Eureka is a side-wheel paddle steamboat, built in 1890, which is now preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California. Originally named Ukiah to commemorate the railway's recent extension into the City of Ukiah, the boat was built by the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad Company at their Tiburon yard. Eureka has been designated a National Historic Landmark and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on April 24, 1973.
William Richardson was an early California entrepreneur, influential in the development of Yerba Buena, the forerunner of San Francisco.
The SS City of Rio de Janeiro was an iron-hulled steam-powered passenger ship, launched in 1878, which sailed between San Francisco and various Asian Pacific ports. On 22 February 1901, the vessel sank after striking a submerged reef at the entry to San Francisco Bay while inward bound from Hong Kong. Of the approximately 220 passengers and crew on board, fewer than 85 people survived the sinking, while 135 others were killed in the catastrophe. The wreck lies in 287 feet (87 m) of water just off the Golden Gate and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as nationally significant.
The Puget Sound mosquito fleet was a multitude of private transportation companies running smaller passenger and freight boats on Puget Sound and nearby waterways and rivers. This large group of steamers and sternwheelers plied the waters of Puget Sound, stopping at every waterfront dock. The historical period defining the beginning and end of the mosquito fleet is ambiguous, but the peak of activity occurred between the First and Second World Wars.
Bonnington was a sternwheel steamboat that ran on the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia from 1911 to 1931. Bonnington and two sisterships were the largest sternwheelers ever built in British Columbia. Bonnington was partially dismantled in the 1950s, and later sank, making the vessel the largest freshwater wreck site in British Columbia.
The history of steamboats on the Oregon Coast begins in the late 19th century. Before the development of modern road and rail networks, transportation on the coast of Oregon was largely water-borne. This article focuses on inland steamboats and similar craft operating in, from south to north on the coast: Rogue River, Coquille River, Coos Bay, Umpqua River, Siuslaw Bay, Yaquina Bay, Siletz River, and Tillamook Bay. The boats were all very small, nothing like the big sternwheelers and propeller boats that ran on the Columbia River or Puget Sound. There were many of them, however, and they came to be known as the "mosquito fleet."
The steamboat Triton was a passenger ferry that operated on Lake Washington in the first part of the 20th century.
The Greycliffe disaster occurred in Sydney Harbour (Australia) on 3 November 1927 when the harbour ferry Greycliffe and the Union Steamship Company mail steamer Tahiti collided. The smaller ferry was cut in two and sank with the loss of 40 lives, the deadliest incident on Sydney Harbour.
The John M. Osborn was a wooden steam barge that sank in Lake Superior in 1884 with the loss of five lives. The Osborn was just 2 years old when the larger, steel-hulled Alberta, which was called a "steel monster" and "terror of the lakes", rammed her. The wreck of the Osborn was discovered 100 years after her sinking. The wreck was illegally salvaged in the 1980s. Many of Osborn's artifacts became the property of the State of Michigan after they were seized from Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The State allows the museum to display the artifacts as a loan. The wreck of the Osborn is now protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve as part of an underwater museum.
Coyote Creek is a stream in the Richardson Bay watershed, draining Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, California eastward into Richardson Bay, Marin County, California, United States. The stream originates on Coyote Ridge and flows 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to the bay at the south end of Bothin Marsh.
SS Columbia (1880–1907) was a cargo and passenger steamship that was owned by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and later the San Francisco and Portland Steamship Company. Columbia was constructed in 1880 by the John Roach & Sons shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.
Issaquah was a steam ferry built in 1914 that operated on Lake Washington and in San Francisco Bay.
Many ships have wrecked in and around San Francisco Bay. For centuries San Francisco Bay, with its strong currents, rocky reefs, and low fog conditions has experienced more than a hundred shipwrecks. Ever since San Francisco Bay was discovered during the land expedition of Gaspar de Portolà in 1769, it has been one of the most popular harbors.
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 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 Admiral Sampson was a U.S.-flagged cargo and passenger steamship that served three owners between 1898 and 1914, when it was rammed by a Canadian passenger liner and sank in Puget Sound. Following its sinking off Point No Point, the Admiral Sampson has become a notable scuba diving destination for advanced recreational divers certified to use rebreathing equipment.
Ocean Wave was a steamboat that was operated from 1891 to 1897 on the Columbia River, from 1897 to 1899 on Puget Sound and from 1899 to 1911 as a ferry on San Francisco Bay. Ocean Wave is perhaps best known for transporting summer vacationers from Portland, Oregon to seaside resorts near Ilwaco, Washington during its service on the Columbia River. This vessel is also known for being the first ferry placed in service by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to recreational dive sites:
The steamship General Frisbie was a wooden two-deck passenger ship built in 1900, named after John B. Frisbie. She was designed for use as a ferry between Vallejo and San Francisco. The steamer was successful in that role and was the fastest ship on the route when she began service. Improved roads, bridges, and automobiles reduced demand for ferry service in the Bay Area, and newer ships were optimized for transporting cars, so General Frisbie was retired in the late 1920s.
The Harriet B. was a wooden-hulled barge that served on the Great Lakes of North America, originally as the railroad ferry Shenango No.2, then a bulk carrier and finally as an unpowered barge. She sank four miles off Two Harbors, Minnesota on May 3, 1922 after being rammed by the steel freighter Quincy A. Shaw. Her wreck was accidentally located upright and intact in 2005 in 656 feet (200 m) of water. On August 9, 2018 the wreck of the Harriet B. was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
