steam-powered
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tra ...
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
built in 1903 by
Newport News Shipbuilding
Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the largest industrial employer in Virginia, and sole designer, builder and refueler of United States Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy ...
in
Newport News
Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...
,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
operations on the
United States West Coast
The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...
. She served in this capacity for 11 years before she sank off the
Columbia Bar
The Columbia Bar, also frequently called the Graveyard of the Pacific, is a system of bar (landform), bars and shoals at the mouth of the Columbia River spanning the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington (state), Washington. It is known as one of th ...
on the coast of
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
. The disaster killed 35 of the 37 passengers aboard and all 25 crewmen. It was the worst maritime accident in the history of Oregon and was attributed to the ship being overloaded with
railroad tie
A railroad tie, crosstie (American English), railway tie (Canadian English) or railway sleeper (Australian and British English) is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer ...
s.
Construction
In 1903, with his timber operations in full bloom in the
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...
, timber baron A. B. Hammond began acquiring what became known as "Hammond's Navy," a flotilla of 72 ships (not all owned simultaneously) that served his operations. The
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
of this flotilla was ''Francis H. Leggett'', which Hammond named after one of his business partners and commissioned to be the largest ship in the Pacific lumber trade.Gordon, p. 267 With a capacity of 1.5 million
board-feet
The board foot or board-foot is a unit of measurement for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It equals the volume of a length of a board, one foot wide and thick.
Board foot can be abbreviated as FBM (for "foot, board measure" ...
of
lumber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
, her steel
hull
Hull may refer to:
Structures
* Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle
* Fuselage, of an aircraft
* Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds
* Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship
* Submarine hull
Mathematics
* Affine hull, in affi ...
was so large that she could not enter many of the ports on U.S. West Coast. Nicknamed "Hammond's Folly," she nevertheless was a commercial success when she arrived on the U.S. West Coast from the Virginia shipyard where she was built. In 1905 alone, ''Francis H. Leggett'' and her
sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...
''Arctic'' netted Hammond $62,000 in profit, more than the profit of some of his timber operations. The success of ''Francis H. Leggett'' led Hammond to acquire more ships.
Later, ''Francis H. Leggett'' was one of the pioneering ships behind the technique of ocean rafting (also called
Benson raft
A Benson raft was a huge seagoing log barge designed to transport large quantities of timber to Southern California from the Pacific Northwest and Canada. The rafts were used to transport industrial quantities of unprocessed timber at one time ...
ing), whereby large rafts of logs were chained together and towed. These rafts could be up to long and contain up to 11 million board feet of timber. After some years of success, the practice was banned by the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
in 1912 after several rafts broke up in storms, spreading large logs up and down the coast and creating a hazard to shipping.
Sinking
On September 17, 1914, ''Francis H. Leggett'' departed
Grays Harbor Grays Harbor is an estuary, estuarine bay located north of the mouth of the Columbia River, on the southwest Pacific coast of Washington (U.S. state), Washington state, in the United States of America. It is a ria, which formed at the end of the l ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
, for
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, with a load of railroad ties lashed to her deck. While the weather was calm in Grays Harbor, it worsened as the ship steamed south, where a
gale
A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface winds moving at a speed of between 34 and 47 knots (, or ).Lienhard, John H "The Francis H. Leggett," Engines of Our Ingenuity. January 31, 2014. Retrieved September 21, 2014. Charles Moro, the
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
of ''Francis H. Leggett'', ordered the ship's radio operators to send a distress call as the ship began to sink.
The distress signal was detected by the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
armored cruiser
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast eno ...
''
Izumo Izumo (出雲) may refer to:
Locations
* Izumo Province, an old province of Japan
* Izumo, Shimane, a city located in Shimane Prefecture
** Izumo Airport
* Izumo-taisha, one of Japan's most ancient and important Shinto shrines
Ships
* ''Izumo ...
'', but ''Izumo'' did not respond to ''Francis H. Leggett'' out of fear that she would encounter the
Imperial German Navy
The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...
light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
, which was nearby;
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
had begun,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
was at war with
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, and ''Izumo'' feared being attacked by the more modern German ship. ''Izumo'' relayed the distress signal to other ships, including the
oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...
''Buck'' and the steamer ''Beaver''. Both ships responded to the call for help, but by the time they arrived on the scene, ''Francis H. Leggett'' had sunk, leaving only its cargo of railroad ties still afloat. Two passengers aboard ''Francis H. Leggett'' were rescued. One of the survivors, Alexander Farrell, explained that the storm swamped both of the ship's
lifeboats
Lifeboat may refer to:
Rescue vessels
* Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape
* Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues
* Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen
A ...
as soon as they were lowered. Both survivors lived by clinging to railroad ties. The death toll of 60 people makes it Oregon's worst maritime disaster on record.
References
*''Forty-Fifth Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States''. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1913. p. 176
*Gordon, Greg. ''When Money Grew on Trees: A.B. Hammond and the Age of the Timber Baron''. University of Oklahoma Press, 2014.
Notes
Further reading
* Belyk, Robert. ''Great Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast''. Wiley, 2001.