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Tag: 1888 shipwreck

  • 1888 Shipwreck Puts Racist Blame To Rest

    The 1888 shipwreck of the City Of Chester, which was discovered last year under the Golden Gate Bridge, is speaking through the passage of time to tell us about what really happened against what some people have believed for over a century.

    The passenger steamship sank after it collided with a boat carrying Chinese immigrants, killing 16 people, and for years people believed that boat, Oceanic, was to blame for the crash. Due to the bigotry still held against Chinese immigrants after California’s gold rush, it was assumed by many that their ship and crew members were responsible for the deaths. However, it was actually the captain of City Of Chester who made an unsafe turn and caused the crash.

    “The Chinese crew saved a lot of lives,” James Delgado, director of maritime heritage for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Sanctuaries, said. “They pulled people onto their boats. If not for them, more people would have died.”

    According to the San Francisco Museum, many Americans held hatred for the Chinese immigrants who came to the U.S. during the gold rush because there was not as much gold to be found as they had been led to believe. Once the finds began to dry up, American men began to blame those from other countries for “stealing” what was rightfully theirs.

    “Governor Bigler suddenly became inspired with the realization of the value of an attack upon them as a political asset. He sent a special message to the legislature in which he charged them with being contract “coolie” laborers, avaricious, ignorant of moral obligations, incapable of being assimilated, and dangerous to the public welfare. The result was a renewal of the foreign miners’ tax, but in a milder form than its predecessor,” wrote Henry Kittredge Norton.

    The ship was first found last May during a sweep of the Bay area for potential boat hazards, but new images have been released this week that clearly show the hull and gash on the port side. An attempt to raise it won’t be made, but the find is still important to people like Delgado.

    “It’s a tangible link to another time,” he said.

    Image via Twitter

  • 1888 Shipwreck Found in San Francisco Bay

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released images Wednesday of the wreckage of a ship that sank in San Francisco Bay in 1888, which killed 16 people. The iron and wood steamship called City of Chester went down on August 22, after being hit by a larger ship named the Oceanic, in conditions of dense fog and low visibility.

    City of Chester was carrying 106 travelers en route to Eureka, California and Portland, Oregon. Thirteen passengers and three crewmen perished when the ship sank.

    The NOAA inadvertently discovered the wreckage while mapping shipping lanes in the bay, and City of Chester was located 217 feet down, just inside the Golden Gate Bridge. The NOAA team utilized a multi-beam sonic imaging system to capture three-dimensional images of the wreckage.

    James Delgado, an NOAA shipwreck researcher, archaeologist and Titanic expert, combed through San Francisco newspapers from the era when City of Chester went down, which leaned toward putting the blame on the relatively unscathed Oceanic, which was an immigrant vessel. “The papers initially reacted, talking about the tragedy and accusations that the Chinese crew stood by and let people drown,” Delgado said. “But what happens is you start to see things also come out countering that. Some leapt in water to save a drowning child.” The initial investigation faulted the skipper of the City of Chester.

    Robert Schwemmer, NOAA’s West Coast regional maritime heritage coordinator added, “The Oceanic crew was up on the bow reaching down to survivors on the Chester, lifting them on the deck. After the collision, in five or six minutes, the Oceanic crew went on to save a lot of people.”

    In 1888, San Francisco Bay was one of the world’s busiest and most crucial shipping ports. The City of Chester sinking was the second worst maritime disaster regarding casualties San Francisco Bay had ever seen. The most catastrophic occurred when a steamer called the SS City of Rio de Janeiro hit a reef in 1901, killing over 120.

    Image via NOAA