Smoke on the Water: The Technology of the Steamer Presidente Roca and Its Implications for Navigation in Argentinian Patagonia

Abstract

The steamer Presidente Roca, a steel-hulled vessel designed for carrying cargo and passengers, wrecked off the coast of Patagonia in the late nineteenth century. It was 91.4 meters long and had a beam of 12.55 meters and a two-deck structure. It had a draft of 7.19 meters and a capacity of 2,807 register tons. This chapter addresses the particularities of the activity along the coast of Argentinian Patagonia in the nineteenth century through the study of the wreck of steamer Presidente Roca and its historical naval context. To learn about the naval context of the ship, we collected and analyzed primary and secondary historical sources, including newspapers, Lloyd’s Register insurance registers, photograph collections, plans of similar ships, and contemporary shipbuilding manuals. During archaeological activities conducted, team members surveyed and recorded the beach area surrounding the shipwreck, described the environment, compiled a functional and typological characterization of the remains, identified how the ship was constructed and the design of the frame, and recorded and analyzed the components of the ship’s steering and propulsion systems.