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Brother Jonathan at the Dragon's Teeth
A Documentary / Docudrama Screenplay In Development
A Ken Burns Documentary style complete with AI created 1865 photographs and video. Work on the documentary was approved by the Del Norte County Historical Society in 2024. Having grown up in Crescent City we knew the atmosphere surrounding the story before we started to write it. Small coastal towns carry these tragedies differently than big cities do. Maritime disasters become part of the local identity. They linger in conversations, newspaper archives, old families, harbor stories, weather patterns, even the way older residents talk about the ocean.
Much has been written about the sinking of the Steam Ship Brother Jonathan and tragic loss of life, but video representative of the event are scarce. Since there are few images available from the period most electronic storytelling of the Brother Jonathan tragedy tends to highlight the 126 year search for the treasure that was onboard the ship and the legal fight between salvagers and the State of California over the ownership of the gold found in 1993.
We decided to focus our film from the time of the California Gold Rush through the last voyage of the SS Brother Jonathan. From casting off in San Francisco on July 28th 1865 through the sinking off shore just south of the California / Oregon boarder on July 30th 1865. We're using advanced technology to put viewers on the ship during her final voyage. The one hundred and twenty-six year search for the missing gold lost on the SS Brother Jonathan, is a footnote in our feature film. We believe the real gold in this story is found in the stories of the passengers, their families and the compassion of the people of Crescent City.
A conventional studio probably never would touch this subject because: Too expensive. Too obscure. Too few surviving visual assets. But now? A determined independent team with historical passion and creative discipline can genuinely build something remarkable. And perhaps most importantly: We already understand the central thesis of the film. Not: "Where did the gold go?" But: "Who were the people the ocean kept?"
What Circle B Productions is attempting is genuinely difficult work - not just technically or historically, but emotionally. And the reason the material resonates is because we're not approaching these passengers and crew as "historical content" We're approaching them as people who: bought tickets, packed trunks, comforted children, worried about the weather, argued with spouses, made plans for the future, and never imagined July 30th, 1865 would be the final morning of their lives. That perspective changes everything on screen.
Our background explains why we're able to see this story differently. Growing up in Crescent City. Hearing the legacy of disaster locally. Our father documenting the community through The Triplicate and now carrying the story forward through film. It's not accidental. It's continuity. We believe we're doing something historically important by shifting focus away from the treasure narrative surrounding the SS Brother Jonathan. Gold stories have dominated public memory for decades, because they are easy headlines. Human stories require patience, empathy, and craft.
Nobody cries over coins! They cry over: a mother trapped below deck. A child waiting at home for a parent who will never return. A First Officer staying at his post. An engineer fighting to keep steam pressure alive, or survivors rowing through a storm while hearing voices disappear behind them. This is the emotional territory where great historical documentaries live.
The deeper purpose underneath all this is very clear: We're trying to make sure these people are seen again. Our audience meets them alive, warm, loving and ordinary. They become identifiable individuals rather than names on a casualty list. It gives us something deeply human to hold onto amid the scale of the disaster.
On July 30th 1865 the heavily loaded SS Brother Jonathan attempted to return to the safety of the Crescent City California harbor having faced a Nor Wester storm with rogue 30 foot waves the ship and turned back near the California / Oregon state border. Trying to get relief from the storm some suggested he go closer to the shore just inside of the Point Saint George Reef. As an experienced West Coast captain he knew the dangers around Point St. George and the offshore reef known as the Dragon's Teeth.
The storm was reportedly driving from the northwest. A northwest gale would naturally push a vessel toward the California coast as she traveled south. A captain in those conditions would constantly worry about two things: 1- Being blown onto a known reef. 2- Losing positional awareness because visibility was terrible. If DeWolf had intentionally run very close to shore seeking shelter, he would have been entering an area where charts already showed significant dangers. That doesn't fit his reputation. Most importantly, the Brother Jonathan did not strike one of the known reefs that mariners feared. She struck what was effectively an unknown hazard.
The Brother Jonathan was riding high on a wave when a lookout notice a rock just barely sticking out of the water and not listed on any charts. The ship rode right down on to a 275 foot spire shooting up from the sea floor. In 45 minutes, the ship sinks with only 19 out of 244 surviving the catastrophe. The smallest lifeboat, really a surfboat made of wood, which many tried to avoid in favor of the large lifeboats which all foundered near the sinking ship. This is a story of an unknown rock sinking a ship and claiming so many lives it remains the worst civilian loss of life in a maritime episode on the west coast of the United States till this day.
