EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a two-part series about the wreck of the SS Governor in Admiralty Inlet.
PORT TOWNSEND — Advanced three-dimensional sonar imaging will soon reconstruct the broken remains of a passenger liner lying far below the surface of Admiralty Inlet.
The SS Governor sank rapidly after being rammed by the freighter West Hartland just after midnight April 1, 1921.
It carried 172 passengers with a crew of 124, according to a New York Times story published the day after the wreck.
Ten people were missing, The Times said. Later reports said eight people perished as the 417-foot steamship sank.
Experienced divers have visited the wreck, resting in silt 240 feet deep, over the decades and marveled at the girth of the vessel while perusing the many artifacts laying around its broken hull.
Now a manned submarine will dive for the most comprehensive look in 90 years.
Antipodes, a 7-ton, 15-foot-long manned submersible operated by OceanGate of Everett, will make numerous dives to the hulk June 23-28, said Joel Perry, vice president of expeditions.
Perry said the company selected the vessel’s final resting place to prepare for a similar expedition to a tanker lying off California’s coast.
The submarine, which will carry up to five crew members, will produce three- and two-dimensional sonar images of the Governor.
“It’s a nice target locally for us to refine our operations,” Perry said.
“It’s a cool local story, as well, and this should be a nice benefit to all.”
The Governor was steaming toward Seattle during that fateful witching hour on the last leg of a voyage from San Pedro, Calif., as recounted in City of Dreams: A Guide to Port Townsend (1986).
Some passengers had disembarked at its last port of call in Victoria, and as the Pacific Mall Steamship Co. vessel rounded Point Wilson, its pilot noted the glow of the Marrowstone Island lighthouse and some lights of a freighter departing from Port Townsend, the book said.
The West Hartland was heading out to sea, but the Governor’s pilot steamed forward, oblivious to the collision course the two vessels were on.
Moments later, five staccato blasts from the freighter alerted the Governor of impending doom, then its bow cut into the liner’s side, nearly cutting it in half.
The Hartland’s captain intentionally kept the bow wedged into the Governor, allowing time for most of the liner’s passengers to abandon ship.
But eight poor souls went to the bottom with the ship, including a mother and her two young daughters who were trapped in their berths by the collision and two older women whose modesty didn’t allow them to appear on deck in their nightgowns, according to the book.
The New York Times story April 2, 1921, said that, after an investigatory meeting closed to the public, some passengers asserted that the pilot had admitted that he had mistaken the mast lights of the West Hartland for shore lights.
The Governor now lies on its starboard side, its bow ripped open as if a large can opener had peeled back the metal, according to divers’ accounts.
The weather deck is gone, allowing access to the hull, and ship pieces and other artifacts are strewn across the sea floor.
The vessel reportedly had a safe stuffed with $20 gold coins used in its casino, but no one has reported retrieving it, let alone seeing it.
“Regarding the safe, it’s anybody’s guess what’s down there and where it might be,” Perry said.
“We don’t have the salvage rights, but it would be awesome to find it.
“I’m skeptical. It’s pretty well-degraded. There’s about 6 feet of silt piled up. It may never be found.”
The OceanGate expedition has a different objective: to test the Antipodes and its three-dimensional camera in circumstances akin to what the submarine will encounter when it dives to the SS Montebello, an oil tanker torpedoed by the Japanese off the California coast in the early days of World War II in the Pacific theater.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has contracted OceanGate to survey the Montebello because it has a reported 70,000 barrels of oil aboard.
That mission will determine the condition of the vessel and give NOAA a better idea of whether anything can be done to remove the oil.
Surveying that wreck is even more daunting than examining the SS Governor because it is eight miles out at sea and 900 feet below the surface.
“That’s why it’s important from a training and safety point to be prepared,” Perry said.
“We can provide the information and data so NOAA can make a decision about what to do.”
While OceanGate personnel are examining the remains of the Governor, they plan to tow the Antipodes each day from Fort Worden State Park to a point above the wreck.
It will scan the ship in segments, and the sonar images will be digitally stitched together to produce a three-dimensional image.
Those aboard the Antipodes will get an expansive view of the deep from its two 58-inch diameter bubble windows made of 3-inch thick acrylic.
“Because of its size, people from several different disciplines — biologists, geologists or videographers — can be in the vessel at the same time,” Perry said.
“We get some nice collaboration.”
“The big test will be mounting the 3-D camera on a sub and the way it operates,” he said.
“This technique has been used in scuba diving and ROVs [remotely operated vehicles], but this is the first it’s been used on a sub.”
Perry said the expedition will do “low-key reconnaissance” on its first outing, then likely conduct two dives each of the following days.
The company will depart from Point Hudson on the first day, then operate off Fort Worden for the ensuing days.
For more information about OceanGate, visit www.opentheoceans.com.
ON MONDAY: Diver tells of findings at wreck of SS Governor.
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Philip L. Watness is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. He can be reached at whatnews@olypen.com.