SS ''Oregon'' (1878–1906) was a coastal passenger/cargo ship constructed in

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 ...

by the

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 ...

in February 1878. Originally delivered to the

Oregon Steamship Company The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (OR&N) was a railroad that operated a rail network of running east from Portland, Oregon, United States, to northeastern Oregon, northeastern Washington, and northern Idaho. It operated from 1896 as a ...

, she was used on the

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...

-to-

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for "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 fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

route for many years. In 1879, the

Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (OR&N) was a railroad that operated a rail network of running east from Portland, Oregon, United States, to northeastern Oregon, northeastern Washington, and northern Idaho. It operated from 1896 as a ...

became the ''Oregon''′s new owners after purchasing the Oregon Steamship Company. Also included in this purchase were the steamships '' George W. Elder'' and '' City of Chester''. While in O.R. & N service, ''Oregon'' served alongside SS ''Columbia'', which made the first commercial use of

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invent ...

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxida ...

.Jehl, Franci
Menlo Park reminiscences : written in Edison's restored Menlo Park laboratory
Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Whitefish, Mass, Kessinger Publishing, 1 July 2002, page 564 Like ''Oregon'', ''Columbia'' was also built 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 mo ...

in Chester, Pennsylvania.Belyk, Robert C. Great Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast. New York: Wiley, 2001. Print. Over time, ''Oregon's'' hull became breached after a number of incidents. Furthermore, the hull had been weighted with

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most ...

to the point where she was considered unsuitable for service as a

passenger liner A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...

. After operating as a cargo ship, she was laid up in 1894 at Portland. In 1899, the ''Oregon'' was re-qualified to carry passengers once more. She was sold by O.R. & N the same year. Despite this, she was viewed as a cursed ship by her crew. On 26 December 1889 she sank () in a collision in snow in the Columbia River at Coffee Rock 47 miles above

Astoria, Oregon Astoria is a port city and the seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest city in the state and was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. The county is the northwest corn ...

. Two of Clan McKenzie's crew killed, one injured. Her bow was damaged and she drifted ashore, later pulled off. The steamship appears as docked In Alaska at the time for the 1900 census. The ''Oregon'' was owned by the White Star Steamship Company (not to be confused with the

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between ...

) from around 1902 to 1905 . Around this time, ''Oregon'' was operating between Alaska and

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 m ...

. On September 13, 1906, ''Oregon'' ran aground on the rocky shoreline of

Cape Hinchinbrook The Cape Hinchinbrook Light is a lighthouse located near the southern end of Hinchinbrook Island (Alaska), Hinchinbrook Island adjacent to Prince William Sound, in Alaska, United States. History The Cape Hinchinbrook Lighthouse was first establ ...

, Alaska. At the time, there was no active lighthouse at Cape Hinchinbrook, although one was under construction. It is unknown whether poor navigation or reduced visibility caused the wreck. Shortly after the collision, the bottom of the vessel tore open and water began flooding the ship. ''Oregon'' became stuck on the rocks without any barrier from the open sea. After crew members began boarding the

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 ...

without orders,

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 ...

Horace E. Soule threatened to shoot any man attempting to steal one. This led to the crew obeying all further orders and a small party was sent off in a lifeboat to report the disaster in Valdez, Alaska. When the report of ''Oregon''′s wreck reached Valdez, many ships set out to rescue the passengers and crew. Remarkably, all 110 remaining people on board the ''Oregon'' were rescued by the revenue cutter . ''Oregon'' however, was reported as a

total loss In insurance claims, a total loss or write-off is a situation where the lost value, repair cost or salvage cost of a damaged property exceeds its insured value, and simply replacing the old property with a new equivalent is more cost-effecti ...

References

External links

University of Washington Libraries - Search results for Oregon (Steamship)
- A webpage that contains photographs of the SS ''Oregon''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Steamships of the United States Shipwrecks of the Alaska coast Maritime incidents in 1906 1878 ships Passenger ships of the United States Ships built by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works Maritime incidents in December 1889