Graveyard of the Pacific

Lighthouse Over Water

Genesis of a Graveyard

Sunken clues


How did the Graveyard of the Pacific get its name?

This 65-kilometre stretch of coast off Vancouver Island proved highly treacherous to ships from the time Spanish explorers sailed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the 1770s. The wicked winds and waves have sent over 60 ships and passengers to their watery graves since 1803.

Location of Wrecks
Map of the shipwrecks along the Graveyard of the Pacific. Map courtesy of Canadian Geographic (2002)
The death toll of the many shipwrecks made the "Graveyard" nickname stick. Part of the reason this stretch of coastline claimed so many lives, in comparison to other parts of B.C., is because it is so well-travelled. This stretch of water, leading into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, is the entranceway from the Pacific Ocean to Vancouver and Puget Sound ports. As an increasing number of ships sailed the waters around Cape Flattery in search of fortune on the wild West Coast, more ships ended up stranded on the rocks, or sinking to the ocean floor.


Clues pummelled by fierce ocean


Today, very little remains of the shipwrecks in this "graveyard." The sea quickly consumed the humans and their skeletons. The force of the underwater wave action has pummelled the ships into flattened slabs of sheet metal. Anything wooden broke apart and floated away. Eventually, even the metal, except for the large pieces like engines and boilers, will corrode and disappear too.

Diving the Vanlene Wreck
Diving the Vanlene wreck by Jacques Marc
"There is virtually nothing left that resembles a 'ship'. We try to catalogue what's left in the Graveyard but it's really just bits and pieces of ships, things like the engine and boilers and maybe a propeller," says Jacques Marc, president of the Underwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia. "The only two shipwrecks that still look like ships near the Graveyard are the HMCS Thiepval that sunk in 1930 and the freighter Vanlene that went down in 1972 carrying a cargo of Dodge Colt cars. Both survive only because they are in the more protected nearby waters of Barkley Sound." 

According to Mr. Marc, the stern section of the Vanlene is on its side but remains recognizable, with a couple of Dodge colt cars still rusting away in the stern hold.


A wily current: the Graveyard's curious secret


Although shipwrecks occurred up and down the west coast of North America, few places have the concentration found in the Graveyard of the Pacific, says Mr. Marc. There are some obvious reasons: high seas and stormy weather on a dark, rugged coastline. But there is also a northerly current off the coast which increases the speed at which a ship will travel. In the days before radar, ships would rely on speed and time to determine their position.

Because the deceptive northerly current increased their speed north and consequently the distance travelled, when ships made the turn into Strait of Juan de Fuca they would run into Vancouver Island. That's what happened to the Valencia and other ships. They were deceived by a current and weather.

Today, ship captains are wise to the crafty waters in the Graveyard of the Pacific. Seafarers and geographers also know much more about the entire B.C. coast – solving many underwater mysteries along the way, but never eliminating the dangers of the sea.

How can we stop shipwrecks on the B.C. coast?

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