1862 — July 27, Pacific Mail steamboat Golden Gate burns/sinks off Manzanilla, Mexico — ~213

— ~213 Blanchard.*

— 258 Robins. The Coming of the Comet: The Rise and Fall of the Paddle Steamer. 2012, p34.
— 223 Dwyer and Lingenfelter (editors). The Songs of the Gold Rush. 1965, p. 28.
— 213 Czernek, Andrew. “The Sinking of the S.S. Golden Gate.” Rootsweb.com. 5-11-2012.
–48 First Class
–31 Second Cabin
–99 Steerage
–34 Crew
— 200 Childs. A History of the United States In Chronological Order. 1886, p. 184.
— 200 Simonds. The American Date Book. 1902, p. 100.
— 198 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 684.
— 180 New York Times. “Terrible Disaster on the Pacific.” 8-8-1862, p. 8.
— 175 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 210.
— ~175 New York Times. “Burning of the Golden Gate.” Sep 10, 1862.

* Blanchard. While we see a range of fatalities from approximately 175 to 258, we choose to follow Czernek given his effort to review the differing fatality listings of the time and to reconcile differences, and his effort to break the fatalities out into the class of passengers and the crew (which are named and their position given).

Narrative Information

Childs: “The steamer Golden Gate, which left San Francisco on the 21st of July, was destroyed by fire on the 27th, off the Mexican coast, near Manzanilla. The passengers and crew, numbering about two hundred persons, were mostly lost. The treasure on board, amounting to nearly a million and a half of dollars, was also lost.” (Childs. A History of the [US]… 1886, p. 184.)

Newspapers

Aug 8, NYT: “Dispatches reached this City yesterday announcing the destruction of the steamship Golden Gate by five. She left San Francisco, July 21, for Panama, with two hundred and thirty passengers, $1,114,000 in treasure for New-York, and $270,000 for England. She was burnt at sea July 27, and one hundred and eighty passengers, twenty of her crew, and all the treasure lost. The following are the telegraphic dispatches received:
“….BENJAMIN HALLADAY….of the firm of HALLADAY & FLINT, owners of the California and Oregon steamship line.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 7.
To Allen McLane, President:
Golden Gate burned at sea near Manzanilla. Two hundred passengers and crew perished. Ship total loss. Particulars as soon as possible.
“FORBES & BABCOCK.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 7.
To Eugene Kelly & Co:
Steamship Golden Gate, which sailed hence 21st July, took fire twelve miles off Manzanilla, and was burnt to the water’s edge. About two hundred passengers lost.
“….The Golden Gate was a side-wheel steamer of 2,067 tons. Her length was 145 feet, breadth 25 feet, and drift 16 feet. She was built in this City in 1850, by W.H. WEBB, and was remodeled in 1859. Two oscillating engines, having two cylinders of 85 inches diameter, with 8 feet stroke of piston, furnished her motive power. On the shipping register she ranks A 2, and the provisions made for security against fire are noted as insufficient.

“She was one of the finest boats on the route between Panama and San Francisco, and was a favorite with the traveling public. She was noted for her police regulations, and the rules in relation to fire were well defined, and made plain to all her crew and passengers. It was customary on this route to exercise the passengers and crew in fire duty.

“The Golden Gate was a fast vessel and could accommodate about 900 passengers, besides a large quantity of freight. She carried from eight to twelve boats, sufficient to carry several hundred persons. She was repaired in 1856, ’58, ’59, and latterly she had been put in excellent order….”
(New York Times. “Terrible Disaster on the Pacific.” 8-8-1862, p. 8.)

Sep 10, NYT: “Ample time has elapsed since the burning at sea of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s steamer Golden Gate, yet we are without any satisfactory explanation of that terrible catastrophe. We know, generally, that the alarm of fire was sounded in broad day-light, during calm weather, while the vessel was steaming gaily along within three and a half miles of the shore. We are assured that the ship was amply provided with boats and life-preservers; that her fire apparatus was abundant and in good order; that her officers were cool and collected, exerting their best efforts for the rescue of their human charge from the impending peril; — and yet we find that about one hundred and seventy-five passengers perished, and only some seventy-five were saved! Among the rescued were only eight women, while twenty-six were lost, and of the children only nine were saved and twenty-one lost!

“It seems almost incredible that these results can be truly stated, — but the evidence is conclusive. Under the circumstances, it is idle to tell us that the steamship company to whose vessels and agents the passengers per Golden Gate intrusted their lives, had provided effectively as was within their power, for the safety of their passengers. There was criminal carelessness or mismanagement somewhere. If it be not so, who will care to go to sea when a journey can possibly be avoided. If in calm weather, within three and a half miles of the land, a well appointed ship, which often carries more than a thousand passengers on a single trip, may burn up in half an hour’s time, and — despite every reasonable precaution — one hundred and seventy-five of her passengers must necessarily be lost, and only seventy-five saved the hazards of a sea voyage will be found by far too great for the mass of present ocean travelers. It is not true that there was occasion for any such fearful mortality. With proper precautions on the part of the Company and the steamer’s officers, the percentage of loss of life by the burning of the Golden Gate should and would have been very small. Capt. Pearson assures us that the pumps were in order, but we are told that the flames burst out exactly where the donkey engines were located, and that, therefore, the fire apparatus could not be worked. This simply proves that the donkey engines are not properly located. The greatest danger of fire is always in the neighborhood of the galleys and smoke stack, — and that vicinity certainly is not the proper place in which to deposit the means of extinguishing the flames. The same policy which places a steering wheel aft, in order that it may be availed of when fire has cut of communication between the rudder and the forward steering-wheel, dictates a similarly safe location for the machinery which is the work the fire-engines.

“Again, there were several hundred life-preservers on board; but these were stowed away where many of them could not be got at, and as to the remainder, while the passengers did not know where to find them, it seems to have been nobody’s business to get them out and distribute them. So, too, in regard to the boats. The bursting out of the flames at the galley was the signal for a general panic and there was nobody to take charge of the boats, see that they were lowered safely, and that each was made effective to the salvation of every being who could be trusted to it. A part of the boats appear to have burned at their tackles; others capsized, causing the swift death of those who had seized upon them, and still others got off with many less occupants than they were capable of rescuing from an awful fate. This could not have happened had the discipline of the ship been perfect, and each boat in charge of somebody whose duty it was, on the instant of an alarm, to spring to his post prepared to shoot down whoever should persist in robbing fifty persons of the means of safety, in the cowardly effort to secure his own worthless life.

“The great monopoly now controlling the California travel can afford to employ men enough, and the right kind of men, to admit of such thorough discipline as would make the loss or improper handling of a steamer’s boats in time of peril, by fire alone, almost impossible. They are making quarterly dividends of 20 per cent. on a nominal capital, at least twice or three times as great as is required for their business. The finger of public scorn should point unmistakably and unrelentingly at their officers and directors for their criminal disregard of the lives of passengers. They are morally responsible for a large percentage of the sorrow and suffering that has resulted from the recent catastrophe, and public sentiment should press home upon them the conviction that they cannot thus trifle with human life, and be held as reputable and honorable men.

“The fire on board the Golden Gate began in the galley, on deck, in full sight of everybody, where there was not the slightest difficulty in getting at it. It was not confined or hidden, but was in plain view — as much so as is a bonfire on Broadway. The reader naturally asks, then, how is it that it made such rapid headway as to be beyond control, even at the instant when the alarm was given? The answer is a damning one to the Company. Between the galley of the Golden Gate and her engine-room and smoke-stack, was a wooden partition. The galley stoves, or caboose, were set against this, with only a sheet of boiler iron between. All around the galley, and above it, was light wood-work — the whole subject to great heat, and rendered dry as tinder. The conflagration originated back of the galley, where the wooden partition under its iron covering, doubtless, became charred, and as inflammable almost as camphene. Thus it was that within an almost inappreciable space of time after the fire first broke out, the entire engine room, and a large portion of the deck, were enveloped in flames, and the doom of the ship was irrevocably sealed. What are the public to think of a great, overgrown monopoly, dividing twenty per cent., per quarter, which sends ships to sea, six times a month, with their gallies and engine rooms inclosed in these rail tinder-boxes, and which inveigles thousands of their fellow-beings into false security, while they subject them to such fearful risk of destruction?

“Fire on board the Pacific Mail Steamship company’s vessels, is a very frequent occurrence. Time and again have we heard of it from passengers who are trustworthy, and still no adequate precautions against fatal conflagrations are provided. Voyage after voyage the vessels are sent to sea with from four hundred to fifteen hundred souls on board, under circumstances exciting our wonder that they ever reach port in safety. Not a week had elapsed after the destruction of the Golden Gate, when the St. Louis — of the same line, and having the rescued from her consort on board — also took fire in the harbor of Acapulco, or near there; but the flames were fortunately extinguished before the passengers were aware of the incident. Intelligent California travelers express the opinion that not one steamer-voyage in ten is made between New-York and San Francisco without an accidental fire, of greater or less extent, occurring at sea; and yet the Company fail to take that simplest of all precautions, the rendering entirely fire-proof those parts of their ships which are directly exposed to excessive heat! Let us hope that the promised new line via Nicaragua, will manifest a little more regard, in this respect, to the dictates of justice and humanity, as well as of sound economy. If they do not, California-bound travelers, who consult their safety, will take the Overland coach, or forego their journeyings. Surely no prudent man will risk the life of his wife and children in the hands of those who subject them to such fearful risk of destruction by fire added to the ordinary perils of the sea.

“There is no shadow of excuse for the carelessness of the Company. They know full well the dangerous construction of their ships; and we can find the motive of their conduct only in utter recklessness of human life. The President of the Company was himself at one time a Commander in its service. He was subsequently, for years, their agent at Panama, and had ample opportunity to know, from personal inspection, the wretched insecurity of the ships from loss by burning. He knows, doubtless, that the Golden Gate had been on fire on several occasions prior to that when she was destroyed. The public would be glad of some authorized assurance that he and his associates have taken thorough precautions against the recurrence of such a calamity as that which at this hour fills so many households with mourning.” (New York Times. “Burning of the Golden Gate.” Sep 10, 1862.)

Sources

Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. Boston: Mariners Press Inc., 1972.

Childs, Emery E. A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885. NY: Baker & Taylor, 1886. Google digitized. Accessed 9-4-2017: http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Czernek, Andrew. “The Sinking of the S.S. Golden Gate.” Rootsweb.com. 5-11-2012. Accessed 7-12-2020 at: http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~ssgoldengate/misc/index.html

Dwyer, Richard A. and Richard E. Lingenfelter (Editors). The Songs of the Gold Rush. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1965. Accessed 7-12-2020 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Songs_of_the_Gold_Rush/dh3eGqhmSZcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=steamboat+golden+gate+burns+1862&pg=PA28&printsec=frontcover

Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.

New York Times. “Burning of the Golden Gate.” Sep 10, 1862. Accessed at: http://www.nytimes.com/1862/09/10/news/burning-of-the-golden-gate.html

New York Times. “Terrible Disaster on the Pacific.” 8-8-1862, p. 8. Accessed 7-12-2020 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/08/archives/terrible-disaster-on-the-pacific-the-steamship-golden-gate.html

Robins, Nick. The Coming of the Comet: The Rise and Fall of the Paddle Steamer. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing, 2012. Assessed 7-12-2020 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Coming_of_the_Comet/J0SuCAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1

Simonds, W. E. (Editor). The American Date Book. Kama Publishing Co., 1902, 211 pages. Google digital preview accessed 9-8-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JuiSjvd5owAC