A Navy fleet tug that went missing in 1921 with all 56 officers and crew – the last Navy vessel to disappear without a trace in peacetime – has been confirmed as a wreck spotted seven years ago during a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration survey near the Farallon Islands off San Francisco, NOAA and the U.S. Navy announced Wednesday.
The 170’x29’x16’ Conestoga departed Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, Calif. on March 25, 1921 bound for Hawaii enroute to its new duty station in American Samoa, and likely encountered winds rising from 23 mph to 40 mph and heavy seas, according to a NOAA summary.
A mission from NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey first encountered and charted it as an unknown wreck in 2009. In September 2014, a maritime heritage survey of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary scanned the site in 189’ of water with multibeam sonar, and determined it was an unknown vessel from the late 19th or early 20th century, with characteristics different from other vessels documented as being lost there.
The NOAA 67’x24’x7’ research vessel Fulmar used a remotely operated vehicle to survey the target, giving the first hint of its identity: a 170’ steel steam-powered tug. A historic review of tugboats that went missing out of the Golden Gate assigned a tentative identify to the Conestoga wreck, and another ROV mission in October 2015 yielded characteristic features of the vessel – including the 3” deck gun, forward of where the pilothouse had stood.
Other features stood out, documented from original 1904 shipyard plans for the vessel: a four-blade, 12’3” diameter propeller, the steam engine and boilers, and locations of portholes, mooring bitts and ventilators. A big steam-driven towing winch had wire twisted on its drum.
The Conestoga Ship's Company. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command photo.Based on that location and the orientation of the wreck, researchers believe commanding officer Lt. Ernest L. Jones and his crew, caught in unexpected heavy weather, were attempting a dash to a protected cove of the island. "This would have been a desperate act, as the approach is difficult and the area was the setting for five shipwrecks between 1858 and 1907," according to a NOAA report on the discovery. "However, as Conestoga was in trouble and filling with water, it seemingly was the only choice to make."
The last anyone heard from the tug was a garbled radio message, later relayed by another vessel, that indicated the Conestoga was beset in heavy seas and had lost its barge tow.
When the Conestoga failed to show up in Hawaii, a weeks-long search by sea and air ensued, amid intense national news media coverage and public interest. But not a trace turned up until a steamship located a lifeboat with the letter C on its bow off the coast of Mexico some seven weeks later. On June 30, 1921, the Navy declared the Conestoga lost with all hands.
The deck gun was an addition when the Conestoga was recruited to the Navy in September 1917 during World War I. Built for Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Co. in 1904 by the Maryland Steel Co., at the Sparrow’s Point Shipyard in Baltimore, the Conestoga originally hauled coal barges.
NOAA researchers turned up a 1904 story in the trade journal Marine Engineering that described the railroad company tugboat trade, and the endurance of its crews and vessels: "These tugs are under steam, with but short intermissions, for months at a time. As soon as they bring one tow of barges into port another one for the return trip is assembled and the tug boat starts out to sea with only a few hours' delay for coaling and taking on provisions and stores."
After its purchase by the Navy, the Conestoga served towing duty along the East Coast, transported supplies, escorted convoys and did patrol duty in the Azores, where the tug was based until transferring the the 5th Naval District at Norfolk, Va. In November 1920, the Conestoga left Hampton Roads, Va., to begin making its way west to become a station ship in Samoa. The modifications for Pacific duty were completed at Mare Island before the crew left on their final voyage.
In announcing the formal determination of the Conestoga’s fate, Dennis V. McGinn, assistant secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment, credited cooperation between the service and NOAA for resolving one of the Nay’s oldest mysteries.
McGinn added, "In remembering the loss of the Conestoga, we pay tribute to her crew and their families, and remember that, even in peacetime, the sea is an unforgiving environment."
Read more about the Conestoga from NOAA.
