Olympia's and Thurston County's grief — SS Valencia disaster

Ira Wesley Kitmacher

In last month’s column, I wrote about the USS Olympia and its fascinating history and folklore. This column focuses on another ship, also connected to Olympia and Thurston County: the SS Valencia.

The night of Jan. 22, 1906, just over 120 years ago, was a stormy and windswept one with blinding rain, thick fog, and treacherous currents that threw the ship off course, driving it violently onto the jagged reefs of Vancouver Island’s West Coast.

The SS Valencia, a 252-foot iron-hulled passenger steamer, missed the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, separating the U.S. from Canada. The strait is part of the “Graveyard of the Pacific,” the waters and adjoining land on the Pacific Coast from northern Oregon, up Washington, to Canada’s Vancouver Island. Over 2,000 ships have wrecked, and countless lives have been lost in the Graveyard. I have been researching, writing and speaking about the Graveyard for several years.

The sinking of Valencia became one of the most horrific maritime disasters in Pacific Northwest history. Because the freezing waves were too violent for lifeboats, and escaping required climbing steep cliffs, every woman and child (35 of them) on board tragically drowned.

Valencia had departed San Francisco days earlier, carrying passengers and crew toward Seattle. Navigation along the Pacific Coast in 1906 relied heavily on “dead reckoning”— calculating position based on speed and direction without visual landmarks. The crew misjudged their position, believing they were turning safely into the strait, but instead steered directly into the rocky shoreline. The impact was catastrophic; the ship struck a reef and rapidly began to take on water.

In the panic, the crew attempted to launch lifeboats, a decision that transformed a crisis into an immediate tragedy. In the darkness and as the ship listed (leaned) to one side, three lifeboats capsized as they hit the churning surf, spilling their occupants into the freezing ocean. Two other boats flipped upon launch, and another vanished into the waves.

Due to improperly lowered lifeboats and the sheer violence of the waves, some victims drowned instantly in the capsized lifeboats, while others were swept off the fracturing deck by waves. As many as 181 people lost their lives that night, while only 37 men survived. Some survivors reached the rugged shore, while others clung to rafts that eventually drifted into the open ocean and were rescued days later.

The nautical tragedy reverberated across the Pacific Northwest. Two prominent figures connected to our area, B.M. Peter and Mary Musgrove, drowned in the disaster. B.M. Peter’s son, Frank, was a student at Saint Martin’s College (now University). Mary Musgrove, an experienced ship stewardess who had lived in the region, was remembered by survivors as a true hero. As the ship went down, she bravely comforted panicked passengers and led them in singing the hymn, “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” before she was swept away by the sea.

News of their deaths brought the tragedy directly to the doorsteps of Olympia and Thurston County’s residents. The Morning Olympian captured the somber mood on its front page, writing: "The sea has taken another heavy toll." For generations, residents struggled to process the immense loss, and the memory of the ill-fated vessel became deeply woven into the region’s history.

For decades, an Olympia street served as a prominent local reminder of that fateful night. A thoroughfare on the city's east side bore the name Valencia Street, which residents widely understood (incorrectly, as it turned out, as the street’s name preceded the disaster) to be a solemn memorial to the historic shipwreck.

However, in 1980, the Olympia City Council voted to rename the street Talcott Avenue to honor Noyes Talcott, a prominent downtown civic leader and historian. The decision sparked community pushback; local columnists noted that some residents pleaded to preserve the "beautiful Valencia Street" name because of its deep connection to a monumental piece of regional history.

SS Valencia’s sinking triggered a massive federal investigation into steamship safety and rescue infrastructure along the Pacific Coast. The horrific reality that every woman and child died forced sweeping changes. The disaster directly led to the construction of the Pachena Point Lighthouse and the creation of the West Coast Trail, which was originally built as a lifesaving trail to help shipwreck survivors navigate the brutal wilderness of Vancouver Island.

Though more than a century has passed, the story of the SS Valencia remains synonymous with the unforgiving power of the Graveyard of the Pacific.

As is the case with so many of the Graveyard’s shipwrecks, folklore about ghost ships has resulted. The rescue crew aboard the City of Topeka, which transported Valencia survivors to Seattle, reported passing the Valencia’s ghost ship with skeletons on board. Others have reported seeing the ghost ship with human figures desperately clinging to its rigging.

Ira Wesley Kitmacher is an Olympia-based historian and author, writing ten published history and folklore books, many on the Pacific Northwest (including “Haunted Puget Sound” and “Pacific Northwest Legends and Lore”), one on World War 2, and four upcoming books, including two on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. His books are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other booksellers. He is a speaker at various public venues, including McMenamin’s History Pubs, the Northwest Folklife Festival, and others. Ira leads tours of Olympia based on his books. He is featured on television, radio, and other media. Ira is a Commissioner on the Thurston County Historic Commission. He is a professor who has taught graduate courses at Georgetown University and other colleges. Ira is a retired senior federal executive and attorney.