From collection Jake Gillison Collection
LB2016.15.1578
The steamship S.S. ST. CROIX, somewhere on the Maine coast. Built in Bath in 1895, the 262 foot steamship S.S. ST. CROIX of the Eastern Steamship Lines displaced 2,000 tons. It is unclear if the vessel was named for the St. Croix river which flows between Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick into Passamaquoddy Bay, or St. Croix Island in the mouth of that river, traditional site of the first European settlement in 1604. The steamship S.S. ST. CROIX sank off the coast of Point Duma fourteen miles north of Santa Monica, California. The incident is nearly entirely forgotten now, but the dramatic disaster was headline news in 1909. Readers all over the country were left breathless by colorful accounts of the trials and travails of the 44 crew members and 82 passengers of the ill-fated ship. Everyone, from the captain to a six-month-old baby, was extensively profiled. “I lost the ship, but thank God I did not lose a life,” Captain Fred Warner is reported as saying. The baby, described as the “six months old heroine of the wreck” by the Los Angeles Tribune, offered no comment, but she, and a small white terrier named Sweet who also survived the wreck, each had their fifteen minutes of front-page fame. The story remained a sensation for weeks. "Built 1897" "204C"
