FACULTY Orilla M. () Grimes (41)

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FACULTY  Orilla M. () Grimes (41)

Oakland Tribune, CA Aug. 11, 1921 (scanned)

Final Tributes Are paid to Instructor

Local business college students today missed the presence of Mrs. W.J. Grimes, Alaska wreck victim, and late principal of the bookkeeping department. Her memory was honored yesterday when many of her former pupils visited the undertaking parlors where lay the body that arrived from Eureka. The body was reshipped to Sherwood, Ore., last night, where funeral services will be held Sunday, under direction of Mr. & Mrs. F.P. Stahlnecker, parents of the deceased, whom she had been paying a vacation visit previous to taking passage on the Alaska. W.J. Grimes, the husband, an instructor at the Pacific Grove High School, brought the body from Eureka Tuesday. The college was dismissed at 1 o’clock yesterday in honor of Mrs. Grimes and many of the students visited the undertaking parlors, bring floral offerings. There were also floral tributes from the Order of the Eastern Star, of which Mrs. Grimes was a member. The order conducted services at 8 o’clock last night in the Grimes home, 953 Fifty-third street.

Oakland Tribune, CA Aug. 8, 1921 (scanned)

Search for missing bodies proves futile

Tearful scenes are enacted as survivors land

Friends and relatives cling to rescued passengers of Alaska

…One day’s delay in returning from a vacation on the ill-fated Alaska may have saved the life of Mrs. Orilla M. Grives, Oakland school teacher, 943 Fifty-third street, reported among those missing today. This is the hope on which her husband, W. J. Grimes, a teacher in the public school at Pacific Grove, is pinning his faith as he anxiously awaits the letter which he trusts will bring word that she delayed her departure, although engaging passenger on the Alaska. Mrs. Grimes, who is a teacher at Heald’s business college, was planning to return from a three weeks’ vacation she had been spending with her mother in a small town near Portland, according to a letter received by her husband the other day, and had engaged passage on the Alaska. Grimes had been teaching in her stead at Heald’s. Up to a late hour today Grimes had not heard from his wife. …

Oregon Daily Journal, OR Aug. 9, 1921

Charges Made By Wreck Survivors

Eureka, Cal. – The body of a woman victim of the steamship Alaska disaster was identified at the morgue here today. She was Mrs. Orilla Grimes of Oakland. Identification was made by her husband, William J. Grimes, who arrived here from Oakland today to search for his wife. No additional bodies had been found today. Somewhere between Humboldt bay and Point Gorda, 31 bodies – the number now believed missing from the steamship Alaska – are either floating on the surface of the ocean or have been cast upon the beach. Such has been the history of almost every fatal shipwreck along the Blunts Reef district, although some today held the theory that recovery of the bodies is problematical. They believed that the current would carry them to sea. The fact that six lifeboats came ashore in the vicinity of False Cape and that large pieces of deck lumber have reached the beach led to the general belief that in the driftwood and nests of rock along the coast may be found a large number of the missing. An organized by each patrol was searching today every foot of the coast. Eighteen bodies have been recovered, that of an unidentified number of the crew having been washed up on the beach of Cape Mendocino late yesterday. It was found by James Nells, light keeper. Four bodies remained unidentified today, although that of a little girl was believed to be one of the Dyer twins. Reports from Cape Mendocino today stated that the smokestack of the Alaska could be seen above the waves in clear weather. This would indicate that the wreck is resting on a shelf of the reef, soundings having shown a much greater depth of water around the reef. Sick and injured in the hospital here were much improved today. With the exception of those unable to be moved, virtually all of the passengers have gone to San Francisco. With completion of the coroner’s inquest here interest centered in the federal investigation to be conducted in San Francisco. The coroner’s jury here returned an open verdict late yesterday simply finding that the dead came to their death through drowning. This was in view of the conflicting testimony adduced. Passengers charged: 1. That the night was not foggy – only misty. 2. That the crew appeared to lack all experience in lifeboat handling. 3. That immediately after the boat struck the passengers were not ordered to prepare for the boats, thus lost valuable time. 4. That Captain Hobey and the firemate were not on the bridge when the ship struck. This was largely contradicted by the testimony of members of the crew. The jury apparently believed that it would be best for federal authorities to conduct the probe and place the blame.