Brother Jonathan (ship)
 The Brother Jonathan After its reconstruction in 1861
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The Brother Jonathan was a paddle steamer that was put into service in 1851 and belonged to various private shipping magnates and finally to the US shipping company California Steam Navigation Company. The vessel served to 1865 as a passenger - and freighter according to owner on different routes; most recently on the coast of California and British Columbia on the North American west coast. On July 30, 1865, the Brother Jonathan ran in stormy seas with 244 people and a lot of gold on board off Crescent City on the California coast on an underwater rock that had not been recorded until then and sank within a short time. Only 19 people survived. With 225 dead, it was the worst shipping accident on the American Pacific coast to date . The gold on board triggered numerous rescue attempts.
The ship
Construction and commissioning
The built of wood, 67 m long steamer Brother Jonathan was in 1851 in the shipyard Perrine, Patterson & Stack in Williamsburg , a neighborhood of Brooklyn , from the stack . It was originally planned for merchant shipping in the Long Island area, but was bought by the New York shipping magnate Edward Mills as soon as it was completed. Mills wanted to use the ship in the profitable travel traffic of the California gold rush , in the course of which thousands of gold diggers flocked to California.
The steamer got its name from Brother Jonathan , a fictional symbolic figure who personified the United States and was later replaced by Uncle Sam .
The Brother Jonathan was steaming from New York City to Colón in Panama . After passing the Isthmus of Panama , passengers had to transfer to another ship. On its first voyage, the ship set a record when it completed the round trip in 31 days. Her first captain was CH Baldwin. The ship had three masts with the rigging of a schooner bark and was equipped with steam engines from TF Secor & Company, which could produce up to 400 hp. The passenger accommodations were initially designed for 350 travelers. In addition, up to 900 tons of freight could be transported. The three lifeboats and three surf boats on board could accommodate a total of 250 people.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
In 1852 the American entrepreneur Cornelius Vanderbilt bought the ship. Vanderbilt also had a fleet of ships and wanted to replace one of his older ships with Brother Jonathan . In the service of his Vanderbilt-Nicaragua Line, Brother Jonathan sailed around Cape Horn and through the southern Pacific Ocean . Vanderbilt also had the ship rebuilt so that it had a larger passenger capacity and could now accommodate up to 750 people. The 36 m long main salon has been completely renovated. The larger suites stretched on either side of the drawing room. In 1856 a contract between Vanderbilt and the government of Nicaragua that had exclusively guaranteed him the transport of passengers through Nicaragua was broken.
The Brother Jonathan was then sold to Captain John T. Wright, who renamed it Commodore and used it on the American west coast. The ship was now sailing from its home port of San Francisco to Vancouver , since at that time many people wanted to go to British Columbia due to the Fraser Canyon gold rush . In 1854, Brother Jonathan brought the survivors of the Yankee Blade back to San Francisco. The Yankee Blade had left San Francisco on September 30, 1854 with 800 people on board, and on October 1, off Point Arguello, in thick fog and at full speed, it ran onto an underwater reef and sank. Everyone on board survived and was taken in by Brother Jonathan .
In 1861 the ship was sold to the California Steam Navigation Company. This was a shipping company founded in 1854, which operated a brisk passenger traffic on the American Pacific coast. The shipping company completely modernized the ship and gave it back its original name Brother Jonathan . The Brother Jonathan remained on the route San Francisco-Vancouver and ran as a stopover Portland in the US state of Oregon on.
During these voyages, many prospectors were again on board, especially during the Salmon River gold rush . The Brother Jonathan was the fastest ship on this route, which she could cover in 69 hours. She quickly gained a good reputation and was considered one of the best and most reliable ships on the American west coast.
Smallpox epidemic
In March 1862 Brother Jonathan brought an epidemic of smallpox to the Pacific coast of North America while crossing to British Columbia . One of the passengers was sick with smallpox . The disease spread quickly, killing thousands.
Downfall
On Friday, July 28, 1865, at 10 a.m., Brother Jonathan left San Francisco under the command of Captain Samuel J. DeWolf for her next voyage to Vancouver. Their cargo consisted of numerous boxes of gold, securities from various banks and companies, factory machinery, mining equipment, camels, horses and other things. To observers on the quay, the ship appeared heavily loaded, it was deep in the water. Only a few hours after sailing north, the ship got caught in a storm that brought strong winds and heavy seas. Most of the passengers were from the swell seasick and retired to their cabins.
At around 2 a.m. on Sunday, July 30, the ship anchored in Crescent City, California. In the afternoon, Brother Jonathan left the sheltered harbor and began the journey to Portland, where she was due to arrive the following day. 190 passengers and 54 crew members were on board. Half an hour after casting off, the ship found itself in even more stormy weather. At the height of the California-Oregon border, the sea was so choppy and unpredictable that many passengers asked Captain DeWolf to abort the voyage and return to the safe haven of Crescent City. DeWolf turned and headed for the city.
45 minutes later, Brother Jonathan was almost there when, around 2 p.m., about four miles from Crescent City, she rammed a previously unknown underwater rock that belonged to St. George Reef. The rock tore a large hole in the hull of her ship. The force of the impact caused a fountain of water to shoot up and crash onto the foredeck. The mainmast of the Brother Jonathan drilled through the hull. Massive breakers rolled over the ship and tore people overboard.
Within five minutes, Captain DeWolf knew his ship was going to sink, so he ordered passengers and crew to leave the ship. Although there were enough lifeboats for everyone on board, only three could be made clear. The stormy waves made the first boat full and hurled the second against the hull, where it shattered. Only the third boat under the command of Third Officer James Patterson, in which eleven crew members, five women and three children sat, could be safely lowered into the water. The ship sank within three quarters of an hour after hitting the rock. The 19 people in the third boat were the only survivors of the disaster. The remaining 225 passengers and crew members were killed. The boat made it safely to Crescent City on its own. The survivors reported countless scenes of panic and despair during the sinking, but also of courage and self-surrender.
Passengers
Among the passengers on Brother Jonathan's last voyage were many prominent and well-known personalities from culture, the military and society, including:
- General George H. Wright, Senior Mexican-American War and American Civil War Veteran and Department of the Pacific Army Unit Commander (was on board with his wife)
- Dr. Anson Gordon Henry, head of the Washington Territory cadastral survey and personal physician and long-time friend of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln had married in his home)
- James Nisbet, San Francisco publisher , critic, and publicist , co-owner of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin and co-author of The Annals of San Francisco (1854)
- Mrs. John C. (Roseanna Hughes) Keenan, Prominent Lady of the Society of San Francisco (traveled with an entourage of seven companions)
- William Logan, newly appointed head of the United States Mint office in The Dalles, Oregon
- Major EW Eddy, United States Army Chief Financial Officer (traveled as a short-term replacement for another military chief)
- Captain JSS Chaddock, Commander of Joe Lane of the United States Revenue Cutter Service
- Joseph A. Lord, Senior Wells Fargo Bank Messenger
Among the travelers were numerous women and children as well as business travelers, farmers , newlyweds and a traveling circus with the director's wife and child and some animals on board.
In addition, some survivors of other serious ship accidents made the voyage. Victor Smith, former customs administrator of Puget Sound , was still recovering from the sinking of the Golden Rule ¸ a steamship of the Central American Transit Company, which on May 30, 1865 with 635 people on board in heavy seas and stormy rain, hit the coral reef Roncador Bank off Nicaragua had rammed. On September 7, 1864, George Pollock had survived the explosion of the river steamer Washoe , whose boilers had blown up on the Sacramento River . Around 100 people were killed in the process.
Follow and Commemorate
The rock on which Brother Jonathan walked was named Jonathan Rock. A direct result of the tragedy was the construction of the lighthouse St. George Reef Lighthouse on a small rocky island 10 km off the coast of California. Furthermore, there were new legal regulations with regard to ship safety and the lowering of lifeboats during an accident .
A memorial was erected at Brother Jonathan Vista Point in Crescent City to commemorate the dead and is registered as No. 541 on California Historical Landmarks (CHLs). In the nationwide conservation Register National Register of Historic Places has been Wreck added.
Freight, rescue attempts and finding the wreck
Just two weeks after the accident, divers and ships began looking for the wreck. The reason was the large amounts of gold that were on board the Brother Jonathan . The cargo included a pay slip from the United States Army , highly insured securities, contractually agreed annual payments from the US government to Native Americans in the form of gold coins , gold shipments from Wells Fargo for Portland and Vancouver, and private assets of the wealthy passengers. Safe in the purser is also precious jewelry, coins and other gold was gold bars . The value of gold is estimated at around 50 million US dollars based on today's monetary value .
Although Brother Jonathan sank so close to the coast, the ship and its cargo remained undiscovered for 128 years despite repeated searches. The stormy seas in the area, deep dark gorges and strong currents prevented the location of the wreck. In 1993, the oceanographic research company Deep Sea Research, Inc. (DSR) conducted another experiment. The team searched in vain for the wreck during the expedition . On the last day of the company, the men came up with a new theory. They now assumed that after the sinking, Brother Jonathan could have drifted further below the surface of the water until it hit the seabed and was possibly up to two miles from the location of the collision.
Under the leadership of Donald Knight, a manned mini -submarine set off on October 1, 1993 under risky conditions. Literally at the last minute, the submarine found the wreck of Brother Jonathan that day. It was at a depth of 275 feet (about 84 m). In 1996 the first gold coins were recovered. The rescue forces found a total of 1,207 coins, mainly so-called double eagles . Numerous other artifacts were also discovered, including porcelain plates , beer mugs , measuring jugs , terracotta water bottles, crystal liqueur glasses , wine and champagne bottles, medicine bottles, doorknobs and portholes . No human remains were found.
Deep Sea Research opened a laboratory in Crescent City in which the recovered items were to be preserved and preserved for posterity. The facility is run by members of the Del Norte County Historical Society. Despite the numerous coins found, about four-fifths of Brother Jonathan's gold cargo has remained undiscovered to this day. The paymaster's safe was never found either.
Litigation
Legal disputes and lawsuits have arisen between the State of California and salvage company DSR over the rights to the wreck and its contents. California claimed the rights for itself because it was a historic shipwreck in California waters. The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1998 in favor of Deep Sea Research. The California authorities were not happy with this and signaled to DSR that they would appeal the verdict and also claim 20% of the value of the items recovered.
On May 29, 1999, a public auction of artefacts from the wreckage of Brother Jonathan took place at the Airport Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles , to which more than 500 interested people appeared. The auction of 1006 coins raised $ 5.3 million. In addition, for years there has been a smoldering dispute among numismatists about the authenticity of the recovered coins, which culminated in 1999 at the annual convention of the American Numismatic Association (ANA). The matter ended in arbitration .
literature
Books
- Dennis Powers. Treasure Ship: The Legend and Legacy of the SS Brother Jonathan . Kensington / Citadel Press ( New York ), 2006
- William B. Seacrest. California Disasters, 1812-1899 . Quill Driver Books / Word Dancer Press, Inc. ( Sanger, California ), 2005
- David Bowers. The Treasure Ship SS Brother Jonathan: Her Life and Loss, 1850-1865 . Bowers and Merena Galleries, Inc. ( Wolfeboro ( New Hampshire )), 1998
Reports, articles etc.
- Brother Jonathan Began Life on East Coast, Sank in 1865 . from The Daily Triplicate , September 16, 2000
- Harriet Chiang. Finders Keepers: Treasure Hunters Will Be Able to Keep the Gold Found on a Shipwreck off Crescent City . From the San Francisco Chronicle , March 19, 1999
- Alfred L. Lomax. Brother Jonathan: Pioneer Steamship of the Pacific Coast . Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 60, 1959
- Maria Knight DeWolf. Handwritten biography and notes from the files of the Del Norte Historical Society, San Francisco, March 19, 1900 (records of Captain DeWolf's widow)
- Mary Altrie. Told By A Survivor, the Wreck of the Brother Jonathan. Mrs. Mary Altrie's Vivid Recollection . From the San Francisco Chronicle of February 11, 1894 (eyewitness account of survivor Mary Tweedale Altrie)
- A Sea Tragedy: The Brother Jonathan Wreck Revived . Del Norte Record, February 2, 1892
Web links
- Brother Jonathan website with technical and historical facts, pictures and passenger lists
- Summary of the history of the ship and its sinking (with color picture)
- The downfall of Brother Jonathan
- Description of the last departure of Brother Jonathan - excerpt from the book by Dennis Powers
- The Brother Jonathan as "treasure ship"
- United States Supreme Court judgment of April 22, 1998 on the rights to the wreck of Brother Jonathan
- ANOTHER GREAT DISASTER - Report of the sinking in the New York Times, August 26, 1865
Coordinates: 41 ° 48 ′ 59.4 " N , 124 ° 19 ′ 34.3" W.