Images released of shipwreck in San Francisco Bay
Federal ocean scientists have released images of the wreckage of a steamship that sank in San Francisco Bay in 1888, a disaster that killed 16 people.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s James Delgado said Wednesday that the sinking of the City of Chester was the second-worst shipwreck to occur in the bay.
Three-dimensional images of the wreckage showed the mud-covered ship sitting upright but split in two by a collision with another vessel.
The 202-foot Chester left San Francisco’s Broadway Wharf on Aug. 22, 1888 in a dense fog at around 9 a.m. Just over an hour later, the ill-fated ship lay at the bottom of San Francisco Bay, doomed by a violent collision with the steamer RMS Oceanic, arriving from Asia, according to NOAA.
News reports at the time placed blame on the Oceanic crew for failing to help victims on the smaller ship.
But Delgado says testimony during the accident investigation revealed many members of Oceanic’s crew acted bravely.
NOAA rediscovered the wreck near the Golden Gate, not far from the headquarters of Gulf of Fallarones National Marine Sanctuary at Crissy Field. The office is the former U.S. Life-Saving Service station built in 1890 in response to the Chester incident.
In May 2013, NOAA found evidence of the wreck while surveying another nearby shipwreck and Delgado asked crews to look for the Chester itself. More information about the ship and NOAA’s work can be found online.
