torms damaged the rigging and ship until it was
necessary to put into Voskresenski Harbor (Resurrection Bay) for
repairs. She arrived off Sitka about December 1st. After four or five
days Mt. Edgecumbe was sighted but a storm drove the ship to sea where
she beat about for weeks before again nearing the port. Scurvy afflicted
the passengers and crew and added to the general distress. On January
8th, 1813, Mt. Edgecumbe again appeared. In trying to make the harbor
the ship grounded on the rocks under the cape on the morning of the 9th
and speedily broke to pieces under the terrific pounding of the seas.[8]
Some of the people on board reached shore after incredible suffering and
hardship.

After several days two of the sailors wandering along the shore met a
Kolosh boy and persuaded him to take them to Sitka, where they arrived,
cold, exhausted, and almost starving. Boats were at once fitted out by
Mr. Baranof, the survivors were rescued, brought to Sitka, and their
sufferings relieved. From those on board the ship, 38 had perished,
including Kalinin, the commander, Boronovolokof, the intended future
chief manager of the Company, and five women passengers. In the cargo
was food and clothing, the messages of the year for the exiles, and rich
vestments and furnishings for the church that was soon to be built in
Sitka, all scattered for miles along the wild coast of Kruzof Island.
This was one of the worst disasters of the sea that visited the colony,
although many others are part of the records of the time.

It is said that Chief Katlean tore his hair with rage when he learned of
the wreck, because he did not find it and destroy the survivors out of
revenge for his defeat and expulsion from his home at Sitka.

There are many traditions among the residents of Sitka concerning the
wreck of the "Neva." Among them is that there was a vast treasure of
gold for the use of the garrison and the traders. This is erroneous, for
there was no gold used in the colonies, the trade being by barter or
conducted with scrip, called _assignats_, issued by the Company for
the purpose. The story of the gold has been so generally believed that
serious plans have been made for attempting the salvage of the treasure.

The term of office of Alexander Andreevich Baranof as the chief manager
of the Russian American Company came to a close in 1818. He had been 28
years in the colonies, leaving Russia in 1790 for the post of Three
Saints on Kodiak Is