Name/Title
Florida (1907)Entry/Object ID
2017.14.006Description
FLORIDA (1907)
Year Built: 1907
Built By: Maryland Steel Company
Built At: Sparrows Point, MD
Built For: Baltimore Steam Packet Company
Official Number: 204629
Purchase Price:
Length: 298.0 feet
Beam: 45.0 feet
Depth of Hold: 18.1 feet
Gross Tons: 2,185 gross, 1,486 net
Propulsion: Propeller
Hull: Steel
Engine: Triple expansion engine with cylinders of 24.5 inches, 40 inches and 47 inches and four Scotch boilers making 2,600 hp
Passenger Capacity:
Purchased by: Sold to the Monticello Steamship Company of California and converted to an auto ferry in 1924. Renamed CALLISTOGA.
Route:
Captains: Captain W. C. Almy in 1915
Previous Name:
Later Name: CALLISTOGA
Comments:
1907, 17 July: The Baltimore Sun reported that the fine new craft, FLORIDA, will be launched this day at 2:00 pm by the Maryland Steel Company on Sparrows Point. She will be handsomely fitted out, her interior decorations being white and gold, with mahogany trim. The stateroom space on the hurricane deck will be longer than that of Alabama or Virginia, and she will have 30 more stateroom. There will be 156 staterooms in all, each for two guests, furnished with stationary washstands, electric lights, push buttons and all conveniences.
1911, 14 February; The Baltimore Sun reported that stevedores employed at the wharves of the Old Bay Line walked on tiptoes and spoke in whispers while keeping their eyes on a huge cage in the freight room of the steamer Florida. Occasional howls came from the cage which held four lepoards in Baltimore for a week’s engagement at a local playhouse. Their fears were further enhanced by a story told by one of the trainers who claimed to have been attacked by one of the leopards.
Disposition: Scrapped 1947
