SS ''Iowa'' was a steamship built by the

Western Pipe and Steel Company The Western Pipe and Steel Company (WPS) was an American manufacturing company that is best remembered today for its shipbuilding, construction of ships for the Maritime Commission in World War II. It also built ships for the U.S. Shipping Board ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in 1920 for the U.S. government and was known as the ''SS West Cadron''. It served in the Quaker Line subsidiary of the

States Steamship Company States Steamship Company, also called States Line and SSS, was started in 1928 by Charles Dant, in Portland, Oregon and later moved to the headquarters to San Francisco. Dant started the States Steamship Company to take his lumber product to mar ...

. from 1928—when it was renamed the ''Iowa''—until January 12, 1936, when it ran aground on Peacock Spit,

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, part of the

Columbia Bar The Columbia Bar is a system of bars and shoals at the mouth of the Columbia River spanning the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. It is one of the most dangerous bar crossings in the world, earning the nickname Graveyard of the Pacific. The ...

at the mouth of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

. SS ''Iowa'' was travelling from

Longview, Washington Longview is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, Cowlitz County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. It is the principal city of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cowlitz County. Longvie ...

where it had taken on a load of lumber. The ship was carrying more than 6,900

long ton The long ton, also known as the imperial ton, displacement ton,Dictionary.com - ''"a unit for measuring the displacement of a vessel, equal to a long ton of 2240 pounds (about 1016 kg) or 35 cu. ft. (1 cu. m) of seawater."'' or British ton, is a ...

s of cargo. Around midnight, as SS ''Iowa'' was crossing the Columbia River bar, a gale estimated at 75 mph hit the ship. Captain Edgar Yates was experienced crossing the bar and had not brought a

bar pilot A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, port pilot, ship pilot, or simply pilot, is a mariner who has specific knowledge of an often dangerous or congested waterway, such as harbors or river mouths. Maritime pilots know local details s ...

aboard. At the

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse The Cape Disappointment Light is a lighthouse on Cape Disappointment near the mouth of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. History In 1848, it was recommended a lighthouse be located at Cape Disappointment in what was then the ...

around 2 a.m., a Coast Guard observer witnessed the ship start to turn south and then turn to the north toward Peacock Spit where water depths are only around . The Astoria Coast Guard station received the ''Iowa'' distress call around 4:30 a.m. The Coast Guard cutter ''Onondaga'' was dispatched after the

SOS SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, originally established for maritime use. In formal notation SOS is written with an overscore line (), to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" a ...

was received. Attempts were made to communicate with the ship by observers at the lighthouse using radio, light signals, and flags. The observers saw a flash of light from the ship and a few flags raised in response, but were unable to decipher any messages from the ship in the stormy conditions. By the time that the ''Onondaga'' arrived, only masts were visible above the waves. All 34 people aboard the ship died, and only six bodies were recovered from the wreckage that dotted local shorelines for days.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iowa, SS Ocean liners 1920 ships Shipwrecks of the Oregon coast Ships built in San Francisco Maritime incidents in 1936