27

Memorial stone for George Henry Jesse
December, 1905
Ross Bay Cemetary, Victoria, British Columbia Canada

28

Memorial stone for George Henry Jesse in the Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria, BC

Victim and hero in the Valencia disaster.
Information pertaining to George Henry Jesse kindly supplied by his great niece, Susan crow (daughter of Claudia Robbins, nee Jesse)
of Victoria BC

From the Seattle "P I" dated January 30, 1906
"Survivors tell of the heroism of G.H. Jesse who is a prominent British Columbia oarsman, in refusing to take a place on the raft
on which Connors and Long escaped, that he might remain to assist Miss Laura Van Wyck, a San Francisco society girl. Connors said: "I saw
Jesse and know him, as he was a little further on the mast than I when the top-mast broke. I was carried down, and he had a hard time to keep in the rigging, holding Miss Van Wyck. "I called to him to come down and take
a chance on the life raft, but he replied; "No, I have some one here to look after, and will stay and take my chances.'"

And from the Spokesman Review....
Victoria, B.C. Jan. 29 - Frank Connors and George Long, two survivors of the Valencia,
who are in the marine hospital here, said this afternoon that G.H. Jesse, a Victoria passenger,
was in the rigging above them before the mast broke and Connors and Long went on the raft which drifted into Barclay Sound. Jesse was holding Miss Laura Van wyck of San Francisco in the rigging above where Long was Clinging. When the mast broke above them Long said to Jesse:
"Come on and take a chance on the raft."
Jesse replied:
"I can't; I've got someone to look after here."
Both say that Jesse was one of the gamest of those in the rigging.
He was continually encouraging those clinging there. He was an athlete, noted throughout
the northwest, and was a member of the championship four of the northwest for several seasons.

29

Memorial stone for George Henry Jesse
1906
Ross Bay Cemetary, Victoria, British Columbia Canada

30

Memorial stone for George Henry Jesse in the Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria, BC

Victim and hero in the Valencia disaster.
Information pertaining to George Henry Jesse kindly supplied by his great niece, Susan crow (daughter of Claudia Robbins, nee Jesse)
of Victoria BC

From a newspaper clipping belonging to Mrs. Crow:

Proposal to Reward Deeds of Heroism
commission will be Requested to Ascertain those Particularly Courageous Among Survivors

Then Mayor Morley proposes taking steps to have officially recognized the deeds of George H. Jesse, the Victorian, whose efforts to contribute something to the comfort of the women and children as they watched the stranded vessel break slowly to pieces and death draw nearer, which have been recounted by many of the survivors. The Mayor intends outlining to those controlling the funds in question the peculiarly sad circumstances of his loss, and is confident that something will be done in order that the bereaved relatives may have some tangible evidence of the
universal appreciation of the marked bravery Mr. Jesse displayed.

and from a february 13, 1906 clipping:

PAID TRIBUTE TO GEORGE H. JESSE
FIREMAN'S TESTIMONY AT VALENCIA INQUIRY
To Mr. Lawson, witness said that women could not have stood the exposure to which he was subjected while upon the raft.
Asked regarding the passengers, witness paid a tribute to the courage of George H. Jesse. He said he Took a Prominent Part in all that was done aboard. Always active in handling linesm
and making things as orderly and comfortable as possible, he particularly attracted his attention. Mr. Jesse, witness said, made no effort to get aboard the raft.

31

David Logan
1900
Clo-oose, West Coast Vancouver island, British Columbia, Canada

32

David Logan

David Logan of Clo-oose, Phil Daykin of Carmanah Lighthouse and Joe Martin of Clo-oose assisted on land during the wreck of the Valencia Logan, Daykin and Martin begin their journey to the site.
At daylight on January 23rd, Captain Johnson orders that a line be shot ashore using the Lyle gun, but there is no one there to secure it.
By noon on Wednesday, January 24th, the Logan party arrives on the scene of the tragedy. They locate the line that had been
shot from the Lyle gun (Captain Johnson reportedly lost two of his fingers
attempting to fire a line ashore), but it is worn through by this time.
All they can do is watch helplessly during the Valencia victims final moments.

David Logan was born in Leith, Scotland in the mid 1860s.
As a boy he moved with his family to Massachusetts, then to Illinois
where he worked in the iron mines before coming to Canada.
He married Sarah Usher who had also immigrated to the U.S. and first settled in Massachusetts.
Logan came to the area to look after cattle for Wm. H. Grove, who had opened
a trading post at Clo-oose. Grove later preempted land on the Cheewhat River
where he kept cattle. He returned to Australia in 1894 when Logan arrived to look after his herd. Logan preempted a big piece of land, built a house, and later added a store and a post office
He was post master and Magistrate for Clo-oose until he died in 1938.
He was lineman for a stretch of the tree-to-tree telephone line that ran from Victoria to Cape Beale which needed constant repairs and upkeep.
Consequently, he was away from home 6 weeks at a time. He traveled alone except for a dog which always went with him.

"My grandmother got a call at 2 am from the Darling River cabin.
She then phoned Victoria. It took a long time to get messages through.
They (the survivors in the cabin) had left (the Valencia) in a lifeboat to find help.
They landed at Darling. The lifeboat got caught in the sea and rolled over.
A man's wife and 2 kids drowned in the surf. (This man would have been Frank Bunker,
Seattle's new Assistant Superintendent of schools.) Grandfather said when they got there
(Logan, Daykin and Martin), they couldn't have taken people off the boat.
If he'd had his Indian friends in their Indian canoes they could have taken most of the people off ."
Sonny Logan, Bamfield, October 27th, 2005

Frank F. Bunker was traveling to Seattle to assume duties as the cities new Assistant Supervisor of schools.
Bunker, his wife and two children left the Valencia in life boat #3. Before the boat reached shore,
Bunker's family had perished. Only one other passenger survived, but they quickly were united with survivors from other boats. The group made their way, led by Bunker, to the lineman's cabin at the Darling River.
Bunker became the first person to relay the message about the wreck to the world. He opted not to return to Bamfield with the rescue party, instead accompanying the Logan party, then the crew of the Salvor back to the wreck site to help identify the dead.

33

Conversation between Heather Cooper, Bamfield Community School Association
and Sonny Logan, grandson of David Logan.

So, you were telling me that when the Valencia went down, it was your grandmother that got the call.

Yes, they phoned from, well they had a little cabin, lean-to thing there
that my grandfather had at the Darling river. That's where they happened to
go ashore, and they found the cabin, so they phoned. They didnt know where they
were phoning they just kept ringing the phone, and she answered in the middle of
the night. And that's when they found out there was somebody in trouble.
That's when they started gathering all the guys up, but it was stormy and
some of the rivers they just had little canoes to cross, and it took them along time to get up there.
It must have been quite a night for the people on ship alright, but there was a few
boats around the next day, so I mean, well they didnt get in close. They didnt know the water, there was no charts or anything, they didnt know how close they could get in. If it was today, the lifeboat and crew could go right in along side
the ship, its deep water, well they hit a reef, but its deep water all around them.
It would have been a different story.

Your grandfather's job didnt end after the ship went down did it?

Yeah, they were there when the mast broke, the last survivers were on, likely got
up there when the ship was breaking up. I think there was still some people in the
rigging when he got there, so. He couldnt do anything, cause they were up on a cliff,
and couldnt get down.
I think that tree fell, did it? That's what Brian Gisborne said. Yeah, that is about
where that ladder is it shows in the picture. Ardie will show you. Ardie brought it down
to the school. Did she show you the picture? Yeah, thats a good, I didnt think I had
that picture.
Shows you what kind of a place it is. It does doesnt it.
But I cant imagine being in that cave because it's a part tidal cave, and I wouldnt
want to be in there in a big storm, in case it came right in.

And then after, didnt your grandfather have to help with recovery?

Yeah, he done all that. All by himself too. Couldnt get any help, nobody wanted to do it.
So, he was the one, he actually buried the people that did come ashore and then he retrieved them afterwards, I think they had them down here. They were lead coffins. Lead lined
coffins they put them in. And they retrieved them all. It was quite a few, I couldnt know
an amount, but there was a lot. That was spread out over a five mile area too. So he
had to keep watching the tides. Especially in winter, you know what the weather is like.

34

A life ring from the SS Valencia
1906
West Coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

35

This is a photo of a life ring from the SS Valencia.

Permission was received from the Alberni Valley Museum for its use.

36

The barque 'Coloma' floundering off Cape Beale
December, 1906
Cape Beale, West Coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

37

Call Number: B-04002
Catalogue Number HP034889
Subject: Ships and Disasters
Geographic Region: Alberni Clayquot
Title: The barque "Coloma" foundering off Cape Beale, on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Date: 19-
Photographer: Hall, P.J.
Accession Number: 193501-001
Courtesy BC Archives

One of the heroes of the wreck of the Valencia was Minnie Paterson, the wife of
the lighthouse keeper at Cape Beale who received word of the shipwreck,
and maintained her post at the telephone for three days, making sure that the outside world
including the press, company and government officials, etc., were kept apprised of the attempted rescue.
Later that year, in December 1906, when the Coloma was floundering off Cape Beale, Minnie Paterson made her famous run to Bamfield from Cape Beale to summon help for the crew of the ship. It wasn't until a week later,
when the phone line was reconnected, that the Patersons knew her efforts had saved the lives of all onboard.

38

Cape Beale Lighthouse
1931
Cape Beale, West Coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

39

Call Number: PDP08860
Catalogue Number PDP08860
Subject: Lighthouses
Geographic Region: Alberni Clayquot
Title: Cape Beale Lighthouse
Date: 1931
Photographer/Artist: M.M.
Accession Number:
Courtesy BC Archives

40

Steve Clarke, retired fireman and Bamfield resident off and on for a good part of his life, in conversation about his reminiscences of stories told to him by Mrs. McKay, daughter of the first Lighthouse Keeper at Cape Beale

I've been asked to come over and talk a little bit about the memories I have, about Bamfield, from the old days. I was lucky enough to be here as a young fella in the late forties, and one of my old friends was Alec McKay, who was born here, but his mother was actually more important, her name was Annie Cox. She married McKay. Her husband had a trading post on Hand Island before the turn of the century, for about 20 years. He married Annie Cox, who was part of the Cox family who was the first light keepers at Cape Beale. I believe it was, say 1889 or 1880. This old was just a delight. She was super. So, anyways, after she and McKay married, they moved to Bamfield. It was just at the time that they built the Cable Station. And so they built this great big house and it was called Pioneer House. It was where all the workmen used to stay who were building the Cable Station. So they had a little store, and the old Pioneer House, it had about ten bedrooms. So we're talking about 1947. At that time there was just the two of them living there, Uncle Alex, my friend, and Annie McKay, a dour old Scotch lady. But she was completely in control when I met her. But she still in those days made her own bread. She still preserved eggs. She'd buy ten dozen eggs and put them in a great big crock with water glass. A very self-sufficient woman and I guess it came from living on the lighthouse. So getting back to the lighthouse stories, they arrived; they were rowed up from Victoria by dugout canoe to Cape Beale. They arrived and got the light started. In those days the lights had to be manually�..the mechanism is clockwork where they have to crank the clock mechanism and it only lasted for four hours, so every night, every four hours they had to get�you remember the old grandfather clocks where you had the pendulum? It was the same principle. The counterweights would come up. The light was a mantle that had to be trimmed all the time. The lens was spectacular. It was actually made in France, way back when. A beautiful crystal. The lamp, because this thing was so heavy, the only way it would turn easily was if you floated it on a bath of mercury, like a trough. So that's a part of the light story that I know.
Annie would tell stories like, so she had three sisters and a brother. The supplies would come in once a year. If they were lucky and the weather was good they could make a landing. Everything was salted down, the beef, the pork, that kind of thing. Flour, tea coffee�. but the girls and the boys never went for a walk without carrying a gun in case they saw a deer or some ducks, so they would try to supplement their meals. And she says, "Oh yeah, I was a real good shot." She said "I shot deer all the time" and they would try to pack it back. At Dodgers Cover, there was quite a big settlement at that time and there was a First Nations living there, he had an agreement, I think he got paid ten dollars a year. So everyday he had to look over at the Cape Beale light and if the flag was up or down, I can't remember, there was something about the flag, and he had to come over because there would be a problem there, maybe a part or something, and he would have to pick up a part or whatever it was. I think he often took mail down to Port Alberni in those days. Port Alberni around the turn of the century was becoming developed.
Annie was just a delightful old gal. I don't know what the timeframe was. Somewhere during this clockwork story I told you about, she told the story that a gear stripped. So her father put the flag up. The Indian came over from Dodgers and they took the gear and they paddled down to Port Alberni. So every night while he was away, because he was going to have this new gear made, the girls had to have a watch and they turned the gear by hand. I can remember her telling me that story. Because the light had to flash at certain revolutions.
Because it was recorded. So she talked about that. She also talked about one time. I guess the light attracted a whole bunch of starlings, or some kind of small bird, and then in the morning the catwalk was a foot deep with dead birds. They were just so happy, because they ate them. It was fresh food.
Another great story she told was where she told one of her sisters�this old house in Bamfield, it was huge, like I say, we called it Pioneer House. There was one room that had actually been the living room at one time, and all of the souvenirs and stuff she had there� some beautiful Indian artifacts and old, old stuff. But there was one cabinet and there was a box that had tea at one time. It had come from China. It was probably about four by seven and inside there was a lovely letter and this lovely scarf. It had been given to one of her sisters. In those days the sailing ships would get brought up from Port Alberni or Victoria and if the wind wasn't right, the steam tugs used to bring them out. And once they picked up the wind. Cause the sailboats were always, costs were worried about, spending too much money on the steam tug. As soon as they got some wind they would drop the steam tug off. Anyways, this fellow got off Cape Beale and the wind died. He sat there for two or three days getting pushed in closer and closer. So Annie's sister, there was the land line to Victoria then. So she rowed out to the ship and the captain said, "Can you get a steam tug out from Victoria?" So Annie had done that. But she phoned the steam tug towing in Victoria and they said, "Well we can't come out without a deposit. Because we could come half way out there and the wind would pick up and the guy would be gone when we got there." And she said, "Well, I'll guarantee it." So she guaranteed the money. Actually the tug did come out, towed the fella offshore, he picked up the wind and he left. And about six months later, I think it was six months, it could have been longer, she got this lovely carved chest from Hong Kong, from China, full of tea, with this lovely silk scarf and this lovely letter thanking her.