Golden Gate (ship)
 |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The Golden Gate was a paddle steamer put into service in 1851 by the US shipping company Pacific Mail Steamship Company , which carried passengers and mail from San Francisco to Panama and back. She was considered one of the fastest ships on the American west coast . On July 27, 1862, the Golden Gate burned down off the Mexican coast, stranded and broke apart. 204 passengers and crew members were killed.
The ship
The 2,067-ton wooden paddle steamer Golden Gate was on the shipyard of William H. Webb in New York built and laid down on July 1, 1850th The 81.99 meter long and 12.19 meter wide ship had three decks , three masts , two chimneys and two paddle wheels, each with a diameter of 10.24 meters. The finished ship left New York in September 1851 and, after making stops in Rio de Janeiro and Valparaíso, arrived in San Francisco for the first time on November 19, 1851. The city's newspapers praised her as the “largest and fastest ship in our waters” and the “best example of shipbuilding in the Pacific”.
At a time when ship losses were regularly reported in American newspapers, the owner of the ship, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, had excellent safety statistics. The Golden Gate was also one of the fastest ships on its route at the time. In her first four years of service (1851 to 1855), she held the speed record for the journey from San Francisco to Panama, which she covered in eleven days and four hours. She drove at an average speed of 12 knots. On September 2, 1852, the ship was confiscated by the authorities because more passengers had been taken than allowed. The following year she almost collided with Cornelius Vanderbilt's steamer Sierra Nevada and in 1854 she went aground at Point Loma .
The misfortune
On Monday, July 21, 1862 at 2:30 p.m., the Golden Gate under the command of Captain WW Hudson left San Francisco for another crossing to Panama. On board were 96 crew members and 242 passengers, 95 of them in the cabin class and 147 in the second class. First class travelers included several wealthy families traveling with servants and nannies. Also on board were gold bars worth $ 1.4 million for delivery to New York and Philadelphia . The actual captain of the ship, RH Pearson, was on board, but was not on duty. He was on board as a passenger to travel south.
Six days after departure, on July 27, 1862, the Golden Gate was about 15 nautical miles from the Mexican coastal city of Manzanillo . Shortly before 5 p.m., when dinner was served to the passengers, a fire was discovered in the rear of the engine room . Captains Hudson and Pearson immediately went to the place where the fire broke out and after about 15 minutes decided to leave the ship stranded on Manzanillo Beach. Pearson took care of the fire fighting, while Hudson took care of the navigation . The Golden Gate set course for the beach now known as Playa de Oro.
At the same time, the abandonment of the ship was ordered. About 100 passengers were ordered to the front area; the rest of the passengers in the aft part of the ship were cut off from communications as the forward movement of the Golden Gate fanned the flames and smoke and drove them aft. After a short time, communication with the engine room was no longer possible. The ship was equipped with several lifeboats , pumps for fire fighting and sufficient life jackets for her passenger capacity. But only a few boats could be launched. Numerous passengers took refuge at the stern and jumped off the ship from there when the flames reached them. Many were thrown against the hull by the waves . At 5.15 p.m. the Golden Gate was still three to four miles from shore.
There the burning ship finally ran aground at 5:30 p.m. about 270 meters from the beach near a rock called Plena Blanca and broke in the surf. The upper deck collapsed and the fore mast overturned. Meanwhile, the machines continued to run. Dozens of passengers and crew reached the shore after spending hours in the water. Numerous dead were buried on the beach of Playa de Oro. A year after the accident, bodies were washed ashore and buried on site. A total of 204 people (170 passengers and 34 crew members) were killed by the fire on board the Golden Gate , including many women and children. 72 passengers and 62 crew members survived, including both captains. (The number of dead is given in various sources as 173, 213 and 223).
On August 6, 1862, most of the survivors were brought back to San Francisco on board the steamer St. Louis . Four days later, the first list of the dead and missing was published in the local newspapers. In New York, the news of the accident due to a break in the telegraph lines did not arrive until August 8, just under two weeks after the accident . Gold bars worth 300,000 US dollars were recovered from the wreck and were shipped to San Francisco in February 1863 on board the Pacific Mail steamer Constitution .
See also
- Lexington - paddle steamer; sank on January 14, 1840 after a fire on board (139 dead)
- Phoenix - paddle steamer; sank on November 22, 1847 after a fire on board (approx. 250 dead)
- Pennsylvania - paddle steamer; sank on June 13, 1858 after a boiler explosion and subsequent fire (200–250 dead)
- Sultana - paddle steamer; sank on April 27, 1865 after a boiler explosion and subsequent fire (approx. 1700 dead)