Community Program: Sinking of the Clallam

The Woodinville Heritage Society would like to invite you, your family and friends, to our next FREE Community Program, “Sinking of the Clallam.” This event takes place on Saturday, October 19th, 10:00am to 11:30am at the Brightwater Education Center, 22505 State Route 9 (Woodinville-Snohomish Rd), just north of Costco.

In the storm-wracked early hours of January 9, 1904, the steamship Clallam sank in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, claiming the lives of at least 56 people, nearly all of them passengers. The jewel of the Seattle-Victoria run, the ship was not even a year old. While a scandalized British Columbia dubbed her the ‘Coffin Ship’, the Clallam was not an anomaly in the North American steamship trade. The wreck’s aftermath exposed an environment that would alarm both sides of the border.

Erik Kosick, History B.A., Pacific Lutheran University, has researched the tragedy for over a decade, and will take you through Clallam’s short life and her final voyage. Through rarely seen photographs, artifacts and accounts of Clallam’s passengers and crew, you will see how this nearly forgotten shipwreck created a watershed moment in the Pacific Northwest’s maritime industry.