Captain Nicholas Wagner
“Those two captains are criminally cowardly and will have to answer to the authorities and to God for 110 human lives.”
Seattle Post Intelligencer, September 24, 1908
Captain Erwin Farrer
“I told him he was going far without knowing the circumstances our tugs were in, and he said he would see that I was sent to San Quentin.”
Seattle Daily Times October 15, 1908
Wrangell Cannery
This photo shows the Star of Bengal sitting at the dock of the cannery in Wrangell, Alaska. The cannery sat at the north tip of Wrangell Island. Today, the site is location of the Wrangell Airport (WRG). On our blog, you can learn about the site of the Wrangell APA cannery and the salmon streams used by the APA.
July 4, 1908
On Independence Day 1908, Wrangell photographer John E. Worden snapped this photo of the Star of Bengal sitting at the Wrangell APA cannery dock, just 78 days before it shipwrecked. I restore and colorized this photo to bring it back to life.
Sumner Strait to the Sea
At the mouth of Sumner Strait sits Warren Island, east, and Coronation Island, west.
A Massive Gale
The Star of Bengal was not the only ship to experience the incredible storm in the early morning hours of September 20, 1908. In the days and weeks after, other ships reported they’d experienced the tremendous storm. Even the Star of France, out in the middle of the gulf of Alaska, felt the incredible power of the storm.