A Royal Canadian Humane Association Medal For The Rescuing Of The Crew Of The Hera 1899

Blackened bronze, obverse is inscribed "ROYAL CANADIAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION" and surmounted by a crown in the centre, surrounded by an open-ended wreath composed of maple leaves on the left and laurel leaves on the right, the branches tied together at the base junction via a bow-tied ribbon, reverse engraved with the inscription "AWARDED To Thomas Owen for conspicuous daring and heroism in saving the crew of the burning schooner HERA off CLAYOQUET on 27th November 1899.", 47.8 mm, suspended from an ornate suspension with original blue ribbon and pinback hanger inscribed "BRAVERY", suspension clasp fits loose and slides but remains attached to the medal thanks to its raised rim, bruised, edge nicks, near extremely fine. Footnote: The official RCHA Record Book entry under #243 documents the award to Owen, stating: "A medal awarded to Thomas Owen, of Clayoquot, Vancouver Island for conspicuous daring and heroism in saving the crew of the burning schooner, Hera, 5 miles off shore on 27th November 1899." The three-masted schooner Hera was built in 1869 and was an example of the many small-to-medium size trading schooners, typically built in New England, that were common along the west coast of North America during late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It spent its first thirty years sailing between San Francisco, California and Australia, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, and fishing for cod in the Bering Sea. The Hera was not only valued for the significant role it played in the 1898 Gold Rush to the Yukon and Alaska, it also provides an important illustration of the integral role that ships of this type played in trade and transportation between the Pacific Northwest, Vancouver Island, Alaska, and Hawaii in the late nineteenth century. It departed Seattle, Washington for Honolulu, Hawaii on November 18, 1899 loaded with grain, eleven grand pianos, 1,800 barrels of lime, a pre-fabricated school house and 60,000 quart bottles of the Seattle Malting and Brewing Company’s Rainier beer. The Hera caught fire and sank in Tofino Harbour, British Columbia on November 25, 1899. The vessel's lower hull, which is still intact to the turn of the bilge (the point where the ship's walls join the bottom) measures 40.3 meters in length by 8.9 meters in width. The wreck lies on the sea floor in twelve metres of water off the east end of Felice Island, immediately northwest of Tofino, barrels of lime and kegs of bottled Rainier beer surviving at the wreck site as part of the cargo the ship was carrying. The area is often referred to as the "Graveyard of the Pacific," the shipwreck of the Hera indicative of the treacherous conditions that sailors and ships endured as part of transportation and shipping activity in this area. David Griffiths, Executive Director of the Tonquin Foundation, is a diver and a full-time resident of Tofino, British Columbia. In "The Sinking of the Hera", he documents the ship's final voyage and subsequent discovery: "The Hera, departed Seattle for Honolulu on November 18th 1899 with a 700 ton cargo that included grain, animal feed, flour, tin-ware, grand pianos, 1800 barrels of Roche Harbour lime, a knocked-down schoolhouse on deck and 60,000 quart bottles of Seattle Malting and Brewing Company’s “Rainier” beer, packed in 1000 oak-staved barrels. Aboard were Captain J.J. Warren, part-owner Mr. Shirk and his daughter Mabel, as well as fifteen crew members. The Hera sheltered at Clallam Bay for a week as continual storms chewed up the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Finally Warren raised sail and the Hera crept passed Cape Flattery, straight into the teeth of a raging southeaster which began to sweep her towards the unforgiving shore of Vancouver Island. As the gale worsened and Captain and crew fought to wear the ship out to sea, water began seeping between the hull planks of the aging Hera. It soon became apparent that the pumps could not handle the increasing flow and even though the volatile lime had been loaded high in the hold, on top of the other cargo, it got a good soaking. The barrels swelled and burst and the lime began to smoulder. Warren later wrote, “The smell of smoke put the crew into a frenzy; sealing companionways, hatches, vents and caulking open deck seams in an attempt to smother the growing inferno”. With his vessel afire and in a leaking condition Warren ran her before the wind, towards land. For twenty-four hours straight the crew manned the pumps and attempted to contain the fire. Late on the afternoon of November 25th, the Hera dropped anchor off Lennard Island, at the approach to Templar Channel, Clayoquot Sound. The sea was still high and the fire increasing in intensity when Warren had the vessel’s only lifeboat swung out and he, Shirk, Mabel and two crewmen set off to get help from the settlement on Stubbs Island. Before they reached it, a group of local men in the Tofino lifeboat, with Fillip Jacobsen at the tiller, had already set out for the stricken Hera. Abandoned, the Hera drifted with the incoming tide into and around Tofino Harbour. The fire, now consuming decks, masts and rigging, lit up the dark, November night. Mrs. Spain on Stubbs Island wrote: “As I write she is just in front of the house, one of the grandest yet one of the most awful sights I have ever seen. The whole room is lit up with the light from her, and I have only to turn my head to see her. She is one mass of roaring flame, and it is a very black night, the whole harbour is lit up." Finally, as water filled her holds, the Hera slipped to the seafloor off Felice Island and entombed up by the sands of Clayoquot Sound. In December of 1974, seventy-five years after the Hera disappeared from view, a commercial crab fisherman alerted Tofino diver, maritime historian and all-round wreck hound, Rod Palm, to the fact that one of his traps had fouled on the bottom and that when he’d pulled up the trap’s line it was rust-stained. Never one to turn down a lead, Palm immediately headed out to the site and followed the line down. On reaching bottom he found the line tangled around a large ship’s deck knee, protruding about a foot out of the sand. A quick scan of the area revealed more visible deck knees, ship’s rigging, deadeyes, and bottles everywhere. Closer inspection showed that the whole port-side of the vessel, above the waterline, was exposed. A quick check through his files and Palm was able to identify the partially buried hulk as that of the Hera. Given the wreck’s fine state of preservation and the fact that he had dove that area many times before without seeing any evidence of a shipwreck, Palm concluded that the sands of Clayoquot Sound had only recently eased their grip on the old schooner. Palm’s euphoria over the discovery quickly turned to concern for the wreck’s protection. A trip to Victoria and a visit to the Heritage Conservation Branch ensured its legal protection under the old Historic Sites Act, designating the Hera wreck British Columbia’s first protected, underwater heritage site. With permission from the Heritage Conservation Branch to undertake a four day test excavation, Palm returned to Tofino only to find that a group of divers from Port Alberni had salvaged all visible and easily accessible deadeyes which, after realizing they had too many to transport back home, they dumped overboard at the Government Wharf in Tofino. Undaunted, Palm undertook his excavation, which revealed that the fire had indeed ravaged the Hera’s decks, rigging and most of the lime but her hull, cargo and fittings below the lime had escaped the inferno and were in a remarkably good state of preservation. Most of her 1000 barrel cargo of bottled beer remained intact; their intended destination stenciled in black paint on the barrel tops “Lovejoy & Co., Honolulu”. There must have been an awful lot of thirsty Hawaiians, back in the winter of 1899. On August 12 & 13 divers and surface support from the Tonquin Foundation, under a permit from the Provincial Archaeology Branch, removed 30 fouled and abandoned commercial crab traps from the Hera wreck. The site was also marked bow and stern with green wreck marker buoys in the hope that further loss of traps and damage to the site will cease. Under the terms of the Heritage Conservation Act it is an offence to disturb the site or remove any cultural material from it. Please Respect Our Maritime Heritage." Griffiths stated that of the 1,000 barrels containing the quart-bottles of beer, "Some of the bottles still have labels on them." He tried drinking the beer in 2005, exclaiming that "it wasn't very nice at all. You couldn't get close to it. It was pretty skunky." The Hera was designated British Columbia's first protected underwater heritage site and its anchor is now on display at Grice Park in Tofino.