Celia

The steam schooner Celia, en route from Santa Cruz to Monterey with a cargo of lumber, experienced foggy weather causing the vessel to become stranded off Point Pinos. The crew immediately took to the boats, ultimately landing in Monterey. No lives were lost. Salvage was sold to the highest bidder. The captain was later found guilty of negligence and incompetence, and his master’s license was suspended.

Ship Stats:

Vessel Type: Steam Schooner
Casualty Location: Point Joe, Del Monte Forest, Monterey County, California, USA
Location Status: Located (see Important Note)
Casualty Date: 1906 (Aug 28)
Owner: Swayne & Hoyt
Home Port: San Francisco, California, USA
Length: 118 feet Beam: 29 feet
Gross Tonnage: 173 Cargo: Lumber
Builder: Matthew Turner
Launched: 1884 (Benicia, California, USA)
Official Number: 126224

Nature of Casualty:

Click each newspaper clipping image to view the full transcription text.

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  Transcription: LUMBER SCHOONER GOES ON ROCKS.
  
  MONTEREY, Aug. 29.— The steam schooner "Celia," with a cargo of 160,000 feet of lumber, went on the rocks two miles south of Point Joe last night at 11 o'clock. The cargo was for the Roderick Lumber Company of this city and was going to the Albion Lumber Company.
  
  Captain Newman made a mistake in the fog and thought he was entering Monterey harbor when on a course toward the rocks. On the boats as passengers from Santa Cruz were S. A. Bishop and Mrs. Bishop and their three children. Bishop is superintendent of the Albion Lumber Company and re-sides at 2748 Mission street, San Francisco.
  
  When the boat struck Captain Newman and ten men went in one boat and the first mate and the Bishops in the second. Captain Newman and his boat reached Monterey about 4 o'clock this morning. The second boat was separated from it and for a while it was feared it would be lost. It reached Monterey about 7 o'clock.
  
  The Celia will be a complete wreck. Large numbers were attracted to the scene of the wreck, which is about six miles from Monterey.
  
  The Celia was one of the first three steam schooners to be built on this coast and was the last survivor of the trio. The Laguna and West Coast, the other two, also ended their careers on the rocks of the shore line they skirted so long. The Celia was built in 1884 at Benicia and was of 115 net tons register.

  Source: The San Francisco Call (San Francisco, CA), 30 August 1906, p. 5, col. 4.
  Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

Additional Information: Wreck Event

Click each newspaper clipping image to view the full transcription text.

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  Transcription: Steamer Wrecked Near Monterey PACIFIC GROVE, Aug. 29. -- The steam schooner Celia, with a cargo of 160,000 feet of lumber, was wrecked on the coast near here at 11 o'clock last night. All on board were saved with the exception of eight people, who are in a boat which is still missing. The Celia is owned by Swayne & White of San Francisco, and was bound from Albion, Mendocino Co., to Southern California ports. PACIFIC GROVE, Aug. 29. -- Only a few hundred yards from where the Pacific Coast Steamship Co.'s steamship St. Paul lies wrecked in Monterey bay, a second disaster occurred last night. Thick mists obscured the rocks lying off Point Joe, two miles from Point Pinos lighthouse, and the steam schooner Celia, making from Santa Cruz, where she had left part of her cargo of 160,000 feet of lumber, for the port of Monterey, ran on the jagged shore line. The first tidings were received in Monterey from Captain Newman who with ten men arrived at the Monterey wharf soon after 4 o'clock this morning. The fate of the schooner's second boat, in charge of First Mate Anderson and containing Superintendent Bishop of the Albion Lumber Co., his wife and three children and the other members of the crew was for some time in doubt, the boats having become separated in a heavy mist. Fears were entertained that the boat might be lost in the fog, but fortunately the ocean was comparatively calm and some time later the boat duly made Monterey, with all hands safe. The vessel is already a wreck and the flotsam is being looked after by launches from Monterey, which are endeavoring to collect what is possible of the schooner’s cargo.

  Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel (Santa Cruz, CA), 30 August 1906, p. 1, col. 3.
  Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

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  Transcription: GOES ASHORE AT POINT PINOS
  
  STEAM SCHOONER CELIA IS WRECKED ON THE ROCKS NEAR LIGHTHOUSE.
  
  MONTEREY. - The steam schooner Celia lies a wreck on the rocks two miles beyond Point Pinos, having gone ashore during a fog about eleven o'clock Tuesday night.
  
  A boat containing Superintendent Bishop of the Albion Dunbar Company, Mrs. Bishop and their three children, First Mate Anderson, Harry Bingham, Sailor Knutson has reached Monterey.
  
  When the schooner struck Captain Newman ordered the boats manned and some baggage and provisions placed in them. Captain Newman and ten men got in one boat, and succeeded in landing safely. The other boat was in charge of the first mate. The boats became separated in the fog, and the second boat was not seen again.
  
  The Celia was from Santa Cruz bound to Monterey. She carried a cargo of 160,000 feet of lumber cons'gned to the Johnson Lumber Co. The Celia will be a total wreck.
  
  The wreck was the sole attraction on the Monterey Peninsula Wednesday.
  
  No lives were lost. The cargo of lumber will be saved, but the owners will have to pay a heavy salvage.
  
  The salvage of the ship attracted a large number, and with the sunrise there was a number of men engaged in dismantling the ship.
  
  How the wreck came to happen is not known, except that in the fog Captain Newman lost his way, and when he ran on the rocks believed that he was entering Monterey bay. The first intimation he had that he was wrong was when the ship grounded.
  
  How he came to pass on the wrong side of the bell buoy at the entrance of the harbor and make such a blunder is one of the mistakes that overtake ships and go unexplained. The rocks evidently tore a ragged hole in the bottom of the boat, for she held fast to the rocks and did not rebound from the shock.
  
  The captain and crew had plenty of time to leave the ship. As soon as the lumber is removed from her hold the ship will quickly pound to pieces. There is absolutely no show of saving the ship.
  
  Mrs. Bishop's Experience.
  
  Mrs. Bishop, who with her three children and husband was a passenger on the Celia, was spending last week in Santa Cruz, and wanting to see Monterey concluded to make the trip on the steamer.
  
  Yesterday she said: "I was asleep in my stateroom at the time that the steamer struck. I was awakened by the bell to back, and thought we had reached Monterey. The next moment came the crash. My husband rushed to the stateroom and we dressed as quickly as possible. The grind of the ship on the rock was something terrible. Yes, I was frightened, but the I coolness of the crew allayed my fears.
  
  "The sailors were awful good to me. They took all my grips and bundles and put them in the boat. We did not lose any of our clothing. Our clothes got a little wet, but that was all. The children were not very frightened.
  
  "Our greatest danger was from a school of whales which we ran into after leaving the boat, and which teemed to hang around us as we lay near the bell buoy. It was a pretty sight, the disporting of these leviathans of the deep, but we were afraid that in their play they would bump against the boat and upset it.
  
  "With daylight they disappeared, and we came into the city. My experience was thrilling. Just to think we went through the fire and earthquake in San Francisco to meet with a shipwreck. Our home at 174S Mission St. in San Francisco was not wrecked by the earthquake and we escaped the fire."
  
  Mrs. Bishop was accompanied by her daughter Volma E., aged 5 years, and her son, Sherman R., aged 3 years, and Bonita, about 2 years of age.

  Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel (Santa Cruz, CA), 31 August 1906, p. 2, col. 3.
  Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

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  Transcription: MONTEREY.
  State News
  MONTEREY Sept. 27
  
  A decision in the wrecking of the steam schooner has been made by Captain John Birmingham supervising inspector of hulls and boilers in which he finds from testimony given that the captain Henry Wyman is guilty of negligence and incompetence and orders that his master‘s license be suspended for a period of five months.
  
  Captain Nyman took soundings too late for had he dropped his lead 20 minutes earlier he would have discovered the danger.
  
  The Celia was wrecked off Point Pinos near Monterey, on the morning of August 28 and very good returns from the wreckage were made. The salvage was sold by Sheriff Nesbitt to the highest bidder, and the parties who secured it received one-half of the proceeds of the sale.

  Source: San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, CA), 28 September 1906, p. 12, col. 5-6.
  Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

Referenced and Additional Resources

Lloyd’s Register of Shipping. 1905. Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping 1905-1906, Volume 1. London, England.

Reinstedt, R.A. 1975. Shipwrecks and Sea Monsters of California’s Central Coast. Ghost Town Publications, Carmel, CA. 168pp.