SS Columbia (1880)
SS Columbia (1880–1907) was a cargo and passenger steamship that was owned by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and later the San Francisco and Portland Steamship Company. Columbia was constructed in 1880 by the John Roach & Sons shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.
Photograph of SS Columbia under way | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United States | |
| Name | Columbia |
| Owner |
|
| Operator |
|
| Port of registry | Portland, Oregon, United States of America |
| Route | San Francisco, California to Portland, Oregon via Astoria, Oregon |
| Ordered | July 1879 |
| Builder | Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works (Chester, PA) |
| Cost | US $450,000 in 1880 |
| Yard number | 193 |
| Laid down | September 1879 |
| Launched | 24 February 1880 |
| Completed | May 1880 |
| Maiden voyage | June 1880 |
| In service | 1880 - 1907 |
| Out of service | 21 July 1907 |
| Fate | Sunk, 21 July 1907, Shelter Cove, California |
| Notes | Collided with the lumber schooner San Pedro |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 2,721 tons |
| Length | 332 ft (101 m) (309 ft (94 m) below the waterline) |
| Beam | 38.5 ft (12 m) |
| Draft | 18 ft (5.5 m) |
| Depth | 23 ft (7.0 m) |
| Decks | 4 |
| Installed power | Six cylindrical 12 ft (3.7 m) diameter 12.5 ft (3.8 m) long boilers, powering two 42.5 in (1,080 mm) and 82 in (2,100 mm) by 54 in (1,400 mm) stroke compound condensing engines |
| Propulsion | Single four bladed 16 ft (4.9 m) diameter Hirsch propeller |
| Sail plan | Brigantine |
| Speed | 16 kn (18 mph; 30 km/h) |
| Capacity | 382 to 850 first class and steerage passengers |
| Notes | The first ship to use electric light bulbs, and the first use besides Edison's lab of electric light. Columbia was equipped with four watertight bulkheads. It also featured eight metal lifeboats, one wooden lifeboat, one wooden workboat, five life rafts and 537 life preservers. |
Columbia was the first ship to carry a dynamo powering electric lights instead of oil lamps and the first commercial use of electric light bulbs outside of Thomas Edison's Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory. Due to this, a detailed article and composite illustration of Columbia was featured in the May 1880 issue of Scientific American magazine.
Columbia was lost on 21 July 1907 after a collision with the lumber schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, with the loss of 88 lives.