The Last Hours of the Bark El Dorado
A harrowing account of a merchant ship's destruction in a fierce gale off the Washington coast, as told by one of the few men to survive the wreckage.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The bark El Dorado, an American vessel, foundered off Cape Flattery last Friday morning during a heavy westerly gale. The schooner Fanny Daland, which arrived yesterday, brought the only survivors of the ill-fated ship. Michael Anderson, one of the survivors, related his experience: 'Last Wednesday we finished loading our cargo of coal. On Friday morning, the gale increased until the vessel was slowly but surely sinking. At 8:15 a.m., a heavy sea broke on the windward side, completely demolishing the house and carrying away several of the crew. Captain Humphreys was swept away by the sea. I grasped the skylight but my left hand was badly injured. I managed to reach a portion of the house which served as a raft. I found John Christie and Mr. Erleson, the second officer, on the raft. By Saturday, Mr. Erleson had succumbed to his injuries and the cold. We were adrift without food or water until the Fanny Daland spotted our signal in the twilight. The captain and crew of the Fanny Daland did their utmost to alleviate our suffering.'
“The sea then moderated gradually. At 2 p.m. one of the sailors died, from what appeared to be internal injuries... At half past six we buried him under the waves.”
Maritime disasters were a common, brutal reality of life in the 19th-century Pacific Northwest, where the treacherous entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca earned a reputation as the 'Graveyard of the Pacific.' While modern GPS and weather forecasting have transformed safety standards, the economic reliance on shipping and the raw power of the coastal storms remain a fundamental part of the region's relationship with the Pacific.
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