SS Cabrillo
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image | Ship image = Steamer, Cabrillo, leaving for Catalina Island (NBY 4374).jpg | Ship caption = Cabrillo }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship country = United States | Ship flag = {{USN flag|1947}} | Ship name = SS Cabrillo | Ship namesake = Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo | Ship owner = * Wilmington Transportation Company (1904-1950)
| Ship operator = | Ship registry = | Ship route = | Ship ordered = | Ship awarded = | Ship builder = William Muller | Ship original cost = $250,000 (1904) | Ship yard number = | Ship way number = | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = February 15, 1904 | Ship sponsor = | Ship christened = | Ship completed = | Ship acquired = | Ship maiden voyage = July 4, 1904 | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship renamed = | Ship reclassified = | Ship refit = | Ship struck = | Ship reinstated = | Ship homeport = | Ship identification = | Ship motto = | Ship nickname = “Queen of the South Coast” | Ship honours = | Ship honors = | Ship captured = | Ship fate = Abandoned, 1950 | Ship notes = | Ship badge = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = | Ship type = Passenger ship | Ship tonnage = | Ship displacement = 564 tn | Ship length = 194 ft | Ship beam = 32 ft | Ship height = | Ship draft = 11 ft | Ship depth = 15.5 ft | Ship hold depth = | Ship decks = | Ship deck clearance = | Ship power = | Ship propulsion = | Ship speed = | Ship boats = | Ship capacity = 1,200 passengers | Ship troops = | Ship complement = | Ship crew = | Ship armament = | Ship notes = }} |
The SS Cabrillo was a wooden passenger steamship operating in Los Angeles County, California, during the first half of the 20th century. The steamship provided transportation between the Port of Los Angeles and the ports of Avalon and Two Harbors on Santa Catalina Island.
Passenger ferry use
The Banning brothers of Wilmington, who owned the Wilmington Transportation Company and provided the steamships used to deliver tourists from Los Angeles to the island's city of Avalon, bought the island in 1892.{{Cite web |last1=Otte |first1=Stacey |last2=Pedersen |first2=Jeannine |date=2007-02-03 |title=Catalina Island Museum |url=http://www.catalinamuseum.org/history.html |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070203042637/http://www.catalinamuseum.org/history.html|archive-date= 2007-02-03|access-date=2023-05-25 }}
Realizing the need for more luxuriously appointed vessels on the route, the smaller SS Hermosa II was already under construction, but a decision was reached to next commission a larger ship for the growing number of tourists wishing to visit the island.
The SS Cabrillo was built for the Bannings by shipbuilder William Muller for a cost of nearly $250,000, launched on February 15, 1904, and made her first voyage to Catalina on July 4 of the same year to much fanfare. Nicknamed "The Queen of the South Coast," the 194-foot steamship could carry 1,200 passengers from San Pedro Harbor.
Built of Oregon fir and protected by copper plates, the Cabrillo hosted 12 state rooms, 10 crew rooms, a social room, teak and mahogany finishes, and the ability to provide food service to guests.
While large for a wood-hulled ferry of that era, need would require the Cabrillo be superseded by the larger, steel-hulled SS Avalon and SS Catalina in the Wilmington Transportation Company fleet.
World War II
With the outbreak of World War II, the island was taken over by the U.S. military, and the ships of the Wilmington Transportation Company were conscripted as well. The SS Avalon was left behind for limited transportation to and from the mainland, while the SS Catalina and SS Cabrillo were taken to San Francisco to serve as troop transports for the San Francisco Port of Embarkation.
After the war ended, the SS Catalina was sent back to be used for ferry services to and from the island, while the Cabrillo continued to be utilized by the U.S. Army, who operated her until around 1947.
File:Santa Catalina Island CA - Steamer Cabrillo at Avalon (NBY 431711).jpg
Current state
The SS Cabrillo was put up for sale and subsequently purchased sometime between 1947 and 1950 for use in Northern California as a hospitality establishment, however these plans were unsuccessful.{{Cite web |last=Riley |first=Brendan |date=2018-03-14 |title=Brendan Riley's Solano Chronicles: Vallejo area has its share of sunken ship stories |url=https://www.timesheraldonline.com/events/20180318/brendan-rileys-solano-chronicles-vallejo-area-has-its-share-of-sunken-ship-stories |access-date=2023-05-25 |website=Times-Herald |language=en-US}} Having been stripped of all machinery and other useful equipment, she was scuttled at Cuttings Wharf on the shores of the Napa River, beginning the final chapter of her life. In the following years, salvage operations continued until the vessel was abandoned, and today, little is left but the hull.{{cite web |last=Courtney |first=Kevin |date=2009-09-13 |title=The ghost ship of Carneros |url=http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/the-ghost-ship-of-carneros/article_3b176ba7-93f2-5cd7-9094-87c472667e8c.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170927000205/https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/the-ghost-ship-of-carneros/article_3b176ba7-93f2-5cd7-9094-87c472667e8c.html |archive-date=2017-09-27 |accessdate=2012-11-05 |work=Napa Valley Register}}
In popular culture
The SS Cabrillo made a feature film appearance, along with Gary Cooper, Broderick Crawford, and David Niven, in The Real Glory, where she was outfitted with a dummy, second smokestack during shooting.
References
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Category:Ferries of California
Category:Steamships of the United States