AH-WR-0140

Ancon

Passenger And Freight Steamship · United States · Lost 1889 · The Inside Passage & Alaska

An 1889 grounding near a Southeast Alaska cannery town became one of the era's most famous shipwreck images, with painter Albert Bierstadt aboard.

Become Captain of Record See Shipwreck on Map

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Historically Reconstructed. Drawn from partial documentation of this vessel together with her known class and configuration. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Ancon was a wooden sidewheel steamer that ran passengers, mail, and cargo along the Alaska coast for the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. On August 29, 1889, leaving the cannery dock at Loring, a crew error let her drift onto a reef in Naha Bay. The falling tide and her heavy cargo of canned salmon broke her back, and she became a total loss. All roughly 200 aboard, including landscape painter Albert Bierstadt, reached shore safely.

Vessel

Built: 1867
Registry: Official Number 1522
Builder: Not established
Yard: Hunters Point, San Francisco, California
Material: Wood
Length: 226 ft
Beam: 49 ft
Tonnage: 1541
Propulsion: Steam, side paddle wheels
Owners: Pacific Coast Steamship Company

Loss

Date: August 29, 1889
Cause: Grounding
Location: Naha Bay, near Loring, Revillagigedo Island, Alaska
Water: Revillagigedo Channel
Voyage: Loring, Alaska → Port Townsend, Washington
Cargo: Approximately 14,000 cases of canned salmon
Aboard: 200
Lives lost: 0
Master: H. H. Lloyd

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Broke apart on the rocks; boiler remains reportedly still visible at low tide.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: 55.60° N 131.65° W
Accuracy: Approximate position
Nearest: Loring, Alaska
Region: The Inside Passage & Alaska

Ancon struck a reef only a couple hundred yards from shore while backing out from the cannery wharf at Loring in Naha Bay, Revillagigedo Island; coordinate is for Loring/Naha Bay, the documented loss location, not a surveyed wreck position.