SS City of Chester

About

The SS City of Chester was a steamship built in 1875 that sank after a collision in a dense fog with SS Oceanic at the Golden Gate in San Francisco Bay on August 22, 1888. She was owned by the Oregon Railroad Co. and leased by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company.

City of Chester had been purchased in October 1876 and brought from New York around South America to Portland, Oregon in March 1877 and used in coastal trade. At the time of the collision the ship was in service from San Francisco to Eureka and other locations in the vicinity. City of Chester was outbound with Oceanic inbound from Hong Kong. Though the ships sighted each other findings indicated the smaller vessel was caught in a tidal current, cut almost in two by the liner and sank in about six minutes with loss of sixteen passengers and three crew.