sciencetech-blog

comments

It was lost over 100 years ago in what many consider the worst maritime disaster in San Francisco history.

On Feb. 22, 1901, in a dense morning fog, the SS City of Rio de Janeiro struck jagged rocks near the Golden Gate Bridge and sank almost immediately, killing 128 of the 210 passengers and crew aboard the ship.

The ship was never found - until now.

The CodaOctopus 3-D Echoscope sonar images of the SS City of Rio De Janeiro, which reveal it on the seabed for the first time since it sank without trace on Feb. 22, 1901, in a dense morning fog. The ships parts are clearly visible, even though it is in 287 feet of water, positioned inside the main ship channel, and buried in mud.

The NOAA and partners today released three-dimensional sonar maps and images of the immigrant steamship.

'We are undertaking this exploration of the San Francisco Bay in part to learn more about its maritime heritage as well as to test recent advances in technology that will allow us to better protect and understand the rich stories found beneath the Bay's waters,' said James Delgado, director of maritime heritage for NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. 

The images also revealed that the ship did not, as rumoured, contain treasure. 

City of Rio de Janeiro was rumored to be full of silver treasure, but Delgado said accounts of a shipment of 'Chinese silver' were actually bars of tin.

 'Today the wreck is broken and filled with mud, and it is a sealed grave in fast, dangerous waters in the main shipping lanes,' he said.

A Present day photo at the entrance of the Golden Gate looking westward with Fort Point at the far left where the SS City of Rio de Janeiro struck the rocks and foundered on February 22, 1901.

Where it was found: The area is in the centre of the image, which also shows two other shipwrecks,  City of Chester and Fernstream.

THE TITANIC OF THE GOLDEN GATE

On February 22, 1901 the SS City of Rio de Janeiro was enveloped in thick morning fog while moving through the narrow entrance of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Without warning the ship struck Fort Point. 

At the time of the stranding, an ebbing tide pushed the steamer back from the bridge and off the rocks. 

The SS City of Rio de Janeiro built by John Roach & Son in 1878 at Chester, Penn. regularly transported passengers and cargo between Asia and San Francisco, photo taken at Nagasaki, Japan, 1894. It was also used as a military boat, right, when during the Spanish American War, the U.S. Government charted Pacific Mail Steamship Company steamships as troopships.

The ship's bulkheads were not watertight, so it rapidly flooded, sinking within 10 minutes.

Many of the passengers, most of them Chinese and Japanese emigrants, were asleep in their cabins and died below. 

Of the 210 on board, 128 lives were lost, making this shipwreck the highest loss of life at the Golden Gate Bridge. 

The ship is considered by historians as the 'Titanic of the Golden Gate' 

Fishermen in the area, hearing the ship's distress calls, helped rescue 82 survivors, many plucked from makeshift rafts and floating wreckage.

A recovered life ring from the wreck of the SS City of Rio de Janeiro, left, andCaptain William Ward, master of the SS City of Rio de Janeiro at the time of the loss, right.

The dead included Chinese and Japanese immigrants as well as the U.S. Consul-General in Hong Kong, who was returning to the U.S. on leave with his wife and two children. 

The entire family died in the tragedy. 

City of Rio de Janeiro, launched in 1878, joined the fleet of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, carrying passengers and freight to and from San Francisco, Honolulu, Yokohama, Japan and Hong Kong as America expanded into the Far East and Pacific after the Civil War. 

Most Americans whose ancestors came to the United States from the Far East in the 19th and early 20th centuries to start a new life arrived on ships like City of Rio de Janeiro.

Five officers on board the SS City of Rio de Janeiro. Standing left to right, Joseph Matthews, Chief Engineer, O. K. Freeman, Purser, Harry Kirulff, Surgeon, Caterinich, First Officer, center with dog, J. Tremain Smith, Captain.

In November, Hibbard Inshore and Bay Marine Services donated a research vessel and crew, along with a high-powered remotely operated vehicle, to help NOAA pinpoint and map the City of Rio de Janeiro wreck site using sonar developed by Coda Octopus.

California-based salvagers found the wreck in the 1980s, but its exact location was unknown as the coordinates they provided did not coincide with any wreck charted by NOAA through years of sonar work.

During this expedition, Robert Schwemmer, West Coast Regional Maritime Heritage Coordinator, worked with Delgado and multibeam sonar expert Gary Fabian to locate the wreck site again. 

They located the site in 287 feet of water, positioned inside the main ship channel, and largely buried in mud.

Schwemmer and the Hibbard team captured the first detailed sonar and three-dimensional images of City of Rio resting in the dark, muddy waters outside the bridge.

'The level of detail and clarity from the sonar survey is amazing,' Schwemmer said. 'We now have a much better sense of both wrecks, and of how they not only sank, but what has happened to them since their loss.' 

The 3-D model generated by the Coda Octopus 'Echoscope' sonar also gave researchers an entirely new perspective on the condition of the wreck site. 

What they found was a crumpled, scarcely recognizable iron hulk encased in more than a century worth of mud and sediment, lending support to the narrative that the ship sank quickly before many of its passengers could escape.

Bay Marine Services LLC, research vessel Eaglet with Hibbard Inshore LLC Saab Sabertooth Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) / Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) equipped with Coda Octopus 3-D Echoscope sonar, which was used to create the amazing images.

The expedition team also remapped the S.S. City of Chester,a second nearby wreck that was rediscovered in May 2013 by NOAA's Office of the Coast Survey. In stark contrast to the City of Rio, the Echoscope revealed in great detail the surprising level of preservation of the City of Chester's frame and propulsion machinery, telling a very different story about the circumstances of its sinking.

To date NOAA has plotted nine of nearly 200 ships including four never before found vessels. 

The NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Maritime Heritage Program is engaged in a two-year study to discover and document shipwrecks in Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and nearby Golden Gate National Recreation Area.