SS Iowa (1920)
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{{Infobox ship image | Ship image = SS West Cadron in port.jpg | Ship caption = SS West Cadron, 1920s }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship country = | Ship flag = 60px | Ship name = SS Iowa (1928-1936) SS West Cadron (1920-1928) | Ship operator =*U.S. government (1920-1928)
| Ship ordered = | Ship builder = Western Pipe & Steel Co. | Ship yard number = 12 | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = | Ship completed = 1920 | Ship acquired = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship fate = Ran aground January 12, 1936 | Ship notes = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = | Ship tonnage = 5,724 (gross) | Ship displacement = | Ship length = {{convert|410|ft|m|abbr=on}} | Ship beam = {{convert|54|ft|m|abbr=on}} | Ship height = | Ship draught = | Ship draft = | Ship depth = | Ship decks = | Ship deck clearance = | Ship ramps = | Ship ice class = | Ship sail plan = | Ship power = 359 nhp | Ship propulsion = triple-expansion engine | Ship speed = 10.5 knots | Ship capacity = | Ship crew = | Ship notes = }} |
SS Iowa was a steamship built by the Western Pipe and Steel Company of San Francisco, California in 1920 for the U.S. government and was known as the SS West Cadron.{{cite web|url=http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?24576 |title=SS Iowa (+1936)|website= wrecksite.eu|access-date= May 26, 2020}} It served in the Quaker Line subsidiary of the States Steamship Company. from 1928—when it was renamed the Iowa—until January 12, 1936, when it ran aground on Peacock Spit, Washington, part of the Columbia Bar at the mouth of the Columbia River.
SS Iowa was travelling from Longview, Washington where it had taken on a load of lumber. The ship was carrying more than 6,900 long tons of cargo. Around midnight, as SS Iowa was crossing the Columbia River bar, a gale estimated at 75 mph hit the ship. Captain Edgar Yates was experienced crossing the bar and had not brought a bar pilot aboard. At the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse around 2 a.m., a Coast Guard observer witnessed the ship start to turn south and then turn to the north toward Peacock Spit where water depths are only around {{convert|20|ft}}. The Astoria Coast Guard station received the Iowa distress call around 4:30 a.m.
The Coast Guard cutter Onondaga was dispatched after the SOS was received. Attempts were made to communicate with the ship by observers at the lighthouse using radio, light signals, and flags. The observers saw a flash of light from the ship and a few flags raised in response, but were unable to decipher any messages from the ship in the stormy conditions. By the time that the Onondaga arrived, only masts were visible above the waves.{{cite book|title=Washington Disasters|isbn=978-1-4930-1322-7|last1=McNair-Huff|first1=Rob & Natalie|date=June 2015|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|pages=8–9}} All 34 people aboard the ship died, and only six bodies were recovered from the wreckage that dotted local shorelines for days.{{cite news|title=Ship wrecked with 34 aboard lost: Freighter is hit by gale off Astoria|newspaper= Fairbanks Daily News-Miner|date= January 13, 1936|page= A1}}
References
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{{Design 1019 ships}}
{{1936 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iowa, SS}}
Category:Shipwrecks of the Oregon coast