SS City of Rio De Janeiro
Encyclopedia
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 21 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 survived. The wreck lies in 320 feet (97.5 m) of water just off the Golden Gate and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places
as nationally significant.
and the United States
. This proved unprofitable and she was sold to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
in 1881 and refitted to serve as an ocean liner
, traveling between her home port in San Francisco to Honolulu
, Hawaii
, Yokohama
, Japan
and Hong Kong
.
In 1898 the US Government leased the ship for a short time to ferry troops to Manila
in the Philippines
as part of the Spanish American War.http://www.spanamwar.com/transports.htm#Rio%20De%20Janeiro After the war she went back to her usual Pacific route.
in heavy fog, en route to her home port of San Francisco, the City of Rio De Janeiro struck rocks, reportedly on the southern part of the straits at or near Fort Point, and sank.
The damage to the ship was considerable: virtually the entire underside of the vessel had been torn open by the collision and the engine room and cargo holds rapidly flooded. The ship had been built in 1878, before watertight bulkheads came into use, and sunk in 320 feet (97.5 m) of water only eight minutes after striking the reef.
Launching of the lifeboats was hampered by a language barrier between her mostly Chinese crew and American officers.
The wreck was so sudden that the lookout at the Fort Point Lifesaving Station
, only a few hundred yards away, was completely unaware of the situation for two hours, when a lifeboat was sighted emerging from a fog bank. Fortunately Italian fishermen were nearby and were able to rescue a number of survivors clinging to wreckage. One of those rescuers, Gaspare Palazzolo of Terrasini, Sicily, Captain of the boat, "Citta di N.Y." was awarded a gold medal by the Banco Italo-Americana di San Francisco for his heroism.
Of the 210 people aboard, 82 were rescued and approximately 130 people perished. The captain, William Ward
, was not among the survivors. He had previously stated that if ever faced with such a situation, he would go down with his ship. Among those lost in the wreck was Rounsevelle Wildman, the US Consul General at Hong Kong, who had been en route for Washington DC to participate in the inauguration
of William McKinley
.
listed no such cargo. However, the manifest did list 2,423 slabs of tin
, each of which weighed 107 pounds (48.5 kg). The ship's insurers paid a sum of $79,000 for the loss of the metal, which at present day prices would be worth in excess of $900,000.
For some years after the disaster, bodies washed up on the beach near Fort Point, including, in 1903, the remains of Captain Ward which were identified by the watch chain wrapped around his rib cage. In 1917, a wooden keg
clearly marked Rio de Janeiro surfaced off Point Lobos
. In 1919, more wreckage from the ship surfaced off Suisun Bay
, 40 miles (64.4 km) away from the assumed site of the wreck between Mile Rock
and Baker Beach
.
In 1931 a Captain Haskell made a formal claim for the cargo and fabric of the wreck by right of discovery; he announced to a news conference that he had discovered the wreck using a two-man submarine of his own invention and planned to salvage $6 million worth of silver from the wreck. However, he disappeared without a trace in July 1931.
The wreck of the Rio de Janeiro has never since been located. A reason which has been cited is that off Baker Beach the currents are too strong for amateur divers and the water too deep for anything other than professional divers. It has also been suggested that the currents may have pushed the ship out to sea as she sank, while some say that she will never be found because of the number of wrecks on the seabed in the area, and that even using modern sonar it would be impossible to distinguish whatever remains of the ship from all the other disintegrated remnants of sunken ships.
Passenger ship
A passenger ship is a ship whose primary function is to carry passengers. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freighters once common on the seas in which the transport of passengers is...
, launched in 1878, which sailed between San Francisco and various Asian Pacific ports. On 21 February 1901, the vessel sank after striking a submerged reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
at the entry to San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
while inward bound from Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. Of the approximately 220 passengers and crew on board, fewer than 85 survived. The wreck lies in 320 feet (97.5 m) of water just off the Golden Gate and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as nationally significant.
History
Launched on 6 March 1878, the City of Rio de Janeiro was originally built for the United States & Brazil Mail Steamship Company, a two-ship shipping line between BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. This proved unprofitable and she was sold to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
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, William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland...
in 1881 and refitted to serve as an ocean liner
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
, traveling between her home port in San Francisco to Honolulu
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
.
In 1898 the US Government leased the ship for a short time to ferry troops to Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
as part of the Spanish American War.http://www.spanamwar.com/transports.htm#Rio%20De%20Janeiro After the war she went back to her usual Pacific route.
Sinking
On 22 February 1901, while trying to pass through the Golden GateGolden Gate
The Golden Gate is the North American strait connecting San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. Since 1937 it has been spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge...
in heavy fog, en route to her home port of San Francisco, the City of Rio De Janeiro struck rocks, reportedly on the southern part of the straits at or near Fort Point, and sank.
The damage to the ship was considerable: virtually the entire underside of the vessel had been torn open by the collision and the engine room and cargo holds rapidly flooded. The ship had been built in 1878, before watertight bulkheads came into use, and sunk in 320 feet (97.5 m) of water only eight minutes after striking the reef.
Launching of the lifeboats was hampered by a language barrier between her mostly Chinese crew and American officers.
The wreck was so sudden that the lookout at the Fort Point Lifesaving Station
United States Life-Saving Service
The United States Life-Saving Service was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian efforts to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners and passengers...
, only a few hundred yards away, was completely unaware of the situation for two hours, when a lifeboat was sighted emerging from a fog bank. Fortunately Italian fishermen were nearby and were able to rescue a number of survivors clinging to wreckage. One of those rescuers, Gaspare Palazzolo of Terrasini, Sicily, Captain of the boat, "Citta di N.Y." was awarded a gold medal by the Banco Italo-Americana di San Francisco for his heroism.
Of the 210 people aboard, 82 were rescued and approximately 130 people perished. The captain, William Ward
William Ward
-Athletics:* William Ward , American boxer who fought under the name Kid Norfolk* William Ward , British cricketer, scorer of the first ever double-century...
, was not among the survivors. He had previously stated that if ever faced with such a situation, he would go down with his ship. Among those lost in the wreck was Rounsevelle Wildman, the US Consul General at Hong Kong, who had been en route for Washington DC to participate in the inauguration
Inauguration
An inauguration is a formal ceremony to mark the beginning of a leader's term of office. An example is the ceremony in which the President of the United States officially takes the oath of office....
of William McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
.
Cargo
After the shipwreck, rumors circulated that the ship's cargo had included a substantial amount of gold and silver, but her manifestManifest
Manifest has different meanings. It may refer to the following:Arts* Manifest , the Melbourne Anime FestivalBusiness* Manifest Limited, the UK marketing companyComputing...
listed no such cargo. However, the manifest did list 2,423 slabs of tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
, each of which weighed 107 pounds (48.5 kg). The ship's insurers paid a sum of $79,000 for the loss of the metal, which at present day prices would be worth in excess of $900,000.
Salvage attempts
Divers engaged by the Pacific Mail Line immediately began a search for the ship but failed to find any traces of it due to the depth of the water in the area, well beyond the diving or salvage capabilities of the time.For some years after the disaster, bodies washed up on the beach near Fort Point, including, in 1903, the remains of Captain Ward which were identified by the watch chain wrapped around his rib cage. In 1917, a wooden keg
Keg
A keg is a small barrel.Traditionally, a wooden keg is made by a cooper used to transport items such as nails, gunpowder., and a variety of liquids....
clearly marked Rio de Janeiro surfaced off Point Lobos
Point Lobos State Reserve
Point Lobos is the common name for the area including Point Lobos State Natural Reserve and two adjoining marine protected areas: Point Lobos State Marine Reserve and Point Lobos State Marine Conservation Area...
. In 1919, more wreckage from the ship surfaced off Suisun Bay
Suisun Bay
Suisun Bay is a shallow tidal estuary at in northern California, USA. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, forming the entrance to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an inverted river delta...
, 40 miles (64.4 km) away from the assumed site of the wreck between Mile Rock
Mile Rocks Light
Mile Rocks Lighthouse is a lighthouse on a rock about southwest of the Golden Gate Bridge, California. It's now an automated and unnatural looking lighthouse with a flat top and red painted rings which tends to stand out very obviously between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Cliff House to the south...
and Baker Beach
Baker Beach
Baker Beach is a public beach on the peninsula of San Francisco, California, U.S.. The beach lies on the shore of the Pacific Ocean to the northwest of the city...
.
In 1931 a Captain Haskell made a formal claim for the cargo and fabric of the wreck by right of discovery; he announced to a news conference that he had discovered the wreck using a two-man submarine of his own invention and planned to salvage $6 million worth of silver from the wreck. However, he disappeared without a trace in July 1931.
The wreck of the Rio de Janeiro has never since been located. A reason which has been cited is that off Baker Beach the currents are too strong for amateur divers and the water too deep for anything other than professional divers. It has also been suggested that the currents may have pushed the ship out to sea as she sank, while some say that she will never be found because of the number of wrecks on the seabed in the area, and that even using modern sonar it would be impossible to distinguish whatever remains of the ship from all the other disintegrated remnants of sunken ships.
External links
- WHERE LIES THE CITY OF RIO DE JANEIRO?
- Google Answers: Photos of Steamer "City of Rio de Janeiro"
- The Maritime Heritage Project: Maritime History – Captain Timothy Herbert Dame
- The Maritime Heritage Project: Gold Rush Ships, Steamships, Immigrants, Ship Captains
- NPS Archeology Program: Abandoned Shipwreck Act Guidelines
- Park News Online – San Francisco's Own Titanic