Wapama, Steam schooner in Richmond, California.
Wapama was a two-masted wooden steam schooner, 216.91 feet (66.11 m) long with a 42.33-foot (12.90 m) beam and 19-foot (5.8 m) depth, built at Sauvie Island, Oregon, in 1915. Launched as little more than a finished hull, it was towed to San Francisco, where Main Street Iron Works installed the engine. It was dismantled in August 2013 at Richmond, California.
Wapama was launched incomplete on 20 January 1915 at St. Helens Shipbuilding Company on Sauvie Island, Oregon, and towed to San Francisco for completion, entering McCormick Lumber Company service on 29 April 1915. Renamed Tongass in 1938 for Alaska runs, it was sold for scrap in 1948 but bought by the California Division of Beaches and Parks in 1958. It was dismantled in August 2013 and its National Historic Landmark designation, granted in 1984, was withdrawn in 2015.
The ship connected workers to the Pacific lumber trade, employing generations of sailors and linking remote coastal communities. It demonstrates how vessels like this one formed the backbone of regional commerce and transported people and goods to isolated ports.
Wapama no longer exists as a visitable vessel: it was dismantled in August 2013, after being managed by the National Park Service at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Its National Historic Landmark designation, granted in 1984, was withdrawn in 2015. To see surviving historic ships of the region, go to that park's fleet instead.
Wapama was the last surviving example of some 225 wooden steam schooners, but it no longer exists: the National Park Service dismantled it in August 2013. Its National Historic Landmark designation, granted in 1984, was withdrawn in 2015.
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