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San Francisco's deadliest shipwreck discovered ....
First images of 'Titanic of the Golden Gate' revealed by 3D scan | Daily Mail Online
It was lost over 100 years ago in what many consider the worst maritime disaster in San Francisco history.
On Feb. 22, 1901, in a dense morning fog, the SS City of Rio de Janeiro struck jagged rocks near the Golden Gate Bridge and sank almost immediately, killing 128 of the 210 passengers and crew aboard the ship.
The ship was never found - until now.
The NOAA and partners today released three-dimensional sonar maps and images of the immigrant steamship.
'We are undertaking this exploration of the San Francisco Bay in part to learn more about its maritime heritage as well as to test recent advances in technology that will allow us to better protect and understand the rich stories found beneath the Bay's waters,' said James Delgado, director of maritime heritage for NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
The images also revealed that the ship did not, as rumoured, contain treasure.
City of Rio de Janeiro was rumored to be full of silver treasure, but Delgado said accounts of a shipment of 'Chinese silver' were actually bars of tin.
'Today the wreck is broken and filled with mud, and it is a sealed grave in fast, dangerous waters in the main shipping lanes,' he said.
In November, Hibbard Inshore and Bay Marine Services donated a research vessel and crew, along with a high-powered remotely operated vehicle, to help NOAA pinpoint and map the City of Rio de Janeiro wreck site using sonar developed by Coda Octopus.
California-based salvagers found the wreck in the 1980s, but its exact location was unknown as the coordinates they provided did not coincide with any wreck charted by NOAA through years of sonar work.
During this expedition, Robert Schwemmer, West Coast Regional Maritime Heritage Coordinator, worked with Delgado and multibeam sonar expert Gary Fabian to locate the wreck site again.
They located the site in 287 feet of water, positioned inside the main ship channel, and largely buried in mud.
Schwemmer and the Hibbard team captured the first detailed sonar and three-dimensional images of City of Rio resting in the dark, muddy waters outside the bridge.
'The level of detail and clarity from the sonar survey is amazing,' Schwemmer said. 'We now have a much better sense of both wrecks, and of how they not only sank, but what has happened to them since their loss.'
The 3-D model generated by the Coda Octopus 'Echoscope' sonar also gave researchers an entirely new perspective on the condition of the wreck site.
What they found was a crumpled, scarcely recognizable iron hulk encased in more than a century worth of mud and sediment, lending support to the narrative that the ship sank quickly before many of its passengers could escape.
The expedition team also remapped the S.S. City of Chester,a second nearby wreck that was rediscovered in May 2013 by NOAA's Office of the Coast Survey. In stark contrast to the City of Rio, the Echoscope revealed in great detail the surprising level of preservation of the City of Chester's frame and propulsion machinery, telling a very different story about the circumstances of its sinking.
To date NOAA has plotted nine of nearly 200 ships including four never before found vessels.
The NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Maritime Heritage Program is engaged in a two-year study to discover and document shipwrecks in Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and nearby Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
First images of 'Titanic of the Golden Gate' revealed by 3D scan | Daily Mail Online
It was lost over 100 years ago in what many consider the worst maritime disaster in San Francisco history.
On Feb. 22, 1901, in a dense morning fog, the SS City of Rio de Janeiro struck jagged rocks near the Golden Gate Bridge and sank almost immediately, killing 128 of the 210 passengers and crew aboard the ship.
The ship was never found - until now.
The NOAA and partners today released three-dimensional sonar maps and images of the immigrant steamship.
'We are undertaking this exploration of the San Francisco Bay in part to learn more about its maritime heritage as well as to test recent advances in technology that will allow us to better protect and understand the rich stories found beneath the Bay's waters,' said James Delgado, director of maritime heritage for NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
The images also revealed that the ship did not, as rumoured, contain treasure.
City of Rio de Janeiro was rumored to be full of silver treasure, but Delgado said accounts of a shipment of 'Chinese silver' were actually bars of tin.
'Today the wreck is broken and filled with mud, and it is a sealed grave in fast, dangerous waters in the main shipping lanes,' he said.
In November, Hibbard Inshore and Bay Marine Services donated a research vessel and crew, along with a high-powered remotely operated vehicle, to help NOAA pinpoint and map the City of Rio de Janeiro wreck site using sonar developed by Coda Octopus.
California-based salvagers found the wreck in the 1980s, but its exact location was unknown as the coordinates they provided did not coincide with any wreck charted by NOAA through years of sonar work.
During this expedition, Robert Schwemmer, West Coast Regional Maritime Heritage Coordinator, worked with Delgado and multibeam sonar expert Gary Fabian to locate the wreck site again.
They located the site in 287 feet of water, positioned inside the main ship channel, and largely buried in mud.
Schwemmer and the Hibbard team captured the first detailed sonar and three-dimensional images of City of Rio resting in the dark, muddy waters outside the bridge.
'The level of detail and clarity from the sonar survey is amazing,' Schwemmer said. 'We now have a much better sense of both wrecks, and of how they not only sank, but what has happened to them since their loss.'
The 3-D model generated by the Coda Octopus 'Echoscope' sonar also gave researchers an entirely new perspective on the condition of the wreck site.
What they found was a crumpled, scarcely recognizable iron hulk encased in more than a century worth of mud and sediment, lending support to the narrative that the ship sank quickly before many of its passengers could escape.
The expedition team also remapped the S.S. City of Chester,a second nearby wreck that was rediscovered in May 2013 by NOAA's Office of the Coast Survey. In stark contrast to the City of Rio, the Echoscope revealed in great detail the surprising level of preservation of the City of Chester's frame and propulsion machinery, telling a very different story about the circumstances of its sinking.
To date NOAA has plotted nine of nearly 200 ships including four never before found vessels.
The NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Maritime Heritage Program is engaged in a two-year study to discover and document shipwrecks in Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and nearby Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
