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Launch

Name: Launch
Start: 1880-02-24
Location: Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works

When: 1880-02-24
Where: Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works
Part of: SS Columbia launched at John Roach & Sons, Chester, Pennsylvania, and later lit by Edison's incandescent system

The SS Columbia was launched at 11:40 am on February 24, 1880, at the John Roach & Sons shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Construction began in September 1879. The ship was ordered in July 1879 as Hull No. 193. The launch occurred at the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works, Roach's main facility in Chester.

Sources

SS Columbia (1880) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-19
John Roach & Sons Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-15

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.