Star of Bengal
The Star of Bengal was an iron three-masted merchant sailing vessel built in Belfast in 1874 by Harland and Wolff Industries, the shipyard that later constructed the Titanic. Although built towards the decline of the Age of Sail, the Star of Bengal was successfully operated for 24 years by the British trading company J.P. Corry & Co. The ship was mainly used on London-Calcutta trading route, but also made a few voyages to Australian and American ports.
By 1898, following the formative change in the shipping industry, J.P. Corry switched to steam vessels and sold its sailing fleet. On the other hand, merchant shipping along the United States Pacific Coast was experiencing a boom triggered by Klondike and Nome gold rushes which intensified the colonization of the Pacific Northwest, and spiked the demand for both passenger and cargo shipping in the area. As a result, the Star of Bengal was purchased by a San Francisco trading company J.J. Smith & Co. and, along with many other old European vessels, was taken around Cape Horn to the Pacific Ocean. J.J. Smith conducted an overhaul of the ship and re-rigged her from a full-rigged ship to a barque, aiming to decrease costs of her operations.
J.J. Smith operated the Star of Bengal for 7 more years, mainly for grain and coal trade. As the steamships were pushing sailing vessels out of business, the trading company could no longer operated her for profit, and in 1905, the Star of Bengal was sold to Alaska Packers' Association. This company was in business of canning Alaskan salmon, using its sailing ships for a single voyage a year: a spring sail from San Francisco to one of its Alaskan canneries with seasonal workers and supplies, followed by a return trip in early fall with the workers and a load of canned salmon.
On September 20, 1908, in the beginning of her return trip from Fort Wrangell to San Francisco, the Star of Bengal was in tow into the open sea when she encountered a storm. The ship struck the rocks near the shore of Coronation Island and sunk, killing approximately 110 of 138 people aboard. The Star of Bengals captain, Nicholas Wagner, who survived the wreck, publicly blamed the tugboats' captains for the event, but after months of federal investigation, nobody was held responsible. As of 2015, the wreck of the Star of Bengal remains in the top five worst maritime disasters in Alaskan history.
Later, captain Wagner's daughter, Joan Lowell pursued acting and literary careers, which led to the Star of Bengals portrayals in fiction. The Cradle of the Deep, the third best-selling book of 1929, contains an embellished account of the wreck. A melodramatic play Star of Bengal written by Thompson Buchanan and produced by Christopher Morley is set on the ship.
Specifications
The Star of Bengal was built by the shipbuilder Harland and Wolff Industries in Belfast, Ireland in 1873–1874. 1873–1874 were the years when the construction of three-masted iron ships reached its zenith, and during these years, the shipbuilding industry produced a series of fastest ships in this category, the Star of Bengal being one of them.Initially constructed as two-decks three-masted full-rigged ship, in 1898 the Star of Bengal was re-rigged as a barque. Her gross tonnage was 1877, net tonnage 1694, tonnage under deck 1684. She was long, wide and deep, and designed to be operated by a crew of seventeen. The ship could load of deadweight cargo on a draught of.
The Star of Bengal had bar keel. Her poop deck was long, forecastle long. The ship's moulded depth was with freeboard of. She was originally constructed with 3 cemented bulkheads, but after her overhaul in 1898, only one bulkhead remained in service. Overall, the ship's hull required of stiffening.
History of operations
J.P. Corry & Co.
The Star of Bengal was ordered by the shipping company J.P. Corry & Co. founded in Belfast and headquartered in London. At the time of her launch, on January 3, 1874, the Star of Bengal was the largest vessel in gross tonnage in service of J.P. Corry & Co., but in December 1874 she was surpassed by the Star of Russia. These two Stars remained the company's largest sailing vessels. The Star of BengalThe company's sailing vessels operated three main trading routes, linking London with Canada, India, and Australia. The Star of Bengal largely remained on the London-Calcutta route with occasional visits to Melbourne, Bombay, and Valparaíso. The ship's average time for London-Calcutta-London round-trip was 7 month and 24 days, the shortest 7 months and 2 days, and the longest 8 months and 14 days.
John Smyth was the Star of Bengal
In 1885, William Legg became the next Star of Bengal
Upon arrival, Cupples yielded the captain's position to DeGruchy who remained the ship's captain for one voyage. In 1888, William Legg recovered and returned to the Star of Bengal
J.J. Smith & Co.
A San Francisco-based trading company, J.J. Smith & Co. acquired the Star of Bengal in June 1898. At that time, maritime shipping out of United States Pacific ports was undergoing a major change. After the Long Depression, whose effect on the regional shipping peaked in 1896–1897, the demand for Pacific Coast maritime transportation unexpectedly soared. It was driven by the Nome Gold Rush, which intensified the colonization of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and created numerous opportunities for new passenger and trade routes. As the result, many old vessels were purchased to service these routes.J.J. Smith & Co. re-registered the Star of Bengal in United States, and in 1898, the 25-year-old ship has undergone a major overhaul. To make the ship's operations more cost effective, her mizzen-mast was re-rigged from square to fore-and-aft, and the Star of Bengal turned from a full-rigged ship to a barque. She got new decks, but the number of bulkheads in service has decreased from three to one. In 1904, a donkey boiler was installed on the ship which was used to assist the crew with raising sails.
While the Star of Bengal sailed under J.J. Smith & Co., her captain was H. Henderson. The company operated the ship on a variety of trading missions, mainly trading grain and coal. In an incident in March 1899, the ship almost caught fire when her load of coal from Newcastle to San Francisco overheated and became spontaneously combustible. In 1905, the J.J. Smith & Co. could no longer operate the Star of Bengal with profit and sold her to Alaska Packers' Association.
Alaska Packers' Association
was another beneficiary of Alaska exploration and an active consumer of old vessels. Based in San Francisco, the company was engaged in Alaska salmon fishery; it operated salmon canneries across Alaskan coasts and a fleet of ships engaged in transporting packed salmon and fishery workers. Alaska Packers' Association purchased several iron sailing ships that were originally built for J.P. Corry & Co., including the Star of Bengal, and then renamed all of its remaining ships by adding prefix "Star of-" to their names in an attempt to achieve instant name recognition. Alaska Packers' Association became the largest company engaged in Alaskan salmon fisheries and, by 1908, the largest salmon packing concern in the world.Under Alaska Packers' Association, since 1905, the Star of Bengal
At the time, salmon canneries required cheap, unskilled labor, and Alaska Packers' Association primarily hired immigrants of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino descent as seasonal workers. These workers were provided in bulk by Chinese labor contractors, operating out of San Francisco. On the company ships, the "Orientals" were segregated from white workers and crew, in part due to separate habits and diet, in part because they were treated as second-class citizens. During the season, Alaska Packers' Association supplied these workers with housing, fuel, and water, while Chinese labor contractors provided them with food, whiskey, and opium.
Additional wooden structures were added to the Star of Bengal
Wreck
Background
In the season of 1908, the Star of Bengal sailed from San Francisco on April 22, arriving at Fort Wrangell on May 5. She was loaded with supplies for Wrangell cannery, including the fuel for the season, and had 146 people on board, 110 of which were "Oriental" seasonal workers. Because maneuvering a sailing vessel through a maze of small islands and narrow straits is too risky, the last of the voyage, from Warren Island to Fort Wrangell, the Star of Bengal was tugged by the 250-hp Chilkat, an Alaska Packers' AssociationThe return trip began on September 19 with 137 or 138 people on board. This time, the tug Chilkat was unavailable to take the Star of Bengal into the open sea, so on the company's orders, she was towed by two smaller steamboats – the 90-hp Hattie Gage and the 225-hp Kayak, neither of which was large enough to perform the operation individually or even designed for vessel towing. The Kayak
The Hattie Gage was under command of Captain Erwin Ferrar who had 35 years of experience at sea, including 13 seasons in Alaska. The Kayak was under command of Captain Patrick Hamilton who recently obtained his captain license after 10 years of experience at see as mate and boatswain. Together with captain Wagner of the Star of Bengal, the captains decided to proceed with the tow, as the weather was calm. Captain Ferrar was placed in charge of the operation. The small flotilla left Fort Wrangell at 8:20 a.m. making about and planning to reach the open sea at Warren Island in 12 to 18 hours. The vessels passed point Baker at 3:50 p.m., and reached the strait between Coronation Island and Warren Island at 10:00 p.m. By that time, the wind has strengthened, and the visibility was poor due to rain, mist, and darkness. The lookouts on both tugs could no longer see the Star of Bengal which was behind them.
The events of September 20, 1908
The loss of control
By midnight, the flotilla was on its final leg between Warren Island and Coronation Island, and the captains of both tugboats became concerned with the freshening southeast headwind. The vessels were making very little forward progress and getting closer to Coronation Island than expected. In poor visibility, the crews of all three ships relied on lead lines to ascertain their positions with respect to land. As the wind continued to strengthen, by 1:00 a.m. captain Farrar and captain Hamilton, whose tugboats were moving from each other, negotiated a turn, aimed to jibe the Star of Bengal, i.e. to pull her through the wind and change her tack from port to starboard.Meanwhile, the Star of Bengal
At one point, the tugs succeeded turning the Star of Bengal on the starboard tack, but she immediately reverted to the port tack when either due to a sudden change in direction of the wind or due to an error on part of the Star of Bengal
The sinking
With the dawn, the Star of BengalThe second attempt to lower the boat was successful, and manned by four volunteers, the boat reached the shore and broke into pieces on the impact with the rocky beach. All four men survived the crash, and by 9:00 a.m. they managed to secure a rope from the Star of Bengal to a tree. The donkey boiler was used to keep the rope strained. However, as another volunteer was climbing along the rope with the breeches buoy, the ship's anchors finally gave in to the storm. The rope became unstable and unsuitable for evacuation, and the volunteer was slingshot into the air and killed as he landed on the ship's deck. At 9:32 a.m. the ship struck the rocks. During the next 54 minutes, the ship's hull broke in three pieces, and she sank at with just her mizzen topmast visible above water.
Passengers and crew found themselves in water surrounded by the wooden cases of canned salmon and the steel empty fuel drums from the ship's hold. The dangerous mishmash frenzied by the storm was almost impossible to swim through. Depending on the exact number of passengers aboard the Star of Bengal, 110 or 111 people died in the wreck, and 27 people survived. The beach was soon covered by dead bodies, many mutilated by the ship's cargo, and many drowned in the powerful undertow. The 27 survivors included the four volunteers and captain Wagner who was pulled unconscious from the water by the crew members.
The survivors used the leftovers of fuel to make fire and stay warm. They made an extensive search for survivors, buried white corpses, leaving "Oriental" corpses behind covered by ship's sails. The survivors were picked up by the Kayak, which found them the next day. The US government cable ship Burnside arrived at the scene of the wreck later and her crew buried the remaining corpses in a mass grave. With the high number of casualties, as of 2015, the wreck is in top 5 marine disasters in the history of Alaska.
| Passengers, casualties, and survivors | Passengers, casualties, and survivors | Passengers, casualties, and survivors | Passengers, casualties, and survivors | Passengers, casualties, and survivors | Passengers, casualties, and survivors | Passengers, casualties, and survivors |
| Group | By ethnicity | Total aboard | Survived | Died | Chance of survival | Sources and notes |
| Crew | Caucasian | 21 | 15 | 6 | 71% |
|
| Passengers | Caucasian | 11 | 2 | 9 | 18% | |
| Passengers | Chinese | 69 | 2 | 67 | 3% | |
| Passengers | Japanese | 33 | 7 | 26 | 21% | |
| Passengers | Filipino | 4 | 1 | 3 | 25% | |
| Total | 138 | 27 | 111 | 20% |
The investigation
As soon as the survivors reached the shore, captain Wagner publicly accused the tugboats' captains of "criminal cowardice". He alleged that they abandoned the Star of Bengal in a dangerous situation, ignored her distress lights, thus missing the window of opportunity before the storm intensified at 8:00 a.m. when the passengers could have been taken from the Star of Bengal aboard the tugboats. The captain Ferrar denied the existence of such a window, as had there been a period of calm sea, captain Wagner could have evacuated his men ashore. The case came under federal investigation, and two inspectors started hearings in San Francisco on October 3, 1908.The hearing was initially aimed to assess the responsibility of the Star of Bengal
Captains Farrar and Hamilton provided their written testimonies, but the tugs' crews were summoned to San Francisco to testify on October 23. Captain Farrar and captain Hamilton insisted that their actions were justified, as after the Star of Bengal dropped her anchors, they were powerless to assist the large ship and had the responsibility to ensure safety of their vessels and crews. After completing repairs, the Hattie Gage steamed to Fort Wrangell to seek assistance of a larger ship, the Burnside, while the Kayak went searching for the Star of Bengal, eventually locating the survivors. The crews of both tugs supported their captains. The hearing of witnesses ended on October 27, and the inspectors published their findings on January 27, 1909. They exonerated the tugboats' captains, stating that there was not sufficient evidence of criminal cowardice. Moreover, on April 15, the inspectors revoked captain Wagner's license, holding him responsible in the loss of life. Captain Wagner immediately appealed the decision, and it was promptly reversed by the supervising inspector as "unsubstantiated".
The aftermath
The wreck of the Star of Bengal was described as "one of the worst disasters" of the Pacific coast. Due to the high number of casualties, as of 2015, the wreck of the Star of Bengal in top 5 marine disasters in the history of Alaska. Both, the ship and her cargo were declared total loss. The cost of the cargo was estimated at $227,000, bringing the total value of hull and cargo to $330,000, which was the largest maritime loss in Alaska waters at the time. The ship and her cargo was insured at Lloyd's which limited the losses of Alaska Packers' Association. The Association made volunteer donations to the families of the lost of more than $16,000 in total, which was considered generous at the time.After his license was restored, captain Wagner continued to command other sailing vessels. Captains Farrar and Hamilton were tried by the court of public opinion, and as of 2001, their role in the wreck remains uncertain. In later years, divers made numerous attempts to locate the wreckage of the Star of Bengal, but as of 2005, they were unsuccessful. In 2008, a centennial commemoration of the wreck was organized in the Wrangell Museum.
In fiction
''The Cradle of the Deep''
In March 1929, captain Wagner's daughter, Joan Lowell, published a book titled The Cradle of the Deep that purported to be her authentic autobiography. In the book, Lowell spends the first seventeen years of her life aboard her father's schooner, the Minnie A. Caine barefoot and surrounded by the all-male crew. Initially, The Cradle of the Deep received multiple positive reviews from different sources, including The Washington Post, Time, Life, and the Los Angeles Times.The book soon became a bestseller, topping the non-fiction part of The New York Times Best Seller list. Even though it was quickly exposed as a hoax, the subsequent literary scandal and the media frenzy have propelled The Cradle of the Deep into the fiction part of The New York Times Best Seller list, and The Cradle of the Deep finished 1929 as the third best-selling book of the year.
In chapter 11 of The Cradle of the Deep, Lowell gives her account of the Star of Bengal
Inspired by the scandal, humorist Corey Ford published a parody on the Lowell's book that was titled Salt water taffy; or, Twenty thousand leagues away from the sea; the almost incredible autobiography of Capt. Ezra Triplett's seafaring daughter, by June Triplett, which also became a best-seller. In his book, Ford inflates the most grotesque details of The Cradle of the Deep, thus demonstrating the fraudulent nature of the "autobiography". In chapter 6 of Salt Water Taffy that mimics chapter 11 of The Cradle of the Deep, Ford ridicules Lowell's devotion to maritime omens which allegedly preceded Star of Bengal