Old Bay Line Fleet
The company owned 54 ships during its 122 years of existence, many being small cargo vessels. Originally, all of the line's steamboats were of wooden construction with side paddlewheels and used wood logs for fuel. The first boat with an iron hull acquired by the Old Bay Line was the Georgeanna, in 1860. By the late 1870s, the company had acquired its last paddlewheel steamers: Florida, Carolina, and Virginia. Later, ships would use coal for fuel until the 1930s, when oil began to be used. Beginning with the Georgia built in 1887, their ships used the more modern propeller or "screw" design. The Georgia also was the first Old Bay Line vessel to be equipped with electric lighting and steam heating. Passenger ships of the line provided large, lavishly furnished staterooms to accommodate passengers on the overnight trip. The Alabama built in 1892 represented the inception of modern shipbuilding and design for the Old Bay Line: the first vessel to have a steel hull instead of iron or wood and propelled by a four-cylinder triple-expansion reciprocating engine, the same type engine that all of the line's later steamers would have. Notable Old Bay Line passenger vessels used in scheduled overnight service, with dates acquired and gross tonnages, were:
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- Key: paddlewheel propulsion (‡) steel-hull construction (¶)
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Ship/Type | Built | Acquired | Length | Tonnage | Disposition | Notes |
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Pocahontas ‡ | 1829 | 1840 | 138 feet (42 m) | 428 GT | sold 1845 | built for Maryland & Delaware line |
Georgia ‡ | 1836 | 1840 | 194 feet (59 m) | 551 GT | sold 1865 | built for Atlantic Line |
Jewess ‡ | 1838 | 1840 | 173 feet (53 m) | 352 GT | sank 1856 | built for Maryland & Delaware line |
Medora ‡ | 1842 | – | 189 feet (58 m) | – | exploded on April 15, 1842 |
wreck rebuilt as Herald |
Herald ‡ | 1842 | 1842 | 184 feet (56 m) | 329 GT | sold 1867 | rebuilt from Medora, coal conversion 1852 |
North Carolina ‡ | 1852 | 1852 | 239 feet (73 m) | 1120 GT | sank on January 30, 1859 | |
Louisiana ‡ | 1854 | 1854 | 266 feet (81 m) | 1126 GT | sank 1874 | |
Adelaide ‡ | 1854 | 1859 | 233 feet (71 m) | 972 GT | sold 1879 | used by Navy in 1861 |
Georgeanna ‡ | 1859 | 1860 | 199 feet (61 m) | 738 GT | sold 1869 | first iron-hulled boat |
Eolus ‡ | 1864 | 1865 | 144 feet (44 m) | 731 GT | sold 1869 | |
Thomas Kelso ‡ | 1865 | 1865 | 237 feet (72 m) | 1430 GT | sold 1869 | named in honor of Thomas Kelso |
George Leary ‡ | 1864 | 1867 | 237 feet (72 m) | 810 GT | sold 1879 | bought from Leary Line |
Florida ‡ | 1876 | 1876 | 259 feet (79 m) | 1279 GT | sold 1892 | last wooden boat |
Carolina ‡ | 1877 | 1877 | 251 feet (77 m) | 984 GT | sold 1893 | |
Virginia ‡ | 1879 | 1879 | 251 feet (77 m) | 990 GT | sold 1900 | last paddlewheel boat |
Georgia | 1887 | 1887 | 280 feet (85 m) | 1749 GT | sold 1909 | first screw-type boat |
Alabama ¶ | 1893 | 1893 | 294 feet (90 m) | 1938 GT | sold 1928 | first steel-hulled boat |
Virginia II ¶ | 1905 | 1905 | 296 feet (90 m) | 2027 GT | burned at sea on May 24, 1919 |
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Florida II ¶ | 1907 | 1907 | 298 feet (91 m) | 2185 GT | sold 1924 | |
State of Maryland ¶ | 1922 | 1923 | 320 feet (98 m) | 1783 GT | requisitioned for World War II on April 2, 1942 | converted to oil 1933 |
State of Virginia ¶ | 1923 | 1923 | 320 feet (98 m) | 1783 GT | requisitioned for World War II on April 1, 1942 | converted to oil 1939 |
Yorktown ¶ | 1928 | 1941 | 269 feet (82 m) | 1547 GT | requisitioned for World War II on July 13, 1942 | torpedoed and sank September 27, 1942 |
President Warfield ¶ | 1928 | 1928 | 320 feet (98 m) | 1814 GT | requisitioned for World War II on July 12, 1942 | renamed as Exodus in 1947, burned in 1952 |
City of Norfolk ¶ | 1911 | 1941 | 297 feet (91 m) | 2379 GT | in service to 1962, on final roster |
Chesapeake Line merger acquisition |
City of Richmond ¶ | 1913 | 1941 | 261 feet (80 m) | 1923 GT | in service to 1962, on final roster |
Chesapeake Line merger acquisition |
District of Columbia ¶ | 1925 | 1949 | 298 feet (91 m) | 2128 GT | in service to 1956, on final roster |
acquired from Norfolk and Washington line |
At the time of the Old Bay Line's dissolution in April 1962, three ships remained docked at the Pratt Street pier: the District of Columbia, which had been kept as a spare since the Washington–Norfolk service ended in 1957, was scrapped soon afterwards. The City of Richmond was sold for use as a floating restaurant in the Virgin Islands, but sank in the Atlantic Ocean off Georgetown, South Carolina, while under tow to her new home. The City of Norfolk was idled in Norfolk until 1966, when it was towed to Fieldsboro, New Jersey on the Delaware River and scrapped.
Read more about this topic: Baltimore Steam Packet Company
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