Wreckage of a deadly 1888 steamship that sank in San Francisco has been discovered near the current site of the Golden Gate Bridge, federal scientists said.

On a foggy August morning, the ship collided with a larger craft known as Oceanic and sank near the mouth of the Golden Gate, CBS reported.

Known to be the second-worst shipwreck to occur within the bay, it killed 16 people when the 202 foot ship went down with 90 people aboard.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's James Delgado announced the discovery of the ship, known as City of Chester, Wednesday.

Although the Chinese-American crew was initially vilified after the deadly incident, they were later applauded by the public for their extreme bravery when evidence of the wreck surfaced during the investigation, according to CBS.

"Discoveries like this remind us that the waters off our shores are museums that speak to powerful events, in this case not only that tragic wreck, but to a time when racism and anger were set aside by the heroism of a crew who acted in the best traditions of the sea," said Delgado.

Sonar scans were used to locate the craft in 2013. According to CBS, its wreckage was sitting upright in the water just north of a public pier that juts into the water from Crissy Field's Warming Hut Cafe.

"Scientists say the boat was shrouded in mud, 216 feet deep at the edge of a small undersea shoal. High-resolution sonar imagery clearly defined the hull, rising some 18 feet from the seabed, with the signature gash damage on the vessel's port side," CBS reported.

Before NOAA's team made the discovery, an earlier Federal agency had used a dragging device to locate the craft 125 years ago.

"Using our high-tech multibeam echo sounder to re-discover a wreck originally found over a century ago - by Coast Surveyors dragging a wire across the seafloor - is immensely fulfilling," said NOAA search team leader Laura Pagano.