Gold Rush records from Yukon shipwreck identified

A view through the rails at the bow of A.J. Goddard shows the windlass used to raise and lower the steamer’s anchors.In July of 2008, researchers found the nearly intact shipwreck of the Gold Rush paddle steamboat A.J. Goddard sitting upright on the floor of Lake Laberge, in Yukon Territory, Canada, where it had sunk in October of 1901 killing all but two of the crew. The Goddard was a famous ship in its day for having been the first to reach Dawson City traveling down the Yukon River after the first winter of the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897. The two survivors had grabbed on to the pilot house that came off the top of the boat and were rescued by a nearby trapper.

The A.J. Goddard on Lake Bennett in the 1890sExcept for that missing pilot house, the rest of the Goddard was in excellent condition thanks to the very cold waters of Lake Laberge. The ship was immediately billed a “ghost ship” because of the time capsule-like preservation of the boat itself and its cargo. Even the belongings of the crew, like the boots of all five crewmen who presumably kicked them off when they abandoned ship, and everyday artifacts like axes and kitchen utensils were found where they fell.

Some of the more important ones were removed for conservation, among them a gramophone and three records, one of which was actually in the player and may have been jangling a happy minstrel tune when the boat went down. Researchers were able to conserve the records, repairing them enough that the titles were visible, although sadly they are still not playable.

Gramophone records when recovered from Goddard[Texas A & M’s Nautical Archaeology Program graduate student Lindsey] Thomas said the three recordings, including Rendezvous Waltz and a rare 1896 minstrel recording of Ma Onliest One, were previously unknown to Gold Rush-era music experts.

“These are three new songs that we now know people were listening to during the Gold Rush, and they were playing it,” she said. “Ma Onliest One was the disc that was attached to the gramophone.”

Thomas said minstrel songs were popular at the time because they were “easy for the miners and for the people up there to perform.”

“It became popular in the 1820s, but they were able to put on shows and pass the time amongst themselves as they were stuck in cabins over the winter,” she said.

It was Conservator Tara Grant, from the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa, who was able to retrieve the titles from the unplayable — one of them broken in two pieces — records. The third tune was “The Harp that Once thro’ Tara’s Halls” by Thomas Moore. The conservator for the territorial Department of Tourism and Culture, Valery Monahan, looked far and wide for copies of the songs, none of which were particularly popular pieces at the time. She tracked all three titles down in the Library of Congress, but only one of them was listenable online: “Rendez Vous Waltz” performed by the Metropolitan Orchestra.

Rendezvous Waltz

Although the other two songs are in the Library of Congress’ collection, they can not be uploaded for our listening pleasure because, get this, they are under copyright by Sony Music. They’d probably sue the dead sailors for file sharing.

The records and gramophone will be returned to the Yukon for long-term preservation and display at the Yukon Transportation Museum. As items of exceptional value to Canadian history, they will be conserved free of charge.

Not only are Gold Rush shipwrecks exceptionally rare, intact ones are practically unheard of, but the records show a whole new side of life on the workhorse of the Klondike waterways. These steamboats were utilitarian vehicles. Cooking pots, work equipment, even the remarkably useful tool-repair shop found on board were all to be expected. Luxury, space-hogging items like a bulky gramophone and records to play, on the other hand, were surprising finds.

15 thoughts on “Gold Rush records from Yukon shipwreck identified

  1. How the hell can a copyright exist for a song for the 1800’s!? Unless the song is only available in the library of congress in a recording closer to 70 years old?

    :confused:

    1. I don’t know but I assume that it’s the performance that is copyright not the actual song.

      So, if an orchestra puts out a record of “The Four Seasons”, they have copyright in the recording and can decide whether they want it online or not, but they can’t stop anybody else from making their own recording of Vivaldi’s work.

  2. “There are strange things done in the midnight sun,
    by the men who moil for gold;
    The Arctic trails have their secret tales
    That would make your blood run cold”

  3. Hi,

    I’m the Yukon Conservator in this story.

    Library of Congress has copies of TWO of the three records found on the wreck of the A. J. Goddard. By coincidence, they had already chosen one of these recording for digitization/uploading for their on-line exhibit: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/berlhtml/berlhome.html They had chosen not to upload their copy of the Berliner recording of “The Harp that Once Thro’ Tara’s Halls”, another one found on the Goddard, at that time…a selection of their Berliner holdings were chosen for the exhibit, not the whole collection.

    Yes, the issue is copying original recordings/specific performances. I expect permission to be granted, but L of C, as an American Government institution, must follow American law, which is unusually strict about these things, by international standards. They cannot copy without written permission.

    Two of the three tunes/songs (same ones L of C has) would be available in other formats, but the Yukon Transportation Museum would LIKE to have the same Berliner recordings with the same artists.

    The third Goddard record: a Berliner recording of Len Spencer singing “Ma Onliest One” is NOT in the L of C collections. We will continue to look for it in public/private collections…

    Hope this clears a few things up and thanks for the interest!

    Val M.

  4. I don’t understand how Sony has the copyright to these records. There is no connection between Sony Music and the Berliner Gramophone Company at all; the Victor Talking Machine Company (which catalog Sony does own) was not connected with the Berliner Gramophone Company and did not re-issue its records.

    By the time Eldridge Johnson set up the Victor Talking Machine Company, he had developed a different recording method from the one Berliner had used, and consequently would not have kept the old etched-zinc records in the catalog even if he had the rights to them. Which he didn’t, as all the Berliner holdings were tied up in court thanks to a legal battle with their distributor, the National Gramophone Company.

    The only thing I can think of is that perhaps Victor acquired the rights to the early Berliners when it purchased the Berliner Gram-O-Phone Company, Ltd, of Montreal – in which case Sony would have acquired them from BMG, which was Victor’s corporate successor.

    It would be interesting if someone from Sony Music could clarify this. Had these been Columbia records, of course, there would be no question.

  5. That Berliner style talking machine can hardly be classified as bulky. You can hold it easily with one hand. There were little suitcases made specifically to transport them and one could get oak boxes with separators to store records.

  6. I have a copy of the Spencer “Onliest One”. Do not bother getting a copy of it, as many people would find the playing it in public to be offensive. Spencer’s dialect/delivery and the lyrics are not socially polite or acceptable by today’s standards.

  7. Thankfully, the people who would like to hear it are well educated and can take it in context. No use covering up the past, my good man. We all know bad things happened.

  8. Okay. The quote posted by edahstip above is from “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert Service, in which prospectors, Lake Laberge and a steamer named Alice May all play prominent parts.

  9. I am interested in obtaining a copy of the passenger list from the A.J. Goddard. I believe my grandfather was on the ship when it sank in Oct 1901.

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