S.S. LEWIS

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aukepalmhof
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S.S. LEWIS

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:18 pm

Built as a wooden cargo- passenger vessel by Theodore Birley & Sons, Philadelphia for the Ocean Steamship Co of New England, (Boston-Liverpool Line)
12 June 1851 launched under the name SAMUEL S. LEWIS.
Tonnage 1.103 gross, dim. 225 x 32 x 27ft.
Powered by two geared beam steam engines, manufactured by James F. Sutton & Co, single screw propeller, speed 9 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 100 first and 100 third class passengers.
Square rigged forward and fore-and-aft rigged upon de main and mizzenmast

The plan was that she will make seven voyages a year between Boston and Liverpool.
With only her lower holds full of cargo she can carry around 900 steerage passengers.

04 October 1851 under command of Capt. William C. Barstow she sailed out from Boston for her maiden voyage to Boston, on board 45 first class and 65 steerage passengers.
During this voyage near the Irish coast she lost her propeller, she arrived at Liverpool under sail on 21 October.
02 December after repair she sailed from Liverpool for Halifax for coaling, arrived Boston 03 January 1852.
The losses incurred on this voyage forced her owners to sell her upon return.

1852 She was purchased by Cornelius Vanderbilt for his Nicaragua Line, she left from New York on 5 March 1852 and sailed round Cape Horn to San Francisco where she arrived on 7 July, 126 days after leaving New York and 26 days from Panama.
Because of overloading and unsanitary conditions, she received a bad press, but then many of Vanderbilt ships received bad press from the Daily Alta California, so much so that one historian has suggested that the articles sounded as though the Daily Alta California was in the employ of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company (The concurrent of Vanderbilt).
On 09 April 1853 the steamer ran aground on Duxbury Reef due to a navigation error, North of the Golden Gate near the little coastal town of Bolinas.
All passengers were saved, but the vessel was a total loss.

Nicaragua 1990 5000 cor. sg?, scott1784

North Atlantic Seaway by Bonsor. Various web-sites.
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