Janet Cowan

This four-masted bark was sailing 121 days out from Capetown South Africa (2498 tons) under the command of Captain Thompson bound for Vancouver (Hastings Mill) in ballast for a cargo of lumber. On December 31, 1895 this vessel was wrecked 12 miles west of Carmanah Point near Pachena Point BC Canada. Seven lives were lost. The lifesaving telephone line was out of action and the trail was blocked by several feet of snow. It was not until the second week of January that the 14 survivors of the wreck were picked up by Captain William Grove in the tug Tyee and landed at Port Townsend WA USA. It was later learned that the Janet Cowan had made her landfall off Cape Flattery on the night of December 30, 1895, and entered the Strait before a southwest gale, being preceded by two or three other vessels. When abreast of Clallam Bay this vessel put about and endeavored to beat to sea, but the gale and northerly currents carried the ship, which was in light ballast and high out of the water, toward the Vancouver Island shore where this vessel struck.