The Wreck of the Bark Archer
After a violent storm capsized their ship off the coast of Cape Flattery, the crew faced fire and rising seas in a desperate struggle for survival.
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 ship John C. Potter arrived in port tonight carrying Captain Dawson and thirteen crewmen of the British bark Archer, which had been abandoned off Cape Flattery on March 18. The bark left Victoria on March 17 and encountered a heavy snowstorm the following day. A violent squall caused the ballast to shift, and the ship capsized. Two men, Andrew Anderson and A.B. Evans, were carried away and drowned. The remaining crew managed to climb onto the hull, but terror turned to desperation when a fire broke out in the cabin. One seaman, Wilbur Royden, was lowered into the cabin and managed to extinguish the flames. When the crew attempted to launch the lifeboat, the ship seemed to be sinking. They eventually rigged a life buoy to a log line, allowing the men to haul themselves into the lifeboat one by one. Only two oars were aboard, but they were fortunate enough to be sighted and rescued by the John C. Potter just half an hour after their escape.
“The ship seemed also to be sinking, and it appeared to be a question only as to whether the crew would first be overcome by fire or water.”
Maritime disasters off the rugged Olympic Peninsula coastline were frequent in the late 19th century, serving as a reminder of the immense danger posed to early commerce in the Pacific Northwest. Today, maritime navigation is safer, but the unpredictable power of the 'Graveyard of the Pacific' remains a potent force in the regional imagination.
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