A vast array of shipwrecks dot the deep, moody waters protected by the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Clipper ships, barques, schooners, and steamers alike have fallen prey to the region’s unpredictable weather and rocky shoreline. More than 140 shipwrecks have been documented in the sanctuary between 1845 and 1935. They offer us vivid insight into our past.

The San Juan underway. photo Courtesy of San Mateo County History Museum

The sinking of the San Juan was one of the worst maritime disasters to mark California coastal waterways. On August 29, 1929, just before midnight, the oil tanker S.C.T. Dodd rammed the passenger steamer in fog-obscured waters off Pigeon Point. The San Juan smashed like kindling wood and sank within five minutes.

Believed to be the oldest ship in regular passenger service on the Pacific coast at the time of its demise, the San Juan carried seventy-three passengers and forty-four crew that night. During a sensational scandal following the collision, officers and crew of each vessel blamed the other for changing course and causing the accident. The wreck took more lives than any other in the area’s history. Seventy-five men, women, and children from all walks of life were lost aboard the steamer. Most were trapped while asleep below deck.

Passengers included Mrs. Willie Jasmine Brown, who had just mailed a letter saying, “I’d really rather take the train, but the boat is cheaper. The children need shoes.” (The fare from San Francisco to San Pedro, California was attractively priced at $8 to $10 per person.) Others aboard were George Navarro, a teenage movie extra and aspiring actor who appeared in films featuring Ronald Coleman and Victor McLaglen; and Marjorie Pifer, who saved her son, the only child to survive the wreck, by throwing him onto the deck of the Dodd as the San Juan disappeared beneath the sea.

An iron-hulled steamer, the San Juan first entered the water in 1882 as a unit of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. At 2,152 gross tons, a length of 283 feet, and a beam of 37 feet, the vessel was one of the largest ships in service. Part of a great network of early mail lines shuttling between Panama and West Coast ports, the Pacific Mail fleet enjoyed a reputation for efficiency and dependability. The fleet became known as the most universally popular steamship line in the world.

The Panama route was a vital artery of communication between America’s eastern and western seaboards. Passengers, mail, and freight traveled the route more quickly and more safely than by any other means. A trip around Cape Horn could take up to six months. The overland route took up to forty days and was closed by storms in winter. Demonstrating their practicality for long voyages with greater speed and regularity than sailing vessels, steamers like the San Juan made the trip in eighteen to twenty-two days.

Bringing survivors ashore. photo Courtesy of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

Steamers employed on the Panama route, such as the San Juan, changed little over time. Their chief distinguishing feature was a deck-house that extended from one end of the vessel to the other and contained rooms for passengers, officers’ quarters, and staterooms. A hurricane deck formed a canopy over the entire length and breadth of the ship. This greatly increased deck space for travelers and was particularly welcome on vessels operating in tropical waters.

Having sailed the seas for more than forty years, the San Juan was one of the last of the fleet still in service when Pacific Mail sold its interest to the Dollar Line in the late 1920s. In later years, the San Juan operated along Pacific shores as part of the White Flyer Line. Local advertisements promised passengers “…a delightful way to travel. One fare includes comfortable berth, excellent meals, open-air dancing, promenade decks, radio music – all the luxury of ocean travel. A trip to be remembered. The economical way that entails no sacrifice.”

Shipwrecks fascinate us because they represent dramatic moments in time. More importantly, they provide snapshots of people and industry at the precise instant the vessel went down. Shipwrecks are precious cultural resources to be appreciated and protected as a significant part of our nation’s maritime history.

The National Marine Sanctuary Program maintains a shipwreck database to promote awareness and preservation of shipwrecks as a valuable part of our cultural heritage. To learn more about shipwrecks that occurred in this and other sanctuaries, visit http://channelislands.nos.noaa.gov/shipwreck/shiphome.html. It’s a voyage worth taking.

JoAnn Semones