Ellery Wilbour Eddy

Ellery Wilbour Eddy, the son of Joseph Wilbour and Anna Maria Robbins Eddy, was born on 9 August 1832, in Newport, Rhode Island.

On 28 July 1865, Ellery and approximately 250 other passengers boarded the steamboat Brother Jonathan in San Francisco, California with $200,000 to pay the soldiers at Fort Vancouver, Washington and other posts in the Northwest. As the steamboat passed through the Golden Gate and turned north into a strong headwind and heavy seas. Around 2 a.m. the next morning, the Brother Jonathan pulled into the harbor at Crescent city, California to offload a little cargo. By 9:30 a.m. the Brother Jonathan was back underway. With the storm building, the Captain headed more west than north, to get safely around the strung-out rocks of St. George’s Reef. But the speed was down and the storm was building, and it took two hours to make about 14 miles northwest of port. By then the Captain noted that the vessel was hardly keeping her own, and decided to run back to Crescent City to wait out the storm. At noon the Captain took a sun sight, and plotted his position "four miles north of the latitude of Point St. George." The ship was brought to a more easterly heading, which steadied her a bit, and headed closer to shore. The ship came up to Seal Rock, where it was relatively clear, and the Captain ordered a course "Southeast by South," to head for the Crescent City breakwater. The charts then used showed no obstructions between his ship and safety. The Captain ordered a mate forward to ready the anchors for use.

As the mate worked on the anchor, he suddenly saw something beneath the water and yelled back to the wheelhouse, but it was too late for the Brother Jonathan. The waves lifted her and dropped her on a pinnacle of rock rising 250 feet from the ocean bottom. The rocks penetrated her hull between the bow and the foremast, then the next great wave carried her further, tearing her bottom out all the way to the bridge. The great weight of the ore crusher dropped through what was left of the bottom of the ship through the hull weakened by her previous collision. The force of the wind and sea twisted the Brother Jonathan around until the bow pointed directly at the shore, some four miles away. Five minutes after she hit the rock, the Captain knew there was no hope of saving the ship, and ordered crew and passengers aft to "try and save themselves."

The Brother Jonathan carried four iron lifeboats and two wooden surfboats, with a capacity of 250 people, but getting them off was more than the crew could handle. The first lowered boat capsized immediately and drifted under the stern of the dying ship. The second boat, full of ladies, was being lowered just astern of the paddle wheels on the starboard side, when a giant wave hit the ship and smashed the lifeboat into the ship. The first officer managed to get the passengers back aboard the Jonathan just before the lifeboat was totally smashed to pieces against the hull.

Fifteen minutes had gone by since the ship hit the rock, and she was breaking up fast. The Third Mate decided to have a go with one of the surfboats. He gathered up five women, three children and 10 crewmen and herded them into the boat. He began lowering the boat and the ship again careened over hitting the little boat. The Third Mate managed to get the damaged boat away with difficulty and the lucky survivors turned to see the Brother Jonathan go down by the bow and slip beneath the waves. Three desperate hours later the little boat pulled into Crescent City harbor. Four boats tried to leave the harbor to go out to the wreck site for rescue, but all of them had to turn back just outside of the breakwater, the storm being too much for them. It was two days before anyone could reach the site and there was nothing but scattered wreckage when they got there. Of the 244 people on board, only the 19 in the Third Mate’s boat survived. For several weeks bodies and wreckage came ashore from Cape Sebastion, Oregon to Trinidad Head, California, but most of the dead were never recovered. Among the dead was Ellery.

His brothers Asher and John and sisters Abby Lewin and Sarah survive Ellery. His parents and sister Anna preceded him in death.

Major Ellery Wilbour Eddy, Paymaster United States Army, body was never recovered; a memorial was placed at San Francisco National Cemetery on 2 December 1896.

2. The Brother Jonathan Shipwreck Exhibit (http://shipwrecks.slc.ca.gov/Brother_Jonathan/Ships_History.htm).