1874 Typhoon at Hong Kong

A small e-copy (original is much larger)

Just to add some colour, here's a cut-and-paste excerpt from something I wrote for a magazine a while back about the Alaska, above.

The Aberdeen Docks were also devastated, and one ship that was undergoing repair work there – the 4,000-ton Pacific Mail Steam Ship Alaska – was washed ashore and left high and dry. This incredible sight became a popular local attraction, with many people crossing the island to witness several attempts at refloating her. One photographic view of the stranded, 360-foot-long ship was even made into a postcard.

Several newspaper accounts appeared over the next few months describing failed attempts to get the Alaska back into the sea. Then in November one Captain J. P. Roberts offered, for a huge fee, to get the job done within 60 days, using inflatable pontoons. He made good on his promise, and the ship was re-floated on December 22 and finally left Aberdeen on January 9. The captain of the Alaska, Edward van Sice, held an onboard celebratory dinner in Victoria Harbour that night.

Two days later the Alaska headed for San Francisco via Yokohama with a handful of Europeans and more than 800 Chinese passengers. But Captain van Sice continued to be chased by storms. In August 1880 he was in command of a Cuban-registered steamer that ran into a hurricane off the east coast of Florida, a couple of days out from New York. Seven of the ship’s 76 passengers and crew were saved, but van Sice was not among them. It was to have been his last voyage after 35 years at sea.

HF has a copy of the photograph that the engraving was made from on his Facebook page:

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