After 125 years, ship rediscovered at bottom of San Francisco Bay | CNN

19th century shipwreck discovered —

NOAA announced on Wednesday, April 23, it has found the underwater wreck of the passenger steamer City of Chester, which sank in 1888 in a collision in dense fog near where the Golden Gate Bridge stands today.

San Francisco Maritime National

19th century shipwreck discovered —

A newspaper illustration of the collision between RMS Oceanic and SS City of Chester. The 202-foot long steamship had just left San Francisco when it was struck by the steamer Oceanic.

San Francisco Chronicle

19th century shipwreck discovered —

A view of the Golden Gate Channel and approximate location of where the ship was found.

Robert V. Schwemmer/NOAA

19th century shipwreck discovered —

The NOAA team rediscovered what they thought was the City of Chester while surveying another nearby shipwreck. High-resolution sonar imagery clearly defined the hull and the fatal gash on the vessel's port side.

NOAA Office of Coast Survey NRT6

19th century shipwreck discovered

Story highlights

The City of Chester was sailing in San Francisco Bay when it hit another ship, killing 16

The Chinese crew of the other ship was at first vilified, later hailed as heroes

Discoverers called ship an important reminder of race relations at the time

There are no plans to bring ship out of water

CNN —

For more than 125 years, the City of Chester passenger ship has been at the bottom of San Francisco Bay.

Scientists rediscovered its burial site recently after using sidescan sonar to confirm data first gathered last year.

Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were looking in May 2013 for another ship that sank near the Golden Gate Bridge in 1952 when they found what they thought was the City of Chester.

They conducted what is called a multibeam sonar survey and over the next nine months sorted through the data. A follow-up look with sidescan sonar found the ship 216 feet beneath the surface, sitting upright in the mud. There was a fatal gash in the ship’s port side.

NOAA said in a news release that the discovery is an important one for the Chinese-American community in the San Francisco area.

The City of Chester was carrying 90 people on a trip to Eureka, California, on August 22, 1888, when it was hit in the fog by the Oceanic, a ship arriving from Asia. The Chester sank within six minutes and 16 people were killed.

The Chinese crew of the Oceanic initially was criticized but later praised as heroes.

“Discoveries like this remind us that the waters off our shores are museums that speak to powerful events, in this case not only that tragic wreck, but to a time when racism and anger were set aside by the heroism of a crew who acted in the best traditions of the sea,” said James Delgado, the director of maritime heritage for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

The wreck was found in 1888 by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, the predecessor of NOAA.

NOAA will set up an exhibit about the City of Chester at a nearby marine sanctuary, but there are no plans to raise the ship.