AH-WR-0658

Onward Ho

Halibut Fishing Boat · United States · Lost 1916 · The Inside Passage & Alaska

A halibut fishing boat that sank with all 34 aboard off Cape Fairweather in January 1916, one of Alaska's worst fishing-fleet losses.

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Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents.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

Interpretive Reconstruction, drawn to convey the vessel's era, type and general form. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

The halibut boat Onward Ho sank off Cape Fairweather in the Gulf of Alaska on January 18, 1916, with the loss of all 34 people aboard. She is listed among Alaska's worst all-time shipping losses by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, but no detailed wreck report or cause of loss appears to have survived. The disaster remains one of the deadliest recorded losses of an Alaska fishing vessel.

Vessel

Built: Not established
Builder: Not established
Yard: Not established
Material: Wood
Length: Not established
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Steam or gas screw
Owners: Not established

Loss

Date: January 18, 1916
Cause: Not established
Location: Off Cape Fairweather, Gulf of Alaska
Water: Gulf of Alaska
Voyage: Not established
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: 34
Lives lost: 34
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Not established
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: 58.79° N 137.95° W
Accuracy: Reported, unconfirmed
Nearest: Cape Fairweather, Alaska
Region: The Inside Passage & Alaska

The steam halibut trawler was last sighted heavily iced and struggling in a gale off Cape Fairweather and was never seen again; accounts differ on exactly where she foundered (one source estimates over 200 miles west of Triangle Island, BC), so this Cape Fairweather position is an unconfirmed last-known-location estimate, not a surveyed wreck site.