Ships lost in San Francisco
Many ships have wrecked in and around
During the
Partial list of lost ships
Caroline Amelia
Caroline Amelia, a
Danish bark Caroline Amelia, which cleared on the 16th inst. for Costa Rica, was wrecked on the Mile Rocks in the offing yesterday morning. She was running for "the needles" when the breeze suddenly died away and a strong ebb tide set her in shore. She dropped anchors but her chain cables parted, and, in spite of all the exertions of the officers and crew she was driven by force of the current directly upon the above named rocks, staving an ugly hole in her bottom. Being an old ship her timbers soon gave way and filling steadily she went down in about ten fathoms [60 ft; 18 m] of water, entirely out of sight. The captain succeeded in getting his chronometers, instruments, clothes, and money out of the ship before she sunk, and the crew saved all their dunnage.[1]
Golden Fleece
Golden Fleece was a 968-ton
Granada
Granada was a 1,058 91/95-ton[clarification needed] sidewheel steamship. It was wrecked because of the break in her main steam line on October 13, 1860. It lost power and was dragged ashore near Fort Point. In two days the steamer became a total loss and a local attraction. The Daily Alta California wrote that "The Granada was visited by crowds of people yesterday, as she lay high and dry beyond Fort Point".[1] The wreck was sold on the auction and the salvaging began: "men... were taking the machinery out, and assisting the waves to break to pieces what is left of her".[1]
Rescue
Rescue was a 139-ton tugboat that was wrecked at
Frank Jones
Frank Jones wrecked on March 30, 1877, while leaving San Francisco on a voyage to Manila. It was attached to the tugboat Monarch, but the hawser (mooring rope) parted. Although another hawser was passed to Frank Jones, it parted as well. The anchor's chain proved to be too short to secure the vessel, and she was carried ashore around near Fort Point. The wreck was sold at Merchant's Exchange, but two attempts to bring the wreck to the beach for repair failed.[1]
King Philip
King Philip, a 1,194 40/95-ton[clarification needed] three-masted ship, was wrecked on January 25, 1878. The wreck occurred in low wind conditions that could not support its sails. A towboat was called to help another clipper, Western Shore, and did not help King Philip. It was carried ashore at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Yesterday morning at and after daylight the sea was breaking well up to the vessel, and she moved very uneasily at times, but later in the day it appeared as if she had settled down in the sand... she was immovable".[1] The tide was low and the sailors were able to get off the ship and walk to the beach. The wreck, which was buried in the sand, is the most preserved wreck of a wooden clipper ship off the coast of California.[1]
Left in place at extreme low tide level in 1878, what is left of the wreck of the King Philip is usually covered in sand. Sometimes, as the profile of the sand on the beach shifts and changes, the timbers reemerge and are visible during low tide. The wreck was partially visible when the schooner Reporter wrecked on the same site on March 13, 1902. Contemporary accounts noted that the Reporter was "fast digging her own grave alongside the bones of the "King Philip", whose ribs are still seen..." The wrecks of both ships were buried in 1910 when a large amount of sand was pushed on to the beach as sand dunes were bulldozed during construction of the
SS City of Chester
The coastal steamer City of Chester, bound for Eureka with 90 passengers on the morning of August 22, 1888, sank six minutes after colliding with the liner
In May 2013 a
There are no plans to raise the wreck, but an exhibit at the San Francisco headquarters of the
The rediscovery near the Golden Gate Bridge of a 202-foot-long (62 m) passenger steamship that sank in 1888 is being hailed[by whom?] as restoring an important historical link to San Francisco’s early Chinese American community.[clarification needed]
SS City of Rio de Janeiro
SS City of Rio de Janeiro was an iron hulled steam powered
Yosemite
Yosemite was a single-ended, 827-ton steam schooner. It was wrecked on February 7, 1926 near Point Reyes, approximately 30 miles (50 km) WNW of San Francisco. At the time of the wreck, it contained 25 tons of dynamite as cargo. After receiving a distress signal, the nearby schooner Willamette rescued the crew. Yosemite was then tugged to San Francisco, but detached from the tugboat and on February 8, 1926 drifted to Ocean Beach around Cliff House and broke apart on impact. Some speculated that the dynamite exploded, others believed that the schooner was broken by the surf. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Whatever the cause, the ship was splintered to atoms".[1] The Lurline pier was damaged by wreckage.[8] According to the Chronicle, "Thousands of spectators crowded the beach for the next few days, picking up souvenirs and posing for pictures amidst the wreckage."[1]
References
- ^ NOAA. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
- ^ a b Carl Nolte and Meredith May (May 9, 2007). "Shipwreck makes a romantic return / Remains of clipper ship appear again on Ocean Beach every 20 years or so". SFGate. Archived from the original on December 9, 2010.
- ^ Mark Lukach. "The Return of the King Philip Shipwreck". oceanbeachbulletin.com. Archived from the original on 2013-07-30.
- ^ "Remains of old shipwreck resurface at Ocean Beach". KGO-TV. March 30, 2011.
- ^ Romney, Lee (April 24, 2014). "1888 shipwreck in San Francisco Bay hailed as big historical find". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ The Seamen's bill: Hearings held before the Committee on the Merchant Marine. United States Congress. 1911. p. 62. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
- ^ The Sun almanac for 1899. January 7, 1899. p. 47. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
- ^ "Boilers of Wreck In South Channel Bring Warning". Oakland Tribune (Subscription required). March 1, 1926. p. 18 – via Newspaperarchive.com.