VALDEZ, Julius
VALDEZ, Julius ( - ), master of the schooner Santa Cruz in 1923. He crossed the channel in January during the severe storm in which Frank Nidever and the Eagle, and Big Jerry Shively and Isaac Newton aboard the O.K. were all lost at sea. Captain Valdez believed that Frank Nidever’s boat was run down by a large ocean liner he saw in the channel the day of the January storm.
In the News~
August 12, 1900 [SBMP]: “The junk Acme, Captain Valdez, arrived from the islands yesterday afternoon with 150 head of sheep for Sherman & Ealand.”
June 19, 1908 [SBI]: “Captain Rosaline Vasquez will sail at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning in his powerboat Gussie M for Lower California, where with his crew he will spend several months hunting otter. The skins will be shipped to Chicago to a firm of furriers. With him will go Julius and Art Valdez and Charles Ruiz.”
January 9, 1909 [SBMP]: “According to Captain Gilbert of the power schooner Baltic which arrived here from Santa Cruz Island, there has been considerable trouble among the crawfishermen of the islands for some days, and shooting scrapes have been reported. He brought over two wounded men, one with a bullet that entered his cheek and passed out the back of his neck, and the other, Julius Valdez, slipped on a rock, it was stated, and so hurt himself. The man with the bullet wound was attended by a local physician. ‘Valdez slipped and fell on a rock,’ said Captain Gilbert last night, ‘and when we arrived at his camp where he was in company with Frank Nidever and Ira Eaton, we had to take him aboard and bring him here for medical treatment’...”
March 4, 1913 [SBMP]: “Captain George M. McGuire has received a record catch of seals from the islands. In two days, Julius Valdez, with his crew of four expert seal catchers, secured twenty seals. They sailed on the Gussie M…”
March 5, 1913 [SBMP]: “…It is going to be a trans-continental trip, three [seals] to Boston and five to New York. The seals were of the lot captured at the islands Saturday and Sunday by Julius Valdez and his crew of experts in the Gussie M, commanded by Captain Farioli. It was the record catch, and that the animals were in splendid condition was proved by the fact that it was impossible to ship several in short time. Captain George M. McGuire will take extra precautions with the ten that are to be shipped direct to London, and they will not be on their way for a few days.”
March 8, 1913 [LAT]: “Captain Julius Valdez in charge of an expert crew of seal hunters sailing the Gussie M corralled a herd of perfectly conditioned animals ranging in age from eight months to four years, and in two days succeeded in capturing twenty of them. They were brought to Santa Barbara and are being consigned to the larger cities of the East and points in Europe. In making this record catch, Captain Valdez and his crew had many remarkable experiences. For several days they were unable to reach the island caves owing to the rough weather, and when there was a calm, they lost no time in reaching the rendezvous of the seals, but found them to be of the ‘fighting’ variety and suffered no small loss by torn nets through which the stronger animals made their escape. Captain Valdez declared that it was one of the most severe seal hunting trips he ever made, but rejoiced over the fact that there seems to be no shortage in the supply of the animals, and many more expeditions are planned in the near future…”
September 15, 1914 [SBMP]: “Last Sunday morning Captain Valdez took a party numbering 25 to Fry’s Harbor, Santa Cruz Island. Most of the excursionists returned to the mainland in the evening, after having had a fine day’s pleasure on the island, and a few of them remained to camp at that beautiful spot for ten days or two weeks.” Check original—this captain?? Vasquez?
November 14, 1916 [SCICo]: “Julio Valdez who is now on the schooner is going to leave, so if we are going to keep Bermudez and Olivari on shore, we will need two sailors... On the trip of November 7th, we put Bermudez on the schooner and had him stay aboard until the 14th. Sunday afternoon and evening the Captain and Julius got drunk with some fishermen at Prisoners Harbor. At about 10:30 that night a northeaster came up, and at midnight the schooner had to leave for China Harbor. The Captain and Julius were reeling drunk when Bermudez, with some difficulty, finally got them roused up. They got to China Harbor all right and returned Tuesday morning. We didn’t learn the particulars until after the schooner left for Santa Barbara, although we knew there was something amiss as Bermudez refused to stay aboard and would take his check before he would make another trip with the Captain but wouldn’t say what the trouble was. We finally got the particulars from Cortella and Bermudez confirmed them... Bermudez undoubtedly kept the schooner off the rocks and we believe some credit is due him for taking hold in an emergency and assuming someone else's responsibility. Bermudez was talking some while back about taking an I.C.S. course in navigation, but do not know whether he has done so or not.”
September 21, 1922 [SBMP]: “Fishermen will aid big cruise. Five boats coming from Port San Luis for trip to Santa Cruz and barbecue September 30… The boats, as announced by the special committee of the yacht club in charge of arrangements for the outing, are the Seal, Captain Julius Valdez; Ladinanne, Captain Muchattee; Larco Bros., Captain Sebastian Castagnola; Eagle, Captain Frank Nidever; and North America, Captain J. Nocti…”
March 2, 1923 [SBMP]: “Frank Nidever’s boat crushed by liner is believed. Captain Valdez, companion, says Eagle was having motor troubles. Huge vessel nearby. Theory of being run down is gaining favor with late investigations. Captain Frank Nidever was run down and his boat cut in two by a liner. This belief is growing. Captain Nidever sailed from Santa Barbara in the boat Eagle February 1, running ahead of a storm for the island anchorage and has never been heard of since. The belief was strengthened today by the declaration of Captain Valdez of the schooner Santa Cruz. Captain Valdez, who lives on Santa Cruz Island, says he sailed out of Santa Barbara with Nidever and was close to him all the way across until within ten miles of Santa Cruz, when the motor of the Santa Cruz went dead as it was getting dusk. Nidever, according to Captain Valdez, had also been having some motor trouble. The Santa Cruz drifted before the wind for some time, and Captain Valdez lost sight of the Eagle. About that time, a liner passed within 300 yards of the Santa Cruz without seeing Captain Valdez’ boat. ‘I believe,’ said Captain Valdez yesterday, ‘that Frank Nidever’s boat was run down by that liner in the storm, and he was sent to the bottom.’ Traces of the wreckage of the Eagle strewn along the island beaches and scattered for miles lends strength to the theory that the Eagle was run down and crushed like an eggshell by the big liner, far enough out from the island coastline to make the wreckage spread over a long stretch of shore, as it would if so wrecked. Further support of this theory of the prominent mariner’s mysterious disappearance is added by the fact that Larco Brothers, Captain Clarence Libbey, and other salt water men, declare that if Captain Nidever drowned in deep water his body would never be recovered because after a body sinks to a certain depth it is held suspended by water pressure until it is completely disintegrated.”
January 7, 1925 [SBMP]: “Captain Valdez to take bridge of Lippman’s boat. Captain Julius Valdez, who for many years has skippered the Santa Cruz Island schooner, Santa Cruz, has left the bridge of that vessel to go on as sailing master of L. R. Lippman’s new boat, formerly the Athene. Lippman, although of San Pedro, is now a member of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, and has already entered his ship in the Honolulu race. Valdez will leave San Pedro with his boat for a month’s cruise along the Mexican coast with a party of Los Angeles men. Joe Bermudez succeeds Valdez as skipper of the Santa Cruz.”
July 18, 1928 [LAT]: “Talayha with crew of fourteen, five days past due, makes San Pedro after a hard fight… Roy Loomis, who was in charge of the Cruise with Julius Valdez as sailing master and Captain H. Lorensen as navigator, had his hand crushed while working during the gale…”
October 3, 1931 [LAT]: “Lazard Lippman brought his big sloop Talayha in for dry-docking yesterday by a fifty-mile wind off Santa Cruz Island Monday night, and striking a submerged boat off Potato Harbor Wednesday. He believed it might be one of the fishing boats unaccounted for since spring, but damage to his keel precluded further investigation…”
