Name SS Dakota Christened 6 February 1904 Launched February 1903 | Route Pacific Maiden voyage 20 September 1905 Beam 23 m | |
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Operator Great Northern Steamship Company Builder Eastern Shipbuilding Company | ||
SS Dakota was a steamship built by the Eastern Shipbuilding Company in Groton, Connecticut and owned by railroad magnate James J. Hill of the Great Northern Steamship Company.
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History
SS Dakota and her sister ship, SS Minnesota, were described as the largest ships ever built in America. Dakota was built "to give impetus to the trade with the Orient", trading with Japan and Hong Kong and travelling the Pacific route. Launched on 7 February 1904, she was a twin screw vessel with four masts and one funnel, capable of 14.6 knots.
She was wrecked when she struck a reef off Yokohama, Japan, on 3 March 1907 on her seventh journey. The ship was close enough to shore to avoid any deaths and the passengers and cargo were evacuated before she sank. The passengers returned to the United States aboard the Japanese steamship Hakuai. Eighty bags of mail later washed ashore. Unlike the Titanic in 1912, Dakota sank during daylight, and within sight of land, hence several positions of the sinking were recorded with still cameras.
After the ship was lost, Hill vowed not to make any more ships under the American flag, noting the high cost of maintaining a ship in America compared to Japan due to restrictions he regarded as "onerous". Hill did eventually build more ships such as the SS Great Northern and the SS Northern Pacific.
Engines
The Dakota's main engines consisted of two units of three vertically positioned triple expansion cylinders. The cylinders had a stroke of 57 inches and diameters of 29, 51, and 89 inches and were designed to run at 78 RPM, developing approximately 4,800 horsepower each at a steam pressure of 230 pounds per square inch. The engines were designed to drive the ship at 14 knots.