to make from . Her gross register tonnage was 3,881 tons, the same as and SS Japan. Loss Great Republic eventually proved unprofitable in the China trade and was sold in 1878 to P. B. Cornwall for service along the U.S. Pacific coast. On April 19, 1879 on a clear and calm night the vessel with over 1,000 passengers and crew or with 94 crew and 579 passengers, After crossing the Columbia Bar at the beginning of an ebb tide, the pilot failed to heed the captain's warnings and ran aground on Sand Island. Stranded on sand in a falling tide with a storm approaching the next morning, the captain evacuated the 896 passengers to Astoria, Oregon, on local boats. The crew remained aboard to re-float the vessel, but storm-driven waves began breaking up the hull, and they abandoned ship. The last boat to leave (except for that of the captain and pilot) overturned after a steering oar broke, casting 14 men into the water, resulting in the death of eleven, or all 14. Waves shortly rendered the vessel a total loss, though parts of the wreckage remained visible at low tide for many years. The book Pacific Graveyard by James Gibbs Jr. states that Great Republic left San Francisco in the spring of 1879 and arrived off the mouth of the Columbia River at midnight on April 18, and was on the way to Portland, Oregon, heading upriver, when it ran aground on Sand Island and was lost. This contradicts some accounts that claim the ship was traveling in the opposite direction, heading out to sea. Primary sources quoted in Gibbs' book support his version of the story, as follows: <blockquote> "The most authoritative account of the wreck was given by Capt. James Carroll, the ship's master, who testified at a special hearing following the loss of the ship ... 'There was not a ripple on the water, and we came over the bar under a slow bell all the way, crossing safely and reaching the inside buoy. The first and the third officers were on the lookout with me. I had a pair of glasses and was the first to discover Sand Island, and found the bearings all right. I reported it to the pilot, who had not yet seen it. We ran along probably two minutes, and then I told the pilot that I thought we were