SS Pacific was a wooden sidewheel steamer built in 1850 most notable for its sinking in 1875 as a result of a collision southwest of Cape Flattery, Washington. Pacific had an estimated 275 passengers and crew aboard when she sank. Only two survived. Among the casualties were several notable figures, including the vessel's captain at the time of the disaster, Jefferson Davis Howell (1846–1875), the brother-in-law of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The sinking of Pacific killed more people than any other marine disaster on the West Coast at the time.
Pacific was commissioned by Major Albert Lowry, Captain Nathanial Jarvis,[1] and her builder, William H. Brown. She was built in Brown's shipyard at the foot of Twelfth Street on the East River in New York. Her hull was oak and live oak timbers fastened together with iron and copper nails.[2]Pacific had a vertical beamsteam engine generating 275 horsepower (205kW).[3] Her engine had a 72-inch (1,800mm)cylinder with a 10-foot (3.0m)stroke. She had two coal-fired boilers. Her machinery was manufactured by the Archimedes Iron Works run by H. R. Dunham of New York.[4]
Pacific sailed with as many as 546 passengers aboard[5] in two classes of service. Passengers purchasing individual cabins would dine in the ship's salon, while steerage passengers had berths in common areas and ate in a separate mess.[6]
She was launched at high water on September 24, 1850.[7] The next day she had a gala sea trial. Captain Jarvis was in command. Also aboard were William Brown, her builder, H. R. Dunham, who supplied her machinery, General Jose Antonio Paez, exiled President of Venezuela, several other steamship captains, and other invited guests. As Pacific headed down the East River, the new steamship Franklin and the new Cunard steamer Asia raced the ship. She easily passed both ships hitting a speed of just over 16 knots (30km/h; 18mph). A cold lunch was served underway. The ship arrived back at her berth in the East River a 5:45 P.M. after an 85-mile (137km) trip.[8]
Panama service (1850–1851)
Pacific sailed from New York on her first commercial voyage on October 11, 1850. She had 80 passengers aboard.[9] She was bound for Havana and finally New Orleans, where she arrived on October 23, 1850.[10] She took up a regular route shuttling between New Orleans, Havana, and Chagres, Panama for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Her schedule connected her with the company's ships sailing to San Francisco (via Panama) and New York (via Havana).
The California gold rush was in full swing at the time, and the quickest way to and from the goldfields was through Panama. Thus, Pacific had its share of dramatic cargoes. She left Chagres with 470 passengers and about $200,000 in gold dust on December 12, 1850, bound for Havana and New Orleans.[11] Her previous trip had been even richer. She left Chagres on November 11, 1850, with $287,000 of California gold dust and 353 passengers including Prince Paul of Württemberg.[12]
In 1850 there were no overland communications routes across North America, so news and mail from California reached the eastern United States through the steamship links at Panama. The news of Western United States brought to New Orleans by Pacific was frequently the first word of events to reach the wider world. The news was telegraphed across the country from New Orleans. While this might have been the fastest method of receiving California news, it was a slow process. For example, the most up to date newspapers that reached New Orleans aboard Pacific on February 6, 1851, were dated January 1, 1851.[13]
Nicaragua service (1851–1855)
Cornelius Vanderbilt made his fortune in regional steam boating in the New York area. When the California gold rush made shipping through Panama profitable, he saw an opportunity for improvement. He believed that a route across Nicaragua, which was closer to the United States, would prove a quicker and cheaper path to the gold fields of California. He was unable to secure financing for a canal as he had hoped, but used instead a route including the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua. The transit time from New York to San Francisco on the new Nicaragua route was variously reported to be two to five days faster than the Panama route.[14] Vanderbilt began buying and chartering ocean-going ships in both the Atlantic and Pacific to make the Nicaragua route a reality. He chartered Pacific from Brown for the Nicaragua to San Francisco section. She sailed under Captain David G. Bailey.[15]
Pacific left New York on March 18, 1851, to take up her new charter.[16] She sailed to San Francisco with a stop in Valparaíso, Chile. Pacific departed San Francisco on her first voyage as part of the new Nicaragua route on July 14, 1851. She stopped for coal in Acapulco on July 23, and reached San Juan del Sur, the Pacific end of the Nicaragua route, on July 27, 1851.[17] Her arrival in Nicaragua was coordinated with the sailing of Vanderbilt's Prometheus, which left New York for Nicaragua, also on July 14, 1851.[18] This inaugural run of Vanderbilt's new route did not go as planned. A $40 or $50 "transit charge" levied in Nicaragua was twice what passengers had been promised, and the mule trains which carried baggage between the steamships were likewise more expensive than advertised. Worst of all, they spent three weeks, "among the vermin, filth, and disease of Nicaragua." The outraged passengers went so far as to form a committee to publish a scathing review of the new service, although they commented favorably on Pacific's Captain Bailey.[19]
Captain Bailey died unexpectedly while Pacific was in port at San Juan del Sur during the fall of 1851.[20] Captain Jarvis was restored to command of the ship,[21] at least through February 1852.[22]
The transit problems in Nicaragua were reduced and Pacific continued her shuttles between San Francisco and San Juan del Sur for several years. In 1853, through rates leaving San Francisco on Pacific, crossing Nicaragua, and sailing to New York on another Vanderbilt steamer were: $225 for deck staterooms, $200 for staterooms opening onto the dining salon, $150 for a cabin on the lower deck, and $75 for steerage.[23] Her cargoes were even richer than on her Panama trips. In September 1853 she left San Francisco with 460 passengers and $1.5 million in gold.[24]
The government of Nicaragua was not strong, which may explain how Vanderbilt got his license to cross the country in the first place. By 1854, this weakness brought about threatening forces. A town near the western terminus of the Nicaragua crossing tried to collect "port fees" and impose other controls on Vanderbilt's operations which were not called for in his charter from the national government. When these demands were rebuffed, armed men from San Juan del Norte seized one of Vanderbilt's employees. The U.S. Consul attempted to negotiate the matter and was wounded in the face when a broken bottle was thrown at him. Matters escalated and the USSCyane bombarded the defenseless town for an hour and thirty-five minutes,[25] destroying it.
While the outcome at San Juan del Norte favored Vanderbilt's interests, the civil war that broke out in Nicaragua in 1854 did not. The national government recruited American mercenary William Walker to defend it from the rebels. He and his band of 30 mercenaries took control of the country. He seized Vanderbilt's assets in Nicaragua in March 1855, likely in collusion with Vanderbilt's erstwhile partner, Charles Morgan.[26]Pacific continued to sail into this confusing situation until at least August 1855.[27]
Pacific Northwest service (1858–1869)
Pacific was "withdrawn" from the Nicaraguan service in early 1856.[28] She falls out of contemporary accounts at that point. It may be that her charter was not renewed in the confusion that overtook Vanderbilt's operations after the seizure of his Nicaraguan properties. In the fall of 1858 she reappears sailing for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company[29] between San Francisco, Portland, Puget Sound, and Victoria, British Columbia.[30] Part of her business, and perhaps the reason for her reactivation was to ferry miners from California to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. She also carried troops amid escalating border tensions in the San Juan Islands with British forces. In January 1858 she embarked 260 enlisted men and 13 officers in San Francisco for Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River.[31]
In 1859 Pacific was purchased by the California Steam Navigation Company which continued to sail her between San Francisco, Portland, Puget Sound, and Victoria.[32][33][34] Much of her freight was agricultural. For example, she sailed from Portland to Victoria on November 15, 1861, with, "2,889 sacks flour; 991 boxes apples; 74 lbs butter; 19 boxes eggs; 28 sacks bacon; 3 barrels cider; 9 coops chickens".[35]
Pacific anchored before Fort Tongass in 1868 during General Halleck's inspection tour of Alaska
Pacific, under the command of Captain George W. Staples, sailed from Portland down the Columbia on July 17, 1861, headed for San Francisco. At 2 A.M. she hit Coffin Rock. At the time she was making 12 knots (22km/h; 14mph) through the water and had a 5-knot (9.3km/h; 5.8mph) current with her. The rock stove in her bow and flooding was immediate and serious. Captain Staples attempted to reach Astoria, but the flooding was too severe. Pacific continued downstream for about ten miles (16km) and was beached on the Washington side of the river. When she came to rest, her stern was submerged to her second deck. There were 70 passengers aboard at the time. There were no deaths, but much of the cargo was destroyed.[36][37]Pacific was refloated on August 2, 1861, and beached at Astoria for repairs.[38] By the end of the year she was back in service, plying her regular route.[39]
Steamboat rate wars raged on the West Coast of the United States in the 1860s. In order to reduce competition on the routes from San Francisco to points north, the California, Oregon, and Mexico Steamship Company acquired six ships, including Pacific, from the California Steam Navigation Company, in mid-1867.[40][41] The California, Oregon and Mexico Steamship Company was reincorporated in California as the North Pacific Transportation Company in early 1869.[42]
In 1868, a year after Alaska was acquired from Russia, Pacific was chartered for General Henry Halleck's inspection trip of the newly acquired territory. In addition to Halleck and his staff, the ship carried ordinance, commissary, and quartermaster's stores for the new military facilities. The ship departed San Francisco on July 29, 1868.[43] The ship stopped at Fort Tongass, Sitka,[44] and Victoria, B.C.,[45] before returning to San Francisco.
Southern California service (1869–1874)
Beginning in 1869, Pacific began to mix her northward sailings to Victoria with southern voyages from San Francisco to San Diego with stops in Santa Barbara, and San Pedro.[46] During the winter of 1869–1870 she took a two-month tourist cruise from San Francisco south to ports in the Gulf of California and then to Honolulu before returning.[47]
In another attempt to damp down rate wars on the West Coast, the Pacific Mail Steamship company bought four steamships, including Pacific and all the Southern California business of the North Pacific Transportation Company in 1872.[41]Pacific's sale price was $50,000.[48] In August 1873 the ship underwent a refit in San Francisco. A new steam engine was installed which had a vertical 54-inch (1,400mm) cylinder with a 10-foot (3.0m) throw.[2] This new engine provided 500 horsepower (370kW). In yet another corporate merger aimed at reducing competition, Goodall, Nelson, and Perkins purchased the Southern California operations of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, including Pacific in early 1875.[49] The ship sold for $35,000.[50] Through all this corporate turmoil, Pacific continued her regular sailings. On March 11, 1873, she arrived in San Francisco with 90,000 oranges and 25,000 lemons from groves around Los Angeles.[51] In 1874 she was making two round-trips per month between San Francisco and San Pedro.[52]
Pacific Northwest service (1875)
Newspaper ad for the Pacific that ran in the Puget Sound Dispatch on September 3, 1875, two months before the ship was lost.
Pacific finished her last Southern California voyages for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in January 1875, and by May was sailing her old route from San Francisco to Victoria for Goodall, Nelson, and Perkins.[53][54] The onset of the Cassiar Gold Rush in far northern British Columbia played a part in her routing. On July 1, 1875, she arrived in San Francisco with $50,629 of Canadian gold aboard.[55] Among the notable passengers aboard in 1875 were the 173 crewmembers of the USSSaranac that was wrecked in Seymour Narrows, British Columbia.[56] Despite all the mergers, rates continued to be quite low. In 1875 a trip aboard Pacific from San Francisco to Olympia, Washington cost $10 in steerage and $20 for a cabin.[57]
Captain Jefferson Davis Howell was master of Pacific when she was sunk in 1875.
Sinking
On November 4, 1875, she boarded passengers and freight in Victoria for her regular run to San Francisco. There were 52 crew aboard, led by Captain Jefferson Davis Howell. Thirty-five through passengers from Puget Sound ports were aboard and another 132 passengers bought tickets and embarked at Victoria. In addition to these ticketed passengers, an unknown number of persons rushed aboard without tickets as she left the dock. Children sailed for free and thus were also likely undercounted. Among the notable people aboard were lumberman Sewell "Sue" Moody, founder of Moodyville, Captain Otis Parsons, who had just sold off his fleet of Fraser River steamers, and J.H. Sullivan, who had been Gold Commissioner of the Cassiar mining district.[58] Passengers also included gold miners going home before the snows hit their diggings in northern British Columbia, and 41 unidentified "Chinamen". While the official estimate was that there were 275 people aboard, there is no way to be sure, and the number of passengers may have been higher.[41]
Her cargo on this voyage included 300 bales of hops, 2,000 sacks of oats, 250 hides, eleven casks of furs, 31 barrels of cranberries, two cases of opium, six horses, two buggies, 280 tons of coal from Puget Sound, $79,220 in gold, and about 30 tons of miscellaneous goods.[41]
Pacific got underway from Victoria at 9:30 A.M. and sailed west, down the Strait of Juan de Fuca. She had a rough passage and had difficulty remaining on an even keel. The crew took the strange step of filling lifeboats with water to correct her list. The steamer passed Tatoosh Island at about 4 P.M and turned south along the coast. At this point she was steaming into the wind, which slowed her progress. The 1,067-ton sailing ship Orpheus[3] was headed in the opposite direction, sailing under the command of Captain Charles Sawyer from San Francisco to pick up a load of coal at Nanaimo.[41] The two ships collided about 25 miles (40km) southwest of Cape Flattery at approximately 10 P.M. on November 4, 1875.
Pacific hit Orpheus near her bow on her starboard side. The two ships hit at an angle, and the bow of Pacific scraped along Orpheus' side until she passed astern. The collision was judged "light" by Sawyer. He speculated that Pacific had reversed her engines, reducing her speed and thus the force of the collision. Much of Orpheus' starboard rigging was ripped away by Pacific's bow, and she was immobilized. Unsure of the extent of the damage, Captain Sawyer ordered the ship's boats readied in case the crew had to abandon ship. A frantic 15 minutes revealed that the hull was sound and that there was no water in the hold. He ordered his men to make temporary repairs to the rigging in order to regain control over the drifting ship. Once the initial emergency had subsided, there was no sign of the steamer that had hit Orpheus. The crew began to grumble that the steamer should have stood by to help them or rescue them if they had sunk. They had no idea the steamer had been damaged, much less sunk, assuming that it had just sailed away. In a few hours Orpheus was underway again, still headed to Nanaimo.[41]
Meanwhile, on board Pacific, a disaster was taking place. Information on these events is limited as only two people, neither of them on the bridge, survived the wreck. Neil Henly was the ship's quartermaster, and Henry F. Jelly of Port Stanley, Ontario was a passenger in British Columbia to survey possible routes for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Both men were in their bunks at the time of the collision. Henley did note that the ship's running lights were on as he retired to his cabin before the collision.[41]
Both men felt and heard the crash as Pacific scraped along Orpheus' side. Jelly ran on deck where he was told that they had hit another vessel and "it's all right". He went back to his cabin, but by then the ship had begun to list to port. He went back on deck and found a chaotic situation. No one was steering the vessel, although the engines were still running.[59] In consultation with Captain Howell, he fired five blue flares, a distress signal. At that point his attention turned to the lifeboats.[60] Henly, too, raced up on deck to find all in confusion. Passengers were scrambling into lifeboats, without order. The crew threw one man overboard who refused to leave a lifeboat. Many boats were without oars; some still had water in them from the attempt to trim the ship, and the crew was unable to launch most of them. Henly and the chief engineer managed to launch one boat, but it immediately capsized.[60] Jelly was in the only other boat that either man saw launched. Pacific had listed so far to port that this boat was set down on the water without having been lowered from its davits. As soon as it was cut loose from the ship, it filled with water and capsized. At this point – Jelly estimated an hour after the collision – Pacific broke in two and the ship's smokestack fell on the capsized boat. The pieces of the ship promptly sank.[61]
After Pacific went under, Henly reported that the water was filled with "a floating mass of human beings, whose screams for help were fearful, but which soon ceased". Most succumbed to hypothermia or drowning. A few, including Jelly and Henly, managed to climb up out of the water onto broken parts of the ship. Women in fashionable dresses with yards of material were at a disadvantage as they were weighed down by their water-logged clothes.[59] Jelly survived by clinging to a piece of the wheelhouse with a miner from Maine who had been in the Cariboo goldfields and, like Jelly, was on his way home to the eastern part of the continent via the transcontinental railway from San Francisco. Jelly's companion succumbed to exposure as the wreckage drifted closer to Vancouver Island. Only three miles from shore, Jelly was rescued by the American barkMessenger at 10 A.M. on November 6, 1875. He was brought ashore at Port Townsend, Washington, weak from exposure.[61] His rescue was the first indication the rest of the world had that Pacific had sunk. A number of vessels, including USRCWolcott were dispatched to look for survivors.[62]
Henly's impromptu raft also carried Captain Howell, the second mate, a cook, and four passengers including a young lady. Waves washed some off the raft, and others died of exposure, leaving Henley alone. He was finally rescued by the Wolcott at 3 A.M. on November 8, 1875.[63]
Orpheus continued her voyage north after the collision, intending to turn east into the Strait of Juan de Fuca once she passed the Cape Flattery lighthouse. Somehow she missed that light. Instead, the mate on watch saw the Cape Beale Light further to the north. This lighthouse had only operated for a few months and none of the officers on board knew about it. They assumed it was Cape Flattery, turned east, and wrecked their ship In Barclay Sound, near Copper (Tzartus) Island, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Some of her crew reached the shore, and others were rescued by Wolcott, which was still looking for survivors from Pacific. Wolcott's officers examined the wreck of Orpheus and confirmed Sawyer's account that Pacific had hit her near the bow and scraped along her starboard side.[62]
A coroner's inquest on some of the bodies recovered was held in Victoria in late November 1875. Henley and Jelly testified, as did Captain Sawyer and some of Orpheus' crew.[59]
All of Pacific's officers and most of her crew were killed in the event, and Captain Sawyer of Orpheus was below at the beginning of the incident so details of the collision are necessarily incomplete. Nonetheless, the surviving accounts and the results of the inquests into the sinking present a fairly clear picture. Orpheus was sailing north in a fine rain. A fresh wind out of the south sped her on her way at 12 knots. It was dark and Sawyer was uncertain just how far his ship was from the coast to his east, so he trimmed his sails so he could fall off to the west at a moment's notice. Sawyer went below at 9:30 P.M. to consult his charts, leaving the ship under the command of the second mate with instructions to fall off to the west if he spotted anything; the mate did so when he spotted a light on his port bow that he thought was the Cape Flattery lighthouse. Had he been correct, his action would have saved the ship from wrecking on the rocky shore; however, the light was Pacific's, and by turning to the west, Orpheus ran directly in front of the approaching steamer.[41]
Potential causes of the disaster
The various inquests agreed that the proximate cause of the sinking was Orpheus crossing in front of Pacific.[64] This simple and obvious conclusion left many questions unanswered, and rumors created new ones.
Collision avoidance
Orpheus clearly steered into the collision, but many speculated that Pacific could have avoided it.[65] While no one from Pacific's bridge survived to tell what the ship did to avoid the collision, several facts illuminate the issue. First, crew members of both vessels reported seeing the lights of the other. The ships had their running lights on, and visibility was adequate for them to be seen. Second, Jelly reported hearing the bells for the engine telegraph go to "stop" after the collision. This throws doubt onto Sawyer's speculation that Pacific slowed prior to the collision.[61] Third, Sawyer claimed that he saw no lookouts on Pacific's deck[41] and Jelly claimed the crew were all asleep below;[59] the Victoria inquest faulted Pacific for inadequate lookouts.[64] A lack of lookouts may have delayed the recognition of the approaching collision until it was too late for Pacific to take action. Finally, Sawyer reported that Pacific blew its whistle, presumably as a warning, 30 seconds before the collision, but appeared not to take evasive action even though it had announced its understanding of the immediate danger.[59]
Seaworthiness of Pacific
There was much sentiment that a glancing blow that did no damage to Orpheus' hull should not have sunk a well-found ship, much less cause her to break into pieces. The New York Times was particularly strident, commenting, "The sinking of the steamer Pacific by collision with a sailing vessel was a fair example of the worthlessness of some of the hulls now afloat. That collision might have been avoided is very true; but there is no possible excuse for the breaking up of a vessel by such a blow as that given by the Orpheus. The steamer's bow was crushed in like glass, on receiving a blow delivered obliquely. It is a perversion of language to call such a ship 'seaworthy."[65] There were calls for greater steamboat regulation, criticism of the Steamboat Inspection Service, and some questions raised about the lack of maintenance on ships caused by the relentless fare wars.[66]
The use of water-filled life rafts to trim Pacific, as reported by Jelly,[61] indicates that she had stability problems well before the collision. If she already had water in her hold, and was overloaded or the cargo was mis-stowed, this could have caused the ship to capsize more quickly once flooding began after the collision.
Captain Howell
Captain Howell was only 34 years old at the time of the sinking, and there were questions raised about his competence and experience. The fact that he was the brother-in-law of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis, no doubt created a cloud of ill-feeling around him, but his experience as a mariner was comparable to other steamboat captains at the time. He studied at the US Naval Academy prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War and commanded a gunboat for the Confederate Navy for two years. He came to California in 1869 and began a commercial steamboat career.[67] He commanded ships for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and the Oregon Steamship Company. Immediately prior to joining Goodall, Nelson, and Perkins, Howell had been captain of the North Pacific Transportation Company's steamers Idaho, Montana, Pelican and others.[68]
Aftermath
By the time that Captain Sawyer embarked for California, the world had discovered that Pacific was sunk with huge loss of life, and that Orpheus had sailed away without attempting a rescue. He was vilified in the press.[69] It was speculated that Captain Sawyer had wrecked his ship on purpose either to "eliminate the evidence" or to collect on his insurance, since his normal profits would not be sufficient to repair the damages from the collision.[70] He was arrested, but an inquest in San Francisco exonerated him. Sawyer died at Port Townsend in 1894.[71]
The wreck of Orpheus was sold for $385 to J. J. Hunt, who hired a crew to salvage what he could.[58] In January 1893 her anchors and chain were salvaged.[41]
Marietta (Mettie) Carr Mahon (daughter of Job Carr) and her son, Frankie Mahon
Henry Clay Victor
Fred D. Hard
George T. Vining
Passengers Residence Unknown
C. B. Davidson and wife
T. Allison
William Maxwell
A. Robbins
O. McPherson
B. Wood
John Tarnett
M Wilson
A. Lang
J. McLanders
J. Fitzgerald
C. Chisholm
J. S. Webster
William Polley
H. Cline
W. Waldron
G. Gribell
John McCormack
Isaac Webbs
Cal Mandeville, wife and child
F. Garesche
C. Somers
J. Foster
J. H. Sullivan
J. W. Doyle
J. Kennedy
William Powell
S. Nichleson
James H. Webb
Edward Shephard
George Bryson
Richard Turnbull
Charles Smith
A. L. Rainey
F. E. Meyer
J. Thompson
P. Canty
Adam Foster
R. Lyon
George Bird
J. McLaughlin
William Champion
William Power
John Kenalley
P. I .. Chapman
William Ammiss
William Purdary
John G. Todd
Doc Young
J. Congdon
A. Frazer
Miss A. Reynolds
Mrs. Moote
Edward H. Pooley
Mrs. S. Styles and child
C. B. Fairbanks
A. B. Otway
J. F. Johnston
John Cochrane
T. J. Ferrill
J. Cahill
William Wills
Miss Fanny Palmer
Mrs. Lawson
James Lennings
D. C. McIntyre
Captain and Mrs. Parsons and child
W. J. Ferry
Thomas Smith
S. P. Moody
M. Somers
John Watson
R. Hudson,
E. P. Atkins
R. Layzelle
John Lee
George Morton
John Sampson
George Herne
G. Journeaux
Joseph Haverly and wife
Dennis Kane
C. N. Miles
J. Creden
J. Pettier
Mr. and Mrs. H. Keller and child
John Tarbet
T. J. Robinson
George Skippon
E. T. Jaynes
Mrs. Hurlburt
Richard Cochrane
B. F. Gretz
Richard Waldron
Rockwell and Hurlburt troupe
50 “chinamen”
Wreck discovery and recovery
This is a sonar image of Pacific's two paddlewheels lying in the silt. The bright spot in the center of each is likely the drive shaft poking out of the mud. The depressions are 8 meters in diameter, matching the size of Pacific's paddlewheels. The two bright spots near the paddlewheels are bits of fishing gear that snagged on the drive shafts and ripped away.
Pacific's cargo included at least 200 pounds (91kg) of gold, sparking the interest of treasure hunters.[73] Given the historical significance of the ship and its loss, others have been interested in the wreck from an archeological perspective as well. At least six different parties have mounted searches for the wreck of the Pacific since 1993.[74] The wreck has proven hard to locate for a variety of reasons. First, it is certain that the mariners on Orpheus did not know precisely where they were and thus could not accurately report the position of the collision. Second, almost no one survived from Pacific, and certainly none of the deck officers who might have been able to report the position of the sinking. Third, the water is deep and the bottom uneven in the area of the sinking. Finally, after over a century on the sea floor, the wooden hull and other organic matter in the wreck would have decomposed leaving little more than a flat debris field, some of which was likely covered in silt.
This fire brick was recovered from the wreck site. Pacific's boilers certainly used this type of material. Note the dark soot on the end that faced the coal fires.
Rockfish, Inc. is a for-profit corporation which was launched in 2016 with the goal of locating and salvaging Pacific. Through 2022, $2.1 million has been invested in Rockfish by 45 people.[75] Jeff Hummel, president of Rockfish, pursued a number of clues to narrow the search area off the Washington coast. Bottom-trawling fishermen provided one clue. Some brought up chunks of coal in their nets. Since coal is not found naturally on the sea floor, Rockfish had a chemical analysis completed on one of the recovered rocks. It matched the composition of coal from a mine in Coos Bay, Oregon that was owned by Goodall, Nelson, and Perkins, suggesting that it may have come from Pacific's bunkers.[74] Acting on this and other clues, in the summer of 2021, Rockfish located what it believed to be the wreck using side-scan sonar. In follow-up surveys during the summer and fall of 2022, the wreck was photographed using a deep-diving remotely operated underwater vehicle, and a number of artifacts were brought to the surface.[76]
In November 2022, Rockfish filed for salvage rights to the ship based on its sonar data, photography, and artifact evidence.[76] On November 23, 2022, the United States District Court in Western Washington granted exclusive salvage rights to the wreck to Rockfish for 12 months. In order to renew its exclusive salvage rights, Rockfish is required by the Court to diligently undertake the salvage of the ship. The wreck discovered by Rockfish has not been definitively identified as Pacific. Nonetheless, the Court found the evidence sufficiently persuasive that it ordered the public notice of the grant of salvage rights to characterize it as "currently believed to be S.S. Pacific".[77]
Rockfish plans further expeditions to the wreck site in the fall of 2023, and the summers of 2024, and 2025. Recovery of additional artifacts will begin with the debris field surrounding the remains of the ship, and then progress to the wreck itself.[75]
The Northwest Shipwreck Alliance is a non-profit corporation [78] headed by Matthew McCauley,[79] a long-time partner of Jeff Hummel in numerous salvage efforts. Rockfish, Inc. and its investors are entitled to any profits from any gold or other treasure recovered, but have entered into an agreement to donate all other artifacts recovered to Northwest Shipwreck Alliance.[80] It announced its desire to display recovered artifacts in an appropriate museum setting.[75]
Captains
Historical documents provide a partial list of Pacific's captains:
Charles Morgan was an American railroad and shipping magnate. He played a leading role in the development of transportation and commerce in the Southern United States through the mid- to late-19th century.
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants. Incorporators included William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland.
Brother Jonathan was a paddle steamer that struck an uncharted rock near Point St. George, off the coast of Crescent City, California, on July 30, 1865. The ship was carrying 244 passengers and crew, with a large shipment of gold. Only 19 people survived, making it the deadliest shipwreck up to that time on the Pacific Coast of the United States. Based on the passenger and crew list, 225 people are believed to have died. Its location was not discovered until 1993 and a portion of the gold was recovered in 1996. The ship was also instrumental in setting off the 1862 smallpox epidemic in the Pacific Northwest, which killed thousands of Indigenous people in the region.
SS Winfield Scott was a sidewheel steamer that transported passengers and cargo between San Francisco, California and Panama in the early 1850s, during the California Gold Rush. After entering a heavy fog off the coast of Southern California on the evening of December 1, 1853, the ship crashed into Middle Anacapa Island. All 450 passengers and crew survived, but the ship was lost.
U.S. Mail Steamship Company was a company formed in 1848 by George Law, Marshall Owen Roberts and Bowes R. McIlvaine to assume the contract to carry the U. S. mails from New York City, with stops in New Orleans and Havana, to the Isthmus of Panama for delivery in California. The company had the SS Ohio and the SS Georgia built in 1848, and with the purchased SS Falcon in early 1849 carried the first passengers by steamship to Chagres, on the east coast of the Isthmus of Panama. Soon the rapid transit time the steamship lines and the trans isthmus passage made possible when the California Gold Rush began made it a very profitable company.
Active was a survey ship that served in the United States Coast Survey, a predecessor of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, from 1852 to 1861. Active served on the U.S. West Coast. She conducted the Coast Survey's first reconnaissance from San Francisco, California, to San Diego, California, in 1852. Active sometimes stepped outside her normal Coast Survey duties to support U.S. military operations, serving as a troop transport and dispatch boat during various wars with Native Americans and during the San Juan Islands "Pig War" with the United Kingdom in 1859. She also rushed Union troops to Los Angeles, California, in 1861 during the early stages of the American Civil War.
SS Northerner was the first paddle steamer lost in operations by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.
SS California was one of the first steamships to steam in the Pacific Ocean and the first steamship to travel from Central America to North America. She was built for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company which was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company in the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants: William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland. She was the first of three steamboats specified in a government mail contract to provide mail, passenger, and freight service from Panama to and from San Francisco and Oregon.
SS San Juan was a passenger steamship owned by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Navigation Company. Previously, she was owned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and White Flyer Line. At the age of 47 years, San Juan was involved in a collision with the steel-hulled oil tanker S.C.T. Dodd. Because of her aged iron hull, San Juan was fatally damaged in the collision and sank three minutes later, killing 65 people. The loss of San Juan was strikingly similar to the loss of Columbia.
The California Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1854 to consolidate competing steamship companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. It was successful in this effort and established a profitable near-monopoly which it maintained by buying out or bankrupting new competitors. In response to the Fraser Canyon gold rush and economic growth in the Pacific Northwest, the company expanded to ocean routes from San Francisco north to British Columbia. Similarly, as California's economy grew, the company offered service from San Francisco south to San Pedro and San Diego. It exited these markets in 1867 when competition drove prices to unprofitable levels. While the California Steam Navigation Company was successful throughout its life in suppressing steamboat competition on its core Bay Area and river routes, it could not control the rise of railroads. These new competitors reduced the company's revenue and profit. Finally, in 1871, the company's assets were purchased by the California Pacific Railroad, and the corporation was dissolved.
The SS Yankee Blade was a three-masted side-wheel steamship belonging to the Independent Line. The Yankee Blade was one of the first steamships built to transport gold, passengers, and cargo between Panama and San Francisco, California, during the California Gold Rush. The ship wrecked in fog off of Point Arguello in Southern California on October 1, 1854. The shipwreck cost an estimated 30 to 40 lives.
The SS City of Chester was a steamship built in 1875 that sank after a collision in a dense fog with SS Oceanic at the Golden Gate in San Francisco Bay on August 22, 1888. She was owned by the Oregon Railroad Co. and leased by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company.
Ancon was an ocean-going wooden sidewheel steamship built in San Francisco in 1867. She carried both passengers and freight. In her early career she was a ferry in Panama and then ran between Panama and San Francisco. Later she began coastal runs between Sand Diego and San Francisco. Her last route was Port Townsend, Washington to Alaska. Today she is more notable for her disasters than her routine voyages. Ancon Rock in Icy Strait, Alaska is the site of her 1886 grounding. Her final wreck, in 1889 in Naha Bay, near Loring, Alaska was commemorated by Albert Bierstadt. His painting, "Wreck of the 'Ancon' in Loring Bay, Alaska" now hangs in the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.
Idaho was a wooden steamship built for Pacific Coast passenger and freight service. She was launched in 1866 and wrecked in 1889. She was one of the first ocean-going steamships to provide regular service to the northwest coast of North America.
Orizaba was one of the first ocean-going steamships in commercial service on the west coast of North America and one of the last side-wheelers in regular use. Her colorful career spanned the business intrigues of Cornelius Vanderbilt, civil unrest in Mexico and Nicaragua, and the Fraser River gold rush. The ship was particularly important to Southern California ports, where she called for roughly the last 20 years of her service.
Senator was a wooden, side-wheel steamship built in New York in 1848. She was one of the first steamships on the California coast and arguably one of the most commercially successful, arriving in San Francisco at the height of the California gold rush. She was the first ocean-going steamer to sail up the Sacramento River to reach the new gold fields. After more purpose-built river steamers became available, Senator began a 26-year long career sailing between San Francisco and Southern California ports. Age and improving technology finally made the ship unsuitable for passenger service by 1882. Her machinery was removed and she was converted into a coal hulk. She ended her days in New Zealand, where she was broken up sometime around 1912.
William H. Brown was a 19th-century American shipbuilder. He was well known for building fast and seaworthy yachts, paddle steamers and steamboats. He was one of the first shipbuilders in the country and had his business for more than thirty years having built over 300 vessels. He built the yacht America, which was the first winner of the America's Cup; the paddle steamer SS Arctic; and the sidewheel steamer Pacific, as well as other fine ships.
The S.S. Golden Gate was a mail and passenger steamer that operated between San Francisco and Panama City from 1851 to 1862. On its last voyage from San Francisco it caught fire and was destroyed with the loss of 204 lives off Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico. The ship was carrying $1,400,000 in gold coins for Wells Fargo, as well as large amounts of gold and coins for the passengers. Much of this was retrieved, but amateurs continue to search for gold with metal detectors on what is now called the Playa de Oro.
Orus was a wooden side-wheel steamship built in 1842. After a short commercial career connecting ports in New Jersey to lower Manhattan, she was employed in some of the earliest attempts to develop transcontinental shipping routes across Panama and later, across Nicaragua. She was wrecked in 1850 attempting to ascend the San Juan River in Nicaragua.
Director was a wooden, side-wheel steamship built in 1850 specifically for the river and lake portions of Cornelius Vanderbilt's trans-Nicaragua shipping route. She was the first steam vessel to sail on Lake Nicaragua. She was not only significantly profitable for Vanderbilt, but having proved the transcontinental route viable, changed both Central American and United States history. Her success produced investments in newer, more capable ships and she was retired sometime between 1854 and 1856.
"The Wreck of the Steamship Pacific: The Worst Maritime Disaster of the West Coast", by Brian K. Crawford is a book dealing with the sinking. ISBN9781533023858
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