SS Northwestern
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | Northwestern |
Namesake | The Northwestern Steamship Company |
Builder | Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works |
Launched | 23 November 1889 |
Fate | Sank at mooring, Captains Bay, Unalaska Island |
General characteristics | |
Type | Passenger and freight transport |
Length | 336 ft (102 m) |
Speed | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
S. S. Northwestern Shipwreck Site | |
Unalaska | |
Coordinates | 53°49′50″N 166°36′37″W / 53.83056°N 166.61028°W |
NRHP reference No. | 94001065[1] |
Added to NRHP | 12 September 1994[1] |
The SS Northwestern, originally SS Oriziba, was a passenger and freight steamship launched in 1889 by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works, Chester, Pennsylvania which spent most of its career in service in the waters of the Territory of Alaska.[2] The ship from early in its career had a reputation for trouble, and was frequently involved in groundings, collisions with other ships, and with port facilities. She first served as a transport in the West Indies as Oriziba, and was acquired by the Northwestern Steamship Company in 1906, sailed around Cape Horn, and renamed Northwestern. For the next thirty years she worked along the Alaska coast, transporting people, mail, and goods, as well as ore from mining operations at Kennecott.[3]
Grounding Incidents
On March 14, 1907, the steamer ran aground when a storm pushed her onto a reef in
On 14 February 1909, Northwestern sighted a flare from the sloop Nugget, which had been blown out into the Gulf of Alaska off Cross Sound by a storm on 9 February during a voyage from Lituya Bay to Juneau, Alaska, and whose crew was abandoning her 75 nautical miles (139 km; 86 mi) off Cape Fairweather (58°48′30″N 137°56′45″W / 58.80833°N 137.94583°W) after a second storm struck and destroyed her sails and rigging. Northwestern rescued seven crewmen from Nugget and transported them to Juneau.[5]
On 3 December 1910 she ran hard aground on Pile Point at the entrance to False Bay tearing a 40 foot hole in her. refloated, repaired and returned to service.[6]
In April, 1911 she participated in Cordova's "Copper Day" celebration commemorating the completion of the "Copper River and Northwestern Railroad" and first arrival of ore from the Kennicott Mine, she transported that shipment to Tacoma, Washington.[7]
27 September 1911 on arrival at
In January, 1913 she ran aground near Vladez Alaska Territory, in February she had a collision with "Skagit Queen", and on 12 September a collision with "H. B. Kennedy".[9]
On 6 October 1915 she grounded on Potter Rock just south of
On 25 July 1933, Northwestern ran aground off Alaska's
Final Sinking
Northwestern was pressed into service by the
The site of the shipwreck was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.[1]
References
- ^ a b c "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ Burwell, Michael (2014). The S.S. Northwestern: Sailing Sheltered Seas, an Illustrated History. Anchorage, AK: United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ ISBN 9781602231351.
- ISBN 9781602231351. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ^ alaskashipwreck.com Alaska Shipwrecks (N)
- ISBN 9781602231351. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ISBN 9781602231351. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
- ISBN 9781602231351. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ISBN 9781602231351. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ISBN 9781602231351. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ^ "American steamer beached". The Times. No. 46507. London. 27 July 1933. col A, p. 23.