Francis H. Leggett
| History | |
|---|---|
| |
| Name: | Francis H. Leggett |
| Owner: | Hicks-Hauptman Transportation Co. |
| Operator: | Charles R. McCormick Co., San Francisco, California |
| Port of registry: |
United States |
| Builder: | Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia |
| Launched: | Jan. 31, 1903 |
| Completed: | 1903 |
| In service: | 1903 |
| Out of service: | 1914 |
| Identification: |
|
| Fate: | Wrecked and sank Sept. 18, 1914 near the mouth of the Columbia river |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | steam-powered schooner |
| Tonnage: | 1,606 GRT |
| Length: | 241.5 feet (73.6 m) |
| Beam: | 41.2 feet (12.6 m) |
| Depth: | 14.8 feet (4.5 m) |
| Installed power: | 1,000 hp |
| Crew: | 29 |
The Francis H. Leggett was an American-flagged steam-powered schooner built in 1903 by Newport News Shipbuilding as a timber-hauling ship serving Andrew Benoni Hammond's timber operations on the West Coast of the United States. It served in this capacity for 11 years before it sank off the Columbia Bar on the coast of Oregon. The disaster killed 35 of the 37 passengers aboard and all 25 crewmen. The disaster was the worst maritime accident in the history of Oregon and was attributed to the ship being overloaded with railroad ties.
Construction
In 1903, with his timber operations in full bloom in the Pacific Northwest, timber baron A.B. Hammond began acquiring what became known as "Hammond's Navy," a flotilla of 72 ships (not all owned simultaneously) that served his operations. The flagship of this flotilla was the Francis H. Leggett, which Hammond named after one of his business partners and commissioned to be the largest ship in the Pacific lumber trade.[1] With a capacity of 1.5 million board-feet of lumber, its steel hull was so large that it could not enter many of the ports on the West Coast of the United States. Nicknamed "Hammond's Folly," it was nevertheless a commercial success when it arrived on the West Coast from the Virginia shipyard where it was built.[2] In 1905 alone, the Leggett and its sister ship, the Arctic, netted Hammond $62,000 in profit, more than the profit of some of his timber operations. The success of the Leggett led Hammond to acquire more ships.[1]
Later, the Leggett was one of the pioneering ships behind the technique of ocean rafting (also called Benson rafting), whereby large rafts of logs were chained together and towed. These rafts could be up to 700 feet (210 m) long and contain up to 11 million board feet of timber.[3] After some years of success, the practice was banned by the U.S. Congress in 1912 after several rafts broke up in storms, spreading large logs up and down the coast and creating a hazard to shipping.[4]
Sinking
On Sept. 17, 1914, the Leggett departed Grays Harbor, Washington for San Francisco with a load of railroad ties lashed to its deck. While the weather was calm in Grays Harbor, it worsened as the ship sailed south, where a 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) gale was blowing off the coast of Oregon. The ship's cargo of railroad ties began to shift, and a hatch cover was torn off by the storm, allowing waves of seawater to flood into the ship.[5] Charles Moro, the captain of the Leggett, ordered the ship's radio operators to send a distress call as the ship began to sink.[6]
The distress signal was detected by the Japanese cruiser Izumo, but that ship was unable to respond to the Leggett out of fear that the German cruiser Leipzig was nearby. Japan was at war with Germany, and the Japanese cruiser feared being attacked by the larger German ship. The Idzumo relayed the distress signal to other ships, including the oil tanker Buck and the steamer Beaver. Both ships responded to the call for help, but by the time they arrived on scene, the Leggett had sunk, leaving only its cargo of railroad ties still afloat. Two passengers aboard the Leggett were rescued. One of the survivors, Alexander Farrell, explained that the storm swamped both of the ship's lifeboats as soon as they were lowered. Both survivors lived by clinging to railroad ties.[7] The death toll of 60 people makes it Oregon's worst maritime disaster on record.
References
- Forty-Fifth Annual List of Merchant Vessals of the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1913. p. 176
- Gordon, Greg. When Money Grew on Trees: A.B. Hammond and the Age of the Timber Baron. University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0806144474
Notes
- 1 2 Gordon, p. 267
- ↑ "The Francis H. Leggett Launched," The New York Times. Feb. 1, 1903. Retrieved Sept. 21, 2014.
- ↑ "The Largest Lumber Raft," The New York Times. Aug. 24, 1906. Retrieved Sept. 21, 2014.
- ↑ Gordon, p. 269
- ↑ Lienhard, John H. "The Francis H. Leggett," Engines of Our Ingenuity. Jan. 31, 2014. Retrieved Sept. 21, 2014.
- ↑ "Only 2 of 70 on Leggett Escape," The Spokesman-Review. Sept. 19, 1914. Retrieved Sept. 21, 2014.
- ↑ "Only two saved in Pacific wreck," The New York Times. Sept. 20, 1914. Retrieved Sept. 21, 2014.
Additional reading
- Belyk, Robert. Great Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast. Wiley, 2001.
External links
- Location of the wreck (www.wrecksite.eu)