SS Roanoke

The Roanoke was built at the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works of John Roach & Sons in Chester, Pennsylvania.{{sfn|Colton|2013}} The ship was delivered to the Old Dominion Steamship Company in March 1882, and given the name previously held by a side-wheel paddle steamer in service with the New York and Virginia Steamship Company.{{sfn|Colton|2013}}{{sfn|Woods|1999|loc=p.89 note 17}} The earlier Roanoke had been built around 1851, and served as a troop carrier for the Union Army in the Civil War.{{sfn|Woods|1999|loc=p.89 note 17}} It then ran on a commercial route from New York to Havana and New Orleans, but was captured by Confederate privateers and destroyed.{{sfn|Woods|1999|loc=p.89 note 17}} The Old Dominion took over the New York and Virginia line in 1862, and resurrected the name Roanoke for one of its new iron steamers.

File:01479u Old Dominion Steamship Company.tif

By 1887, the Roanoke was operating on the route from New York City to Norfolk, Virginia, and among its passengers were often European Mormon immigrants making their way to Salt Lake City, Utah. The immigrants landed in New York and were processed by New York State officials at Castle Garden Immigration Depot in Lower Manhattan.{{sfn|Woods|1999|pp=75–86}} Until 1887, Mormon immigrants had traveled onwards by rail using tickets arranged by Mormon agents in New York. This changed following attempts by the Grand Trunk Line Immigration Clearing House Commission to monopolize rail travel by the immigrants and raise the fares. At the same time one of the New York Board of Commissioners of Emigration attempted to block Mormon immigration entirely.{{sfn|Woods|1999|p=75}} Faced with these challenges, Mormon leaders negotiated a new route for the immigrants to take. After processing at Castle Garden, immigrants took the overnight trip on one of the Old Dominion's steamers to Norfolk, from where they picked up the Norfolk and Western Railroad service.{{sfn|Woods|1999|pp=75–82}} This voyage remained a primary route for Mormon emigrants until the federal government took over immigration in the state of New York on April 19, 1890.{{sfn|Woods|1999|p=86}} During this period, more than 5,000 Mormon emigrants in forty companies traveled on the Old Dominion line.{{sfn|Woods|1999|p=78}}

A newspaper report from June 21, 1889 noted that 345 of 731 passengers arriving at Castle Garden were Mormons and "they were carefully culled out from the other passengers and transferred to the Old Dominion steamship Roanoke."{{sfn|Woods|1999|p=78}} Mormon passengers reported that the crew of the Roanoke treated them well.

{{Quotation|text=The New York officials at the dock of the Old Dominion Steamship Company were also kind and obliging, in providing against an emergency for which neither they nor us were responsible. We desire also to mention the names of Mr. J.G. Halphers (captain) and Mr. W.H. Mayor (purser) of the S.S. Roanoke, who said if we could suggest anything beyond what had already been done that would contribute to the comfort of our people, it should be attended to.|author=Levi Naylor|source=Letter to George Teasdale{{sfn|Woods|1999|p=81}} }}

File:Steamer ROANOKE in harbor returning with gold miners from the Klondike, Seattle, Washington, July 19, 1898 (LAROCHE 290).jpeg

{{Quotation|text=We passed Castle Garden all right, and set sail for Norfolk on board the S.S. Roanoke at 3 p.m., and expect to arrive there about 3 o'clock on the afternoon of the 21st. The Roanoke is a fine steamer, and everything is done to make us feel comfortable. Mr. Gibson, the agent, was present himself as the boat landed, and carried everything out in first-class order. An agent has been sent with us from New York, to see that everything is attended to properly at Norfolk.|author=Lars S. Anderson|source=Letter{{sfn|Woods|1999|pp=81–82}} }}

In 1898, the Roanoke was sold to the Chicago-based North American Transportation and Trading Company.{{sfn|Woods|1999|loc=p.89 note 17}}{{sfn|BoN|1899|p=285}}{{sfn|BoN|1901|p=296}}

File:Klondike Routes Map2.png (red spot).]]

Following the discovery of gold in Klondike, Yukon during 1896, the Klondike Gold Rush brought a flood of trade during 1897 to the Pacific Northwest. This boom encouraged shipping companies to bring steamers to the region for the 1898 season. The Roanoke, bound from Baltimore, was one of 17 steamers listed in the February 28, 1898 edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as heading for Seattle to transport miners and their supplies to the gold fields.{{sfn|Post-Intelligencer|February 28, 1898|p=10}}

There were two primary routes from Seattle to the Yukon gold fields. One was by ship to the south-east Alaskan towns of Dyea and Skagway, and then via land for 30 miles over high mountain passes from where the miners could travel down the tributaries of the Yukon River. The other route was longer and more costly but faster and less grueling: Miners would take a coastal steamer to the Yukon delta port of St. Michael, from where they could transfer to a river steamer to head up the Yukon River. The Roanoke was brought to Seattle specifically by the North American Transportation and Trading Company to serve the long coastal route to St. Michael, sometime calling at intermediate ports such as Dutch Harbor. The NATTC began advertising the Roanoke's service in March 1898.{{sfn|Post-Intelligencer|March 3, 1898|p=1}}

The lead story in the July 20, 1898 edition of the Post-Intelligencer was the docking of the Roanoke in Seattle with four tons of gold from Alaska aboard.{{sfn|Post-Intelligencer|July 20, 1898|p=1}} After the discovery of gold at Nome, Alaska in September 1898 precipitated the Nome Gold Rush, the Roanoke's route was modified to end at Nome. The Roanoke remained serving the Alaska route until at least June 1904.{{sfn|Star|July 6, 1901|p=4}}{{sfn|Islander|June 11, 1904|p=8}} In August 1904, the Roanoke was reported to be laid up for repairs.{{sfn|Islander|August 13, 1904|p=8}}

File:SS Roanoke on cradle at Eagle Harbor, WA.jpg

By 1905, the Roanoke was serving ports in California and Oregon. On November 27, 1905, the ship lost its rudder and stern post while crossing the harbor bar at Eureka, California in heavy seas during an ebb tide.{{sfn|East Oregonian|November 28, 1905|p=1}}

By 1906, the Roanoke was owned by the North Pacific Steamship Company, which also owned the George W. Elder another nightboat built for the Old Dominion Steamship Company. For the next decade, the George W. Elder and Roanoke worked the NPSC's primary route from Portland, via Eureka and San Francisco to Los Angeles.

File:SS Columbia life raft onboard SS Roanoke.PNG

On July 21, 1907, the Roanoke and the George W. Elder were involved in the rescue of survivors from the Columbia, another ship from the Delaware River yard. The Columbia had collided with the lumber schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, causing the Columbia to sink, killing 88 people. Both the George W. Elder and Roanoke arrived at the site of the disaster and picked up Columbia's survivors from the badly damaged San Pedro.{{sfn|Belyk|2001}}

By 1916, the Roanoke was under charter for service to South America. The Roanoke left San Francisco bound for Valparaíso, Chile at midnight May 8/9, 1916 with a cargo of explosives, wheat, oil and gasoline.{{sfn|Star|May 11, 1916}} The ship foundered in heavy seas in the Pacific Ocean off Point Buchon, California at about 3 p.m. on May 9.{{sfn|Star|May 11, 1916|p=1}}{{sfn|Times|May 12, 1916|p=6}} 47 people died and three crew members were rescued from a lifeboat that beached near San Luis Obispo, California.{{sfn|Star|May 11, 1916|p=1}}{{sfn|Times|May 13, 1916|p=12}}

{{reflist|25em}}

• {{cite book |title=Merchant Vessels of the United States |year=1899 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_AhBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA285 |page=285 |publisher=Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Navigation |ref={{harvid|BoN|1899}} }}
• {{cite book |title=Merchant Vessels of the United States |year=1901 |url=https://archive.org/details/merchantvessels01guargoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/merchantvessels01guargoog/page/n320 296] |publisher=Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Navigation |ref={{harvid|BoN|1901}} }}
• {{cite book |title=Merchant Vessels of the United States |year=1911 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ueMYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA280 |page=280 |publisher=Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Navigation |ref={{harvid|BoN|1911}} }}
• {{cite book |last=Belyk |first=Robert C. |title=Great Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast |place=New York |publisher=Wiley |year=2001 |isbn=0-471-38420-8 }}
• {{cite web |last=Colton |first=T. |title=The Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding & Engine Works, Chester PA |publisher=ShipbuildingHistory |date=October 21, 2013 |url=http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/merchant.htm |accessdate=July 30, 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141023050721/http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/merchant.htm |archivedate=October 23, 2014 }}
• {{cite journal |first=Fred E. |last=Woods |title=Norfolk and the Mormon Folk: Latter-day Saint Immigration through Old Dominion (1887–90) |url=http://mormonhistoricsites.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/mhs1.1WoodsSpring2000.pdf |journal=Mormon Historical Studies |year=1999 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=73–91}}

• {{cite news |journal=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |date=February 28, 1898 |page=10 |title=Coming to Seattle. Steamers Bound to Alaska from All Parts of the World Will Sail From this City. |volume=33 |issue=106 |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045604/1898-02-28/ed-1/seq-10/ |ref={{harvid|Post-Intelligencer|February 28, 1898}} }}
• {{cite news |journal=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |date=March 3, 1898 |page=1 |title=To The New El Dorado (advertisement) |volume=33 |issue=109 |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045604/1898-03-03/ed-1/seq-1/ |ref={{harvid|Post-Intelligencer|March 3, 1898}} }}
• {{cite news |journal=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |date=July 20, 1898 |page=1 |title=Treasure Ship Roanoke Is In. Four Tons of Klondike Gold. |volume=34 |issue=65 |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045604/1898-07-20/ed-1/seq-1/ |ref={{harvid|Post-Intelligencer|July 20, 1898}} }}
• {{cite news |journal=Seattle Star |date=July 6, 1901|title=Big Alaska Fleet Is Due |page=4 |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093407/1901-07-06/ed-1/seq-4/ |ref={{harvid|Star|July 6, 1901}} }}
• {{cite news |journal=San Juan Islander |date=June 11, 1904 |title=Orcas Island. Doe Bay and Olga. |page=8 |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085190/1904-06-11/ed-1/seq-8/ |ref={{harvid|Islander|June 11, 1904}} }}
• {{cite news |journal=San Juan Islander |date=August 13, 1904 |title=Orcas Island. Doe Bay and Olga. |page=8 |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085190/1904-08-13/ed-1/seq-8/ |ref={{harvid|Islander|August 13, 1904}} }}
• {{cite news |journal=East Oregonian |date=November 28, 1905 |title=Over a Bar Broadside. Steamer Roanoke Proceeded Under Steam But Badly Crippled. |page=1 |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88086023/1905-11-28/ed-1/seq-1/ |ref={{harvid|East Oregonian|November 28, 1905}} }}
• {{cite news |journal=Seattle Star |date=May 11, 1916|title=Steamer Sinks off California Coast; 3 Survive |page=1 |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093407/1916-05-11/ed-1/seq-1/ |ref={{harvid|Star|May 11, 1916}} }}
• {{cite news |journal=The Times |place=London |title=Marine insurance market |date=May 12, 1916 |page=6 |issue=41165 |ref={{harvid|Times|May 12, 1916}} }}
• {{cite news |journal=The Times |place=London |title=Marine insurance market |date=May 13, 1916 |page=12 |issue=41166 |ref={{harvid|Times|May 13, 1916}} }}

{{ODS_Co_Steamships}}

{{1905 shipwrecks}}

{{May 1916 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roanoke}}

Category:Steamships of the United States

Category:Maritime incidents in 1905

Category:Maritime incidents in 1916

Category:1882 ships

Category:Passenger ships of the United States

Category:Ships built by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works