Published January 1899:

(click each to enlarge)

This is a photo of the crew, literally taken the day before the accident. No one in this photo survived.

(click to enlarge)

Names of those men lost:
BROWN, J. R.
CROW, E. H., First Mate
D’HOEUERE, Joseph M. A., Apprentice
DALY, James, Boatswain
DOE, E. G.
HANSON, H. H., Able Seamen
HANZE, Richard, Apprentice
JENSEN, Antone, Seamen
JOSSAIM, Verney, Steward
LINDSTROM, Fred
LUTZ, Edward
NIELSON, John
OSTROM, E.
SIMONSON, August
SMITH, Charles, Boatswain
STALING, George W., Captain
WILSON, Pat

A four-masted steel barque built in 1889 by Richard Williamson & Son, Workington.
Rigged with royal sails over single topgallant and double topsails.
The lower and topmasts were made in one piece.

Belonged to the group of six four-masted barques called the Workington Sisters consisting of Eusemere (1890), Pendragon Castle (1891), Vortigern (1891) Caradoc (1892) and Conishead (1892).

Sailing History:

1889 October
Launched at the shipyard of Richard Williamson & Son, Workington, for the Andelana Ship Co. (E.F. & W. Roberts), Liverpool. Assigned the Official British Reg.
Captain J. Gillis was given command of the ship.

1889
Sailed on her maiden journey from Barry to Table Bay in 51 days with a cargo of coal.

1890
Sailed from Table Bay to Calcutta in 54 days in ballast.

1890
Sailed from Calcutta to New York in 112 days with a cargo of jute.

1891
Sailed from New York to Shanghai in 144 days with a cargo of case oil.

1891
Sailed from Shanghai to San Francisco in 32 days in ballast.

1891
Sailed from Hong Kong to San Francisco in 31 days.

1891
Sailed from San Francisco to Queenstown in 107 days with a cargo of grain for Hull.

1892-1894
In command of Captain J. Richards.

1892
Sailed from Hull to New York in 42 days in ballast.

1892 May 10 – August 20
Sailed from New York to Shanghai in 111 days with a cargo of case oil.

1892
Sailed from Shanghai to Kuchinotzi in ballast.

1892
Sailed from Kuchinotzi to San Francisco with a cargo of coal.

1893 February 20
Sailed from San Francisco to Liverpool in 93 days with a general cargo. Was off Brow Head 88 days out but had to put into Holyhead to wait for a sufficient tide to get to Liverpool.

1893
Sailed from Liverpool to New York in 24 days in ballast.

1893/94
Sailed from New York to Hong Kong in 140 days with a cargo of case oil.

1894
Sailed from Hong Kong to Iloilo in 9 days in ballast.

1894
Sailed from Iloilo with a cargo of sugar for Delaware but had to touch at St Helena 120 days out for water and provisions. Arrived at Delaware 44 days later.

1894
Sailed from Delaware to Halifax in 9 days.

1894
Sailed from Halifax to New York in 11 days in ballast.

1895-1899
In command of Captain George W. Stailing late of the same owner’s ship Andrina which had been damaged in a collision with a steam ship.

1895
Sailed from New York to Yokohama in 130 days with a cargo of case oil.

1895/96
Sailed from Hiogo to New York in 185 days.

1896
Sailed from New York to Yokohama in 119 days with a cargo of case oil.

1896 October 1 – October 24
Sailed from Yokohama to San Francisco in 23 days in ballast.

1896/1897
Sailed from San Francisco to Sydney in 45 days in ballast.

1897
Sailed from Sydney to San Francisco in 63 days with a cargo of coal.

1897
Sailed from San Francisco to Queenstown in 116 days with a cargo of grain for Antwerp.

1898
Sailed from Antwerp for New York with a cargo of cement. Received storm damage to the rigging and had to put into Queenstown 30 days out. Subsequently sailed to Liverpool for repairs.

1898
Sailed from Liverpool to New York in 24 days.

1898
Sailed from New York to Shanghai in 133 days with a cargo of case oil. Was dismasted in a typhoon and had to be repaired at Shanghai.

1898 November 21 – January 6
Sailed from Shanghai to Port Angeles, WA, in 47 days in ballast.

1899 January 14
While at anchor in ballast at Tacoma, Puget Sound, WA, the chains to the ballast logs broke at a sudden squall during the night and ship capsized and sank. The master and the crew were all killed when the ship went down.

From the New York Times, 15th January 1899

“17 MEN DROWNED IN PORT”
“British Bark Andelina sinks at Tacoma, Washington.”
“Little Warning to the Crew.”
“Ship careens and goes down, giving the sailors on board no chance to escape.”

TACOMA, Washington, Jan.14.
The British bark Andelina, 2,345 tons, of Nova Scotia, Capt.G.W.Stailing, sank in 22 fathoms of water in front of the St.Paul Mill wharf, and the Captain, the mate, and fifteen of the crew were drowned. The accident occurred during the night.

The vessel came four days ago in ballast from Shanghai. The ballast had been discharged, and the ship was lying at anchor waiting to be towed into the dock. Last night a terrific gale raged out in the bay, the wind blowing thirty-six miles an hour. Two great boom logs were placed beside the Andelina, one on each side. During the gale between 2 and 4 this morning one of the logs went adrift, causing the ship to careen and to capsize with very little warning to the crew. The vessel was entirely without ballast and the hatches were open. All on board were caught like rats in a trap and had no chance of escape. The ship simply careened over, the water flowed in the open hatches, and she sank.

At daylight this morning the ship was missed. Where she had been riding, apparently securely at dusk the night before, there showed but a blank stretch of water. The wreckage which was strewn about the bay told the vessel’s fate. A large number of the crew were discharged yesterday, or the loss of life would have been far more appalling. The ship was to commence taking on a cargo of wheat for Queenstown today, and was to receive further orders. Capt.Stailing lived in Anapolis, N.S., and leaves a widow and three children. He is well known in this port.

The Andelina left New York May 9 last for Shanghai, carrying case oil, and arrived there Oct.19. She reached this port less than a week ago, to load wheat for Eppinger & Co., San Francisco, for export to England. She was built at Workington, North England, in 1889, and was owned by E.F.& W. Roberts of Liverpool, and was rated A1 by Lloyds. Her dimensions were : Length, 330 feet; beam, 42 feet; depth of hold 24 feet 6 inches; tonnage, 2,395 net. ”

On January 14 [1899] a tragic accident had occured in the harbor of Tacoma. In contrast to the freightening uproar attending the Kingston-Glenogle collision, this disaster took place without warning and in almost complete silence.

The four-masted, full rigged British ship Andelana was laying at anchor preparatory to taking on cargo. Her ballast had been removed and she was held upright by logs chained to her hull on either side at the waterline.

During the night Commencement Bay was swept by winds of nearly forty miles an hour and as a gust hit the towering tophamper of the 2,579-ton ship she capsized and sank in 180 fathoms of water, carrying Capt. George W. Stalling and all hands to their death, the only survivor of the Andelana’s crew being an apprentice, Percy B. Buck, who was ill at a Tacoma hospital.

Efforts of four tugs to pull the sunken vessel into shallow water where she could be salavaged failed, and to this day the square-rigger lies at the bottom of Commencement Bay, the tomb of 17 unfortunate seamen. Later a deep-sea diver attempting to locate the wreck was killed when his air pump packing gland failed. In 1935 George Wayne, a diver employed by the Ocean Tug Boat Co. of Tacoma, stumbled upon the remains of the Andelana and brought up pieces of the wreckage.*

*credit: H.W. McCurdy, Marine History of the Pacific Northwest