SS Northwestern
{{Short description|Passenger and freight steamship launched in 1889}}
| {{Infobox ship begin |infobox caption=yes}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=File:S.S. Northwestern moored in Seward, Alaska.jpg and warehouses - Seward dock]] }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag= |Ship name=Northwestern |Ship namesake=The Northwestern Steamship Company |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=23 November 1889 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honors= |Ship fate=Sank at mooring, Captains Bay, Unalaska Island |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship type=Passenger and freight transport |Ship displacement= |Ship length={{convert|336|ft|abbr=on}} |Ship beam= |Ship draft= |Ship propulsion= |Ship speed={{convert|14|kn}} |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship boats= |Ship complement= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament= |Ship armor = |Ship notes = }} {{Infobox NRHP |embed=yes |name=S. S. Northwestern Shipwreck Site |nrhp_type=NRHP |alt= |caption= |image_size= |location=Port Levashef, at the head of Captains Bay |nearest_city=Unalaska |coordinates = {{coord|53|49|50|N|166|36|37|W|display=inline,title}} |locmapin=Alaska |map_width=300 |area= |built= |architect= |architecture= |governing_body= |refnum=94001065{{NRISref|version=2010a}} }} |
The SS Northwestern, originally SS Oriziba, was a passenger and freight steamship launched in 1889 by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works, Chester, Pennsylvania which spent most of its career in service in the waters of the Territory of Alaska.{{cite book|last1=Burwell|first1=Michael|title=The S.S. Northwestern: Sailing Sheltered Seas, an Illustrated History|date=2014|publisher=United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service|location=Anchorage, AK|url=https://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo88754|accessdate=3 February 2018}} The ship from early in its career had a reputation for trouble, and was frequently involved in groundings, collisions with other ships, and with port facilities. She first served as a transport in the West Indies as Oriziba, and was acquired by the Northwestern Steamship Company in 1906, sailed around Cape Horn, and renamed Northwestern. For the next thirty years she worked along the Alaska coast, transporting people, mail, and goods, as well as ore from mining operations at Kennecott.
Grounding Incidents
On March 14, 1907, the steamer ran aground when a storm pushed her onto a reef in Beatson Bay near Latouche. Refloated sometime in April and docked at Latouche for temporary repairs. She departed 25 May 1907 for Esquimalt, British Columbia under tow by Tug {{SS|Salvor||2}}. She soon sprung a leak and was beached at Swanport near Port Valdez, sinking again. After more temporary repairs she was refloated and once more embarked. On 4 June 1907 both Northwestern and her tow ran aground in fog at the Mouth of the Fraser River at Sand Head Shoal, she pulled herself off and then pulled off the Tug. She was repaired at Victoria, British Columbia.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p01bFVagOJYC&q=Ship+Northwestern%2C+1907&pg=PA220 |title=Alaska at War, 1941-1945: The Forgotten War Remembered |date=15 September 2007 |publisher=University of Alaska Press/Googlebooks |isbn=9781602231351 |accessdate=30 July 2020}}
On 14 February 1909, Northwestern sighted a flare from the sloop Nugget, which had been blown out into the Gulf of Alaska off Cross Sound by a storm on 9 February during a voyage from Lituya Bay to Juneau, Alaska, and whose crew was abandoning her {{convert|75|nmi}} off Cape Fairweather ({{coord|58|48|30|N|137|56|45|W|name=Cape Fairweather}}) after a second storm struck and destroyed her sails and rigging. Northwestern rescued seven crewmen from Nugget and transported them to Juneau.[https://alaskashipwreck.com/shipwrecks-a-z/alaska-shipwrecks-n/ alaskashipwreck.com Alaska Shipwrecks (N)]
On 3 December 1910 she ran hard aground on Pile Point at the entrance to False Bay tearing a 40 foot hole in her. refloated, repaired and returned to service.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p01bFVagOJYC&q=Ship+Northwestern%2C+1907&pg=PA220 |title=Alaska at War, 1941-1945: The Forgotten War Remembered |date=15 September 2007 |publisher=University of Alaska Press/Googlebooks |isbn=9781602231351 |accessdate=30 July 2020}}
In April, 1911 she participated in Cordova's "Copper Day" celebration commemorating the completion of the "Copper River and Northwestern Railroad" and first arrival of ore from the Kennicott Mine, she transported that shipment to Tacoma, Washington.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p01bFVagOJYC&q=Ship+Northwestern%2C+1907&pg=PA220 |title=Alaska at War, 1941-1945: The Forgotten War Remembered |date=15 September 2007 |publisher=University of Alaska Press/Googlebooks |isbn=9781602231351 |accessdate=31 July 2020}}
27 September 1911 on arrival at Ketchikan, Alaska Territory the signal wire to the engine room broke ordering "Full Ahead" instead of "Stop" causing a collision with Salmon Canning ship {{SV|Glory of the seas||2}}, a former Clipper ship, doing minor damage to both.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p01bFVagOJYC&q=Ship+Northwestern%2C+1907&pg=PA220 |title=Alaska at War, 1941-1945: The Forgotten War Remembered |date=15 September 2007 |publisher=University of Alaska Press/Googlebooks |isbn=9781602231351 |accessdate=30 July 2020}}
In January, 1913 she ran aground near Vladez Alaska Territory, in February she had a collision with "Skagit Queen", and on 12 September a collision with "H. B. Kennedy".{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p01bFVagOJYC&q=Ship+Northwestern%2C+1907&pg=PA220 |title=Alaska at War, 1941-1945: The Forgotten War Remembered |date=15 September 2007 |publisher=University of Alaska Press/Googlebooks |isbn=9781602231351 |accessdate=30 July 2020}}
On 6 October 1915 she grounded on Potter Rock just south of Pennock Island in the Tongass Narrows near Ketchikan, Alaska Territory. She got off the next morning.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p01bFVagOJYC&q=Ship+Northwestern%2C+1907&pg=PA220 |title=Alaska at War, 1941-1945: The Forgotten War Remembered |date=15 September 2007 |publisher=University of Alaska Press/Googlebooks |isbn=9781602231351 |accessdate=30 July 2020}}
On 25 July 1933, Northwestern ran aground off Alaska's Sentinel Island Lighthouse and subsequently was beached on the Eagle River Sand Spit. Her passengers were taken off by a United States Government steamship.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=American steamer beached |date=27 July 1933 |page=23 |issue=46507 |column=A }}
Final Sinking
File:NorthwesternInFlames-2.jpg, Alaska]]
Northwestern was pressed into service by the United States Navy during World War II, and was serving as housing for workers at Dutch Harbor on Unalaska when the area was bombed by the Japanese in June 1942. On 4 June a bomb struck her, inflicting extensive damage. Her hulk afterward was loaded with scrap and towed to Captains Bay in anticipation of eventually being towed to Seattle, Washington. Despite U.S. Navy records indicating that she was towed to Seattle, she in fact remained in Captains Bay, and eventually sank around 1946; there are differing accounts as to the circumstances of the sinking. Approximately {{convert|50|ft|m}} of her hull is normally visible at the head of Captains Bay.{{cite book|editor-last=Chandonnet|editor-first=Fern |title=Alaska at War, 1941-1945: The Forgotten War Remembered|pages=219ff|publisher=University of Alaska Press|year=2007|isbn=9781602231351}}
The site of the shipwreck was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
References
{{Reflist}}
See also
{{commons category|Northwestern (ship, 1889)}}
{{1933 shipwrecks}}
{{June 1942 shipwrecks}}
{{National Register of Historic Places}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Northwestern (1889)}}
Category:Maritime incidents in 1933
Category:Maritime incidents in June 1942
Category:Ships built by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works
Category:Shipwrecks of the Alaska coast
Category:Steamships of the United States Navy
Category:Ships of the Aleutian Islands campaign
Category:World War II auxiliary ships of the United States