The SS ''Admiral Sampson'' was a U.S.-flagged cargo and passenger steamship that served three owners between 1898 and 1914, when it was rammed by a Canadian passenger liner and sank in
Puget Sound
Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...
. Following its sinking off
Point No Point
Point No Point is an outcropping of land on the northeast point of the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington (U.S. state), Washington, the United States. It was the location of the signing of the Point No Point Treaty and is the site of the Point No Poi ...
, the ''Admiral Sampson'' has become a notable
scuba diving
Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...
destination for advanced recreational divers certified to use
rebreathing
A rebreather is a breathing apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of a user's exhaled breath to permit the rebreathing (recycling) of the substantially unused oxygen content, and unused inert content when present, of each breath. Oxygen is ...
equipment.
The ''Admiral Sampson'' was one of several Admiral-class steamships built by William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the American Mail Steamship Company.
[DCS Films]
"Admiral Sampson."
Retrieved Aug. 28, 2014. Named in honor of U.S. Navy Admiral
William T. Sampson
William Thomas Sampson (February 9, 1840 – May 6, 1902) was a United States Navy rear admiral known for his victory in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish–American War.
Biography
He was born in Palmyra, New York, and entered ...
, the other ships in the class were the ''Admiral Dewey'', ''Admiral Schley'', and ''Admiral Farragut''. The ''Admiral Sampson'' was a steel-hulled, twin-propeller design with two upper decks constructed of wood, and a single smokestack.
["The Pacific Steamship Company," The Pacific Marine Review. Volume 13, No. 11. San Francisco, Nov. 1916.]
Ordered by the American Mail Steamship Company, it was put in the service of the
United Fruit Company
The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...
and made regular trips between Philadelphia and
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...
ports. In February 1900, it came to the rescue of the U.S. Army transport ship ''McPherson'', which was disabled by a broken propeller shaft off
Hampton Roads, Virginia
Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic O ...
. On 4 November 1902 she sank the cargo schooner () in a collision in
Massachusetts Bay
Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Gulf of Maine that forms part of the central coastline of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Description
The bay extends from Cape Ann on the north to Plymouth Harbor on the south, a distance of about . Its ...
in dense fog. Bucki's Captain and three crewmen were killed.
In 1909, the
Alaska Pacific Steamship Company acquired the ''Admiral Sampson'' and its sister ship, the ''Admiral Farragut'', as a result of its growing business on the West Coast shipping routes. Both ships were placed on the
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 ...
-Puget Sound shipping route.
In 1912, the Alaska Pacific Steamship Company acquired the remaining Admiral-class steamships and merged with the
Alaska Coast Company to form the
Pacific-Alaska Navigation Company. The new company offered freight and passenger service between San Francisco and Puget Sound and Alaska ports as far north as
Nome.
Collision and sinking
On the morning of August 26, 1914, the ''Admiral Sampson'' left Seattle en route to
Juneau, Alaska
The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...
with 126 passengers and crew aboard. Visibility was poor because of fog; the ship's captain, Zimro Moore, ordered a slow crawl of 3 knots, extra lookouts and the ship's whistle sounded at regular intervals. At the same time, the steamship
''Princess Victoria'' was inbound to Seattle with similar precautions in place.
Despite both ships' precautions, the ''Princess Victoria'' rammed the ''Admiral Sampson'' at approximately 5:46 a.m. near Point No Point, 18 miles north of Seattle.
["Liner Admiral Sampson Rammed and Sunk in Sound; Eleven Dead,"](_blank)
''The Seattle Star''. Aug. 26, 1914. Page 1. The ''Princess Victoria'' struck the ''Admiral Sampson'' broadside, near the ''Admiral Sampson''s after hatch, a spot about midway between
amidships
This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water (mostly though not necessarily on the sea). Some remain current, while many date from the 17th t ...
and the ship's
stern
The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
. Capt. P.J. Hickey of the ''Princess Victoria'' kept his ship's engines ahead and pushed the ''Princess Victoria'' into the gash torn into the hull of the ''Admiral Sampson''. This action both reduced the amount of water rushing into the hole and allowed some of the ''Admiral Sampson''s passengers and crew to evacuate onto the ''Princess Victoria''.
''Princess Victoria''s crew lowered their ship's lifeboats to aid the ''Admiral Sampson''s passengers and crew, as it was apparent that the latter ship was sinking. Capt. Moore ordered the same action aboard the ''Admiral Sampson'', but only two boats could be lowered in time.
[Norton, Dee]
"Robot To Snag Items From Sunken Ship,"
The Seattle Times. Sept. 24, 1994. Retrieved Aug. 29, 2014. Moore ordered that his passengers be dropped overboard for pickup by the lifeboats. He ordered the crew off the ship and said he would stay with the ship.
[Gaeng, Betty Lou]
''The Sounder''. Vol. 25, No. 2. Sno-Isle Genealogical Society, 2011. Retrieved Aug. 29, 2014.
In addition to tearing a gash that stretched below the ''Admiral Sampson''s waterline, the impact of the ''Princess Victoria'' ruptured an oil tank aboard the ''Admiral Sampson'' and started a fire. The ''Princess Victoria'' was forced to pull away and the ''Admiral Sampson'' sank, about 15 minutes after the collision. All told, 114 passengers and crew members were saved. Eight crew members, including Capt. Moore, and three passengers drowned. One injured crew member died later in a hospital.
Casualties
The wireless operators of both ships transmitted
SOS signals constantly. Aboard the ''Admiral Sampson'', wireless operator Walter E. Reker transmitted emergency messages and helped passengers board lifeboats; he then joined his captain on the bridge. Reker and Capt. Moore went down with the ship.
Reker's name was added to the Wireless Operators Memorial in New York City's Battery Park. His name is near that of Jack Phillips, who died from exposure after the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
The Wireless World reported in April 1915: “As the cargo of his vessel consisted of oil, the horrors of fire were super-added to the situation and Reker found too much work to do to think of his own safety. He shared the fate of the captain side by side with him on the bridge.”
Telegraph and Telephone Age reported on May 16, 1915: “It is proof of the bravery and efficiency of the crew that
ostpassengers were saved. Reker might have saved himself by taking to the boats with the passengers and the greater part of the crew. He remained at the wireless telegraph key, however, giving direction to the rescuing ship which proved invaluable. He ignored repeated appeals from the boats to save himself. When the last boat had left safely, Reker reported to the bridge and remained to share the fate of the captain. It proved to be too late for them to leave and eight of the men, including the wireless telegraph operator, went down with the ship.”
A large crowd met the ''Princess Victoria'' when it reached the Canadian Pacific Railroad wharf shortly after 10 a.m. The ''Princess Victoria'' had a gash two or three feet above the waterline, extending back from the bow.
“Her decks were crowded with people, half of them well-dressed and the other half with only fragments of clothing protecting them from the cold,” the Seattle Star reported. “A gaping wound loomed large in the vessel’s bow, only two or three feet above the water line … In the breech hung a battered hatch cover from the Admiral Sampson.”
A roll call revealed the names of those killed.
* Passenger Ruby Whitson Banbury, who had married the previous October.
* Passenger George Bryant, a printer headed to Alaska to seek employment.
* Passenger John McLaughlin, who was last seen clinging to the ship's rigging as the Admiral Sampson sank.
* Ship's cook L. Cabanas, who was raising four young children on his own after his wife's death two years earlier.
* Scottish-born stewardess Mary Campbell, who was on her first voyage on the Admiral Sampson.
* Quartermaster C.M. Marquist.
* Captain Zimro S. Moore.
* Chief engineer Allen J. Noon, who reportedly drowned while trying to save Mrs. Banbury.
* Wireless telegraph operator Walter E. Reker.
* Watchman A. Sater.
* Messboy John G. Williams.
* Ezra Byrne died later at
Providence Hospital Providence Hospital may refer to:
*Providence Hospital (Columbia, South Carolina)
*Providence Hospital (Mobile) in Mobile, Alabama
*Providence Hospital (Southfield), Michigan
*Providence Hospital (Washington, D.C.) in Washington, D.C.
*Providence Al ...
of burns.
Salvage
The wreck of the ''Admiral Sampson'' remained undisturbed for 80 years, owing to its depth and the difficulty of a salvage operation. In 1991, Gary Severson and Kent Barnard used
side-scan sonar
Side-scan sonar (also sometimes called side scan sonar, sidescan sonar, side imaging sonar, side-imaging sonar and bottom classification sonar) is a category of sonar system that is used to efficiently create an image of large areas of the sea ...
to locate the ''Admiral Sampson''s resting place. The following year, the two men obtained exclusive salvage rights for the ship. They began diving on the wreck with a small, two-man submarine and retrieved artifacts, including the ship's whistle.
The wreck rests about 320 feet below the surface of Puget Sound, directly under a major shipping route. The hull lies in two pieces, having broken apart either as it sank or shortly after it hit bottom. In 1994, the two men expressed hopes that they might find the ship's safe, which was believed to contain a valuable diamond necklace. Another potential prize was a suitcase containing gold brought aboard by a passenger.
The search failed to discover the safe, but the salvagers did recover the ship's
engine order telegraph
An engine order telegraph or E.O.T., also referred to as a Chadburn, is a communications device used on a ship (or submarine) for the pilot on the bridge to order engineers in the engine room to power the vessel at a certain desired speed.
C ...
and various
galley
A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...
equipment.
Since the pioneering dives in the early 1990s, the ''Admiral Sampson'' has become a destination for a handful of technically advanced and experienced divers. Owing to its depth and location, it is believed that fewer than 15 divers visited the ''Admiral Sampson'' before 2005. Diving the ''Admiral Sampson'' remains a highly technical and involved experience. Owing to its location in Puget Sound shipping lanes, coordination with the
U.S. Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...
is required.
[DCS Films]
"Admiral Sampson 2009."
Retrieved Aug. 28, 2014.
References
*''Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States, Volume 44 Part 1912''. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1912. p. 47
*''Point No Point,'' Richard Walker (Arcadia Publishing, 2019), pp. 67–82
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Admiral Sampson
Ocean liners
Steamships of the United States
Ships built by William Cramp & Sons
1898 ships
Wreck diving sites
Shipwrecks of the Washington coast
Maritime incidents in August 1914
Ships sunk in collisions
Underwater diving sites in the United States