City of Rio de Janeiro

The City of Rio de Janeiro was an American steamship belonging to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company which was wrecked on 1901-02-22 on a submerged reef at the entry to San Francisco Bay while inward bound from Hong Kong with 210 people aboard. The damage to the ship was considerable: virtually the entire underside of the vessel had been torn open by the collision and the engine room and cargo holds rapidly flooded. The ship had been built in 1878, before watertight bulkheads came into use, and sunk only eight minutes after striking the reef. The wreck was so sudden that the lookout at the Fort Point Lifesaving Station, only a few hundred yards away, was completely unaware of the situation for two hours, when a lifeboat was sighted...