Others were killed when hit by wreckage being tossed in the heavy waves. Residents of Centerville helped the injured, taking the ladies to the two buildings of town. In the morning, fourteen dead were found lying on the sands, one female passenger was found still tied to the wheel, and the remaining bodies were lost to the ocean. All the bodies were buried near the beach. Local resident and nationally notorious mountain man Seth Kinman was alerted by distress signals from the "Northerner". In the raging gale, Kinman tethered himself to the shore and waded into the surf to save many passengers. Later, he was hailed as a hero and awarded a Bible and free life-time passage on Pacific Mail Steamships. Of the 108 on board initially, 38 drowned of whom 17 were passengers and 21 crew. Thirty-eight passengers, including five of six women and all four children on board, were saved as were 32 crew members. The survivors were cared for at Centerville until the next day, when the steamer Columbia, also owned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, took the survivors and the 45 recovered bags of mail northward. Property lost on the steamer included 13 bags of mail and $14,000 in U.S. Government funds. As described on the bronze plaque on the monument, in 1921, the Ferndale Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West placed a cross and marker on the hill overlooking Centerville Beach. The first marker was destroyed in the 1992 Cape Mendocino earthquakes. A new marker was placed and rededicated on February 11, 1995.