''City of Waco'' was an American

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

which sank with much loss of life on November 9, 1875, in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

off

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

Ship history

The ship was built in 1873 by

John Roach & Sons John Roach & Sons was a major 19th-century American shipbuilding and manufacturing firm founded in 1864 by Irish-American immigrant John Roach. Between 1871 and 1885, the company was the largest shipbuilding firm in the United States, building m ...

at their

Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester is ...

for the Mallory Line of New York City. She made twenty voyages between New York and Galveston before she sank. On the afternoon of November 8, 1875, the ship arrived off Galveston, but heavy weather made it impossible to enter the port, so the ship hove to offshore and waited for the storm to subside. Shortly before midnight a fire broke out aboard, rapidly engulfing the ship, which burned down to the waterline before sinking with the loss of all 56 crew and passengers. An investigation into the tragedy discovered that the ship had nine hundred cans of

Astral Astral may refer to: Concepts of the non-physical * Astral body, a subtle body posited by many religious philosophers * Astral journey (or ''astral trip''), the same as having an ''out-of-body experience'' * Astral plane (AKA astral world), a ...

lamp oil Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regis ...

stored on deck, in direct contravention of maritime regulations which forbade the transport of such a dangerous cargo on a passenger ship. The wreck was broken up with explosives in 1900 to clear the entrance to the port and then largely forgotten. It was rediscovered in 2003, and explored by marine archeologists of the

Texas Historical Commission The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas. The commission also identifies Recorded Texas Historic La ...

References

External links

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"Tragic 1875 fire sinks the ''City of Waco'' steamer", Southwest Underwater Archaeology Society
Ships built by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works 1873 ships Maritime incidents in November 1875 Ship fires Shipwrecks of the Texas coast {{Merchantship-stub