City of Rio de Janeiro
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The City of Rio de Janeiro was a passenger ship of the US- American shipping company Pacific Mail Steamship Company put into service in 1878 , which was used in the Pacific liner service and carried passengers , mail and cargo from Hong Kong to San Francisco .
On February 22, 1901, the City of Rio de Janeiro sank in San Francisco Bay after colliding in thick fog with an underwater rock in front of Fort Point . Of the 220 people on board, only 82 survived. The sinking of the City of Rio de Janeiro is considered to be the worst shipwreck in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area to date .
The wreck was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 and was finally found in November 2014.
ship
The City of Rio de Janeiro was approved by the shipyard John Roach & Son in Chester built in the State of Pennsylvania for the US shipping company United States and Brazil Mail Steamship Company and was launched on March 6, 1878 from the stack . The ships of this shipping company operated between Brazil and the United States. The ship turned out to be unprofitable for its owner and was sold to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in 1881. This shipping company, which was founded in New York in 1848, introduced a transpacific passenger service in 1867, with scheduled services from Asian ports such as Hong Kong, Yokohama and Shanghai to San Francisco.
The City of Rio de Janeiro served the route San Francisco – Honolulu – Yokohama – Hong Kong – San Francisco. The steel-built ship was able to accommodate a total of 200 passengers in 46 cabins in two price categories and was equipped with ice machines, electric lights and a ventilation system to supply the passengers with fresh air. The cabins and lounges were paneled with maple , black walnut , walnut and satin wood and were connected to the stewards pantry by electrical communication devices .
However, the steamer was not equipped with watertight doors . The installation of these doors was only made mandatory after the accident of the British paddle steamer Princess Alice , which sank on the Thames seven months after the completion of the City of Rio de Janeiro . During the Spanish-American War in 1898, the ship was leased by the US government to bring troops to Manila ( Philippines ). After the war, the City of Rio de Janeiro returned to its Pacific route.
Downfall
On Friday, February 22, 1901, the City of Rio de Janeiro steamed towards the Golden Gate at the entrance to San Francisco Bay . She came with 136 passengers and 84 crew members from Hong Kong, with a stopover in Honolulu , Hawaii, and was supposed to arrive at her home port of San Francisco at Meiggs' Wharf after another Pacific crossing. The ship was only five miles from its destination. Captain William Charles Ward was in command. A pilot , Frederick W. Jordan, was also on board. He had been working in the field for years.
Passengers on this trip included Rounsevelle Wildman, US Consul General in Hong Kong and Special Commissioner for the US Straits Settlements Colonies (with wife Letitia Aldrich Wildman and two children); Louis MacFarland, London based artist, designer and investor, co-founder of the Alameda County Home Investment Company and President of Fidelity Mortgage and Securities Company; Alfred Hart, diamond dealer from Salt Lake City and Manila; and William Bander, stockbroker, member of the London Stock Exchange .
Between Mile Rock and Bakers Beach, the ship ran into thick fog in the early morning hours of February 22nd and the officers on the navigating bridge had limited visibility. The foghorn sounded at regular intervals. In front of Fort Point , on the south side of the Golden Gate, the City of Rio de Janeiro unexpectedly rammed an underwater reef at 5:21 a.m. at a speed of seven knots . The rocks tore open the ship's hull over almost its entire length. Passengers were thrown from their beds against the walls; Stewards were thrown through corridors and furniture, glass, and luggage began to move.
Wishing to avoid panic, Captain Ward was calm and disciplined towards passengers and crew. He also sent stewards to the lower decks to wake passengers and escort them to the boat deck. The evacuation proved to be very difficult, only three of the eleven existing boats could be lowered into the water. Two of them filled with water and capsized. A fully occupied boat was still in the davits when the ship sank, dragging its occupants with it. Lowering the lifeboats was made difficult by the fact that many of the crew were Chinese and did not understand the orders of the American officers. There was a fight for life jackets and places in the lifeboats. After a few minutes, the lights went out on the ship because the generators failed. Only the flashlights of the officers and sailors lit the scene.
The inrushing seawater quickly flooded the engine room and cargo hold, so that the City of Rio de Janeiro capsized to starboard and went under just eight minutes after the collision . Many of the people floating in the water were caught in the suction of the ship and pulled under the water. After the ship disappeared below the surface , the boilers exploded , hurling numerous debris to the surface. The ship had sunk near the bank, but because of the thick fog, many passengers swam in the wrong direction and drowned.
The disaster took place in such a short period of time that those on duty at the Fort Point rescue station, which was located in the immediate vicinity, did not initially notice anything. It was only when a lifeboat emerged from the fog bank two hours later that it became known that there had been an accident. Rescue ships of the United States Life-Saving Service were immediately dispatched, but they found only 82 survivors who were clinging to the wreckage, 69 passengers and 13 crew members. 128 people were killed. Captain Ward had not survived either. He had only recently said that if he got into such a situation he would go down with his ship. The sinking of the City of Rio de Janeiro is the worst shipwreck in the San Francisco Bay Area to date .
Aftermath
Immediately after the sinking, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company hired divers to locate the ship. However, the water in that area was too deep and the diving equipment at the time was insufficient for such an attempt. The action was unsuccessful.
In the years after the fall there were rumors that the City of Rio de Janeiro gold and silver valued at eleven million US dollars had been on board. Such precious metals are not recorded on the freight list. For charging only 2,423 per 49 had kilogram heavy tin plates heard of afterwards a compensation sum was paid about $ 900,000 (in today's money value).
In 1931 a Captain Charles H. Haskell claimed to have located the wreck using a manned submarine designed by him . He gave a press conference at which he claimed the recovery rights for himself and announced that he wanted to recover gold, silver and jewels. However, he disappeared without a trace in July of the same year.
Due to the strong currents in front of Baker Beach and the depth of the water, the wreck of the City of Rio de Janeiro was only able to reach position 37 ° 48 ′ 51.8 ″ N , 122 not far from the Golden Gate Bridge in a water depth of 87 meters in 2014, despite repeated searches ° 29 '17.6 " W are located. Previously it was assumed, among other things, that the currents drove the steamer further into the open sea while it was sinking. Others assumed that due to the high number of shipwrecks in the Bay Area it could never be properly assigned.
Years after the sinking, bodies and debris were washed up on the California coast. In 1903 the body of Captain Ward was found near Fort Point, who could only be identified by his watch. In 1917 a wooden keg barrel was washed ashore near Point Lobos south of Monterey , on which the words “Rio de Janeiro” were still visible. Two years later, more wreckage was recovered from the beach in Suisun Bay . This area is 40 miles from the place of extinction.
In 1988 the wreck of the City of Rio de Janeiro was added to the National Register of Historic Places (registration number 88002394).
literature
- AL Lonsdale and HR Kaplan: A Guide to Sunken Ships in American Waters. Compass Publications, 1964.
- Don B. Marshall: California Shipwrecks: Footsteps in the Sea. Superior Publishing Company, 1978.
- Robert C. Belyk: Great Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast. John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
Web links
- Entry of the City of Rio de Janeiro in the Miramar Ship Index
- Detailed report on the last trip to the City of Rio de Janeiro
- Illustrated report on the City of Rio de Janeiro
- More about Captain William Ward
- Discussion about the City of Rio de Janeiro ship on Google Answers
- Report on the commissioning of the City of Rio de Janeiro in The New York Times, April 28, 1878
- Entry of the City of Rio de Janeiro in the directory of The Maritime Heritage Projec t
- The shipping company of the City of Rio de Janeiro in The Ships List
- Location of the "City of Rio de Janeiro"
- Office of National Marine Sanctuaries fact sheet
Footnotes
- ↑ Wreck discovered in San Francisco's largest ship disaster. Report on N24 from December 13, 2014 (accessed on December 13, 2014).