10.12.08

F I R S TP R E V904NEXTLAST

Lost Gold Under the Golden Gate
In the early morning dark of February 22nd, 1901 the 3,548-ton steamship City of Rio de Janeiro sat anchored just outside the Golden Gate. The ship, arriving from the Orient with 212 passengers and crew, was two days behind schedule and anxious to dock in San Francisco. A local bar pilot ship pulled along side the huge vessel and Pilot Frederick Jordan climbed aboard the Rio to guide it through the treacherous waters of the Bay. At 4 a.m. the ship raised anchor and steamed into the dense fog toward the Golden Gate.

About an hour later the fishing boat Newcomer was leading a line of about a dozen other boats out from Fisherman's Wharf when crewman Antonio Silva spotted three men clinging to a raft in the dense fog. Soon the Italian fishermen were pulling dozens of shipwrecked people from the icy waters. The Rio had struck rocks off Fort Point and gone down in three minutes, so fast that only one of the eleven lifeboats was launched. Most of the passengers were still below deck when the ship sank. In the end it was San Francisco's worst maritime disaster with 132 passengers and crew lost and only 80 souls rescued by the fishing fleet.

Sixteen months later the ship's pilot house washed up on shore with the remains of its captain William Ward, still wearing his uniform, inside. Despite many attempts and dives, the rest of hulk was never found. The ship carried 650 bales of valuable imported silk as well as a store of gold bullion valued at around $16 million today. For years salvage crews attempted to locate the wreck and recover the valuable cargo but without any luck. Theories exist that the Rio was swept back out to sea or settled into a bottomless cave beneath Fort Point where it rests today.
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