In the costliest maritime disaster seen yet on the Pacific Coast, the steamer Brother Jonathan, heading from San Francisco, California to Portland, Oregon, struck a rock near Crescent City and sank in a massive storm. Only one boat got away in the heavy seas and of the 185 passengers and a sizeable crew, only ninteen people survived, eleven men, five women, and three children survived. Several important personages bound for Oregon and up to $2,000,000 in gold went down with the ship. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
William B. Seacrest, California Disasters, 1812-1899: Firsthand Accounts of Fires, Shipwrecks ... (Sanger, CA: Quill Driver Books, 2006), 110-113.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Crime/Disasters