Eventually 150-foot waves crashed through the reefs around the town, killing 12 people and causing US$15 million worth of damage. Its best witnesses were the Battery Point lighthouse keepers, trapped and unharmed, unable to do anything except provide detailed and reliable descriptions of what they saw as the tragedy unfolded.
The wild western coastline gives Crescent City, named after the shape of its beach, a beauty that we’d almost grown used to driving up this northern stretch of California. But its treacherous reefs and hidden dangers have also given rise to superstitions, legends and tales of ghostly goings-on. Personally, I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. However, the shipwreck of the paddle steamer S.S. Brother Jonathan in 1865 has stayed with me.
We stumbled across the Brother Jonathan Park when we were trying to get a good view of the St George Reef lighthouse. The park is on the edge of town, on the way to the lighthouse, and tells some of the story of the biggest shipwreck this coastline has ever known – only 19 of the 244 passengers and crew survived.
But it was the list of victims that I found so moving; ‘7 ladies of the evening’, un-named, ‘four black seamen’ who saved the 19 survivors, also un-named. Families, children, and much gold went down with the over-laden steamer which made it a magnet for treasure hunters till the wreck was found and the gold was claimed in the 1990s.
From the tragic to the mundane, I went off to an appointment with a local hairdresser.
