THE WORLD’S LARGEST WOODEN SHIP

If you were asked to picture the largest wooden ship ever built, it is likely that an 1890s windjammer with an impressive row of masts and sails would come to mind. However, a very different type of ship holds the title of largest wooden ship: a giant paddle-wheeled train ferry built for the Central Pacific Railroad on the US West Coast named Solano. Solano was built in 1879 and carried trains across the Carquinez Strait, to the north east of San Francisco, for more than 50 years.

The first transcontinental railroad, linking the United States’ east and west coasts, was completed in 1869. It ran for 1,912 miles from Council Bluffs on the banks of the Mississippi, westwards across the Great Plains, through the Rocky Mountains and down to the Pacific Coast at the port of Oakland on San Francisco Bay. The train from Chicago to San Francisco took nearly a week and, no matter how uncomfortable,