into this boat and row to shore, it would be these guys. They climbed into the lifeboat and they were lowered into the sea. Waves immediately were threatening to throw them over the side. But the sailors were determined and in their initial landing into the water they didn't capsize and they were able to head through the waves. They headed northwest along the seashore looking for any spot that they could to get on to land. However, as they approached, they realized that there was really no good landing spot. It was all sheer cliff sides and the waves were hammering against them. It was way too dangerous to get close to the shore. I have to stop you really quick because I have a question. You said there was no way for them to get help. They didn't have, like they couldn't send out like a

Morris code? SOS. No. And I don't exactly know. I know that they use a telegraph in this, but not from their boat. And it just, I don't know if it wasn't set up that way or the generators and everything went out. So they weren't able to use anything, but they had nothing on their boat that could get them communication. Okay. The sailors in the lifeboat ended up rowing northwest for seven more miles before they reached a spot that was safe enough to go onto the shore. Seven miles. They reach Pachina Bay located inside the Pacific Rim National Park, which wasn't a national park at this time, but it's located in the park now.

And it's on the southern end of Vancouver Island. This area is actually no stranger to bad weather when I was researching it. Here in this bay is where one of the largest earthquakes on record happened on January 26, 1700 and it created a massive tsunami that wiped out an entire village of Aboriginal people and left no survivors. Oh my God. So this area is just really scary for ocean water, weather, earthquakes, just bad weather all around. The word that's coming to mind right now is treacherous. Yes, great word. And when they landed here, they were met with dense coastal forests and there weren't a lot of places to go, but soon they discovered a telegraph line,

and there was a sign that read three miles to Cape Beale. And the telegraph lines, just to put a picture in people's head, is it almost looks like a telephone pole that has wires on it. And there was a whole line of them that went through this dense forest, but there's no trail. So you're just kind of navigating through all this vegetation, if you follow it, through where they put these big poles in the ground. Okay. So there's no, you're following a path of sorts, but it's just because of the poles. Yeah, it's not like a real trail. But when they saw this sign that said three miles to Cape Beal,

this was the first time that they realized where they were. And this was the first time that they realized that they were on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. This is 40 miles north of Cape Flattery. And this entire time, they thought that they were somewhere off the coast of Washington. They were completely lost. Like, they had no idea that this is where they were. At this point, they made the decision to follow the telegraph line because this could lead them to people that could alert other people to get help. It was about 3 p.m. when they reached a lighthouse where they were able to send out a telegraph notifying the outside world about what had happened. This was critical because now people knew where they were and they could send in help. But the seven sailors who had originally left to help them with their Lyle gun were gone. there was no way to help them now and there was no way to get back to them.

So that left them in a whole other predicament of while we're waiting for rescuers, how are we going to help these people on the ship? There was another hope for the ship though. There were nine men who had survived the original lifeboat catastrophe that we talked about earlier and they had actually spent that night before clinging onto barnacle-crusted rocks all night while they're being smashed over and over again by waves. and they're on like the cliff edge here. In the morning, they were all still alive,

and they mustered up the strength to actually climb up the cliff wall onto the island and into the dense forest. Because of these survivors, they were able to communicate with the ship to shoot the Lyle gun to shore and try and get it across and start getting people saved.

And they did. They shot it across. It snagged in some underbrush, and it just needed to be secured by these men that were over there. But these men were very, disoriented at this point. They had spent the entire night being thrashed by waves. They were freezing cold. They were dehydrated. They were exhausted. And they weren't totally thinking clearly. And these men, too,

when they got into the forested area, they discovered the telegraph line. And just as the other men had decided, they chose that it would be best to go find help instead of help them on the ship. So they're like, yeah, just throw it over. We'll go ahead and secure it. And then so they throw it over or shoot it over and they look at it and they're like, we're actually going to head out. Yeah. They're like, we're actually going to go find help. There's a telegraph line here. But like, hang out. We're not going to help you. Okay. Why wouldn't they split up? There's nine of them. Is there not? Yeah. There's nine of them and they all go. And they are disoriented. They're injured. You know, so I'm assuming that they weren't in their best state of mind. But yeah, like all you have to do is

tie this rope to a tree and then walk wherever you want, you know. But they didn't. They didn't choose that and they ended up going off to try and find help. And the people on the ship realized that the Lyle gun and the rope wasn't being secured and they were getting really desperate. They needed to find a way to get this Lyle gun to work. And this was a real resource to get off of the ship. And they were only 100 yards away from shore so they can see it. It's like we're so close. Two people end up volunteering to swim across to the shore. Shortly after they got into the water, though, they were hit with really hard waves, and they both nearly drowned, and they ended up being dragged back onto the ship. That night, though, the hull of the ship began to collapse under the strength

of the ocean, and waves were slowly dismantling the ship and ripping off the boards of the main deck. The survivors crowded onto the hurricane deck, where they spent another night in the cold, exposed to the wind and rain, and they listened all night as the ship continued to be torn apart. When they awoke the next morning, they saw that even more of the ship was submerged and torn away. The hurricane deck where they had climbed to get away from the water was now almost touching it. Fifteen people decided to climb to the mass of the ship, but those were getting closer to being submerged into the water as well. Waves crashed around them spraying water higher than the mass. Suddenly, without any warning at all, the mass began to sway before it snapped in half

and went crashing into the water. The people who still remained on the hurricane deck watched in shock as people screamed before being crushed against the rocks and dragged away into the current. It's just not getting better. No, and every single person who was on that mass drowned. I would imagine so.

Especially after the trauma or the force of being slammed into, yeah, it's not. There's no hope on that. Do you know, it was a bunch of people didn't say how many. There were 15 of them. Oh, 15. Yeah. Now the remaining survivors were growing weaker and weaker. There was no food or water left. They didn't have any fresh water. The only way that they were consuming water at all was that they were catching rain and sleet in their mouths. Their entire bodies were numb from the cold at this point and people began to lose grip

holding onto the ship. And some people were dragged away, while other people just lost hope and let go entirely. News got to Seattle that afternoon of their crash and the Pacific steamship company launched a rescue operation, and that's the company that owns the ship. They decided that they would use their company ship named the queen for the operation. They got the news while the queen was actually mid-jurney with passengers and they made an emergency stop in Victoria, British Columbia, before heading towards the wreck site. It was 9.30 the following morning when the queen finally reached the ship. And I say reached the ship, but they're so close to shore that they reached a spot where they could see the ship. They weren't close enough. And while the Valencia had used all of their

lifeboats, it was still equipped with two small life rafts. They had originally decided not to use these rafts because of the really harsh waters, but members of the ship decided that maybe they could use these rafts to paddle out to the queen now that that was closer. Ten men volunteered for the journey. they managed to row their way away from the shipwreck, but steering with this raft was nearly impossible. Halfway towards the queen, the raft became caught in the current and was pulled away and out of sight. With the ship quickly deteriorating, their only option now was to get on the second raft and to get more people off of the ship and try and get out. There's no other option. You have to leave. So the men that were on the ship asked the women who were remaining to get on the raft. You know,

kind of being like the chivalry gentleman thing save the women save the children go get on the raft but the women refused they were really scared they had just watched so many people die going on to these rafts they didn't think it was safe and they saw the queen they're like they're going to send a sturdier boat they're going to save us so let's just hang out here we'll wait a little longer we're not we're not getting on this raft and the men didn't see it that way they're like we have limited time if you're not going to use this resource, we are. So 18 of them decided that they were going to try and head out. To them, it appeared they were going to die either way. They had two options. They could sit there and wait to die or they could get in the raft and maybe die. They only had two oars, but all 18 of them

jumped into these tumulus waters and the waves started dragging them underwater and then would spit them back out. They were paddling as hard as they could and sometimes they were being dragged underwater for so long that they thought that they were all going to drown. And then the waves would bring them back up again. Again, this raft was caught into the current and dragged away out of sight. So now is it just how many people are left on the ship? A lot. Oh my God. This is so anxiety-inducing. There were almost 200 people on the ship. Yeah, that's true. We've only had small amounts that have actually left. Yeah, but there was also, in the beginning, when you said like 60 of them just got washed away, the mast and then the other people that got off and these two random groups that just

headed out onto the island that didn't help. I think at this point there's still around 80 people on the ship. Yeah, that's a lot. And the queen was realizing that these waters were too dangerous to send a lifeboat and they needed to wait for it to calm down because they're going to send in a lifeboat and then they're going to need to be rescued. So they have to wait it out. There's nothing that they can do even though they're right there. Early the following morning, a Canadian ship came across the crew of the 18 men on the raft. They had drifted south into the middle of the Strait of Wandae Fuca, and they were all alive. Oh, good news. Silver lining. Finally, you have some good news. That same day, washed up on Tourette Island, 17 miles away from where the

Valencia had wrecked, the first raft was found. They had washed up onto its shores, but of the 10 men that were on that raft, only four of them survived. By mid-morning, two more Canadian, ships joined the rescue efforts for the remaining survivors. One was an ongoing tugboat, which attempted to get close to the Valencia, and it was less than a mile away before it had to turn around because of just how dangerous this coastline was. When the tugboat returned to the queen, they reported that they had not seen any life at the wreck. But the queen ship disagreed. They stated that they knew that people were alive there. And this ship was like, no, we just got close. There's not a single person there. Everyone's been washed away. There's no one there to save,

and it's too dangerous to go. But the queen had seen survivors shoot off the Lyle gun three different times to try and get their attention. And they didn't believe that. They're like, no, there's people there. We're not leaving. The weather worsened and the queen could no longer see the wreck site. So they decided that they were going to stay longer and wait for it to clear up. The waves were too strong and the weather was getting worse and worse. And they were pretty confident that they couldn't go in to save them. So they were just going to sit and wait a little bit longer. While the other two boats that had originally come in for the rescue, decided to leave. A little afternoon time that day, three men, the assistant lighthouse keeper, the person who maintained the telegraph line, and a local trapper reached

the scene of the wreck. The survivors who had reached the lighthouse had asked someone to go back to help them. When they got there, they saw the line from the Lyle gun sprawled across the trail, and it was clearly not connected to the ship anymore. So that option was out the window now. They looked out to the raging sea and the remainder of the shipwreck. There were somewhere between 60 to 80 people who were still alive on the hurricane deck. As they watched from land, the waves became stronger and stronger. They watched as the remainder of the ship collapsed, plunging the remaining survivors into the water. They watched as some struggled to swim before drowning, while others were smashed against the rocks and killed instantly.

And then some were just dragged out to sea. It all happened fast, and there was nothing that the three men could do but watch. They watched as the last survivors aboard the ship perished, and none of them survived. Oh, no. And those where you said a lot of them were women and children that didn't want to go on that second raft. Yeah, who were waiting to get rescued and didn't. Captain Johnson was also among the people who died that day. He never left the ship, and he died along with the remaining people.

all of the women and children aboard died. Officially, 136 people died in the shipwreck, and there were only 37 people who survived. Wow. After an exhaustive search, 33 bodies were recovered, but the rest were never found. Five months after the wreck,

a fisherman claimed to have spotted a lifeboat with eight skeletons on it that was in a nearby cave. A party went out to find the boat, but they were never able to, and those bodies were never recovered either. ultimately it was decided that it was Captain Johnson's fault that so many people died. Because of his error in navigation along with poor direction and using the life rafts and also not having his crew properly trained, they put the blame on him. And a lot of people after the survivors who did survive this whole thing said that the captain was nothing but trying to help everyone.

And he refused to leave the ship and he was like that captain that went down with his ship like he was trying to save everybody and do everything that he could. when he got into that situation, but he was blamed for that situation. And another contributing factor to why more people can be rescued was because of how inaccessible the shoreline was at the time. There's no trails. There's no way to get there. I mean, you have to bushwack to get out to these trails. And that was when in 1907 to be able to facilitate the rescue of shipwreck survivors,

especially because this is part of the graveyard of the Pacific, and lots of shipwrecks happen here. they built the West Coast Trail. Isn't it so sad that it takes a tragedy like this in order for something like that to be done? I mean, I understand that it's a response to repeated issues. Like you said, this isn't the first. I feel like they maybe wouldn't have done that trail if it was an isolated incident. No, and I guess you wouldn't think of a need to, you know, if there's no one over on the coastline.

Yeah, if there's one shipwreck. Oh, well, no one's really over here. I mean, maybe you just wouldn't think to put a trail there. Like, what would be the point? But now because of it, they did build this West Coast Trail and it made this part of the island so much more accessible. And they also added shelters with telegraph communication abilities. So if people did get off the island, they could call for help immediately. And along with this, they added a lifeboat station in Puccina Bay.

and they also added an additional lighthouse to help with rescue missions and to help guide boats while they're on these coastlines. That is so incredible. Like, I just can't even imagine, like, that last part you said, I guess got to me kind of the most when you said that the remaining 60 or so people that just, like, collapsed with the rest of the ship. Just holding on to so much hope that, you know, there's another boat right there. Like, we can see our rescuer. We can see them. The shore is close. It's not like we're going to have a huge journey once we get rescued to be on to shore. It just it reminds me of when I was a, I think I was a sophomore in high school. I remember, you know, there's just random things that stick with you. I was in an English class and the teacher, I can't even remember the name of my teacher, but she had a poster on her wall. And it was a little boat in an empty boat in a vast sea. And it said water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

It just reminds me of this. It is ominous. And it's kind of like, it's just an illusion of hope. Yeah. And it's like it's so close, but so far away and so unattainable. Yeah. And the ocean itself is just so unrelenting and unpredictable. And we're not swimmers.

Like people aren't built. Adapted. Well, yeah. I mean, the best of the best swimmers could never, especially in the Pacific Northwest, terrible treacherous, treacherous seas. Yeah. Humans aren't a match for that. And even at top physical peak strength and which they weren't, you know, like they had already gone through a lot. Yeah, they were dehydrated.

They're injured. They're scared. You know, they're not like jumping into this trained for this. Right. And of course, not everyone was even really had a chance. You know, children, they're not going to have a chance. They can't just swim out to sea and hope for the best. No. And it's really, really sad. And actually, this is, I think you'll find this part really, really interesting. In 1933, the Valencia's lifeboat, it was lifeboat number five, was found drifting in the Barclay Sound. And it was astonishingly in a really good condition. It has. had been floating in the ocean for 27 years. I do really love that. And that's the best thing of this episode that you've said.

Where is that? Where is that location? So it's actually now on display at the Maritime Museum of British Columbia in Victoria. No, but I mean the location it was found in. So the Barclay Sound is actually on the west coast of Vancouver Island. So they were in the southern part of Vancouver Island and they found it on the northwestern part. Okay, so it wasn't terribly far away, but still 22 years? Mm-hmm.

I feel like maybe... Oh, 27 years. Oh, 27, excuse me. It was maybe like pulled out to see a little bit and then drifted back in with the currents. Because I would imagine if it was hugging the coastline, it would have been found. That is so wild. Yeah, I don't know. It's kind of a mystery because it's like, okay, also, why is it in such good shape?

Yeah, that's true. It's like, it's been out here for 27 years. And the chances of it not getting caught. in the current and then smash against rocks. Or just like gone forever. The Pacific is huge. I love that. It's like a little time capsule.

Another part, which I think that you will like as well, is today you can still see parts of the wreckage of the Assess Valencia. It is now established as a protected area that can be seen from the 100 foot cliffs that are above it and you can actually go and see the parts of it that are resting away in the water. From that trail. From the trail. And the area is called the Valencia Bluffs. Oh, I do really love that. I love it because it's not because it's a morbid, like, tragic story, but because it's history that you can see in the present, if that makes sense. Yeah, it's something you can look at in real time and it's like, oh, wow, this happened. There it is. I know this story. I know what happened

here. Wow. And this story does continue into today, because there have been tons of ghostly sightings of the ship. And actually, I was... Oh, my God, you're... Sorry. You're hitting me with a ghost. Oh, my God. And there's also paranormal.

There's ships. It's paranormal. It's like... I made this episode for you. It's morbid. It's extremely sad. Yeah, so the first time that there were ever ghostly reports was in 1910, and sailors reported that they saw the SS Valencia off of those.

of Puccina Point. And over the years, there have been many reports on foggy days where sailors have claimed to see the Valencia. And they'll even see the ship. They report that they see the ship heading in the exact same direction into the cliff shores again. And they'll see it right around that area. And it looks like they say that the ship is doomed to the same fate. And they keep going straight into the cliff side. Oh, I hope that's, if that is true. And it's like a residual hauntary. type of thing. I hope that it's just an apparition of the boat and it's not like their souls are trapped on. They're doomed to repeat the same fate over and over. Yeah, because that's really, really sad. I think a ghost ship would be one of the more frightening things to see. It would be so

frightening because it's huge, first off, and it's so, like, it's not like seeing, it's not like, oh, I think I saw a ghost in my room, a person appeared. And then suddenly, they're gone. It's like, oh, maybe I just missed them walking out. It's like, no, I saw an entire ship that I know doesn't exist. Right. And there was a huge ship there and now I looked again and it's gone. Like you can't just make that up in your mind. Like, it's not like a trick of the mind, I guess is what I'm trying to say. You know, when you see, like you said, you see something like out of the corner of your eye and you can explain away rationally what that could have been. Yeah, you can be like, oh, you know, like this actually makes sense. It could have definitely been this.

It's like, how do you explain a ghost ship? A 1906, SS Valencia. Yeah. Yeah, in 2022. Yeah, that's wild. Can we do more ghost ships? Do you have any more ghost ship stories? Not on me currently, but yes, actually.

I do know of a couple other stories, actually, now that you say that. Yeah, I know some ghost ships, some ghost towns, some interesting stuff I've been harboring away. But yeah, we can revisit this. But just kind of going back to the West Coast Trail because this whole trail has been established in the park because of this disaster. This is actually a really, really highly traffic trail for backpackers. And I just wanted to talk about the trail really quick to end this on kind of a little bit of a happier note because this episode has been so depressing and horrible. This trail is really cool. I encourage everyone to look it up if you haven't looked into it or heard of it at all.

To complete this trail, it takes six to 10 days, and it goes through beaches, it goes through rainforest, steep gullies. There's all these vertical ladders and fast streams. There are actually nearly 70 ladders that are along this trail, and they're huge. You're climbing up these huge wall of greenery and ladders, and there's 130 bridges that you cross, and there's actually four cable cars that you have to get into that crossover. large bridges on the trail. That sounds like an adventure. Yeah. And now did you post this on our Instagram? Was that the picture of this trail? Yes. It was on our close friend story for our Patreon, but yes.

Okay, because when you posted that and you're like doing research for next week's episode, I'm like, I thought she said she was doing something like in the ocean. So I thought you changed your mind last minute, but now it makes sense. It does look beautiful. It looks amazing. And I've been researching it a lot recently. I'm like, wow. And I posted on Instagram. And I posted on Instagram. I said, what are your favorite hikes? And a couple of people said the West Coast Trail. So if you've done the West Coast Trail and you have insight on it, please email us at NPAD podcast at gmail.com because I'm personally interested in doing this through hike. And I don't know like when this will happen with restrictions and whatever, but I'm super interested in it. And it just looks really cool. I did read it's

very difficult and it looks wet in the Pacific Northwest area. It looks wet. But I read it. It's one of the trails and it's not like you're scaling huge mountains. There's no like you're not at really high elevation kind of things. It's green. It's lush. You're on beaches. It just looks like a really lovely trail and I would really, really like to do it, I think. So please, if you've done it, please email me and tell me your experience because I would really love to know. I would really love to know if you've done this trail, have been to the Valencia Bluffs and have also seen a sea wolf. in the same trip. And maybe you've seen a ghost ship.

And a ghost ship. All of the. There's like a checklist now. If you go on this, you have to go to Valencia Bluff. You have to see the shipwreck. You have to see a sea wolf. You have to see a ghost ship. You have to get in a cable car.

And then you have to email us about it. And then you have to email us about it. Yeah. But really, this park, I haven't personally been, but it seems beautiful. It seems amazing. I mean, there's a really horrible, horrible. tragic story that happened here, but there's a lot of really cool stuff around it as well, which is why we love our national park so much. But that's everything that I have for today's story.

Wow, I loved it. Applaws all around from me because I really enjoyed that. And it's also nice because even though we are doing two shipwreck stories, mine is vastly different. Yeah. So we have our bonus episodes on Patreon every single month. If you'd like to check that out. out if you want. We have a bunch of episodes up there now because we've been doing it for over a year now. So we have a lot of bonus episodes, but we'll have our February one come out. It usually comes out towards the end of the month. If you are interested in that, you can sign up on our Patreon. Yes. And happy Valentine's Day. Sorry, it was such a drag. Thanks, Cassie. Thanks, people are having a bad Valentine's Day anyway.

Coming from the person who is like full of light and love, I would have it totally expected something different. I was planning something. And I found such a lovely story that now I'm going to have to like just cover on a totally different day. But I hope that you all are full of love and cheery. Oh, and we hope that you enjoyed our extra trail tales that we released at the end of last week. Yeah. We had two episodes last week. We're going to make that not a weekly thing, but it'll keep happening and see you guys more often. But before we go, we wanted to tell you about one of our new favorite podcast you can listen to while you're waiting for our next episode to come out. Yes. So this new podcast that we're talking about is called Deep Cover Mob Land. And it's a podcast

about the true story of a high-rolling Chicago lawyer who helped the mafia rule Chicago, but then went undercover to take them down. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jake Halperin takes listeners on a wild journey into a world of corruption, murder, and mayhem. You can listen to this podcast deep cover wherever you get your podcast Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, etc. I love it a lot because one of my many interests is the mob. I went to the mob museum a few months ago when I was on one of my travels. So I love this podcast and we hope you guys do too. Yeah, check it out and we'll see you next week for our next episode, but in the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch your back. Bye, everyone.

Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Become an outsider by joining our Patreon where you'll gain access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our partners, you're supporting our show. To access our special discount codes along with source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For information on the show, to shop our merch store, sign up for our newsletter and more, visit npaddpodcast.com.

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