Caption on image: All aboard for Nome, S.S. Ohio, May 24, 1900 (?), No. 260, Seattle, Franks & Roman

On verso of image: About 30,000 persons leave Seattle every spring for Alaska and Yukon, nearly all of whom return in the Fall, although every year the permanent population gets larger. S.S. Ohio leaving Seattle for Nome .

PH Coll 334.Frank & Roman 1

Former trans-Atlantic liner diverted to Seattle in May 1898 for gold rush service to the Yukon. (pg. 34) Notes from Gordon Newell, ed., The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co, 1966).

• Subjects (LCSH): Ohio(Steamship); Steamships--Washington (State)--Seattle; Passengers--Washington (State)--Seattle

According to Ocean Liners of the 20th Century by Gordon Newell (originally published 1963), the Ohio was built at the Cramp yard in Philadelphia (date not specified but https://web.archive.org/web/20100106004958/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/american.html says in 1873), originally for the Inman Line (later American Line) and used in the trans-Atlantic trade. It had been unused for some time when the Yukon Gold Rush began in 1897, at which time it was transferred to Seattle under the aegis of the Empire Line, carrying miners headed north to the Yukon River. It carried troops to the Philippines in the Spanish-American War, after which it was acquired by the Seattle-based Alaska Steamship Company. It hit an uncharted rock and sank in Findlay Channel (along the Inside Passage) November 20, 1909; only two lives were lost, both crew members.