The passenger steamer Valencia struck rocks on the western coast of Vancouver Island in January 1906. Lifeboat launches failed amid heavy seas, and passengers remained trapped as the ship broke apart close to shore. More than 130 people died in one of the Pacific Northwest's worst maritime disasters.

The wreck generated Pacific coast ballads and poems about cries from the ship, failed rescue and the terrifying nearness of land. Its literary afterlife also contributed to ghost-ship folklore, showing how communal trauma moves from reportage into legend.