SS Valencia was an iron-hulled passenger steamer built for the Red D Line for service between Venezuela and New York City.

[2] Valencia was wrecked off Cape Beale, which is near Clo-oose, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on 22 January 1906.

[9] As her sinking killed 100 people (including all of the women and children aboard), some classify the wreck of Valencia as the worst maritime disaster in the "Graveyard of the Pacific", a famously treacherous area off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.

[7] In 1888, Caracas was sold to Thomas Egenton Hogg of the Oregon Pacific Railroad Company and renamed Yaquina Bay.

Despite not being able to see the cruiser's flag, Valencia's captain was able to identify Reina Mercedes, as both ships were together in Santiago de Cuba only days before.

A Spanish official claimed Reina Mercedes had every right to fire upon Valencia for not displaying her American flag, which violated maritime courtesy.

[14] In 1898, Valencia was sold to the Pacific Steam Whaling Company, which brought her around Cape Horn to the United States West Coast.

[2] After returning to civil service, Valencia did not adapt well to her new surroundings, and was not a well-liked ship among Pacific Coast passengers.

In the same event, the Valencia was discovered to have been carrying more passengers than her permits allowed, causing her owners to be fined $9,000 (equivalent to $330,000 in 2023).

After Valencia jettisoned an estimated 75 tons of cargo, the tug Meteor helped her free herself, and she resumed her voyage southward.

The weather in San Francisco was clear, and Valencia set off on 20 January at 11:20 a.m. with nine officers, 56 crew members and at least 108 passengers aboard.

Unable to make celestial observations, the ship's crew was forced to rely on dead reckoning to determine their position.

Out of sight of land, and with strong winds and currents, Valencia missed the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Shortly before midnight on 22 January, she struck a reef 11 miles (18 km) off Cape Beale on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.

The scene at the wreck was horrific, as one of the few survivors, Chief Freight Clerk Frank Lehn recounted: Screams of women and children mingled in an awful chorus with the shrieking of the wind, the dash of rain, and the roar of the breakers.

It was a pitiful sight to see frail women, wearing only night dresses, with bare feet on the freezing ratlines, trying to shield children in their arms from the icy wind and rain.

[18] This last group of survivors was "well-nigh crazed" by their last sight of the remaining passengers stranded on the ship: the brave faces looking at them over the broken rail of a wreck and of the echo of that great hymn sung by the women who, looking death smilingly in the face, were able in the fog and mist and flying spray to remember: Nearer, My God, to Thee.

Another steamship, City of Topeka, was later sent from Seattle with a doctor, nurses, medical supplies, members of the press, and a group of experienced seamen.

On the morning of 24 January, Queen arrived at the site of the wreck, but was unable to approach due to the severity of the weather and lack of depth charts.

Topeka cruised the waters off the coast for several hours searching for survivors, and eventually came upon one of the life rafts carrying 18 men.

[18] When the overland party arrived at the cliffs above the site of the wreck, they could see dozens of passengers clinging to the rigging and the few unsubmerged parts of Valencia's hull.

The remaining passengers drowned, were beaten to death against the rocks, or clung to wreckage as they were swept to sea, dying of hypothermia.

[18] The loss of life was attributed to a series of unfortunate coincidences, aggravated by a lack of lifesaving infrastructure along Vancouver Island's coast.

The federal report called for the construction of a lighthouse between Cape Beale and Carmanah Point, and the creation of a coastal lifesaving trail with regularly spaced shelters for shipwrecked sailors.

Six months after the sinking, a local Nuu-chah-nulth fisherman, Clanewah Tom, and his wife reported seeing a lifeboat with eight skeletons in a nearby sea cave at the shoreline of Pachena Bay.

Some observers onboard claimed they could make out the shape of Valencia within the black exhaust emanating from City of Topeka's funnel.

[10] The sailors observed waves washing over the phantom steamer as human figures held on to the ship's rigging for dear life.