1888 — Feb 5, British ship Abercorn grounds in fog, west off Aberdeen, WA –22-23

–22-23 Lloyd. “This Nest of Dangers: Fog…” Chinook Observer, Long Beach, WA. 7-10-2018.
— 22 Winnipeg Free Press, Manitoba. “Only Three Saved….British Ship Abercorn…” 2-11-1888.
–16 bodies recovered
— 6 bodies missing, presumed drowned.

Narrative Information

Lloyd: “The ship was the Abercorn, bound from England for Portland, Oregon, full of iron rails for a regional railroad. Only a few years old, Glasgow-built of iron, she was a solid vessel, and not small. Her gross tonnage was 1,341, her length 238-1/2 feet, her width 36 feet, and her depth 21 feet.

“Arriving off the mouth of the Columbia River the first of February 1888, she took aboard a bar pilot; a strong gale and heavy seas were at work so the pilot directed the vessel out to sea to await improved conditions.

“The Davidson Current runs north between Baja California and approximately the 48th parallel (offshore of the Olympic Peninsula in northern Washington state). It is an unexpected counter-current, flowing inshore of the southbound California current, hugging the coast and flowing at the surface during winter months.

“Fifty-three year old sailor Angus McLeod told a February 1888 edition of The Daily Astorian [Astoria, OR] how it went:

Two days after taking pilot aboard [we] held down to the south and west, trying to keep to windward of the port; [the] lead [a weighted line with differing knots at regular intervals to indicate how much line was out] was hove [dropped into the sea to measure how much water was under the keel] first Friday, January 27th between 7 and 8 p.m.; found thirty fathom [depth]; took sounding next morning 8:30; no bottom at fifty fathoms;

[A]t 4 a.m. January 30th vessel was being steered by the wind, making a course of southeast half east; … at five that morning … the vessel … was going through the water at about four knots an hour; the wind was S.S.W.; [we] heard [an] order to get lead ready to sound and went into mizzen rigging; just then the vessel struck. …

“When the ship hit sand, bar pilot Charles F. Johnson was thinking they were off the Columbia Bar, in deep water; they were actually west of Aberdeen, in shallow water, two peninsulas north of the entrance to the Columbia River.

“Survivor McLeod continued:

The sea began breaking over the stern; the port boat was got ready but the seas broke all four boats; the ship struck at nearly low water; and [by] eleven [at] nearly high water the fore and main masts went by the board, falling seaward and breaking the deck.

[T]hen a big sea carried off the pilot, the second mate, two men and two boys. The rest of the crew took to the mizzen rigging … the men all thought the mizzen mast would fall to starboard but it fell to port and took all the men with it, tangling them in the running rigging and shrouds, holding them down and drowning them.

“The three saved [Rankin, McLeod, and cabin boy Aitkin] made out by the help of the two Indians, Tony and Sam, to get to shore. … They [the survivors] say that at no time did they see the slightest sign of intoxication on the part of anyone on board the vessel. Their belief is that the vessel was lost because soundings were not taken at the time the watches were changed at four o’clock in the morning, when the second mate’s watch came on deck.

“Feb. 16 of the same year, The Daily Astorian added, ‘The loss of the Abercorn indicated another source of danger to those vessels which keep in close along shore, and are ignorant, says [George] Davidson [of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey], of the eddy current which sets northward, with a breadth of one to 15 miles, and which is particularly marked north of the Columbia river. … The pilot of the Abercorn supposed the vessel was off the Columbia, but in fourteen days [of waiting out the fog, to enter the River] the current had set him about fifty-five nautical miles to the northward.…’

“Twenty-two or 23 men died in the wreck. Without Tony and Sam, it is probable that the three survivors would also have died….” (Lloyd, Nancy. “This Nest of Dangers: Fog, the Davidson inshore current, and those who live ashore…” Chinook Observer, Long Beach, WA. 7-10-2018.)

Newspaper at the Time

Winnipeg Free Press, Manitoba: “Olympia, W.T. [Washington Territory], Feb. 10. — The following additional particulars are learned in regard to the wreck of the Abercorn, which occurred near the mouth of the Columbia River [north] Sunday night. The weather was foggy, not stormy, as previously stated. Immediately after striking all hands went into the cabin, as the sea was breaking badly forward, and while they were there the foremast and mainmast broke and the deck split. In the afternoon a heavy sea broke into the cabin, drowning several inmates. The three survivors escaped from the cabin and ascended, the rigging of the mizzenmast. There they saw Pilot Johnston as he came out of the cabin, which was filled with water. Just as he appeared a wave struck him. He tried to grasp the bar of the companionway, but missed it. Just at that moment a second wave struck him and carried him into the ocean. He kept afloat for some time, but kept looking back at the vessel and swimming parallel with her. He sank to rise no more. One of the survivors says: ‘A little later the mizzen-mast gave way and the ship opened and let us all into the sea. As the mast was going I jumped to clear the side of the ship, and was under water for some time. As I came up the second time I saw near me a plank about thirteen feet long, which I seized and steered for shore.’

“The next survivor, a man about 25 years of age, came ashore with a piece of plank under each arm. Both men were in the water about half an hour. A boy who was saved is an orphan, and was one of the first boys from the training ship, all of whom were making their first voyage. He came ashore with two pieces of plank, and was the last to reach the shore, having been about an hour in the water, and having drifted two miles up the coast from where the others landed. He was unconscious when found by white men and Indians. The boy says he saw several persons in the water after he left the wreck, and that he was the last to see the captain alive. At one time the captain was within fifteen feet of him, and told him to hang to his plank and not be scared, and he would reach the shore all right. Then a heavy wave struck them, and that was the last he saw of the captain or any of the ship’s crew. Shortly after they reached shore a body was seen floating ashore a short distance from land, but it sank immediately after being sighted. Sixteen bodies are reported found, including those of the pilot Johnston and the captain, the former having been recognized by a note-book in his pocket. All the bodies were found from sixteen to nineteen miles up the coast. There are still six bodies unheard from.”

Sources

Lloyd, Nancy. “This Nest of Dangers: Fog, the Davidson inshore current, and those who live ashore…” Chinook Observer, Long Beach, WA. 7-10-2018. Accessed 2-6-2022 at: https://www.chinookobserver.com/life/history/this-nest-of-dangers-fog-the-davidson-inshore-current-and-those-who-live-ashore/article_74b60aa2-609b-5cb3-a49a-d23b7a7c3322.html

Winnipeg Free Press, Manitoba. “Only Three Saved. Survivors from the Wreck Tell How the British Ship Abercorn was Lost.” 2-11-1888. Transcribed by Stu Beitler for gendisasters.com. Accessed 2-6-2022 at: http://www.gendisasters.com/washington/20633/columbia-river-wa-british-ship-abercorn-sinking-feb-1888