SS ''America'' (1869–1872) was a ship for Pacific Mail Steamship Company operating on the China Line along with the , , , , and spare steamer . The America, which was one of the largest paddle wheel steamers in the world, was valued by Pacific Mail Steamship Company at $1,017,942 or about $40,000 less than the SS ''Great Republic'' or SS ''Japan''.

Construction

''America'' was built in 1868-1869 by

Henry Steers Henry Steers (1779 in Dartmouth, England – 1850 in New York, USA) was a prominent nineteenth-century American shipbuilder of English descent, and the ancestor of a line of important businessmen in various boatbuilding and maritime construction ...

's shipyard (see

George Steers and Co George Steers & Co was a 19th century shipyard company at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Greenpoint, Long Island, New York. Company history Hathorne & Steers In 1843, George Steers went into partnership with William Hathorne, under the name of Hathorne & ...

), at Greenpoint,

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, and was 4,454 tons. Length 363 feet; beam of hull 49 feet (wide) and 31 feet deep in hold, draft of water 18 feet. She had a beam engine, with 105-inch cylinder and twelve feet stroke of piston, the engine working up to 3,000 nominal horse-power. At Bridgewater Iron Manufacturing Company were forged the large forgings for most of the ships of this time including America. The ship was built by

(New York) started in 1868, and finished in 1869. The ship cost $1,250,000.

Trips

''America'' was the pioneer of the China Line and was followed quickly by , and . She traveled around the Cape of Good Hope without passengers and used sail for a large part of the trip. At Singapore, ''America'' began to pick up Chinese for steerage passage and eventually arrived in San Francisco on 20 October 1869 with 730 immigrants.

Iwakura Mission

On December 23, 1871, the Japanese Iwakura Mission boarded the ship in Yokohama harbor. The Japanese described the ship as follows:

Our ship called the ''America''. Reputed to be the most elegant vessel in the Pacific Mail Steamship Company fleet, the ''America'' was 363 feet long, 57 feet wide and 23 feet deep, with 8 feet above the deck. ��Its displacement was 4,554 tons. There were 30 first-class cabins and 16 second-class ones - 46 in all. The vessel could carry 92 passengers. Under Captain Doane were 24 officers and 79 sailors and stewards, making a complement of 103. The ship was powered by a balance-wheel steam-engine driving external paddle-wheels.

Destruction

TSS ''America'' was lost by fire on August 24, 1872, in Yokohama harbor,

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 ...

after her eleventh voyage starting on August 1, 1872, from San Francisco to Yokohama and Hong Kong,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Captain

Seth Doane Seth Doane (born June 26, 1978) is an American television journalist, working for CBS News. Career Doane is a Peabody Award winning CBS News reporter who was named correspondent for '' "60 in 6"'', the new ''60 Minutes'' streaming program. "Seth ...

had inspected the ship before 10 o'clock. A loss of 19 to 70 lives occurred depending on the source. The monetary loss was estimated at $2,000,000."The America Disaster", ''The New York Times'', October 11, 1872

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:America, SS 1869 ships Maritime incidents in August 1872 Ships built in Brooklyn Ship fires Shipwrecks of Japan