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1929 SS San Juan sinking disaster...
1929 SS San Juan sinking disaster...
Item # 723404
August 30, 1929
LEOMINSTER DAILY ENTERPRISE, Mass. Aug. 30, 1929
* Coastal passenger steamer SS San Juan
* Pigeon Point, California sinking disaster
The top of the front page has a three column heading: "65 PERSONS BELIEVED LOST WHEN PASSENGER SHIP SINKS" with subhead. (see images)
Complete with 14 pages, light toning and a little wear at the margins, generally in nice condition.
AI notes: On August 29, 1929, the coastal passenger steamer SS San Juan, en route from San Francisco to Los Angeles with 119 passengers and crew aboard, sank rapidly off Pigeon Point, California, after colliding with the oil tanker S.C.T. Dodd in thick fog. Departing San Francisco late in the evening, the aging iron-hulled San Juan suddenly appeared in front of the tanker despite fog signals, and within minutes the tanker's steel bow tore into the passenger ship’s port stern. The impact caused catastrophic flooding, and the vessel capsized to port and sank bow-first in roughly three minutes, leaving little time for lifeboats to be deployed. Rescue efforts by the tanker, nearby freighters, and the U.S. Coast Guard saved 42 survivors, but approximately 77 people perished, many trapped below decks or thrown into the turbulent water. The disaster, one of the deadliest peacetime coastal passenger ship accidents on the U.S. West Coast, prompted official investigations into navigation decisions, signaling in fog, and the vulnerability of the ship’s aged construction, leaving a wreck site today resting offshore at roughly 110 feet near Pigeon Point.
Category: The 20th Century
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