Dense fog cause mistaken bearings, and vessel was run onto the rocks. Tug Active removed passengers and mail.

Wreck Report

On July 14, 1896, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's liner Colombia ran aground a short distance south of the lighthouse. The five-year-old steamer was making her first run from Panama to San Francisco in what would have been record time. Though thick fog cut visibility to barely 100 feet, Captain William Clark continued at full throttle, hoping for fame. Instead he achieved disgrace. The Captain heard a fog signal which he believed to be Pigeon Point, though it must have bee from Ano Nuevo Island. He then heard a second signal (actually Pigeon Point), but said it sounded as though several miles distant and from out at sea. Believing this was from an approaching ship, he turned his ship slightly eastward to avoid a collision, and it was then that she struck. The Captain reportedly had no idea where he was when he landed. Lighthouse authorities remained baffled as to how the captain could confuse two signals with such markedly different characteristics. The event mostly generated amusement, that is, for everyone except the owners and captain. None of the passengers were hurt, and all remained on board for quite some time, at first believing that the vessel would be pulled free from the rocks. Huge crowds flocked to Pigeon Point to view the doomed steamer. According to one observer, city folks had great fun "rescuing from the breakers the little yellow limes that swam shoreward to be salvaged..." From land, the ship gave the appearance of simply being anchored. Keeper James Marner was on watch when he heard the ship strike. "I thought it was the tender Madrono that had come up in the fog and dropped her anchor," he said." "I hollered to the boys, and they ran to put on their good clothes to receive the inspector, but we found our mistake. I could make out the Colombia. She was right up almost on dry land, and my fog horn blowing twice a minute all night." Perry The town of Pescadero went through a sudden transformation as buildings received a new coat of white lead paint. Reinstedt

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