Star of Bengal is a shipwreck near China Cove, a small embayment about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) wide on the southeastern coast of Coronation Island, situated between Chatham and Sumner Straits, 93 miles (150 km) south-southeast of Sitka and 106 miles (171 km) northwest of Ketchikan, Alaska. Coronation Island is approximately 10 miles (16 km) long and situated about 7 miles (11 km) off the southern tip of Kuiu Island. Captain George Vancouver of the Royal Navy named the island on September 22, 1793, to honor the anniversary of King George III‘s coronation. China Cove was named in 1960 by the commander of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer Hodgson to commemorate the 111 lives lost in 1908 on the Star of Bengal.
Star of Bengal was part of the Alaska Packers Association “Star” cannery fleet that carried workers, fuel, and supplies north to Southeast Alaska from San Francisco, and at the end of the fishing season returned south. On September 20, 1908, the ship was loaded with 52,000 cases of canned Alaska salmon, hundreds of empty steel oil drums, and more than 100 passengers for the return voyage south. Star of Bengal had no auxiliary engine and had to be towed to open water in the Gulf of Alaska before her sails could be raised. Assigned to the task were two small steam-powered vessels, Kayak and Hattie Gage, both were owned by the Alaska Packers’ Association.
The flotilla immediately encountered heavy weather at the south end of Sumner Strait, and conditions worsened into a full-blown gale. After one of the tow vessels ran into trouble, the much larger Star of Bengal began dragging both towboats backward toward breakers crashing over the rocky shore of Coronation Island. The towboat captains made the life or death decision to cut loose their towing hawsers, and Star of Bengal was carried helplessly into shallow water and broke apart in the crashing surf. At least 111 men were killed, most of them Chinese cannery workers who were huddled in terror below decks when the ship broke into three sections. In 2025, the shipwreck was found to be scattered across nearly 12 acres of seafloor, but divers were able to retrieve the ship’s bell. Read more here and here. Explore more of China Cove here: