Posted on 12/05/2022 6:41:01 PM PST by MAGA2017
The wreck of a long-lost “sidewheeler steamship” that sank off the coast of Washington nearly 150 years ago has been found by a pair of local maritime historians.
The ship we’re talking about is called the “SS PACIFIC” – a 225-foot long sidewheel steamer. It carried passengers and cargo way back in the time of the Washington Territory
The ship was on its way from Puget Sound and Victoria to San Francisco when it collided with a big sailing ship in the dark off of Cape Flattery on November 4, 1875.
The loss of hundreds of lives makes it one of the most – if not the most – deadly maritime disasters in Northwest history.
The guy who led the search for the SS PACIFIC is Jeff Hummel. He’s in his late 50s and he’s been doing underwater recovery of historic boats and planes with his friend Matt McCauley since they were in high school on Mercer Island 40 years ago.
It will be a ‘treasure trove of artifacts’
“The wreck is in remarkable condition,” Hummel told KIRO Newsradio. “And we believe that it is going to be just an absolute treasure trove of artifacts from this era. You know, an absolute time capsule. We believe that we will find items made of leather, which we believe will find items made of cloth will find bottles of wine. I mean, the state of preservation is really incredible.”
(Excerpt) Read more at mynorthwest.com ...
They have found several steamships in cornfields in Iowa/Nebraska. The Missouri River has changed many time before it was channelized in the 1940’s/50’s.
Goonies?…
A movie about the ship and its sinking would be practically titanic...
What happened to the “big sailing ship” it hit?
Did anyone write a song about its sinking?
(I hope everyone immediately thought of “Edmund Fitzgerald” and has that song stuck in their head now. Just like me.)
They say the ship had gold on it from a Canadian gold strike.
It didn’t sink that far out at sea.
According to the article linked conveniently above:
The ORPHEUS [the "big sailing ship"] was just a few years old and made of 12-inch thick oak, and the SS PACIFIC was 25 years old and was clad in 2-inch thick planks. It was dark, and the ORPHEUS was under sail and was also damaged in the collision. The crew of the ORPHEUS assumed the PACIFIC was okay and had just kept going.
She was smaller than most
Damn you
The article said 200 pounds at $1,781.80/oz =$5.7 million
“So no one really knows exactly how many passengers were aboard. It could have been as many as 400. A book from the 1890s about Northwest shipwrecks lists many of the white passengers by full name, along with “41 Chinamen” who are not named – reflecting the matter-of-fact, almost casual racism which was present in that era.”
Allegations of racism ‘sells’ in the Pacific Northwest.
Its a big deal to white liberal progressives.
Great big ocean and great big sky and there are still collisions.
Multiple Pacifics have sunk. there was another one in the 1850’s on transatlantic route. simply vanished, except a note in a bottle washed up a decade later in the hebrides.
you read these stories, and titanic looks like a school picnic.
The gold would be gone before I found it. If I did.
I don’t think gold ounces are 16 per pound.
Probably Tory ounces at 12 per pound.
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