Steamer Governor Safford ~ 24 July 1908

Photo Credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory
S.J. Doughan, Photographer

The steamer Governor Safford went down during rough weather, four miles from Bogue Inlet in 40 ft. of water. At the time she was under tow by the steamer Katahdin. All 10 crew members were able to row a life boat safely to the Katahdin, which carried them to Baltimore, MD.

The Safford was a wooden hulled side-wheel ship, built in 1884 at Camden, NJ. This ship was a 307 gross, 261 net ton. She was 129.6 feet in length, 26 feet in beam and 7.5 feet in depth of hold, and had a single cylinder steam engine with a 28 inch bore and a 72 inch stroke. In 1900 she was in passenger service based out of Cedar Key, FL but in 1908 her home port changed to New York.