Lost
Gold of the Ada Hancock
By
Land ~ Sea Discovery Group Staff
In the 1860's Los
Angeles Harbor had but two docks and neither the docks nor the harbor
entrance were large enough to accommodate the deep draft of coastal
steamers. A man named Timms located in the town of San Pedro owned one of
the docks and the other located in the town of Wilmington owned by General
Phineas Banning. The latter was called Banning Dock. Banning had come to
California from Delaware in 1851 and had set himself up in the freight and
passenger business between his dock and Los Angeles. His dream was to
develop San Pedro Harbor into the finest harbor on the west coast. The wreck
of Ada Hancock almost cut his dream short.
Phineas Banning.
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For years the steamers
had to anchor a mile offshore and row their cargo and passengers ashore.
Banning put together a small fleet of ships to alleviate this problem. One
of these ships was the trim 65' Ada Hancock. This 85-ton double prop ship
was once called the Milton Willis but a new coat of paint and its brass
bright and shiny made it a proud member of the Banning Fleet. Ada Hancocks
duties were to transport cargo and passengers out to the anchored steamers.
On April 27, 1863 a coastal steamer named the Senator was anchored off Dead
Man's Island in Wilmington Bay. The steamer was set to leave early that
evening for San Francisco and was awaiting the arrival of its own Captain
Seely who was on shore taking care of last minute details. Captain Seely had
bumped into General Banning on shore and in the course of their conversation
Seely agreed to assist in the transporting of a group of Bannings friends
along with the other passengers to the deck of the Senator for a gala bon
voyage party. Finally all were on board. Included on this last voyage were
Captain Seely, General Banning and his family, many well-wishers for the
party, and a Wells Fargo messenger named William Ritchie.
Steamer Senator would take the transfered
shipment of gold to San Francisco. Drawing by Jerry MacMullen.
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The ships papers,
passengers' valuables, and the Wells Fargo messenger's gold were safely
stored on the Ada Hancock's bridge for the short run out to the anchored
Senator. Clouds hung over the harbor and it is said there was a chill in the
air. The vessels lines were cast off and the ship had started to swing away
from the pier when a late border ran up and demanded to be put on the ship.
Some of the crew tossed out a line and by hand pulled the ship into the pier
so the man could be boarded. Later a Mexican deck hand reported that the man
was Louis Scheslinger, a man he knew well on the docks. The dockhand said
that Scheslinger was very angry. It turns out that Louis Scheslinger was
also a Wells Fargo messenger but not working at the time.
The Ada Hancock then turned away again and chugged its way out towards Dead
Man's Island and the anchored Senator. About a thousand yards out, roughly
half way to its destination the Ada Hancock suddenly blew up to the horror
of all those who awaited her on the decks of the Senator. One of the
passengers who saw the affair said that the ferry had cast off and then gone
back in to pick up a passenger. When finally boarded the ship backed away
from the dock and proceeded towards him. He watched for a short period of
time and then he says he stepped back to let a crewmember pass and while his
eyes were diverted he heard gunshots. When he looked again to the ship it
exploded. Bodies and debris rose into the air as if in slow motion. One of
the boilers had exploded, or was it the barrels of gunpowder that had been
loaded on earlier that day and had not yet been off loaded. In either case
the explosion blasted the deck house, wheel house, and valuables into the
air and whatever didn't go straight up went forward through the crowd on the
deck killing many of them including Captain Seely. General Banning and his
family were thrown off the stern and injured but he lived long enough to
realize a great portion of his dream for San Pedro Harbor.
After the explosion the ship sank right away. Bodies and flotsam were
everywhere. A great wave rocked the Senator moments after the ship exploded.
When the Ada Hancock finally released its last gasp of air a huge bubble
came up from its grave on the bottom of the bay. Twenty-six of the over
fifty passengers were killed and all but two of the survivors were injured.
It is also very unfortunate that around four in the afternoon, an hour
before the explosion, the only communication between the waterfront towns
and Los Angeles was a telegraph wire that was mysteriously cut at midway.
Thus it was more then five hours before news reached Los Angeles. Luckily
upon hearing the explosion, soldiers from nearby Camp Drum and others from
the dock at San Pedro raced out in rowboats to pick up survivors. When they
got there not much but debris remained. They gathered up the remaining
survivors that had not been snatched up by the Senator and headed back to
shore. They were then taken by wagon to Camp Drum where the camps medical
officer attended them. When questioned most of the survivors agreed that
there had been gunfire before the explosion but they could not agree whether
it came from topside or below the decks. Many people also said the smell of
gunpowder was heavy in the air after the explosion. Some said that the
boiler had blown up. Much later a Banning employee said that the boiler was
defective. Although it was a great tragedy, the Senator sailed for San
Francisco that night.
The next day the news reached the Los Angeles office of Wells Fargo where
they were very concerned due to Mr. Ritchies disappearance along with a
$25,000 shipment of gold that was destined for the mint in San Francisco. An
investigation was launched and it was found out that Ritchie was indeed on
that fateful last voyage across the bay. In fact three days later his badly
mangled body washed up on shore. An audit at the bank showed that Ritchie
had indeed picked up the $25,000 shipment but unexpectedly there was an
additional $100,000 worth of gold bullion missing. Wells' Fargo's gold
reserves in Los Angeles had been wiped out! Investigators discovered Ritchie
had met at least twice that day with Louis Scheslinger local loan shark and
messenger for Wells Fargo. Scheslinger had in the days just prior to the
27th started selling off all his properties and loans discounting some as
much as 50%.
On the morning of the 27th he withdrew his account with Wells Fargo in cash.
Later in the day he was seen with Ritchie at a hotel and near the Wells
Fargo office's, but then was not seen again until the deck hand saw him
board the Ada Hancock. His body was never found. It was also noted that
Ritchie had left on his assignment that afternoon from the Wells Fargo
office by stage. The driver recalled there being three metal boxes all
bearing the Wells Fargo seal. Officials say that one box was enough to hold
the $25,000 shipment. In conclusion the folks at Wells Fargo deduced that
Ritchie may have been trying to double-cross his partner Scheslinger in the
bank theft and at the last minute he had been found out. The ensuing gun
shots may have been caused by them battling it out on the decks of the Ada
Hancock and in some way set off the explosion, causing the death of twenty
six. $125,000 in gold went down to the bottom of the bay that day and was
not recovered.
On old maps of the harbor area you can find the old Banning dock and Dead
Man's Island. A mile off shore on a direct line between the two the wreck
sits and waits. Both the dock and the Island are gone now. Dead Man's Island
which at one time was a beacon for ships was dredged away in 1928 in order
to widen the channel. The debris of the island was deposited along the jetty
to Terminal Island. It was dredged to a depth of thirty-five feet. A good
ocean chart or an old salt should put you in the right direction.
SOURCE DOCUMENTATION
1. Thomas Penfield, A
GUIDE TO TREASURE IN CALIFORNIA, True Treasure Publications, 1972.
2. Brad Williams, Choral Pepper, LOST TREASURES OF THE WEST,
Holt-Rinehart-Winston, 1975
3. Duncan Gleason, THE ISLANDS AND PORTS OF CALIFORNIA, The Devin Adair Co.,
1958.
4. Don B. Marshall, CALIFORNIA SHIPWRECKS, Superior Publishing Company, 1978
Source:
e-Adventure |
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THE ADA HANCOCK EXPLOSION
1863, April 27. A terrible
tragedy took place in the harbor at San Pedro. It was the explosion of the
Ada Hancock, a lighter owned by Phineas Banning. Banning himself was on
board but blown clear of the water, landing on a sand bar.19
Among many prominent citizens injured or killed, it took the life of W.T.B.
Sanford, Banning's brother-in-law. He had been the contractor who, with his
partner George Carson, had made the first cut through the high rocks for the
new San Fernando Pass nine years before. At the previous meeting of the
Board of Supervisors, just a month earlier, he had been appointed with
Francis Mellus, one of the commissioners to assess the toll for the new
road. Now he would not see its completion.
Source:
The Santa Clarita Valley History
http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/scvhistory.htm
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April 30. . . .
.The steamer Senator arrived from Los Angeles with the remains of Capt. T.
W. Seeley, and others, killed by the explosion on the Ada Hancock, in the
bay of San Pedro, on the 27th . . . .
Source:
San Francisco History
Events of 1863
http://www.sf50.com/sf/he863.htm
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