1930 — Nov 8, lumber steamer Brooklyn swamped by breakers, Humboldt Bar, Eureka, CA-18

— ~20 Humboldt Times. “Historic Ship Disasters of California Coast Recalled,” 1954.
— 18 Bakersfield Californian. “Seek Bodies of 18 Seamen Lost on Ship Near Eureka.” 11-10-1930, p2.
— 18 Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA. “Mate’s Rescue Renews Hunt for Lost Crew.” 11-12-1930, 1.
— 18 Oakland Tribune, CA. “18 Lives Lost as Cost Ship Turns Over.” Nov 9, 1930, p. 1.
— 18 US Steamboat-Inspection Service. Annual Report…[FY] Ended June 30, 1931.1933, 15.
— 17 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 204.

Narrative Information

Berman: “Brooklyn…St.s. [steam screw]…333 [tons]…1901 [built]…Nov 8 1930…Stranded… Humboldt Bar, Calif. 17 lives lost (18).” [We take this to mean 17 of 18 lives lost.]

Humboldt Times, 1954: “…the “Brooklyn” wrecked on the bar November 8, 1930, with a loss of approximately 20 hands, only one, Jorgen Frieve, being rescued.” (Humboldt Times. “Historic Ship Disasters of CA Coast Recalled,” 1954.)

US Steamboat-Inspection Service. Annual Report…[FY] Ended June 30, 1931: “On November 8, 1930, the steamer Brooklyn, 333 gross tons, crossing out over Eureka Bar, encountered heavy breaking seas which filled the engine and boiler room, extinguishing the fires and rendering the vessel helpless. It drifted up the coast for 3 miles where it beached and was pounded to pieces by the heavy surf. The entire crew of 18 persons and 1 stowaway were washed overboard and lost, with the exception of the chief mate. Vessel valued at $15,000. The case was investigated and dismissed by the local inspectors at San Francisco, Calif.” US Steamboat-Inspection Service. Annual Report…[FY] Ended June 30, 1931.1933, p. 15.)

Newspaper at the Time

Nov 9: “A Berkeley captain and 17 members of the crew of the steam lumber schooner Brooklyn lost their lives last night when the vessel capsized and sank while crossing the Humboldt bar while leaving Eureka harbor bound for San Francisco, the coast guard lifesaving station there reported.

“The small schooner apparently had trouble crossing the bar and const guard boats were standing by to aid her when a heavy fog rolled in and screened the boat from sight. When winds blew a rift in the fog several minutes later the boat was nowhere to be seen.

“Capt. John F. Tufvesson of 2849 Park avenue, Berkeley, was in charge of the vessel. Many other members of the crew were from San Francisco.

“Capt. William Garner, Coast guardsman stationed at Eureka, who witnessed the disaster, said:
“My guess is that the heavy, seas forced the Brooklyn to shallow water and that either her rudder or propeller was scraped off.”….

“Searchers were impeded by the darkness, the heavy fog and the heavy sea running before a southeast gale. Veteran coast guardsmen, familiar with the bar, doubted whether any men could survive, although every effort was being made to find any who might have clung to wreckage.

“The bar, said by the coast guard to be the worst on the Pacific ocean, has been the scene of disaster for many small vessels. It is almost impossible for rescue craft to get to it….

“The Brooklyn was only partially loaded with lumber, according to her owners. It was not equipped with radio. Twenty years ago it was in regular passenger service between Eureka and San Francisco.

“The cutter Saranac, ordinarily stationed at the Humboldt bay coast guard station, was at the scene of the wreck of the Richfield tanker Tamiahua. 50 miles south of here, and was not available to aid in the search last night.

Brooklyn Leaves in Rough Weather.

“Mariners were at a loss to account for the disaster. The heavy seas rolling over the bar, or a sudden tearing loose of the steering apparatus, might have caused the vessel to turn over, they said.

“Soon after the mountainous rolls of water struck the schooner, she blew a long, continuous blast of her whistle, then sank in less than five minutes.

“Though little hope was held for any of her crew, coast guard boats and several Humboldt bay fishing craft put out immediately in a search for any survivors who might have been able to escape the sinking vessel and cling to bits of lumber or spars. Neither survivors nor bodies had been found at a late hour last night….

“The vessel, with net tonnage of 216 tons, was built in Aberdeen, Wash., in 1901.” (Oakland Tribune, CA. “18 Lives Lost as Cost Ship Turns Over.” Nov 9, 1930, p. 1.)

Nov 12: “By United Press. Eureka, Nov. 12. – A youthful stowaway, working his passage from Eureka to San Francisco, was aboard the schooner Brooklyn when it foundered off Humboldt Bar, it was disclosed today by Jorgen Greve, rescued mate of the ill-fated craft. Greve’s disclosure was the first intimation that there were more than the ship’s crew of 18 aboard at the time of the disaster.

“This revelation, added to the miraculous rescue of Greve, started a new search off the Northern Coast for other possible survivors, who as in Greve’s case, might be clinging to floating bits of wreckage, too exhausted to make their way ashore. ‘I don’t know the chap’s name,’ Greve told Major Charles Falk, public health doctor who was attending him at St. Joseph’s Hospital here, where he was taken late Tuesday after the fishing trawler Three Sisters picked him out of the sea five miles outside Humboldt Bay.

“It was learned today that after his rescue Greve had another brush with death. The ambulance speeding him to the hospital crashed into another machine and was wrecked. Greve, however, was not hurt, and was carried five blocks to the hospital on a stretcher.

“Greve also disclosed that the wreckage to which he clung for 70 hours in gale-lashed waters had floated 20 miles up the coast to a point just outside the old Trinidad whaling station, and then floated 20 miles back again to the point where he was rescued more dead than alive. ‘If the airplanes searching for me had gone a little way outside the bar, instead of just along the surf they would have found me,’ Greve told Major Falk.

“Greve said that if it had not been for a half ebb tide that carried his bit of wreckage out to sea he would have been pounded to death in the big breakers that were rolling outside Humboldt Bar when the Brooklyn went under late Saturday.

“Coast Guard Cutters, fishing boats and other craft, mostly from Eureka and the Humboldt Bay District, engaged in the new search, spurred by a last despairing hope of finding at least some of the 18 missing men – including the youthful stowaway. Searchers announced they would ‘keep at it’ until the very last hope fades.

“Greve himself was doubtful that any of the missing ones would be found alive. ‘They’re liable to become crazed like I was and swallow sea water,’ he said. ‘Instinct, however, kept me from touching the water, and that saved me. ‘I had given up hope of rescue when the boat arrived,’ he said weakly. ‘I must have lost consciousness a score of times. It was hardest Sunday morning when I drifted so close to shore and still had the strength to yell. I cried so loudly – but no one heard. Then the current took me further out, and I gave myself up for lost.’ He was unable to explain how he had managed to cling for so many hours to the broken bit of bulkhead that he had bumped into shortly after the Brooklyn went down.

“Hope that Greve could explain the cause of the disaster waned today when United States steamship inspectors questioned him. ‘I don’t know what happened,’ he said. ‘The old ship just went down. Waves hit it – one after another and of terrific size – and must have done more damage than we thought.’….” (Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA. “Mate’s Rescue Renews Hunt for Lost Crew.” 11-12-1930, p. 1.)

Sources

Bakersfield Californian. “Seek Bodies of 18 Seamen Lost on Ship Near Eureka. Lumber Schooner Turns on Side; Sinks With Entire Crew.” 11-10-1930, p. 2. Accessed 2-22-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/bakersfield-californian-nov-10-1930-p-2/

Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA. “Mate’s Rescue Renews Hunt for Lost Crew.” 11-12-1930, p. 1. Accessed 2-22-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/berkeley-daily-gazette-nov-12-1930-p-1/

Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. Boston: Mariners Press Inc., 1972.

Humboldt Times, Eureka, CA. “Historic Ship Disasters of California Coast Recalled,” 1954. Accessed at: http://www.humboldt1.com/~bbn/llarson/larson_notebook_text_1.txt

Oakland Tribune, CA. “18 Lives Lost as Cost Ship Turns Over.” Nov 9, 1930, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=32175645

United States Steamboat-Inspection Service. Annual Report of the Supervising Inspector General, Steamboat-Inspection Service to the Secretary of Commerce for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1931. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1933. Accessed 2-22-2022 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000071882956&view=1up&seq=3