This deep hold allowed the ship to transport over 400,000 board feet of lumber at a time, including Pacific Coast fir, pine, redwood, and cedar.

[2] Farallon departed Valdez bound for Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands and way ports with eight passengers, a crew of 30, and a cargo of 30 tons of general merchandise aboard on 2 January 1910.

[4] Caught in a blinding snowstorm with extremely high winds on 5 January, Farallon ran aground on Black Reef in Cook Inlet 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) from shore.

All on board, 38 men, eventually evacuated to the shore of Iliamna Bay, but the extremely high surf and a large amount of ice made landing on the coast dangerous.

He held the responsibility of making monthly mail deliveries to the people of southwestern Alaska living in areas inaccessible by any other means.

[7] Thwaites mainly served aboard SS Dora, a ship that was part of the Northwestern Steamship Company fleet, but also was assigned to other schooners travelling in the Alaskan region and was one of the men on board Farallon when she was wrecked.

While Thwaites had no professional training or schooling in photography, he was able to take advantage of the expanding postcard industry and sell his images for a profit.

They set out on 7 January 1910 from the wreck in a 12-foot (3.7 m) lifeboat to row across the Shelikof Strait, one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the Western Hemisphere.

The following morning, 9 January 1910, the party trekked to the top of the cliff above the beach for protection from the high seas and wind, and there they constructed a makeshift tent and fire.

Albert Bailey and Otto Nelson then led the way to Kaguak on foot while Swanson, Peterson, Bourne, and Weiding followed in a bidarka – a type of skin-covered kayak – because they had lost their ability to walk.

Tahoma then retrieved Bourne from Kaguak and Captain Weiding from Kodiak Island, where he had been forced to stay due to hypothermia.