michelle merritt

On the afternoon of their departure from Seattle, May 19th, 1898, the dock at the foot of Columbia Street was crowded with friends and family of the many well-known passengers. One gold-prospecting team, headed by Major Edward S. Ingraham, had the financial backing of Prince Luigi of Italy. The Major’s team included Clayton Packard, the mining expert and former owner of the Snohomish Eye; Jack Lindsay, University of Washington football team captain; Victor and Conrad Schmid, two of Jack’s teammates; and twelve other well-known citizens. Packing the latest in photographic equipment, six friends of Prince Luigi, all from the Biella region of Italy, joined the expedition. James Blackwell, the highly respected architect and civil engineer, brought his own group of men. The only non-prospectors among the passengers were Vene Gambell, his wife and baby daughter, missionaries returning to their home on St. Lawrence Island.

Three days after the schooner Jane Gray left for the Kotzebue Sound region of the Alaska Territory, the vessel went down in a moderate gale – hardly a storm that should sink a “staunch and seaworthy” whaler in a “hatful of wind.” Only twenty-seven of the sixty-four on board survived.

In the aftermath of the wreck, the entire community was shocked and grief-stricken. Some of the survivors mounted a search for the missing, while others sought restitution from the powerful MacDougall and Southwick outfitting firm. Ownership of the vessel came into question and a nasty, protracted legal battle ensued, revealing fraud, deceit and corruption at every turn. Rumors and speculation as to the cause of the disaster consumed conversations around the world. She’d been wrecked before. Was she a “hoo-doo,” cursed with sailor’s superstition? Or were MacDougall and Southwick at fault?