In this article, I take a look at events surrounding the 1907 shipwreck and sinking of the SS Columbia as reported by various newspapers of the time. Stories of the disaster claimed the front pages of West Coast newspapers for several days as details of the event became known. Particular attention is paid to the stories concerning the Otto Lewis family.
This is a follow-up to a previous article, Discovering Family Lost In A Shipwreck. As a recap, Mable (Holman) Lewis was the sister of my great-grandmother, Mayremna O. (Holman) Lockwood. She married Otto S. Lewis and they adopted a boy Ray Carr Lewis and a girl, Florence Carr Lewis. Mable and the two children perished in a shipwreck off the coast of northern California.
News Articles About The SS Columbia
The collision between the SS Columbia and the SS San Pedro occurred shortly after midnight on July 23, 1907. The first accounts of the incident hit the papers the same day. There was much speculation on victims and survivors as rescue stories filtered in.
I have clipped a few articles about the wreck of the Columbia and made them available on Newspapers.com. Since there are several and some are large, I am providing links to the clipped articles rather than including them here.
Notes On Viewing The Clippings
Click on a highlighted link to bring up that clipping for viewing. In most cases, I saved an enlarged clipping when it pertained to the Lewis family.
Several of the clippings will need to be enlarged to read. Simply click anywhere in the clipping, and close the dialog box by clicking the X in the upper right. The buttons on the right can now be used to enlarge the image or make it full screen.
The Show article text (OCR) link below a clipping can be used to pull just the text from the clipping using optical character recognition (OCR).
July 23rd: First Details Hit the Newspapers
The San Francisco Star ran a full page on the shipwreck: Ill-Fated Vessel. This clipping is a full-size newsprint page, so it will need to be enlarged as described above to read it.
An account of the incident appeared in The Los Angeles Times under the headline Los Angeles Victims Number Half A Score. A section of the article on the lower left describes the events leading up to the Lewis family sailing on the Columbia. An enlarged clipping of just that section is titled Four From Pasadena.
The Seattle Star headline read ‘Columbia Victims Now Said To Number Not More Than Fifty-Six’. The topic ran almost two pages, so there are two clippings: SS Columbia Wreck – part 1 is continued on SS Columbia Wreck – part 2. Since it was specifically about Mabel Lewis, I saved a separate clipping of the section titled Wife Of Lumberman From Gold Bar Among Lost.
The family and friends of Otto Lewis in the Los Angeles area were particularly concerned when it looked like all four of the Lewis family might have perished. The Orange County Register described their situation in an article partially titled Family of O. S. Lewis Among Victims.
Sees Family Swept Off Raft Into Sea in the San Francisco Call describes the heroic efforts of Otto Lewis to save his family.
July 24th: More Details Filter In
In an article titled Steamers Collide 100 Lives Lost, The Washington State Journal provided a very thorough description of the shipwreck and background on the history of the steamship. This is probably the best overall description of the shipwreck in any of the newspaper articles.
The Seattle Star ran another half page with the headline List of Wreck Victims May Never Be Complete. It gave personal stories from several of the survivors.
In a strange turn of events, the body thought to be that of Mrs. Lewis turned out not be hers. The story appeared in The San Francisco Call. I saved this clipping as SS Columbia – A Startling Discovery. The larger article from which it came is saved as SS Columbia – The Day After.
July 25th: Official List Of Victims Released
Abandon Hope For More Survivors and Abandon Hope – part_2 in The Seattle Star gave the official list of victims from the shipwreck. It also stated that beach patrols for more victims or survivors would be stopped and an official investigation of the incident would begin.
More Information About The Columbia
Over the last several years, several great articles have appeared describing both the history of the Columbia and it’s sinking. Here are links to several:
SS Columbia – The Lost Ship Who Lit The World
SS Columbia – Wreck Location Map and GPS Coordinates
And lastly, there is a well-done video by Matthew Anderson on YouTube memorializing the tragedy:
SS Columbia (1880-1907): The Lost Light
Summary
In researching the shipwreck, I was able to verify and fill in the details of a family story, as well as learn about a fascinating bit of California history. As a final note, I found that the remains of the sunken Columbia have never been investigated by divers.
Thanks for researching this amazing story and then writing it for us, Mike. Much appreciated.
Best,
Richard Burt
Thanks! Next up: I’ve located a book by Otto Lewis with a first-person account of the incident.
Omg please share!! 4 of my family members died in this wreck. I’d love to see any information you have have!!
Hello Brandy,
Here is a link to a clipping of survivors from the Oakland Tribune:
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28354313/ss_columbia_passengers/
Listed in the center column under Cabin Passengers are four passengers with the last name of Keller, just above my Lewis relatives.
A full-page clipping can be viewed here: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28353803/ss_columbia_collision_at_sea/
If these are indeed your relatives, let me know and I will see what other information I have. If you know where they lived, perhaps there would be an article in their local newspaper.
Many of the newspaper articles about the shipwreck were compiled into the book by Otto Lewis. See my follow-up article titled A Memorial Book By Otto S. Lewis.
The entire book is viewable, and the four Kellers are also listed on there on pages 86 and 91.
Hello Michael,
This is a great article! Thanks for writing and further spreading the information. I am the author of the articles on Shipwreck World and the YouTube video. I am also the original author of the Wikipedia article, which helped to inspire the Black Laser Learning article. If you’d like to email me regarding the ship, please do.
Matthew
Thanks, Matthew!
Researching this topic turned out to be a fascinating endeavor. I hope the third article will provide a lot more information on the shipwreck.
Hi,
I just read the third article and it really helps shed a bit of lit on Columbia’s demise. Otto’s testimony and work to archive large amounts of information on the ship is fantastic. I’ve decided to embark on a personal project which will hopefully end in a book being written, including trying to come to a conclusion as to what caused the disaster beyond the collision. I have found through research it was sadly not uncommon for a wrought iron vessel of Columbia’s time period to fall victim to a wooden ship. Both the Duke of Buccleuch, a British passenger/freight liner owned by the Ducal Line and the Oregon, a transatlantic passenger steamship owned by the Cunard Line, fell victim to disaster at the hands of wooden vessels. I am not sure of the time it took the Duke to sink, but I believe it was a matter of minutes. No one aboard her survived. The Oregon took over an hour to founder. That said, the fact Columbia went down in eight and a half minutes, which shouldn’t have happened that fast on a ship her size, tells me something wasn’t right within the ship’s structural integrity. The cause could be anything from negligence by the steamship company (a similar steamship operator in California was exposed in 1914 to have let vessels similar in age and construction to Columbia deteriorate beyond seaworthiness), to damage caused by an earlier incident with a dry dock during the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake or flawed iron, smelted with too many impurities present at the time of her construction. The earthquake damage being relevant, as the ship rolled onto its side in a dry dock during the earthquake, puncturing and damaging the starboard side. The exact side in which the San Pedro struck.
It was indeed fortunate that Otto documented everything so completely. I think it may have been his way of grieving. I’m glad that he also provided some backstory since I Iearned about this forgotten branch of my family.
I notice that he included a list of West Coast wrecks over the previous five years beginning on page 82. It is almost four pages long. I don’t know if he compiled it or a newspaper did, but it seems that sailing may have been rather hazardous back then. There were probably many other interesting stories, but few so well documented.
This shipwreck turned out to be a very interesting slice of ‘lost’ history. I’m very interested in hearing how your project goes. Thanks again for following up!
Anytime! I will most definitely keep you in the loop with any information I’m allowed to divulge via my contacts. I’d be willing to explain the wider scope of the project to you over private email if you’d like. I believe as a survivor’s descendant, you have every right to know what I’m up to.
Thanks. I sent you my private email address.