Senator was a steel-hulled steamship launched in 1898. She served as a troopship during the Spanish-American War and was an important part of the Nome gold rush. She spent thirty years in the coastwise shipping trade between Alaska and San Diego, until she was scrapped in Osaka, Japan in 1935.
Construction
Senator was built for the Pacific Coast Steamship Company at Union Iron Works in San Francisco. She was launched on March 19, 1898 and was christened by Miss Ella F. Goodall.
Senator was long, with a beam of . Her hold was deep. Her hull was made from steel plates riveted together. The ship had a double bottom to reduce flooding danger in the event of an accident.
As originally launched, Senator had 26 first-class staterooms and a similar number of second class cabins for a capacity of 110 cabin passengers and 300 steerage passengers. There were separate dining salons for first and second class passengers. She had electric light throughout the ship, which was quite advanced at the time of her launch. She could carry 1,500 tons of freight with of draft.
She was powered by a coal-fired triple-expansion steam engine which produced 1,800 horsepower. The cylinders had bores of , , and , with a stroke. The engine drove a single propeller at up to 125 rpm, which in turn could drive the ship at 13 knots.
The ship was named after the sidewheel steamer Senator, which was one of the first ocean-going steamships on the California coast, and was owned by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company at the end of her career.
Pacific Coast Steamship Company (1898 - 1916) Press reports suggest that the Pacific Coast Steamship Company had originally planned to use Senator to replace Orizaba on runs between San Francisco and Mexico, or in the alternative, to replace Australia on runs to Dyea, Alaska to take advantage of the Klondike gold rush. Whatever the company's plans, they were superseded by the Spanish-American War, which was declared a month after Senator was launched. The U.S. government needed ships quickly to achieve its war aims and was unable to negotiate satisfactory terms of charter with their owners. In June 1898 Assistant Secretary of War Meiklejohn ordered a number of ships, including Senator, impressed into government service.
Spanish-American War (1898 - 1900)
The Army Transport Service employed Senator as a troop ship. In May 1898 she embarked the 1st Battalion of the 1st Washington Volunteer Infantry Regiment in Tacoma, Washington and sailed for San Francisco, where the Army concentrated troops for dispatch to the Philippines. On June 15, 1898 Senator sailed from San Francisco for Manila. She had the 1,023 officers and men of the 1st Regiment of Nebraska Volunteers on board. She stopped at Honolulu on June 24 to take on more coal and sailed on again two days later. Senator arrived at Cavite in Manila Bay on July 21, 1898.
Senator sailed back from Manila for San Francisco on August 24, 1898. On this return journey she carried 30 troops who were ill or whose enlistments had expired. The ship was days late to her coaling stop in Honolulu and concern was expressed that she, "may have been lost in the terrible typhoon." Finally, on September 18, 1898 she reached Oahu. She had indeed been caught in a typhoon and was forced to heave to for 32 hours. The ship sustained storm damage to the railing and machinery on her foredeck. She finally reached San Francisco on October 4, 1898 and was briefly quarantined because of the ill soldiers aboard.
The ship made five more trips to Manila as an Army troopship. She carried regular army units, including six companies of the 22nd Infantry Regiment, and portions of the 13th Infantry Regiment, as well as units of volunteer infantry regiments such as the 10th Pennsylvania, and the 45th United States. Early departures from San Francisco, at the height of patriotic fervor, were marked by parades, cheering crowds, and steam-whistle salutes from the other ships in the harbor. Later departures created "very little excitement."
Life aboard Senator was not luxurious for the troops. Some were seasick even before they reached the Golden Gate. The ship was vastly overcrowded, with more than twice as many passengers as she was originally designed to house. Food was also an issue. On one trip to Manila, the troops mutinied against the tinned beef they were served, calling it "embalmed beef" and had it thrown overboard. On a coaling stop in Honolulu, a fight among the overcrowded troops became a riot, and the ship sailed on with fifty men in irons.