On the evening of Thursday, November 4, 1875, the steamship Pacific collided with the clipper ship Orpheus off Cape Flattery in Washington. The Orpheus resumed her journey but the Pacific - old, unsafe, and dangerously overcrowded - broke up in minutes and went down, scattering hundreds of men, women, and children into the sea. Exactly how many died will never be known, but the names we know are enough to make this still the worst maritime disaster in the history of the West Coast. Only two men survived, and their first-hand accounts are here. The passengers included many wealthy and famous...