AH-WR-0661

Walter A. Earle

Sealing Schooner · Canada · Lost 1895 · The Inside Passage & Alaska

A Canadian sealing schooner that capsized with all 32 hands off Cape St. Elias in 1895, one of the deadliest losses of the North Pacific sealing fleet.

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Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents.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 Canadian-flagged sealing schooner Walter A. Earle capsized off Cape St. Elias, Alaska, on April 14, 1895, with the loss of all 32 people aboard. She was part of the large fleet of pelagic sealing vessels that worked the fur seal migration routes of the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea in the late nineteenth century. The disaster is recorded in federal and state compilations of Alaska's worst maritime losses, though no detailed wreck report survives.

Vessel

Built: Not established
Builder: Not established
Yard: Not established
Material: Wood
Length: Not established
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Sail
Owners: Not established

Loss

Date: April 14, 1895
Cause: Storm
Location: Off Cape St. Elias, Alaska
Water: Gulf of Alaska
Voyage: Not established
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: 32
Lives lost: 32
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

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

Position

Coordinates: 59.81° N 144.59° W
Accuracy: Approximate position
Nearest: Cape St. Elias, Alaska
Region: The Inside Passage & Alaska

The sealing schooner Walter A. Earle lost her rudder and capsized with all hands off Cape St. Elias during the Great Easter Gale of 1895; coordinate is for Cape St. Elias, the documented loss location (the overturned hull later drifted to Afognak Bay, a separate location).