Maritime history of California
Encyclopedia
Maritime history of California is a term used to describe significant ships and uses of the Pacific Ocean
near the California
coast. This Maritime history includes the historical use of water craft such as: dugouts
, canoe
s, sailing ship
s, steamships, fisheries, shipbuilding
, Gold Rush shipping, port
s, shipwrecks, Naval ships and installations and Lighthouse
s. The Maritime history of California can be divided into several periods: the Native American period; European exploration period from 1542 to 1769; the Spanish colonial period, 1769 to 1821; the Mexican period, 1821 to 1847; and United States statehood period, which continues to the present day.
forests several Indian tribes developed large dugout
canoes they used for fishing, trade and warfare. These canoes were constructed by taking a large tree and shaping it with hand tools and fire to a boat's configuration. A redwood log 4 metres (13.1 ft) long and 240 centimetres (94.5 in) diameter weighs about 2000 kilograms (4,409.2 lb). This large weight meant that the logs were selected that required a minimum of movement—usually driftwood or dead fall trees that had been blown over by the wind. Sometimes logs were cut to length and rolled into water where they could be floated to a selected work area. The logs were usually cut to length by fire and stone age hand tools and the interior of the canoe was typically burned out with small fires. The basic procedure was to start a small fire on the tree where it needed shaping, then extinguish it after a short burn. This would leave one or more centimeters of charred wood where the fire was built that would be easier to remove. By successively using small fires to char the areas that needed to be worked the logs could be shaped by the crude scrapers and rock, shellfish and horn based tools available. A finished 4 metres (13.1 ft) long dugout canoe with a nominal 5 centimetres (2 in) thickness still weighed over 100 kilograms (220.5 lb). Most larger dugouts weighed too much to move easily and were usually just pulled up on a beach far enough to get them above high tide. Constructing these types of dugout canoes took considerable time and skill with stone age tools and fire.
Tule
(Schoenoplectus acutus also called bulrushes) have a thin (~1 cm or 0.5 inch) diameter, rounded green stems that grows to 1 to 3 metres (3–10 ft) tall. They grow well in marshes, wetlands or at the edges of bodies of water. The tule stem has a pithy interior filled with spongy tissue packed with air cells—this makes it float well on water as well as a good insulator. Native Americans used tule for making and thatching huts, baskets, mats, boats, decoys, hats, clothing and shoes. Tule was typically cut using deer scapula
'saw
s' that had rough saw like edges cut into them. Tule has to be handled with care when green to avoid breaking the stem and gains strength when it is partially dried.
Several tribes in and around the San Francisco Bay
area and in northern California made and used tule canoe
s (also called balsa
s). Bay Miwok
, Coast Miwok
, Ohlone (Costanoan), Pomo
s, Klamath, Modoc and several other California Indian tribes used the tule plant to make tule canoes. Tule canoes were used in ocean lagoons from Tomales Bay
and Point Reyes National Seashore
south to perhaps Monterey Bay
. Tule–reed boats were used in lakes, bays and slow-moving rivers in much of Northern California. They were used by the Pomo
s living in the Laguna de Santa Rosa
and Clear Lake, Tule Lake
and other areas. They were common in the San Francisco Bay
and on the extensive Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta and its tributary rivers.
These tule canoes were used for transportation to and from their favorite spots for hunting or harvesting salmon
, acorn
s, seeds, berries, shellfish
or oyster
s and other fish or foods. Extensive beds and shoals of oyster
s (Ostrea lurida
) and other crayfish
then lay near the shores of San Francisco Bay
and Tomales Bay
and were a food source used for centuries. Tule canoes were also used for gathering more tule reeds and for hunting duck
s or geese
which were then often present in the wetlands, etc. in the millions. Collecting aquatic food plants and duck and goose eggs was also common. Ducks and geese were often hunted with arrows or nets. Tule canoes were used in fishing with Nets
, spear
s or bone fishhooks for several native fish species present in or migrating through the rivers, ocean and bays.
Tule boats can be quickly built from dried tule, by experienced canoe builders, in less than one day. Tule boats have a limited useful life before they rot and/or come apart—typically only lasting a few weeks. To make a tule boat, green tule (Schoenoplectus acutus or bulrush ) was cut and then spread out in the sun to dry for several days. Tule canoes were constructed of cut stalks of tule plants bundled together around a willow 'core' for extra strength into three to six tied together tapered cigar-shaped bundle of tules. The bundles could be pre-bent to form a raised prow and stern. The length of each bundle depends on the size of the boat that were then typically about 10 feet (3 m) to 15 feet (4.6 m). The bundle that formed the bottom of the canoe on which the boatman or boatmen sat, knelt or stood was much larger than the others. To make the sides of the tule canoe two to six tapered bundles were tied to the bottom bundle with grape vines or other native material with extensive lacing at the at the stern and prow to bend all the tule bundles into a tapered and raised bow and stern. Tule canoes typically accommodated one to four people.
The boatman typically sits, kneels or stands in the boat and either paddles it with a double bladed paddle or with his arms when lying prone. If the boat was not woven tightly enough, then the boatman would find himself sitting, standing or kneeling in several inches of water. The tule canoe
s were often used for transportation to oyster
mollusk and other shellfish
beds that could be harvested at low tide. The Emeryville Shellmound
composed mostly of the inedible shells of shellfish
, presumably mostly harvested utilizing tule boats, is an example of the over 400 shell mounds known in the San Francisco Bay
area. These multiple mounds, often built up over centuries, showed a stable source of easily obtained food utilized for hundreds of years.
To see pictures of tule canoes use the image option of Google, Bing, etc. and type in "Tule canoe and search--several images are usually found that may be clicked on for more information. Local conservation groups often have courses in building tule canoes.
s on San Clemente Island
, some 60 miles offshore Southern California
. Native California peoples lived in large settled villages along the Pacific coastline and on the Channel Islands of California
for thousands of years before European contact.
In some areas, such as along the Santa Barbara Channel
separating the Channel Islands of California
from the California coast the Chumash and Tongva people in these villages developed highly sophisticated canoe
s. These canoes were used in fishing and in widespread trade between different villages on and off the Channel Islands of California
. Boat construction reached its highest development in California among the Chumash and Tongva people. Their sewn plank canoes, called a "tomol
," impressed early explorers of the California coast for its versatility, seaworthiness and size.
The canoes were typically made out of plank
s split from redwood (Sequoioideae
) or pine
driftwood
washed up on the shore. This driftwood was usually chosen because it was available and usually knot free and easy to work with. Some of these driftwood
logs were selected, cut to length, split, shaped and then their split out planks "sewn" together to form a canoe. The side planks and canoe bottom were split out of straight knot free logs utilizing whalebone and antler
Wedges driven by rock mallet
s. The planks were then shaped, trimmed and leveled using flint and seashell
tools and shark
hide sandpaper. Where planks needed to be connected holes were bored in the planks using wood drills tipped with chert or bone. These drilled planks were then connected by "sewing" split and shaped knot free planks together on their ends to get the necessary length. They were typically fastened together with red milkweed (tok) fiber cords. After the planks had been shaped and sewn together for length they were carefully shaped, bent and mounted six to eight planks vertically to form the canoe
's sides around a large split bottom plank that formed the bottom of the canoe. Over 20 pieces of shaped wood are used to make a typical tomol. Once the planks were bent, fitted and lashed together the heart of dry tule
rush was forced into the cracks between the planks on the outside of the canoe hull to act as caulking. All seams between planks, plank ends and holes for cords or thongs were then caulked with 'yop', a mixture of hard tar and pine pitch melted and then boiled. In many respects their boat construction technique mirrored that utilized for making small wooden boats around the world. The lack of metal tools and fasteners forced them to use stone age tools and materials.
These canoes were built to carry from 3 to 10 people, one of which was usually assigned to bail, and the rest propelled the canoe by using rough oars. The typical tomol was 12 feet (3.7 m) to 24 feet (7.3 m) long with a beam of 3 foot (0.9144 m) to 5 feet (1.5 m). Sea voyages of over a 130 miles (209.2 km) have been recorded for these craft. They fished the sea with fishing net
s, harpoon
s, spear
s and bone fishhooks. One of their common net catches were sardines and larger sardines called pilchards—then common in large schools
off the California coast. The Chumash had settlements on the main California coast and on the northern California Channel Islands
. The Tongva (Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe) had several small settlements on the southern Channel Islands
as well as villages on the main California southwest coast.
Chumash and Tongva trading expeditions between the mainland and the Channel Islands were common. Most were to obtain steatite for soapstone bowls and effigy figurine
s. The remains of this prehistoric seafaring is being investigated by underwater archaeologists. At least 25 individual sites have been reported between Ventura, California
Beach and Point Conception
.
In 1539, Francisco de Ulloa
under commission from the Viceroyalty of New Spain and New Spain
(Mexico) conqueror, Hernán Cortés
, explored the Gulf of California
to the Colorado River
--establishing Baja California
as a peninsula. Ulloa then went 800 miles (1,287.5 km) south down the Baja Peninsula in the Gulf of California
and rounding the tip of the peninsula
turned north and explored the west coast of the Baja California
peninsula
--perhaps to the 28th Parallel (near the Isla Natividad
). Ulloa's sailing ship
s battered by adverse winds and his men wracked by scurvy
, returned to New Spain
(Mexico
) without exploring further.
The first European expedition to explore the upper California coast was led by the Portuguese
/Spanish
explorer and conquistador
João Rodrigues Cabrilho (~1499-1543). Cabrillo shipped for Havana
as a young man and joined forces with Hernán Cortés
in New Spain
(Mexico
) in about 1820 as a conquistador
crossbow
man. In the conquest of the Aztec
capital of Tenochitlan (Mexico City
) in 1521 Cortez directed Cabrillo to build thirteen 40 feet (12.2 m) boats to fight on the lake then in the center of Tenochitlan. Rapidly advancing under Cortez's direction he participated in the conquest of El Salvador
and Guatemala
and was rewarded by being granted an extensive Encomienda
(a feudal grant of land including the occupants on it) controlling vast land and Native American resources in Guatemala
. His success in guiding the Native Americans on his Encomienda
in mining gold in Guatemala
, made him one of the richest of the conquistador
s in Mexico and Guatemala. Sponsored by Pedro de Alvarado
, the Guatemala
governor, Cabrillo's directed the building of several small sailing ship
s in Guatemala. After Alvarado's death in 1541 the new Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza
took over control of the shipyards and directed Cabrillo to build three ships and lead an expedition further up the Pacific Coast in search of more rich Native American civilizations like the Aztec
and Incas. They were also to see if there was a shorter way to China—the mythical Strait of Anián
(or Northwest Passage
) connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean
.
To build the ships the anchors, sails, ship building tool
s and metal fittings were imported from Spain
and then ported by mule and Native American porters across Mexico
and then south to Guatemala
. Cabrillo, a former shipbuilder, with his Spanish
assistants and Native American workers had the necessary lumber
sawed out and assembled to make the first sailing ship
s built on the America's Pacific coast—in Guatemala
. The ships finished lumber and timbers was sawed out of trees with "new" steel saws manned by Native American laborers under the direction of a few Spanish shipbuilders. The ships built for exploring the Pacific were small open caravel
s and small bergantina (small open sailboat) built and manned by a mixture of Native Americans and Spanish sailor
s and conquistador
s.
The last sailing ship
s built under Cabillo's direction were the California exploration fleet:caravel
s, San Salvador (about 100 feet (30.5 m) long) and the smaller Victoria, and a bergantina (small sail boat or launch), San Miguel. Cabrillo captained the San Salvador and Bartolomé Ferrelo
the Victoria. These vessels were the first Europe
an sailing ship
s to visit the future state of California
.
After the California exploration ships were built, Cabrillo and his crews of about 200 men with supplies for about two years carefully made their way north from Navidad
, Mexico
up the Pacific coast starting on 17 June 1542. The combination of the south flowing California Current
and often opposing winds made progress north up the coast agonizingly slow. The small, open boats with only partially trained crews caused the crews to suffer miserably in the storms they encountered on their way. After landing several times on the Baja California
coast for water, wood and whatever supplies they could scrounge they finally, after traveling one hundred and three days, entered San Diego Bay
on 28 September 1542. They continued north up the California coast encountering many Indian villages using Native American "tomol
s" (ocean going stitched canoes). The continued north up the coast possibly as far as Pt. Reyes California.
On 23 November 1542, the little fleet limped back down the coast to "San Salvador" (identified as today's Santa Catalina Island, California
or Santa Rosa Island
) to overwinter and make repairs. There, around Christmas Eve
1542, Cabrillo stepped out of his boat and splintered his shin when he stumbled on a jagged rock. The injury developed gangrene
and he died on 3 January 1543 and was buried in an unknown location. His second-in-command, Bartolomé Ferrelo
, brought the remainder of the party back to Barra de Navidad
, Mexico where they arrived 14 April 1543. They had found no wealth, no advanced Indian civilization, no agriculture and no Northwest passage. As a result California was of little further interest to the Spanish who would basically ignore it for over 220 years.
In 1565 the Spanish developed a Manila Galleon
trade route (also called "nao de la China") where they took silver
minted in the Potosi area of Peru
or in Mexico
and traded it for silk
, porcelain
, spice
s and other goods from China and other Asian areas including the Spice Islands
. There was a great demand for silver in China. They also traded for gold objects which could be gotten in China in this time period at a silver:gold exchange rate of about 5:1 whereas the rate in Europe was about 16:1. The Spanish centered their trade in the Philippines
at first around Cebu
, which they had recently conquered, and later in Manila
after they conquered it. The trade between the Philippines
and Mexico involved using an annual round trip passage of one or more Manila galleon
(s). These galleons left Acapulco
Mexico and sailed to the Philippines in about 90 days following what's called now the north equatorial current and trade winds.
The higher-latitude Westerlies
trade winds and current from east to west at about 30-40 degrees latitude, was not known as a way across the Pacific ocean until Andres de Urdaneta
's voyage in the 40 ton San Lucas in 1565. Returning to Mexico from the Philippines the Manila Galleons went north to about 40 degrees Latitude
and then turning East they could use the Westerlies
trade wind
s and currents to go east. These galleons, after crossing most of the Pacific Ocean
, would arrive off the California coast from four to seven months later somewhere near Cape Mendocino
(about 300 miles (482.8 km) north of San Francisco) at about 40 degrees N. latitude. They then could turn right and sail south down the California coast utilizing the available winds and the south flowing (about ~1 mi/hr (1.6 km/h)) California Current
. The maps and charts were poor and the California coast was often shrouded in fog, so most journeys were well off shore to avoid the Farallon
and California Channel Islands. After sailing about 1500 miles (2,414 km) south and passing the Baja Peninsula tip and crossing the Gulf of California
they followed the coast to Acapulco
Mexico. Acapulco was chosen as a home port because of its excellent harbor facilities and its easy access to the city of Vera Cruz Mexico on the Caribbean
.
These galleons were some the largest the Spanish built in the 16th and 17th centuries. Because of the limited number of ships and the highly profitable cargo they increased ship size up to 1,700 to 2,000 tons and from seven hundred to over one thousand people would take passage back to Acapulco on these vessels. The Manila Galleon trade (See: Spanish treasure fleet
) was one of the most persistent, perilous, and profitable commercial enterprises in European colonial history. This highly profitable trade (profits could reach 200-300%) with an almost annual trip by one to two ships down the California coast was continued for over 200 years. The number of ships was limited by the Spanish Crown which got 20% of all profits. Because of the high profit and royal taxes smuggling was rampant on these ships. Because of the harsh trip and high profits most officers and crews only made one trip before finding something else to do. The ships were mostly built in the Philippines using Filipino
laborers to saw out the timber, weave the sails, etc. with Chinese craftsman and blacksmiths doing the ship assembly under the direction of Spanish shipbuilders.
The English explorer and privateer
Francis Drake
sailed along the coast of California in 1579 after capturing two Spanish treasure ships in the Pacific. It is believed that he landed somewhere on the California coast. There his only surviving ship, the Golden Hind
, set up friendly relations with the local Indians and underwent extensive repairs and cleaning of his hull. Needed supplies of food, water and wood were accumulated by trade and foraging for a trip across the Pacific. Leaving California he followed Ferdinand Magellan
on the second recorded circumnavigation
of the world and the first English
circumnavigation of the world, being gone from 1577 to 1580. He returned with several tons of silver
and gold
. Its believed Drake put ashore somewhere north of San Francisco. The exact location of Drake's landing is still undetermined, but a prominent bay on the California coast, Drakes Bay
, bears his name. He claimed the land for England, calling it Nova Albion. The term "Nova Albion" was often used on many European maps to designate territory north of the Spanish Pacific coast settlements. Spanish maps, explorations etc., of this and later eras were generally not published, being regarded as state secrets by the Spanish monarchy. As was typical in this era, there were conflicting claims to the same territory, and the Indians who lived there were never consulted.
After Thomas Cavendish
raided the Manila Galleon
Santa Ana off the tip of Baja California
in 1587 an attempt was made to explore the coast for a possible town site in California for replenishing and protecting the Manila galleon
s. These Manila Galleon explorations met with disaster when the Manila galleon
San Agustin got too close to the Point Reyes, California coast in a storm in 1595 and was ship wrecked. Subsequently, the Spanish crown decided that no further exploration or colonization attempts in California would be made with Manila Galleons. A years worth of profit from the Philippines could not be risked. One of the greatest bays on the west coast—San Francisco Bay
—escaped discovery for centuries till it was finally discovered by land exploration on 4 November 1769.
In 1602, 60 years after Cabrillo, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno
, who had been on the Manila Galleon
Santa Ana when it was captured by Thomas Cavendish
off Cape San Lucas on the Baja Peninsula in 1587, explored California's coastline from San Diego, California
as far north as Monterey Bay
. He was looking for a possible town site for replenishing and protecting the annual trip of the Manila Galleon. Vizcaíno named San Diego Bay
and held the first Christian church service recorded in California on the shores of San Diego Bay
. He also put ashore in Monterey, California
and made glowing reports of the Monterey Bay
area as a possible anchorage for ships with land suitable for growing crops—the California coastal Indians had no agriculture. He also provided rudimentary charts of the coastal waters, which were used by the Spanish for nearly 200 years.
was Russia
, already established in the Pacific Ocean
in Alaska
. Their Maritime Fur Trade
originally focused in Alaska
started making expeditions to the California for harvesting sea otter
s and fur seal
s. These furs could be traded in China for large profits. After the conclusion of the Seven Year War
between Britain
and France
and their allies (in U. S. called the French and Indian War
) (1754–1763) France was driven out of North America, Spain
, Russia
and Britain
were the only colonial powers left in North America
.
To prevent Russia
or Britain
from establishing settlements in California in 1769, the Spanish Visitor General, José de Gálvez
, under directions of the Spanish Crown, proceeded to plan a five part expedition
to settle Alta California
. Three ships with supplies and men were to go by sea and two expedition by land to start settling Alta California
. Gaspar de Portola
volunteered to command the expedition. The Catholic Church was represented by Franciscan
friar Junipero Serra
and his fellow friars. All five detachments of soldiers, friars and colonists were to meet at the site of San Diego Bay
. The first sailing ship
, the San Carlos, sailed from La Paz
on January 10, 1769, and the ship San Antonio sailed on February 15. The first land party, led by Fernando Rivera y Moncada
, left from the Franciscan Mission San Fernando Velicata
on March 24, 1769. The third vessel, the sailing ship
San José, left New Spain
later that spring but was lost at sea with no survivors. With Rivera was Father Juan Crespi
, famed diarist of the entire expedition. The expedition led by Portolà, which included Father Junípero Serra
, the President of the Missions, along with a combination of missionaries, settlers, and leather-jacket soldiers, including José Raimundo Carrillo
, left Velicata on May 15, 1769 accompanied by about 46 mules, 200 cows and 140 horses—all that could be spared by the poor Baja Missions. Fernando de Rivera
was appointed to command the lead party that would scout out a land route and blaze a trail to San Diego. Food was short, and the Indians accompanying them were expected to forage for most of what they needed. Many Indian neophytes died along the way—even more deserted. On the 15th of May 1769, the day after Rivera and Crespi reached San Diego, California
Portola and Serra set out from Velicata
. The two groups traveling from Lower California on foot had to cross about 300 miles (482.8 km) of the very dry and rugged Baja Peninsula. The overland part of the expedition took about 40–51 days to get to San Diego. All five detachments were to meet at San Diego Bay
.
The contingent coming by sea, encountered the south flowing California Current
and strong head winds and were still straggling in three months after they set sail. After their arduous journeys, most of the men aboard the ships were ill, chiefly from scurvy
, and many had died. Out of a total of about 219 men who had left Baja California, little more than 100 now survived. The Spanish settlements of Alta California were the last expansion of Spain's vastly over-extended empire in North America, and they tried to do it with minimal cost and support.
A few leather jacket soldier
s and Franciscan
friar
s financed by the Catholic Church and Spanish Crown would form the backbone of the proposed settlement of Alta California
. The settlements eventually included: twenty one surviving Missions
--typically manned by two to three friars and five to ten soldiers; four military Presidio
s were built—manned by 10 to 100 soldiers and four small settlements (Pueblos) were set up to grow food for the Presidios.
July 14, 1769, an expedition was dispatched to find the port of Monterey, California
. Not recognizing the Monterey Bay
from the description written by Sebastián Vizcaíno
almost 200 years prior, the expedition traveled beyond it to what was called San Francisco, California
area. The exploration party
, led by Don Gaspar de Portolà
arrived on November 2, 1769, at San Francisco Bay
., One of the greatest ports on the west coast of America had finally been discovered—by land. The expedition finally returned to San Diego on Jan. 24, 1770 weak with hunger and suffering from scurvy
.
Without any agricultural crops or experience eating the food the Indians subsisted on (ground acorns), the shortage of food at San Diego became extremely critical during the first few months of 1770. They subsisted on some of their cattle (Texas Longhorns
, wild geese, fish, and other food exchanged with the Indians for clothing, but the ravages of scurvy continued for there was restricted amounts of food and no understanding of the cause or cure of scurvy
then. A small quantity of corn they had planted grew well—only to be eaten by birds. Portolá sent Captain Rivera and a small detachment of about 40 men to the Baja California missions in February to obtain more cattle and a pack-train of supplies. This temporarily eased the drain on San Diego's scant provisions, but within weeks, acute hunger and increased sickness again threatened to force abandonment of the port. Portolá resolved that if no relief ship arrived by March 19, 1770 they would leave the next morning "because there were not enough provisions to wait longer and the men had not come to perish from hunger." At three o'clock in the afternoon on March 19, 1770, as if by a miracle, the sails of the sailing ship
San Antonio loaded with relief supplies were discernible on the horizon. The settlement of Alta California
would continue.
Juan Bautista de Anza
led a contingent of soldiers, settlers and friars to the San Francisco Bay
area in 1776. There the Spanish
built the Mission San Francisco de Asís
, (or Mission Dolores), the Presidio of San Francisco
and Yerba Buena, California (San Francisco). They came with about 200 leather jacketed soldiers, and settlers with their families and two Franciscan
Friar
s. They brought with them about 600 horses and mules, 300 Texas Longhorn
bulls and cows. These soldiers, Frairs, settlers and livestock came over the Anza Trail
from Sonora
Mexico four years before it was closed for over 40 years by the Quechan people (Yumas).
In 1780 the Spanish established two combination missions and pueblos at the Yuma Crossing
of the Colorado River
: Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer
and Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción
. July 1781 the Yuma (Quechan
) Indians, in a dispute with the Spanish destroyed both missions and pueblos—killing 103 soldiers, colonists and Franciscan
Friar
s and capturing about 80—mostly women and children. Despite four expeditions to reassert Spanish control the Yuma Crossing
remained under the Quechan
s control for the next 40 years—the easiest land route to California was closed. This restriction caused most settler traffic and supplies to Alta California to come on a 30-60 day sailing ship
journey form New Spain
's towns on the Pacific Ocean
. Because there were only a few settlers and they had essentially nothing to export or trade so there were only a few ships that came to Alta California. Combined with the Spanish restriction that prohibited non-Spanish shipping the average number of ships going to Alta California from 1770 to 1821 was 2.5 ship/year with 13 years showing no recorded ships.
On November 20, 1818 Hippolyte de Bouchard
raided the Presidio of Monterey in Monterey, California
. Bouchard, a French
revolutionary
who later became a citizen of Argentina
, is sometimes referred to as California’s only pirate, although some Argentines prefer to use the term corsair
.
Since much of his crew died from scurvy
, Bouchard went in search of new crew members in the Sandwich Islands
(now Hawaii
), and then sailed to the coast near Mission Santa Bárbara
and threatened the nearby town.
Bouchard and his crew left without attacking after some soldiers from El Presidio de Santa Bárbara confronted them, and arranged a prisoner exchange.
On December 14, 1818 Bouchard attacked Mission San Juan Capistrano
and he and his crew damaged several buildings, including the Governor's house, the King's stores, and the barracks.
the onerous Spanish rules against trading with foreigners began to break down as the declining Spanish fleet couldn’t enforce their no trading policies. The Californios, with essentially no industries or manufacturing capabilities, were eager to trade for new commodities, glass, hinges, nails, finished goods, luxury goods and other merchandise. The Mexican government abolished the no trade with foreign ships policy and soon regular trading trips were being made. The main products of these California Ranchos
were cow hides
(called California greenbacks), tallow
(rendered fat for making candles and soap) and longhorn cattle
horns that were traded for other finished goods and merchandise. This hide-and-tallow trade was mainly carried on by Boston, Massachusetts based ships that traveled for about 200 days in sailing ship
s about 17000 miles (27,358.8 km) to 18000 miles (28,968.1 km) around Cape Horn
to bring finished goods and merchandise to trade with the Californio Ranchos
for their hides, tallow and horns. The cattle and horses that provided the hides, tallow and horns essentially grew wild. The Californios’ hides, tallow and horns provided the necessary trade articles for a mutually beneficial trade. The first United States, English and Russian trading ships
began showing up in California before 1816. The classic book “Two Years Before the Mast
” by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
written about 1832 provides a good first hand account of this trade.
From 1825 to 1848 the average number of ships traveling to California increased to about 25 ships per year—a large increase from the average of 2.5 ships per year from 1769 to 1824. The port of entry for trading purposes was Monterey, California
where custom duties (tariffs) of about 100% were applied. These high duties gave rise to much bribery and smuggling, as avoiding the tariffs made more money for the ship owners and made the goods less costly to the customers. Essentially all the cost of the California government (what little there was) was paid for by these Tariffs (custom duties). In this they were much like the United States in 1850, where about 89% of the revenue of its federal government came from import tariffs (also called Customs or Ad-valorem taxes), although at an average rate of about 20%.
By 1845, the province of Alta California had a non-native population of about 1,500 Californio adult men along with about 6,500 women and children, who lived mostly in the southern half of the state around Los Angeles. Most immigrants (nearly all of whom were adult males) lived in the northern half of California.
the onerous Spanish rules against trading with foreigners began to break down as the declining Spanish fleet couldn’t enforce their no trading policies. The Californios, with essentially no industries or manufacturing capabilities, were eager to trade for new commodities, glass, hinges, nails, finished goods, luxury goods and other merchandise. The Mexican government abolished the no trade with foreign ships policy and soon regular trading trips were being made. The main products of these California Ranchos
were cow hides
(called California greenbacks), tallow
(rendered fat for making candles and soap) and longhorn cattle
horns that were traded for other finished goods and merchandise. This hide-and-tallow trade was mainly carried on by Boston, Massachusetts based ships that traveled for about 200 days in sailing ship
s about 17000 miles (27,358.8 km) to 18000 miles (28,968.1 km) around Cape Horn
to bring finished goods and merchandise to trade with the Californio Ranchos
for their hides, tallow and horns. The cattle and horses that provided the hides, tallow and horns essentially grew wild. The Californios’ hides, tallow and horns provided the necessary trade articles for a mutually beneficial trade. The first United States, English and Russian trading ships
began showing up in California before 1816. The classic book “Two Years Before the Mast
” by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
written about 1832 provides a good first hand account of this trade.
From 1825 to 1848 the average number of ships traveling to California increased to about 25 ships per year—a large increase from the average of 2.5 ships per year from 1769 to 1824. The port of entry for trading purposes was Monterey, California
where custom duties (tariffs) of about 100% were applied. These high duties gave rise to much bribery and smuggling, as avoiding the tariffs made more money for the ship owners and made the goods less costly to the customers. Essentially all the cost of the California government (what little there was) was paid for by these Tariffs (custom duties). In this they were much like the United States in 1850, where about 89% of the revenue of its federal government came from import tariffs (also called Customs or Ad-valorem taxes), although at an average rate of about 20%.
By 1845, the province of Alta California had a non-native population of about 1,500 Californio adult men along with about 6,500 women and children, who lived mostly in the southern half of the state around Los Angeles. Most immigrants (nearly all of whom were adult males) lived in the northern half of California.
(1775–1783) the colonies that would become the United States had a already developed a strong seafaring tradition in the future New England
and Mid-Atlantic states
. The colonies with good access to British shipbuilding experience and technology and with good access to the Atlantic Ocean
and extensive forest
s had already developed an advanced shipbuilding
industry even before they gained independence. They were already building many of the ships used in the extensive British colonial trade as well as whaling and fishing vessels. Whaling
recovered soon after the American Revolutionary War
ended in 1783 and the United States whaling industry began to prosper. The whalers used bases primarily at Nantucket
island and New Bedford, Massachusetts
. About ten thousand United State's seamen manned whaling
ships on whaling voyages that could last over two years. The United States grew to become the pre-eminent whaling
nation in the world by the 1830s. From 1835 to 1860 the American whaling fleet averaged about 620 vessels annually with a shipping tonnage aggregating 190,500 tons. In thhis time period most of the whalers were whaling in the Pacific Ocean. From 1835 to 1860 the annual United States whale oil
usage averaged 118,000 barrels of sperm oil, 216,000 barrels of other whale oil and 2,323,000 pounds of whalebone (baleen
)—with a total average value of over $8,000,000 a year of 1830 dollars. The whale oil
was used primarily in whale oil lamp
s for illumination at night and for some lubrication
purposes. The baleen was used for corset
s, brushes, whips, and other uses that required a strong flexible material—plastic hadn't been invented yet. Kerosene, when it was introduced in the early 1850s, was much cheaper and easily made by fractional distillation of petroleum. Kerosene started to rapidly replace whale oil
for lighting in the 1850s—saving many more whales than any conservation movement. The Pacific Ocean
whaling ships started getting fresh supplies, water and wood from California
and Sandwich Islands
(Hawaii
). Many whaling vessels preferred stopping in the San Francisco Bay
Area before stopping to pay the high custom duties (also called tariffs and Ad Valorem taxes) at Monterey, California
wanted by the Californio
government—avoiding taxes has a long history. By 1846 several hundred whaling ships per year were using Hawaii
(then called the Sandwich Islands) as a temporary base.
Shortly after the United States gained independence in 1783 trade was instituted from East Coast
ports with the West Coast
to gather fur
s in the Maritime Fur Trade
to trade with China for porcelain
, silk
, spices etc.. British Royal Navy
commander George Vancouver
sailed up the west coast past the mouth of the Columbia River
and on April 1792 and observed a change in the water's color, which implied there may be a major river emptying into the Pacific. Later that month, Vancouver encountered the American
captain Robert Gray at Grays Harbor--later named that in his honor. Gray also reported that he had seen the possible entrance to the Columbia a few years earlier and had spent nine days trying but failing to enter the river over its extensive sand bars and turbulent waves; but bad weather forced him to give up. Gray returned to the river mouth a second time in May 1792. This time he ordered a small sailboat
launched to attempt to find a safe passage across the sand bars and turbulent waves by sounding
(measuring the depth with a weight attached to a line of known length) the water depth to find a channel
deep enough for his ship. Finally in the evening of May 11, 1792, Gray's men found a safe channel
and he and his crew sailed their ship Columbia into the estuary
of what he named the Columbia River
after his ship.
Once across the sand bars and turbulent water at the entrance to the river (later called the Columbia Bar
) they sailed up the Columbia River
several miles while exploring the river. Gray's discovery was one of the claims the United States had for possession of the Oregon Territory
. The Lewis and Clark Expedition
(1804–1806) was the first overland expedition to the Pacific Coast and reinforced the United States claim for possession.
Beginning about 1790 United States ships often sailed along the West Coast to gather fur
s for trading with China. They traded steel knives, hatchets, blankets, kettles, whiskey, guns, powder, lead and other trade goods for furs collected by the natives. An attempt was made by the Spanish in Spanish California to severely restrict trade from San Diego, California
to San Francisco, California
. The land above San Francisco, California
had no Spanish presence. The Russian-American Company
was created in 1799 as a joint venture between Russian fur traders and United States ship merchants who agreed to purchase fur seal
and sea otter
furs obtained by the Russians. The Russian Czar was to get 20% of all profits. American ships brought food and other supplies to the Russian settlements, assisted in fur hunts, and took furs away. The company constructed settlements in what is today Alaska
, Hawaii
, and California
.
The Russian traders after visiting California in 1806 built Fort Ross, California
in 1812 on the California coast in Sonoma County, California
--just north of San Francisco. This was the southernmost outpost of the Russian-American Company. To keep unwanted Spanish intrusion away the Russians built a palisade
d fort equipped with several cannon
s. Their objective in setting up Ft. Ross was to harvest fur seal
s and sea otter
s and grow grain and vegetables for the use of other Russian trading centers in Russian Alaska
. The fur company at Fort Ross typically had a few score Russians with up to 75 Aleut Eskimo
s who harvested (usually under some duress) the fur seal
s and sea otter
s from their kayak
s on or near the Farallon Islands
, the Channel Islands of California
and in the ports and bays around San Francisco Bay
. The Aleuts of Russian Alaska
probably had the largest effect on the Channel islands and its people. These otter-hunters from the Aleutian Islands set up camps on the surrounding Channel Islands and traded with the native peoples in exchange for permission to hunt otters and seals around the island.
American fur trader John Jacob Astor
built Fort Astoria
on the Columbia River
in 1811. Under pressure brought by the War of 1812
Astor sold the fort to what would become the The British
Hudson's Bay Company
. In 1830 Hudson Bay Co. built a new Fort Vancouver
slightly up the Columbia River
in the future Washington state
. This fort was the main supply depot for Hudson Bay forts in all the Pacific Northwest. Within a few years they were growing quantities of wheat, constructed saw and flour mills, and yearly shipped lumber to the Hawaiian Islands
and flour to Sitka, Alaska. They were resupplied every year by two to three ships that brought trading supplies around Cape Horn
from England.
Sea otter
s and fur seals were severely depleted on the California coast and islands by the 1820s. Hudson's Bay Company
entered the coast trade in the 1820s with the intention of driving the Americans away. This was accomplished by about 1840 just as the fur trade industry started dying due to lack of supply and a style change in felt
hats—felt was made from fur. In its late period the maritime fur trade
was largely conducted by the British Hudson's Bay Company
and the Russian-American Company
. The depleted supply of sea otters and the easy trade with the British in Fort Vancouver
for food stuffs led the Russians to abandon Fort Ross, California
in 1841 and sell the cannon and other supplies to John Augustus Sutter. The Hudson Bay Company departed from their trading post they had set up in San Francisco in 1845 because of the declining fur trade and the death of their agent there.
The United States Exploring Expedition
(1838–1842) was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean ("the Southern Seas") conducted by the United States Navy to learn more about the Pacific Ocean and its ports. The expedition with five ships was authorized by Congress
in 1836. It is sometimes called the "Ex. Ex." for short, or "the Wilkes Expedition" in honor of its next appointed commanding officer, U.S. Navy Lt. Charles Wilkes
(1798–1877). The expedition was of major importance to the growth of oceanography
and cartography
of the Pacific. Two of these ships were lost from accidents—one on the Columbia River
in 1841. From the area of modern-day Portland, Oregon
, an overland party headed by George F. Emmons
was directed to proceed via an inland route to San Francisco Bay
. This Emmons party traveled south along the Siskiyou Trail
, including the Sacramento River
, making the first official recorded visit by Americans to and scientific note of Mount Shasta
, in northern California. The Emmons party rejoined the ships, which had sailed south, in San Francisco Bay
. After their return Wilkes published the major scientific works Western America, including California and Oregon (1849) and Theory of the Winds (1856).
The Pacific Squadron
, established 1821, was part of the United States Navy
squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean
in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States
ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships
which provided naval supplies and purchased fresh supplies of food, wood and water from local ports of call in California, Hawaiian Islands
and ports and harbors on the Pacific Coast
. The Pacific Squadron
was instrumental in the capture of Alta California
in the Mexican–American War
of 1846 to 1848. After war was declared on 24 April 1846. The American navy with its force of 350-400 U.S. Marines and bluejacket U.S. Navy sailor
s on board several sailing ship
s near California were essentially the only significant United States military force on the Pacific coast in the early months of the Mexican–American War. Marines were stationed aboard each warship to assist in close in ship to ship combat for either boarding
or repelling boarders and could be detached for use on land. In addition there were some sailors on each ship that could be detached from each vessel for shore duty and still leave the ship functional though short handed.
Hostilities between U.S. and Mexican troops commenced in April 1846 with Mexican troops killing and capturing a number of U.S. Army troops in the future state of Texas
. The Battle of Palo Alto
, the first major battle of the Mexican-American War, was fought on May 8, 1846, a few miles from the modern-day city of Brownsville, Texas
. A force of some 3,400 Mexican troops (a portion of the Army of The North) led by Mexican General Mariano Arista
engaged a force of 2,400 United States troops under General Zachary Taylor
. Taylor's forces drove the Mexicans from the field. The United States Congress responded to these hostilities by issuing a Declaration of War
against Mexico
on May 13, 1846—the Mexican-American War had began.
Speculating that war with Mexico over Texas and other land was very possible, the U.S. Navy had sent several additional naval vessels to the Pacific in 1845 to protect U.S. interests there. It took about 200 days, on average, for sailing ship
s to travel the greater than 12000 miles (19,312.1 km) trip from the East coast around Cape Horn
to California. Initially as the war with Mexico started there were five vessels in the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron
near California. In 1846 and 1847 this was increased to 13 Navy vessels—over half the U.S. Navy's available ships.
The former fleet surgeon William M. Wood and John Parrot, the American Consul of Mazatlan
, arrived in Guadalajara
Mexico on 10 May 1846. There they heard word of the on-going hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico forces and sent a message by special courier back to Commodore Sloat then visiting Mazatlan. On 17 May 1846 this courier's messages informed Commodore Sloat that hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico had commenced. Commodore (Rear Admiral
) John D. Sloat
, commander of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron
and his fleet of four vessels were then at anchor in the harbor of Mazatlan
Mexico
. On hearing the news Commodore Sloat dispatched his flagship, the Frigate USS Savannah
, and the Sloop
USS Levant
to Monterey
harbor where they arrived on 2 July 1846. They joined the Sloop
USS Cyane
which was already there. There were U.S. fears that the British might try to annex California to satisfy British creditors. The British Pacific Station
's ships off California were stronger in ships, guns and men.
Hearing rumors of possible Mexican military action against the newly arrived settlers in California (this had already happened in 1840), some settlers decided to neutralize the small Californio
garrison at Sonoma, California
. On June 15, 1846, some thirty settlers, mostly former American citizens, staged a revolt and seized the small Californio
garrison in Sonoma without firing a shot. Initially there was little resistance from anyone in California as they replaced the dysfunctional and ineffective Mexican government—which already had 40 Presidents in the first 24 years of its existence. Most settlers and Californio
s were neutral or actively supported the revolt. John A. Sutter and his men and supplies at Sutter’s Fort joined the revolt. They raised the "Bear Flag" of the California Republic
over Sonoma. The republic was in existence scarcely more than a week before Frémont returned and took over on June 23 from William B. Ide
the leader of the Bear Flag Revolt. The California state flag of today is based on this original Bear Flag and still contains the words "California Republic".
In 1846 the U.S. Navy was under orders to take over all California ports in the event of war. There were about 400–500 U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy bluejacket sailor
s available for possible land action on the Pacific Squadron
’s ships. Hearing word of the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma, California
and the arrival of the large British 2,600 ton, 600 man, man-of-war HMS Collingwood (1841)
, flagship under Sir George S. Seymour, outside Monterey Harbor, Commodore Sloat was finally stirred to action. On 7 July 1846—seven weeks after war had been declared, Commodore John D. Sloat
instructed the Captains of the ships:USS Savannah
and Sloops: USS Cyane
and USS Levant
of the Pacific Squadron
in Monterey Bay
to occupy Monterey, California
—the Alta California capital. Fifty American marines and about 100 bluejacket sailors landed and captured the city without incident—the few Californio troops formerly there having already evacuated the city. They raised the flag of the United States
without firing a shot. The only shots fired were a 21 gun salute to the new U.S. Flag fired by each of the U.S. Navy ships in the harbor. The British ships observed but took no action—getting a message to and from Britain
requesting new orders to interfere would have taken from one to two years.
The abandoned Presidio
and Mission San Francisco de Asís
(Mission Dolores) at San Francisco, (then called Yerba Buena
), was occupied without firing a shot on 9 July 1846 by U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy sailors from the Sloop
USS Portsmouth (1843). Militia Captain Thomas Fallon
led a small force of about 22 men from Santa Cruz, California
and captured the small town of Pueblo de San Jose
without bloodshed on 11 July 1846. Fallon received an American flag from Commodore John D. Sloat, and raised it over the pueblo on July 14. On 15 July 1846, Commodore (Rear Admiral
) John D. Sloat
transferred his command of the Pacific Squadron
to Commodore Robert F. Stockton
when Stockton's ship, the Frigate
USS Congress (1841)
, arrived from the Hawaii
. Stockton, a much more aggressive leader, asked Fremont to form a joint force of Fremont’s soldiers, scouts, guides etc. and a volunteer militia—many former Bear Flag Revolters. This unit called the California Battalion
was mustered into U.S. service and were paid regular army wages. On July 19, Frémont's newly formed "California Battalion
" swelled to about 160 men. These men included Fremont's 30 topographical men and their 30 scouts and hunters, U.S. Marine Lieutenant Archibald H. Gillespie
, a U.S. Navy officer to handle their two cannon
s, a company of Indians trained by Sutter and many other permanent California settlers from several different countries as well as American settlers. The California Battalion members were used mainly to garrison and keep order in the rapidly surrendering California towns. The Navy went down the coast from San Francisco, occupying ports without resistance as they went. The small pueblo (town) of San Diego surrendered 29 July 1846 without a shot being fired. The small pueblo (town) of Santa Barbara surrendered without a shot being fired in August 1846. On 13 August 1846 a joint force of U.S. Marines, bluejacket sailors and parts of Fremont’s California Battalion carried by the USS Cyane (1837)
entered Los Angeles, California with flags flying and band playing. Captain Archibald H. Gillespie
, (Fremont's second in command), with a inadequate force of 40 to 50 men were left to occupy and keep order in the largest town (about 3,500) in Alta California
—Los Angeles.
On July 11 the British Royal Navy
sloop HMS Juno enters San Francisco Bay causing Montgomery to man his defenses. The large British ship, 2,600 ton, man-of-war HMS Collingwood
, flagship under Sir George S. Seymour, also shows up about this time outside Monterey Harbor. Both British ships observe, but did not enter the conflict.
Shortly after July 9 when it became clear the American Navy was taking action, the short-lived Bear Flag Republic
was converted into a United States military conflict for possession of California and the Bear Flag (the basis for today's California Flag
) was replaced by the U.S. Flag. Fremont expeditionary forces joined forces with a volunteer force of California residents to form a small volunteer militia. The frigate USS Congress
was the flagship of Commodore
Robert F. Stockton
when he took over as the senior United States military commander in California in late July 1846. Stockton asked Fremont to muster the troops and volunteers under his command into the California Battalion
to help garrison the towns rapidly being captured from the Californios. Most towns surrendered without a shot being fired. Fremont's California Battalion members were sworn in and the volunteers paid the regular United States Army salary of $25.00 a month for privates with higher pay for officers. The California Battalion varied in size with time from about 160 initially to over 450 by January 1847. Pacific Squadron war ships and storeship
s served as floating store houses keeping Fremont's volunteer force in the California Battalion supplied with black powder, lead shot
and supplies as well as transporting them to different California ports. The USS Cyane
transported Fremont and about 160 of his men to the small port of San Diego
which was captured on 29 July 1846 without a shot being fired.
A minor Californio revolt broke out in Los Angeles and the United States force there of 40–50 men evacuated the city for a time. Later, U.S.forces fought minor scrimmages in the Battle of San Pasqual
, the Battle of Dominguez Rancho
, and the Battle of Rio San Gabriel
. After the Los Angeles revolt started the California Battalion was expanded to a force of about 400 men. In early January 1847 a 600 man joint force of U.S. Marine, U.S. Navy bluejacket sailors, General Stephen W. Kearny
's 80 U.S. Army dragoons (cavalrymen) and about two companies of Fremont's California Battalion
re-occupied Los Angeles after some minor skirmishes—after four months the same U.S. Flag again flew over Los Angeles. The minor armed resistance in California ceased when the Californios signed the Treaty of Cahuenga
on January 13, 1847. The Californios who had wrested control of California from Mexico in 1845 now had a new government.
After the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed, the Pacific Squadron
then went on to capture all Baja California
cities and harbors and sink or capture all the Mexican Pacific Navy they could find. Baja California was returned to Mexico in subsequent Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
negotiations. More reinforcements of about 320 soldiers (and a few women) of the Mormon Battalion
arrived at San Diego, California on 28 January 1847—after hostilities had ceased. They had been recruited from the Mormon
camps on the Missouri River
—about 2000 miles (3,218.7 km) away. These troops were recruited with the understanding they would be discharged in California with their weapons. Most were discharged before July 1847. More reinforcements in the form of Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson
's 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers
of about 648 men showed up in March–April 1847—again after hostilities had ceased. Three private merchant ships, Thomas H Perkins, Loo Choo, and Susan Drew, were chartered, and the sloop USS Preble
was assigned convoy detail. On 26 September the four ships left New York
for California. Fifty men who had been left behind for various reasons sailed on 13 November 1846 on the small storeship USS Brutus. The Susan Drew and Loo Choo reached Valparaiso
, Chile
by 20 January 1847 and after getting fresh supplies, water and wood were on their way again by 23 January. The Perkins did not stop until San Francisco, reaching port on 6 March 1847. The Susan Drew arrived on 20 March 1847 and the Loo Choo arrived on 26 March 1847, 183 days after leaving New York. The Brutus finally arrived on 17 April 1847. After desertions and deaths in transit, four ships brought Stevenson's 648 men to California. Initially they took over all of the Pacific Squadron's on-shore military and garrison duties and the Mormon Battalion and California Battalion's garrison duties. The New York Volunteer companies were deployed from San Francisco in Alta California to La Paz, Mexico in Baja California
. The ship Isabella sailed from Philadelphia on 16 August 1847, with a detachment of one hundred soldiers, and arrived in California on 18 February 1848, the following year, at about the same time that the ship Sweden arrived with another detachment of soldiers. These soldiers were added to the existing companies of Stevenson's 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers
. These troops were recruited with the understanding they would discharged in California. When gold was discovered in late January 1848, many of Stevenson's troops deserted.
were the people in Oregon
, the Sandwich Islands
(Hawaii), Mexico, Peru
and Chile
and they were the first to start flocking to the state in late 1848. By the end of 1848, some 6,000 Argonauts had come to California. President James K. Polk
made the “official” announcement of the discovery of gold in California during his State of the Union Address on December 5, 1848 and displayed about 300 ounces of California gold at the War Department. Excitement grew as rumors, reports of officers and soldiers in California, newspaper accounts all seemed to confirm that there was a tremendous amount of gold in California—waiting to be picked up and the ease of getting it. Sam Brannan, publisher of the Alta California at San Francisco, is regarded as starting the "Gold Rush" with stories about the amount of gold throughout late 1848 and 1849. He then became California's first millionaire by "mining the miners" with the sale of provisions. These “forty-niners” left behind families and jobs in the hope of instant wealth. A few succeeded, but the gold fields destroyed some and disappointed many more. Americans and foreigners of many different countries, statuses, classes, and races rushed to California for gold. Almost all (~96%) were young men under 40. Women in the California Gold Rush
were few and had many opportunities to do new things and take on new tasks in women poor California. Argonauts
, as they were often called, walked over the California Trail
or came by sea. About 80,000 Argonauts arrived in 1849 alone—about 40,000 over the California trail and 40,000 by sea. In April 1850, a harbor master’s estimate counted 62,000 people from across the globe arriving in San Francisco by ship in the preceding 12 months. Hundreds of ships lay abandoned, anchored in San Francisco Bay
, their passengers and crews out searching for gold. According to Golden State historian Riccardo Gaudino, the Napa Valley became the first wheat granary, not only for the food staple, but also growing barley and hops to fill the demand of these thirsty men who wanted to drink beer.
A popular concept of the California Gold Rush
portrays the overland migration by wagon, yet according to the evidence, more people journeyed by sea. A significant factor in this maritime traffic was cargo—supplies, food, tools, lumber etc. for miners and an expanding population. Sea transport was about the only way cargo of any kind could be delivered to California. Carrying material cross country by wagon over 2000 miles (3,218.7 km) of bad road was a slow, costly process that was seldom done. Research documents show that there were more Portuguese whalers off the California coast than population on the ranchos. In 1846, the first European rural labor was imported to the Pacific from the Portuguese Azores for farm labor on the Sandwich Islands. Not until the Transcontinental Railroad
was completed in 1869 was there any easy way to move cargo across land to California. Even today, bulky or heavy heavy cargo is usually sent by ship because it is cheap and efficient, though slower than other methods.
Some enterprising migrants set up businesses to furnish, feed, and entertain the region’s growing population. Merchants were more likely to prosper than prospectors. Failed miners became settlers, and San Francisco boomed. The population of California grew from 8,000 in 1846 to about 120,000 in 1850. The majority of the California Argonauts (as they were frequently called) were young Anglo men from the United States. But many were Latins from Chile and Lima-Peru: a mix of indiginents, Spanish, seafaring Genovese Italians and Jewish traders. Those on the East Coast, who could afford the accommodations and bordellos, traveled with sailing ship
s via New Orleans, Mexico and Central America routes to California. Those who lacked the wealth usually went by wagon, as they had the self-reliant experience and often the supplies and equipment for a long wagon trip.
There were three main ways to get to California by land in 1848 and later: overland by wagon train from the California Trail
, across the desert via the Gila Trail or, for winter travel, by the Salt Lake City to Los Angeles Trail. All land routes were restricted to the seasons where travel was feasible. The trip by wagon was a four to six month ordeal across over 2000 miles (3,218.7 km) of land from a Missouri River
town to California or across the deserts of Arizona
or Nevada
. Those going by wagon train could not leave until the trails were dry and enough grass had started to feed their livestock—usually early May.
By 1849 the shipping industry was in transition from sail powered boats to steam powered boats and from wood construction to an ever increasing metal construction. There were basically three different types of ships being used: standard sailing ship
s of several different types. Clipper
s, and Paddle steamer
s with paddles mounted on the side or rear. River steam boats typically used rear mounted paddles and had flat bottoms and shallow hulls designed to carry large loads on generally smooth and occasionally shallow rivers. Ocean going paddle steamer
s typically used side wheeled paddles and used narrower deeper hulls designed to travel in the often stormy weather encountered at sea. The ship hull
design was often based on the Clipper
ship design with extra bracing to support the loads and strains imposed by the paddle wheels when they encountered rough water.
The first paddle-steamer to make a long ocean voyage was the 320 ton 98 feet (29.9 m) long Savannah, built in 1819 expressly for packet ship
mail and passenger service to and from Liverpool
England
. On May 22, 1819, the watch on the Savannah sighted Ireland
after 23 days at sea. The Allaire Iron Works
of New York supplied Savannah's's engine cylinder, while the rest of the engine components and running gear were manufactured by the Speedwell Ironworks
of New Jersey
. The 90-horsepower low-pressure engine was of the inclined direct-acting type, with a single 40 inches (101.6 cm) cylinder and a 5 feet (1.5 m) stroke. Savannah's engine and machinery were unusually large for their time. The ship's wrought-iron paddlewheels were 16 feet in diameter with eight buckets per wheel. For fuel, the vessel carried 75 tons of coal and 25 cords of wood.
The SS Savannah was too small to carry much fuel and the engine was intended only for use in calm weather and to get in and out of harbors. Under favorable winds the sails alone were able to provide a speed of at least four knots. The SS Savannah
was judged not a commercial success and its engine was removed and it was converted back to a regular sailing ship
. By 1848 steamboats built by both United States
and British
shipbuilders were already in use for mail and passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean
—a 3000 miles (4,828 km) journey.
Since paddle steamer
s typically required from 5 to 16 tons of coal per day to keep their engines running, they were more expensive to run. Initially, nearly all sea going steamboats were equipped with mast and sails to supplement the steam engine
power and provide power for occasions when the steam engine needed repair or maintenance. These steamships typically concentrated on high value cargo, mail and passengers and only had moderate cargo capabilities because of their required loads of coal. The typical paddle wheel steamship was powered by a coal burning engine that required firemen to shovel the coal to the burners.
By 1849 the screw propeller
had been invented and was slowly being introduced as iron increasingly was used in ship construction and the stress introduced by propellers could be compensated for. As the 1800s progressed the timber and lumber needed to make wooden ships got ever more expensive and the iron plate needed for iron ship construction got much cheaper as the massive iron works at Merthyr Tydfil
Wales, for example, got ever more efficient. The propeller put a lot of stress on the rear of the ships and would not see large spread use till the conversion from wood boats to iron boats was complete—well underway by 1860. By the 1840s the ocean going steam ship industry was well established as the Cunard Line
and others demonstrated.
Starting in 1848 Congress had subsidized the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
with $199,999 to set up regular packet ship
, mail, passenger and cargo routes in the Pacific Ocean
. This was to be a regular scheduled route from Panama
, Nicaragua
and Mexico
to and from San Francisco and Oregon
. The Atlantic Ocean mail contract from East Coast cities and New Orleans, Louisiana
to and from the Chagres River
in Panama
was won by the United States Mail Steamship Company
whose first steamship, the SS Falcon (1848') was dispatched on 1 December 1848 to the Caribbean
terminus of the Isthmus of Panama
trail—the Chagres River
. The SS California (1848)
, the first Pacific Mail Steamship Company
steamship, showed up in San Francisco, loaded with about twice the passengers it had been designed for, on February 28, 1849. It had made the trip from Panama and Mexico after steaming around Cape Horn
from New York
. Other steamships soon followed and by late 1849 paddle wheel steamships like the SS Mckim (1848) were carrying miners the 125 miles (201.2 km) trip from San Francisco up the extensive Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta to Stockton, California
, Marysville, California
, Sacramento
, etc. to get about 125 miles (201.2 km) closer to the gold fields. Steam powered tugboat
s and towboat
s started working in the San Francisco Bay
soon after this to expedite shipping in and out of the bay.
As the passenger, mail and high value freight business to and from California boomed more and more paddle steamer
s were brought into service—eleven by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
alone. About 20% of the California Argonauts are thought to have returned to their homes, mostly on the East Coast of the United States. Some returned with their wives
, family and/or sweethearts. Most used the Panama Route. Between the 1849 and 1869 when the First Transcontinental Railroad
was completed across the United States about 800,000 travelers used the Panama route. Most of the millions of dollars of gold that was found in California were shipped East via the Panama route on paddle steamers. After 1855 when the Panama Railroad was completed the Panama Route was the quickest and easiest way to get to or from California. The sinking of the Central America loaded with gold influenced the US Congress to pass the transcontinental railroad legislation.
Regular sailing ship
s that had been developed and refined over centuries of use were the cheapest and the slowest transports available. There were several types of sailing ships. They had typically been optimized to carry a large amount of cargo using a small crew of about 20 men and utilized sails in a combination of fore and aft riging and square rig
ging. Unless the cargo was time sensitive, they were utilized for nearly all long distance shipping and passenger service. At the end of the sailing era windjammers were developed to carry large volumes of low value cargo long distances. Some of the most popular ships were four-masted barques, since the four-masted barque is considered the most efficient rig available because of its ease of handling, small need of manpower, good running capabilities, and good capabilities of rising toward wind.
Once in San Francisco the crews often deserted the ships. The ship owners found little cargo of value to ship back to the East Coast out of California and the ships often went back in ballast
with a cargo of useless rocks. Since many of the ships were older and required expensive maintenance and crews were very hard to find and/or very expensive many hundreds of vessels were simply abandoned or sold at very low cost in San Francisco Bay
. Others were converted into store ships or floating warehouses, stores, hotels, prisons, etc.. Some abandoned ships were bought cheap, filled with ballast and sunk on the mud flats at high tide to enlarge the available wharves
and docks. The ships were typically stripped of her upper works and all usable fittings by one of San Francisco's many marine salvage firms of Gold Rush days and then covered with debris and sand as developers filled in the mud flats on the bay and built wharves
out to deeper water to accommodate docking ships. By 1857 nearly all abandoned shipping in the San Francisco Bay
that had not been re-used was sent to a marine salvage or ship breaking
firms where all usable fixtures, anchors, etc. were removed, the copper bottom (about 8000 pounds (3,628.7 kg) of copper) salvaged and the timbers were removed and set aside for other uses. The rapidly expanding city of San Francisco needed room to store all of the incoming goods and much larger dockside facilities—there were none when California was annexed. There initially was not time to build adequate warehouses, wharves, docks on the water front. In early September 2001, the General Harrison, was discovered at the northwest corner of Battery and Clay streets during construction. She was built in 1840 in Newburyport, Massachusetts
and abandoned sometime before 1850 and turned into a store ship (warehouse). She was 126.1 feet (38.4 m) long, 26.5 feet (8.1 m) wide, 13.25 feet (4 m) in depth and
displaced 409 tons. She was burned to the water line in one of San Francisco's early fires. The remains, including some of the stores on board, were filled with sand and built over.
The average realized speed for the typical sailing ship was about 3.5 miles (5.6 km)per hour, the Clippers could often reach about 10 miles (16.1 km)per hour of realized speed with steam ships averaging about 8 miles (12.9 km)per hour. The trips by steamship to Panama
and Nicaragua
from New York
, Philadelphia and Boston
were about 2600 miles (4,184.3 km) long and took about two weeks. Trips across the Isthmus of Panama
or Nicaragua typically took about one week. The 4000 miles (6,437.4 km) trip to San Francisco, California
could be done by side wheel steamer in about three weeks. In addition to this travel time via the Panama route typically had a two to four week waiting period to find a ship going from Panama City, Panama to San Francisco, California
. Once in San Francisco the Argonauts typically took a steamer (starting in1849) to Stockton, California
or Sacramento, California
to get closer to the gold fields.
s, developed and mainly used between about 1840 and 1860 were some of the last and “best” commercial sailing ships invented. The Clippers had more sails and faster hulls and were some of the fastest sailing ships ever developed. The Clippers required a larger crew to man the larger expanse of sails and typically carried high value cargo with few passenger accommodations. Under ideal conditions Clippers have been logged at over 20 mile per hour—covering over 450 miles (724.2 km) in one day. The average speed over a long journey was about 8 mile per hour. The typical Clipper carried high value, large volume cargo and normally carried only about six passengers. They competed with the paddle steamers on the shorter Panama, Nicaragua, and Mexican routes. Because of their shorter runs these paddle steamers were faster but much more costly to run and typically only took high value cargo like passengers, mail and gold shipments. Clippers averaged about 120 days passage on the about 17000 miles (27,358.8 km) trip between East Coast cities and San Francisco—about 80 days faster to travel the conventional sailing ship
s.
In 1845 the Rainbow
, 757 tons OM, the first extreme clipper
was launched in New York. These American clippers were larger vessels designed to sacrifice cargo capacity for speed. They had a bow lengthened above the water, a drawing out and sharpening of the forward body, and the greatest breadth further aft. Extreme clippers were built in the period 1845 to 1855.
Clippers sometimes took a trip across the Pacific Ocean
to Shanghai
or some other port in China to pick up a cargo of tea
, silk
, porcelain
, etc. for a profitable return trip to their home port. The alternative was to return in ballast
with a useless cargo of rocks. Some Clippers were used on the Hawaii
to California routes as they shipped mainly food stocks to California.
In 1853 the Clipper
’’Flying Cloud’’ sailed from New York City
and made San Francisco around Cape Horn
in 89 days, 8 hours; a record that stood 136 years until 1989 when the breakthrough-designed sailboat Thursday's Child
completed the passage in 80 days, 20 hours. The record was once again broken in 2008 by the special built French racing yacht Gitana 13
, with a time of 43 days and 38 minutes.
on the Caribbean
side of Panama
. There were then no docking facilities off the Chagres River mouth and passengers had to come ashore in small boats—not an easy task in bad weather. The east to west transit across the Isthmus of Panama
was about 30 miles (48.3 km) by native dugout boats
(later modified lifeboats were used) up the often wild and dangerous Chagres River
and then by mule back for the final 20 miles (32.2 km) over the old Spanish trails. The trails had fallen into serious disrepair after almost 50+ years of little or no maintenance and up to 3 meters of rain each year in the roughly April to December rainy season. One of the major problems was getting reliable transport of luggage and freight over the Isthmus of Panama. Even after all arrangements were made and payments made it was not unusual to have to wait weeks longer in Panama City for your luggage to arrive. A transit from the Atlantic
to the Pacific
(or from Pacific to Atlantic) would usually take four to eight days by dugout canoe and mule back. The transit was fraught with dangers and disease. After the arrival in Panama City
the traveler had to wait in a hot, dirty, crowded, disease laden city for their luggage to arrive and then for passage on a paddle steamer
to California. One of the main problems initially encountered was getting further passage on a ship to California—there were not enough steamers to carry the passengers and cargo that built up in Panama City. By late 1849 paddle steamer
routes had been established to and from Panama City
and other ports in Nicaragua and Mexico to San Francisco. Panama City
had a poor harbor and again the ships anchored off shore and a small boat was required to board them.
Those going to California by crossing Panama, Nicaragua or Mexico had a much quicker trip than going around Cape Horn
or taking the California Trail
to California. A typical trip could be done in about 30–90 days assuming shipping and transit connections could be made. The biggest handicap the Panama, Nicaragua or Mexico routes had was the wait until scheduled Pacific shipping was established in late 1849 to carry them to California. These routes also suffered form the risk of catching a possibly fatal disease and having to potentially endure threats of attack by bandits. Unfortunately, getting shipping from the Pacific ports of Panama, Nicaragua, or Mexico to California was very problematic until mid to late 1849. Mail, returning gold miners and gold shipments nearly all used the Panama Route. The number of passengers who used the Panama route in 1849 and 1850 is unknown but must be numbered in the tens of thousands. In 1851 29,600 passengers used the Panama Route. This increased to 33,000 passengers in 1852 and dropped to 27,200 passengers in 1853. by the time the First Transcontinental Railroad
was completed in the United States in 1869 its believed 800,000 travelers had used the Panama Route to get to and from California. Its estimated that 20% of the original Argonauts left to return home—most via the Panama Route. Many returned to California with their wives and families.
As steamships became available, regular paddle steamer
service opened a major mail, passenger and high value cargo link between the two coasts of the United States. The first transcontinental railroad, the Panama Railroad, was finished in 1855 at a cost of about 5,000 lives and $8,000,000 and provided a major faster link with the East Coast and West Coast. Regardless of how the miners had originally got to California nearly all returned back East via Panama—the easiest and fastest route. The returning miners and the returning gold were welcomed in the East and the mail and newspapers exchanged soon established strong east-west bonds. After it was completed in 1855 the ease of use of the Panama Railroad meant that the Panama Route carried most of the high value, time sensitive freight to and from California. Most female traffic went from east to west over the Panama Route which was the easiest and fasted route after about 1852. Women in the California Gold Rush
were scarce but played an major role in settling California. Wives and sweethearts passage via Panama to California was normally paid for by miners or businessmen who had decided to stay in California. These women arriving in nearly every ship from Panama soon changed the character of women scarce California as they rapidly out numbered the prostitutes
who had initially flocked there.
Money in California was scarce as very few had brought much with them and the costly living expenses soon exhausted much of it. Shipments of specie
were brought in but they never seemed to be enough and workers were happy to be paid in a amalgam of several different coins from several different countries. Loose gold dust was valued at $16.00 per troy ounce then and almost all merchants, bars, gambling dens etc. had scales available to allow the miners to pay for their purchases in gold. After passing though many hands in California gold eventually, almost inevitably, went East to pay for merchandise bought in the west and imported from the East. The primary gold shipment route was via well guarded paddle steamer
s to and from Panama. Gold shipments on Panama paddle steamer
s often totaled over $1,000,000 per voyage and totaled over $64,000,000 in gold by 1853.
The Mexican route usually involved taking passage in a paddle steamer
to Vera Cruz
Mexico, making your way 500 miles (804.7 km) across Mexico to Acapulco
on Mexico’s Pacific coast. This reversed the path taken by much of the Manila Galleon
's cargo from Manila
which was unloaded at Acapulco
Mexico and transferred to Veracruz for further shipment to Spain
The Manila Galleon was Spain's main link to the spices from the Spice Islands
and silk etc. from China. By 1849 the paddle steamer
had been developed and Veracruz soon became a scheduled stop for many paddle steamers. One of the main hazards of this route was being accosted by robbers and it was recommended that this passage should by done in groups of 50 or more. After the Panama Railroad was completed in 1855 with a cost of about 5,000 lives and $8,000,000 the Mexico route was almost shut down.
Other longer routes typically involved landing at Tampico, Mexico and then traversing the country to catch a ship in Mazatlan, Mexico. These routes were used mainly by those who had business in Mexico City
or some other Mexican city. All Mexican travel suffered from the relative lack of steamship service and risk of robberies compared to the Nicaragua
and Panama
route.
Wider than Panama the Nicaragua route had the advantage of the easily navigated San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua
with only a short excursion to the Pacific. By 1851 trips by steamship to Panama
and Nicaragua
from New York
, Philadelphia, Boston
and New Orleans were about 2600 miles (4,184.3 km) long and took about two weeks by steamship. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt
established a route through Nicaragua in 1850 that would shorten the water distance between New York
and San Francisco by nearly 500 miles (800 km). The route was by paddle steamer
to the San Juan River in Nicaragua
and then up the river by small steamboat or native craft to Lake Nicaragua
. After transiting the lake by small boat the travelers could exit and take a stagecoach or mule ride to San Juan del Sur
or other city in the Pacific side of Nicaragua. From there it was a short steamer ride to San Francisco after steamship lines were established. By early 1852 Vanderbilt was employing seven steamers and offering serious competition to the Panama route.
Early travelers til about 1851 had a difficult time knowing if and when a paddle steamer
would arrive. Vanderbilt started his service with steamer steamer Independence in July 1851 and was soon joined by the steamer Prometheus and Pacific. The line prospered offering serious competition to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
. By 1852 there are a recorded 17,400 Nicaragua crossing passengers compared to 29,600 crossing Panama. These numbers closed to 24,000 Nicaragua crossings in 1852 to 27,200 Panama crossings in 1853. As the Panama Railroad progressed across the Isthmus of Panama they took more and more of the traffic and after the railroad was completed in 1855 with a cost of about 5,000 lives and $8,000,000, combined with civil strife in Nicaragua, the Nicaragua route was almost shut down.
was confirmed late in 1848 many on the East Coast were ready to start on their way to California. The route was well known because of the many whaling
ships who had already traversed Cape Horn
on their way to Pacific whaling grounds or ports of call in Hawaii
and California. Moreover due to the extensive whaling
industry, ships were available in profusion; and was not the ocean the traditional Yankee highway? In most East coastal cities there were mariners who were well acquainted with the Horn route and who knew precisely how to prepare for a voyage to California. One of the chief advantages of the Cape Horn route was that those going by Cape Horn
or the Straits of Magellan could leave at any time of the year they could find a ship. Then there were Argonauts who foresaw the broad needs and demands of a mining center on the Pacific Coast and who brought along goods of all descriptions and sizes, from needles to knocked-down steamboats, on which they hoped to realize good profits. Indeed, some had no intention to do actual mining but to earn their fortune by providing goods and services to the miners.
Most passengers initially got sea-sick and spent a miserable time before getting their sea legs. The nature of the passage involving crossing the equator
twice and the length of the average voyage in miles and time-often more than six months-meant unusual supply difficulties. Some ships stocked chickens, pigs and/or goats to supply fresh eggs and meat some time during the voyage. Large amounts of fresh water and food (usually salted meat and sea biscuits or hardtack
) were required for the trip. The salted meat (about the only way meat could be preserved then) would have to be soaked overnight in fresh water to leach out the salt and make it semi-edible. Most Captains understood the causes of scurvy
and provided some lemon
or lime
juice to prevent it. Despite the monotonous and often tasteless fare many gained weight on the trip as they had virtually nothing to do except occasional laundry and endless card games. Storms were a time of high suspense as the storm tossed their ship heavily from side to side and end to end. Goods, suitcases, etc. not tied down were soon rolling and sliding across the decks. Clothes were often washed by tying them to a rope and letting them be pulled behind the ship. Many spent hours fishing but rarely caught anything. When fish were caught they were a welcome addition to the monotonous diet. Sleeping was often done in crowded passenger quarters or on the deck—weather permitting. If the weather was fine and the crew permitted it many tied a hammock in the rigging and slept outside. Those who purchased cabin fare usually had a narrow cabin with a door and a cot that was under 5.5 feet (1.7 m) long (people were shorter then) and about 1.5 foot (0.4572 m) wide. The only extra room was the space under the bed for personal effects and luggage. Those who paid "steerage" fares (about 50% less) slept in common bunk rooms.
It was common practice to stop at a least two ports en-route in order to take on additional supplies of fresh food, water and wood as well as a welcome chance to get off the ships. Rio de Janeiro
or Santa Catarina (island)
, Brazil
(often called St. Catharine’s then) were common stopping places on the Atlantic side of South America
. Some passengers were so desperate for fresh food that they often procured thousands of oranges or other fruit that was ripe while they were there and ate it after they continued on.
The Strait of Magellan
comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland South America
and north of Tierra del Fuego
. The waterway is the most important natural passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, but it is considered a difficult route to navigate because of the unpredictable winds and currents and the narrowness of the passage.
Captains who elected to utilize the Strait of Magellan
to bypass Cape Horn
and shorten the trip by about 500 miles (804.7 km) experienced a passage of from three to six weeks' duration in surroundings so forbidding and monotonous it often provoked despair. The narrow channels of the straits the unpredictable currents, tides, and winds were constant hazards, especially to sailing vessels—steamed powered vessels had an easier passage.
The other main way around South America was by way of Drake Passage
south of Cape Horn
. It is the body of water between the southern tip of South America
at Cape Horn
, Chile
and the South Shetland Islands
of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean
(Scotia Sea
) with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean
and extends into the Southern Ocean
. The passage is named after the 16th century English
privateer
Sir Francis Drake who was the first to discover the passage in 1578. Most sailing ship Captain
s preferred the Drake Passage, which is open water for hundreds of miles, despite being often marked by very rough conditions and high winds. There is no significant land anywhere around the world at the 55.6 to 62.8 degrees South latitude
s of the Drake Passage, which is important to the unimpeded flow of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current
which carries a huge volume of water (about 600 times the flow of the Amazon River
) through the Passage and around Antarctica. There are nearly always strong currents and high winds in Drakes Passage—called the Roaring Forties
.
In the Pacific Juan Fernández Islands
of Talcahuano
, Valparaiso
Chile
or Callao
Peru
were among the favorite watering and re-stocking ports in the Pacific. Valparaiso, despites its mediocre harbor, then was the main entrepôt
(trans-shipping) port on the Pacific side of South America. After leaving the South America coast the ships were buffeted by often baffling and contrary breezes as they traveled across the equatorial trade winds before reaching California waters. Contrary winds often forced the ships far out into the Pacific-sometimes as distant as 140 degrees west (-140) longitude before they encountered a favorable on shore breeze and could sail towards San Francisco Bay. San Francisco is at -122.5 degrees longitude.
The last hazards to California-bound vessels were the approach and entrance to San Francisco Bay
. The Spanish had picked Monterey, California
as their first Capitol due to its easier and safer approach to the harbor as well as having a better climate. The Farallon Islands
off the mouth of San Francisco Bay
were the graveyard of several ships, and the narrow, often fog-shrouded opening into the bay was always a danger. Soon after the ship traffic built up ship pilots
who were knowledgeable of the bay were at work boarding incoming (and outgoing) ships and guiding the ships to a safe anchorage in the bay. By 1851 the tangle of ships in the Bay had led to the creation of a Harbourmaster
who dictated where ships could drop anchor. Once inside San Francisco Bay, vessels were reported and identified to the people of San Francisco by the watchman with a telescope in a tower erected in September 1849 on Telegraph Hill, San Francisco
. The watchman signaled the presence of incoming ships to the people in the city by hoisting up the telegraph mast one semaphore arm for a schooner, two for a brig, three for a ship and two raised about 45 degree semaphore signals for a paddle steamer
. These signals were soon known by most residents of San Francisco.
Once inside the Bay and anchored the next visitors were typically members of the Revenue Cutter Service (predecessor of U.S. Coast Guard). Founded by Alexander Hamilton on 4 August 1790, the Revenue Cutter Service is the United States' oldest continuous seagoing service and enforced the tarrif laws and tariff collection via custom duties (tariffs or ad-valorem taxes) on foreign import goods. In the 1800s about 85%-95% of the money collected and used by the Federal Government were from tariff collections. Custom collections were set up by late 1847 in San Francisco, California
--the designated port of entry
for most of California.
The all sea trip around Cape Horn
to California by the standard sailing vessels typically took about 200 days (about 6.5 months) and covered from 16000 miles (25,749.4 km)} to 18000 miles (28,968.1 km)}. Some trips took almost a year. The all sea route enabled enterprising emigrants to ship baggage and supplies they hoped to sell in California for gold dust. The Cape Horn route was essentially the only route where low, medium or high weight or high volume goods could be shipped cheaply. Other routes, which often cost significantly more, usually specialized in high value, low weight goods like mail, passengers or gold dust. Starting out with essentially nothing, goods from the East Coast or Britain were often desperately needed and usually sold for high profits. The long delay between seeing a market, ordering the goods and shipping the goods made business risky. Some of the cargoes that were usually profitable were food, liquor, lumber
and building supplies. Other ship loads of goods when they showed up saturated the marketplace and the goods often had to be auctioned off at a loss. Most cargoes included a variety of goods to minimize this problem.
When the Central Pacific Railroad
started construction of the Transcontinental railroad
in 1863 all their locomotives, box cars, rails and railroad supplies were shipped via this route. It might be slow but a ship going around Cape Horn
to California could carry high weight and high volume products cheaper than anything else. Nearly all the ships that were abandoned in San Francisco Bay
came by the Cape Horn route. Since the route back to the East coast was so long and return cargo almost nonexistent the ships which arrived in San Francisco, initially tended to stay there as the crew and passengers abandoned the ship for the gold fields. As it became clear what was needed in San Francisco and the rest of California some of the newer ships were put back into service with higher paid crews. Some were put back into service crewed by disillusioned gold diggers seeking a cheap way back home. Many ships were used for shorter runs to Pacific ports for food supplies or lumber—essentially all that was available then. During October 1849, 63 vessels left San Francisco; 25 sailed for South America, primarily Valparaiso
or Callao
; 10 vessels sailed for the Hawaiian islands
(20–30 days each way), 9 went to Oregon
and the 9 to other non-Pacific ports. The high fares initially charged for paddle steamer passages to Panama induced some Captains to allow passengers to work their way back to the East Coast for a low cost return. This made it possible to put a crew together at a "reasonable" cost.
and the poverty and violence in China induced many Chinese to leave China searching for a way to earn a better living. Most Chinese, like most early California travelers, came to California with the goal of quickly making enough money to pay for their passage and improve their own and their family’s status and lifestyle in China after they returned.
Nearly all Chinese immigrants to California were young men with almost no women. Their wives, families and relatives remained in China. The Chinese tended to congregate in heavily male small semi-isolated “China Towns” wherever they settled. One of the primary problems they encountered in California was the acute lack of Chinese women—almost none initially immigrated. This "problem" was somewhat alleviated when recruiters ending up procuring or “buying” Chinese prostitutes and shipping them to the United States. There they went to work in brothels or were "bought" by wealthy Chinese. Some of the more affluent Chinese in California could “buy” a Chinese mistress for about $300 to $500. The large population, the common condition of extreme poverty in China and the low status of women in China made recruiting or "buying" women for this “profession” fairly easy in China.
Nearly all these Chinese men initially planned to return to China once they had made enough money. About half of the initial Chinese immigrants did return to China where their wives and families lived. Most of the Chinese immigrants booked their passages on ships with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
(founded 1848) or on the American China Clippers who often left California empty and looking for a new cargo before returning home. Nearly all Chinese immigrants neither spoke and understood English
nor were they familiar with western culture
and life. While in the United States they had little incentive to assimilate into the dominate culture or learn anything more than a rudimentary English language skills. They did nearly all their business with a few Chinese business men that established businesses in California "China Towns". The hostility they experienced from nearly all other cultures in America and their belief that they would return to China often discouraged them from even attempting to assimilate. The bankers and shipping companies, who first backed the emigration project with British trading companies, then turned to Italy for the "Whitening of America" project by promoting the "gold in the streets" dream to fill cheap, foreign labor contracts.
The port of San Francisco initially starting out as only a few ramshackle buildings with a population of about 180 in 1846 grew rapidly to several thousand residents only a few years later. San Francisco was the nearest seaport to the gold fields with full access to virtually all on going sea traffic and freight shipments. The port of San Francisco boomed and expanded very rapidly to a California state census population of about 32,000 in 1852 (The San Francisco—the largest city in the state—U.S. California Census of 1850 was burned in one of the frequent fires in San Francisco). In addition San Francisco had access to the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta which gave access to ship traffic going to Sacramento
, Stockton
and Marysville, California
which were all about 120 miles (193.1 km) closer to the goldfields. Paddle steamers were put in service by late 1849 and provided "easy" transport of passengers and freight to Sacramento, California
, etc.--the start of the gold country. San Francisco soon boomed as the chief entrepot
(port) of California. Homes, hotels, banks, bar rooms, gambling establishments, wharfs, warehouses and other needed buildings were built as rapidly as possible.
There were many Argonauts and companies of Argonauts who foresaw the broad needs and demands of a rapidly increasing and hopefully wealthy population in California. Many Argonauts brought along goods of all descriptions and sizes, from needles to knocked-down steamboats, on which they hoped to sell and realize good profits. Indeed, many had no intention of panning gold or of digging for it in the mines. They would rather sell goods and go into a business which the new mining community would support. After all, gold was the objective; what did it matter whether the means of attaining it were direct or indirect? Ships provided almost the only link for new supplies—overland travel was too difficult and took too long. One downside that soon developed in California was the long delay in communication between the east and west coast. It took over 40 days to get a message back to the East Coast of the United States
and often over 200–300 days to get new supplies shipped in by sailing ship
s. Only high priced and lighter and smaller items could take the shorter and quicker paddle steamer
route over the Isthmus of Panama
, nearly everything else had to travel the approximate 17000 miles (27,358.8 km) and over 200 day route all sailing ship
route around Cape Horn
or the Straits of Magellan. Higher priced, time sensitive goods, were often shipped in the faster Clipper
sailing ship
which could make the trip from New York, Boston, etc. to San Francisco in about 120 days. Goods when they were shipped from the East coast (and Europe) were in shipload quantities when they arrived. This often suppressed the local market for that product and some goods would have to be auctioned off at low prices to pay for freight etc. with little or no profit. Very mixed cargo was typical of early shipments to minimize this problem. Food, liquors and building supplies nearly always be sold at a profit. Some business men thrived in this chaotic environment, many others lost their shirts.
One of the first and urgent products needed was food and building supplies which could be bought and shipped from local Pacific ports to San Francisco, Sacramento, etc. Soon ships were going to and from Oregon
, Hawaii
, Mexico
, Valparaíso
Chile, etc. to get food and building supplies that could be shipped back to San Francisco. San Francisco shipping boomed and wharves and piers had to be developed to handle the onslaught of cargo--Long Wharf was probably the most prominent. Farmers, laborers, business men, prospective miners, gamblers, entertainers and prostitutes
, etc. from around the world came to San Francisco.
The few Californio
ranchers already living in California initially prospered as the sudden increase in the demand for meat drove up the price paid for livestock. Prices zoomed from the about $2.00 a hide to about $30.00-$40.00 per cow for meat they could get from hungry miners. Initially the Californios prospered. Later, these food shipments changed mainly to shipments from Oregon and internal shipments in California as agriculture was developed in both states. Taxes, mortgages, squatters and the cost of proving ownership of their enormous land holdings combined with droughts that seriously decreased the size of their herds led many of the about 500 Californio ranch owners to lose some or all of their enormous land holdings.
Some of the goods that were imported by ship included liquor: absinthe, alcohol, ale, beer, whiskey, cognac, cider, champagne, wine, sherry, brandy, claret. Tools like shovels, picks and gold balances. Consumables like cigars, cards, candles; clothing: boots, shoes, underwear; pants, shirts, etc. Fruit like bananas, oranges, and lemons. Food like molasses, flour, oysters, hams, barrels of salted meat, rice, coffee, tea, eggs (from Mexico); cheese, sugar, coffee, potatoes, onions, limes, coconuts, raisins, almonds. Lumber from Oregon
and other parts of the U.S. and England (500,000 board feet of lumber and 500,000 bricks from Bath England in one ship's cargo). Building materials like nails, bricks, linseed oil, shingles, windows, stoves, lumber, etc.. Miscellaneous items like furniture, wagons, carts, fishing boats, steam engines, etc. Coal that was needed to power the steam ships. Livestock like hogs, cows, horses, sheep, chickens, etc. Completed knocked down houses both metal and wooden. Some ships carried mostly mail and passengers. Almost anything could eventually be bought at some price.
San Francisco was designated the official Port of entry
for all California ports where U.S. Customs
(also called tariffs and Ad valorem tax
s) (averaging about 25%) were collected by the Collector of customs from all ships bearing foreign goods. The first Collector of customs was Edward H. Harrison appointed by General Kearny. Shipping boomed from the average of about 25 vessels from 1825 to 1847 to about 793 ships in 1849 and 803 ships in 1850. All ships were inspected for what goods they carried to collect the appropriate customs. Passengers disembarking in San Francisco had one of the easier accesses to the gold country since they could from San Francisco take a paddle wheel steamer, after 1849, to Sacramento and several other towns.
Starting in 1849 many of the ship crews jumped ship and headed for the gold fields when they reached port. Soon San Francisco Bay
had many hundreds of abandoned ships anchored off shore. The better ships were re-crewed and put back in the shipping and passenger business. Others were bought cheap and hauled up on the mud flats and used as store ships, saloons, temporary stores, floating warehouses, homes and a number of other uses. Many of these re-purposed ships were partially destroyed in one of San Francisco's many fires and ended up as landfill to expand the available land. The population of San Francisco exploded from about 200 in 1846 to 36,000 in the 1852 California Census. Unfortunately, the 1850 U.S. Census of San Francisco was burned in one of its frequent fires.
In San Francisco initially many people were housed in wooden houses, ships hauled up on the mud flats to serve as homes or businesses, wood framed canvas tents used for saloons, hotels and boarding houses as well as other flammable structures. Lighting and heat were provided by burning oil lamps or open fires. All these canvas and wood structures housing fires, lanterns and candles combined with a lot of drunken gamblers and miners led almost inevitably to many fires. Most of San Francisco burned down six times in six Great Fires between 1849 and 1852.
inhabitants of California, nearly all hunter-gatherer
s, harvested many types of fish
and shellfish
as a regular and often major component of their diet. Several varieties of salmon
and Steelhead were one of the mainstays of the California Indians living in the Northwest coast of California. The natives moved along the rivers and across the seas using canoes
they had made using fire and stone age tools out of large trees—usually redwood
. Salmon spawned in most rivers in California sometime during the year and were a welcome addition to the diet of people living near almost all streams. Many tribes migrated to a given area during spawning runs to harvest the fish. Fish were caught with spear
s, harpoon
s, fish nets, fish trap
s (fishing weir
s), hook
s and fishing line
s, gathering seafood by hand
and using specific plant toxin
s (soaproot, buckeye nuts, and wild cucumber
root) to temporarily paralyze the fish so they would float to the surface where could easily be captured. About the only early competitor for fish was the Grizzly Bear
s who lived in California then and who also liked salmon. Like acorn
s, the other staple of the California Indian diet, salmon
and other fish were usually smoked or sun dried and stored in woven basket
s so they could not spoil and were available to eat nearly year round.
The Chumash people and Tongva people used sewen plank canoes (Tomol
s) to travel across and fish in the seas between the Southwest California Coast and the Channel Islands of California
. Some of their chief catches were sardine
s (pilchards) who were mentioned several times by the early Spanish explorers. The sardines were caught primarily with some kind of net.
The Native Americans in the San Francisco Bay
constructed the Emeryville Shellmound
and over 400 other shellmounds made up of inedible shellfish
shells from millions of meals consumed at or near the shellmound sites. The size of these mounds indicate that they had to have accumulated over hundreds if not thousands of years and indicate a well used and stable resource. The shells they threw aside from their catches of shellfish eventually covered some hundreds of thousands of square feet, sometimes tens of feet thick. Most of the shells are from oysters (Ostrea lurida
) which occurred in large oyster reefs throughout the San Francisco Bay
area. How they are harvested is unknown but may have been by hand or by using oyster rake
s. Tule (Schoenoplectus acutus) canoes were often used for fishing, moving between shell beds, hunting and fishing sites in the Bay area and the extensive Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta.
During the California Gold Rush
there were many new immigrants who were familiar with fishing. There was a large demand for fresh food including fresh fish and shellfish among the rapidly increasing California immigrants. In particular, the seamen from the Ligurian Coast of the Italian Riviera, sailing to the continent of America from the famous Port of Genova, had enjoyed a privilege role as navigators in the Spanish Empire's expansion in Pacific-America. While many started as cabin boys at the age of six years, the mariners would jump ship and use their subsistence skills as fishermen for survival. Along the California Coast, many Azorean-Portuguese had already turned from whaling to fishing. When they didn't get rich mining gold, the sea offered a bounty. But the Anglo-Argonauts, like Lewis and Clarke before them, may have preferred to eat dog meat instead of salmon. From the village of Riva Trigoso, these sailors expanded their chain of fishing colonies to sell "fresha fishie" in towns at San Diego, San Pedro, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Stockton, Sausalito, Eureka to Alaska. They built their own small fishing boats and economy using the traditional "lateen" sail technology to feed a hungry nation.
Some of the first "modern" fishermen in California were also Chinese sampan
s fishing for squid
, abalone
and fish
on Monterey Bay. The Chinese, who came from the coastal Canton region of South China Sea, were able to export roughly two hundred to eight hundred pounds of fresh fish to San Francisco every day or one hundred tons per year. They were soon joined by many Ligurians who shared cultural-interchange by using Chinese and Portuguese techniques for fishing the rocky coast for rock cod, salmon and other fisheries. The small Latin fishing communities expanded with the growth of "Good Friday" by making a living at fishing for the markets and supplying San Francisco packers. The Chinese then specialized in squid fishing at night for their Asian markets.
In 1899, the sardine fishery collapsed in Italy, energizing the immigration to America's fishing villages.
At Black Diamond (now Pittsburg), Frank Booth ran a successful salmon cannery with the Sicilian settlement on the Sacramento River. At Monterey in 1902, he purchased a struggling cannery next to Fisherman's Wharf, and began experimenting with the bay's abundant sardines. Booth succeeded, owing to his preseverence and the critical contributions of two immigrant men. Knut Hovden was a Norwegian fisheries expert and engineer who designed a modern assembly line operation and much of the machinery for mass production. Pietro Ferrante was a fisherman whose early success on the Delta led to conflicts with the Genovese, resulting in his interest to relocate in Monterey where Booth needed a loyal fleet. In 1905, Ferrante arrived with his brother-in-law Orazio Enea, quickly attracting their extended families from the inland Delta and Palermo, Italy areas. The sardine canning industry steadily assumed control, displacing the competition of Asian and Genovese smaller catches for the fresh fish markets. The ready cannery labor force included the families of fishermen. Booth's cannery of "cousins" led California fisheries into the industrial age.
One of the more unusual developments in the exploitation of natural resources was the market for fresh eggs during the Gold Rush leading people to take small boats to the Farallon Islands
to collect wild bird eggs. They sometimes collected up to 500,000 eggs in a year. The Egg War
is the name given to an 1863 armed conflict between rival egging companies on the Farallon Islands
, 25 miles west of San Francisco.
The fishing vessel
s first used were powered by wind and oar
s. Since "modern" fishing in California was developed after 1850 (at about the same time as steamships) there were soon some steam powered fishing vessels being used for longer distance fishing in bigger boats. The steam was used both for propulsion and also for winch
ing in nets, unloading catches, lifting and lowering anchors etc. As the diesel engine
s and petrol engine
s (gasoline engine) were developed in the early 1900s they were soon the engine of choice. Diesel engine
s are now the engine of choice for powering most commercial fishing vessel
s. Their economical operation and long lifetimes make their higher initial cost normally well worthwhile. Today many smaller and sports boats are powered by an outboard motor
consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. The outboard motor
provides steering control both as a movable rudder
and by pivoting over their mountings to control the direction of thrust. Outboard motors have less than one horsepower to over 200 hp and are relatively easy to remove for service or replacement.
Commercial fishing today uses a variety of techniques for fishing. Fishing rod
s with baited hooks and fishing line
s used in various ways are used for fishing for some particular types of fish. Fishing using nets like cast net
s, hand net
s, drift net
s, gillnet
s, seine nets, trawl nets, surrounding net
s etc. of various sizes and construction as well as longline fishing with hundreds of hooks on a line fishing both for bottom and Pelagic fish
(near surface fish) are the most common devices used to catch high yields of fish. The crab fisheries
uses crab pots baited with dead fish to catch crabs.
In some parts of the Pacific Northwest
, fishing with baited
traps
is also common. Common commercial methods for catching shrimp
and prawns include bottom trawling
, cast net
s, seines, shrimp baiting
and dip netting
. Bottom trawling often tears up the ocean bottom and can be very destructive to all bottom dwelling fish. Trawling
involves the use of a system of nets deployed on or near the sea floor. Benthic
trawling is towing or dragging a net at the very bottom of the ocean. Demersal
trawling is towing a net just above the benthic zone. Midwater trawling (pelagic trawling) is trawling, or net fishing nearer the surface of the ocean.
For some applications a fish trap
is used. Fish trap
s or fishing weir
s restricts the flow of fish so that they are directed into a trap. The fish stay alive until they are removed and these techniques can be used to free some types of fish that are preferentially not caught. Today elaborate fishing trawlers, etc. are all examples of the fishing techniques
used today. To keep the caught fish fresh they are often kept in refrigerated holds or packed in ice.
As is typical worldwide of public owned resources, unlimited fishing has led to severe overfishing
for some fisheries. In response to this quotas, catch limits, closed and open seasons and other regulations had to be set in place to control the who, when, how and where questions of fishing. In 1851—California enacted a law concerning oysters and oyster beds. In 1852 the first regulation of salmon fishing occurred when fishing weir
s or stream fish obstructions were prohibited and closed seasons established. In 1870 California Board of Fish Commissioners, predecessor to the California Department of Fish and Game
was established. In 1870 the eastern oyster
(Crassostrea virginica) was introduced, in 1871 shad
, in 1874 Catfish
and in 1879 striped bass
were all introduced to California waters. California has about 4,000 lakes and 37000 miles (59,545.6 km) of streams and canals suitable for game fish. To help fish get around dams fish ladder
s are constructed to allow them to pass on upstream for spawning
etc. To preserve, protect and enhance existing fishing the California Department of Fish and Game
(DFG) tries to keep all fishing laws enforced. The 720 properties managed by the DFG are: 110 wildlife areas, 130 ecological reserves, 11 marine reserves, 159 public access areas, 21 fish hatcheries and 289 other types of properties. To help keep California waters stocked with fish in 1870 the first California fish hatcheries were built—mostly trout
hatcheries. Today (2011) there are eight salmon
and steelhead hatcheries and 13 trout
hatcheries. Though hatcheries may help some fishing stocks they are no panacea to counteract overfishing
, habitat destruction, stream restrictions, water diversions, etc.
In 1899 the first sardine
cannery (San Francisco Bay) was built. Sardines, at this time, existed in large schools
of millions of fish migrating each year up the California coast to spawn. The first factory was soon supplemented by about 40 more factories starting about 1902—most around Monterey California. On the Sacramento River, the Sicilians from Parlermo's village of Isola Della Femina immigrants had established a chain of colonies using gill nets for the salmon fisheries. Baseball hall-of-fame slugger Joe DiMaggio's family was from Martinez. Fishing technology at Monterey at the time was archaic and inefficient; the canning process was equally crude. The unsightliness, odor, and processing waste from harbor canneries dictated that all future canneries would have to locate away from any business or residential district. A process was developed for “reducing” fish heads, tails, guts and skin into meal that could be processed into fertilizer and livestock feed. "Reduction" was cheap because it didn’t require much labor, and the market for fishmeal was unlimited. Monterey became a cannery town. About 70% of all sardines were ground up and used as fertilizer and lifestock feed with only about 30% canned. The yield of sardines landed was about 500,000 tons in 1940 down to only 53 tons in 1953. In 1940 sardines were the most valuable fishing stock in the state. As the temperature of the ocean dropped the migrating sardine schools largely disappeared after 1950 from California waters and nearly all the canneries shut down. The ocean temperature has an irregular cycle called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation
turned water temperatures colder in the mid-1940s, driving sardines southward and intensifying the pressures brought on by overfishing. As the ocean temperatures are cycling higher now there is some evidence that the sardines are starting to return. Today the Monterey Bay Aquarium
, displaying many types of marine life, is located on the former site of a sardine cannery on Cannery Row
off the Pacific Ocean shoreline in Monterey, California
. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
(MBNMS) is a U.S. Federally protected marine area offshore of California's central coast around Monterey Bay
.
See: Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
link to get a list and links to other protected marine preserves
in California.
The major types of sport and commercial fish
and shellfish
now found in California waters are: Abalone
, Albacore Tuna, Anchovy
, Barracuda
, Surfperch, Billfish
es, Bluefin Tuna, Bonito
, Cabezone
, California Halibut
, Carp
, Catfish
, Clam
s, California Corbina
, Crab
s, Crappie
, Croaker
, Dungeness Crab
, Eel
s, Flounder
, Flying fish, Giant sea bass
, Greenling, Groundfish (includes Rockfish
species), Grouper
, Grunion
, Halibut
, Hardhead
, Herring
, Hake
, Jack mackerel, Kelp Bass
, Largemouth Bass
, Lingcod
, Mackerel
, Oyster
s, Pacific Shrimp
, Perch
, Pikeminnow (Squawfish), Prawn
, Rock Crab, Sablefish
, Sacramento Blackfish
, Salmon
, Sardine
, Scallop
s, Scorpionfish
, Sharks, Sheephead, Skate
, Shortspine thornyhead
, Skipjack tuna
, Smallmouth Bass
, Smelts, Sole
, Spider or Sheep Crab
, Splittail
, Spiny Lobster
, Squid
, Steelhead, Striped Bass
, Sturgeon
, Surfperch, Swordfish
, Turbot
, Trout
, Whitefish
, Whiting (fish), Yellowtail (fish)
See: NOAA Long list of California fish for more specific names:
Nearly all fishing is subject to quotas, allowed seasons, licensing, allowed tackle, type and number of lines or net types, excluded (closed) areas, allowed size range, allowed catch size, and other restrictions. The jurisdictions and roles of several state and federal agencies often overlap in the maritime domain giving rise to an alphabet soup of agencies and jurisdictions. Each state normally maintains joint jurisdiction over the first 3.4 miles (5.5 km) (3 nautical mile) of their coastal waters. The main agency charged with ensuring deep sea fishing regulations and restrictions in the United States Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ) of 227 miles (365.3 km) (200 nautical miles) off its shores are enforced on the high seas by the United States Coast Guard
.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) agency within the United States Department of Commerce
is charged with protecting and preserving the nation's living marine resources through scientific research, fisheries management, enforcement
and habitat conservation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement
tries to enforce the about 35 laws and regulations and regulations
passed by Congress. NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) is responsible for carrying out more than 35 federal statutes and regulations. The agency's jurisdiction spans more than 11500000 sqkms ocean in the U.S.'s Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ) spread over more than 85000 miles (136,793.9 km) of U.S. coastline and the country's 13 National Marine Sanctuaries and its Marine National Monuments. It and the United States Coast Guard
are also responsible for enforcing U.S. treaties and international law governing the high seas and international trade. With such a large coverage area, it's no wonder that NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement operates joint enforcement agreements with 27 coastal states and partners with other agencies to help get the job done. Article III, Section 2
of the United States Constitution
grants original jurisdiction to U.S. federal courts over admiralty and maritime matters, however that jurisdiction is not exclusive and most maritime cases can be heard in either state or federal courts under the "saving to suitors" clause. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement
and NOAA Fisheries works within the laws as enacted in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Marine Sanctuaries Act and the Endangered Species Act
. NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement now has 146 special agents and 17 enforcement officers working out of six divisional offices and 52 field offices throughout the United States and U.S. territories. Many have criticized this meager manpower as grossly inadequate.
Overfishing
is one of the main problems with many marine fisheries with about 30% of all marine fisheries thought to be over fished. Inadequate data is one of the main restrictions to finding and instituting reasonable and sustainable limits on many fishing stocks. To control overfishing
NOAA has instituted the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) to set quotas, specify open and closed fisheries and seasons and other limits on what, when and how fish are caught within federal guidelines. With the help of the six regional science centers, eight regional fisheries management
councils, the coastal states and territories, and three interstate fisheries management commissions, These councils have had varying amounts of success, but seem to at least have started the rehabilitation of some fisheries. United States Fish and Wildlife Service
National Fish Passage Program tries to remove barriers blocking the natural migration of fish to historic habitat used for reproduction and growth.
Since fisheries are the mainstay of some communities as well as being a $38 billion dollar industry there are many conflicting pressures on controlling fishing. More data gathered by more people on: bycatch
(caught but unusable fish), fish life cycles, fish habitats at different parts of their life cycle, destructive fish harvesting methods, least damaging ways to harvest fish, etc. are needed to make reasonable choices and set quotas, seasons, etc. necessary to preserve our fisheries. All of this should be set with a maximum of scientific and a minimum of political input. With today's increasingly efficient fishing techniques and fleets, necessary restrictions are the only thing that will assure a continuing source of fishing related jobs and fish products for our descendants—being responsible stewards of our natural resources is often a difficult job but one we can learn and implement.
Mare Island
, near the city of Vallejo, California
, was first Naval Base in California. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait
juncture with the east side of San Pablo Bay
. In 1850, Commodore John Drake Sloat, in charge of a commission to find a California naval base, recommended the island across the Napa River from the settlement of Vallejo; it being "free from ocean gales and from floods and freshets."
On November 6, 1850, two months after California was admitted to statehood, President Millard Fillmore
reserved Mare Island for government use. The U.S. Navy Department acted favorably on Commodore Sloat's recommendations and Mare Island was purchased in July, 1852, for the sum of $83,410 for the use as a naval shipyard. Two years later, on September 16, 1854, Mare Island became the first permanent U.S. naval installation on the west coast, with Commodore David G. Farragut, as Mare Island's first base commander. For more than a century, Mare Island served as the United States Navy
's Mare Island Naval Shipyard
. A 508-foot (155 m) drydock was built by the Public Works Department
on an excellent rock foundation of cut granite blocks. The work took nineteen years and was completed in 1891. During the Spanish-American War
, a concrete drydock on wooden piles, 740 feet (230 m) long, was completed after eleven years of work, in 1910. By 1941, a third drydock had been completed and the drydock number four was under construction. The ammunitions depot and submarine repair base were modern, fireproof buildings. A million dollar, three-way vehicle causeway to Vallejo was completed.
Before World War II, Mare Island had been in a continual state of upbuilding. By 1941, new projects included improvements to the central power plant, a new pattern storage building, a large foundry, machine shop, magazine building, paint shop, new administration building, and a huge storehouse. The yard was expected to be able to repair and paint six to eight large naval vessels at a time. Several finger piers had recently[when?] been built, as well as a new shipbuilding wharf, adding one 500-foot (150 m) and a 750-foot (230 m) berth. It employed 5593 workers at the beginning of 1939, and rapidly increased to 18,500 busily engaged by May 1941, with a monthly payroll of $3,500,000(1941). Then came Pearl Harbor
. In 1941, the drafting department had expanded to three buildings accommodating over 400 Naval architects, engineers and draftsmen. The hospital carried 584 bed patients. Mare Island became one of the U.S. Navy's ship building sites in World War II specializing in building diesel engine powered submarines—they eventually built 32 of them. After the war was over Mare Island became a premier site for building Nuclear powered submarines—building 27 of them.
In 1969, the US Navy transferred its (Vietnam War) Brown Water Navy Riverine Training Forces from Coronado, California, to Mare Island. Swift Boats (Patrol Craft Fast-PCF), and PBRs (Patrol Boat River), among other types of riverine craft, conducted boat operations throughout the currently named Napa-Sonoma Marshes State Wildlife Area, which are located on the north and west portions of Mare Island. Mare Island Naval Base was deactivated during the 1995 cycle of US base closures, but the US Navy Reserves still have access to the water portions of the State Wildlife Area for any riverine warfare training being conducted from their new base in Sacramento, California.
In 1996 Mare Island Naval Shipyard was closed.
.
Naval Base San Diego was started on land acquired in 1920. San Diego has become the home port of the largest naval fleet in the world, and includes two supercarriers, as well as Marine Corps
stations, U.S. Navy
ports, and US Coast Guard
installations. Naval Base San Diego is the largest base of the United States Navy on the west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. Naval Base San Diego is the principal homeport of the Pacific Fleet
, consisting of 54 ships and over 120 tenant commands. The base is composed of 13 piers stretched over 977 acres (3.95 km2) of land and 326 acres (1.32 km2) of water. The total on base population is 20,000 military personnel and 6,000 civilians.
‘’’Mare Island Naval Shipyard
(MINS)’’’ in Vallejo, California
was the premier naval construction site for Navy ships on the West Coast of the United States
from about 1855 to 1993. Before World War II
, Mare Island had been in a continual state of upbuilding. By 1941, the yard was expected to be able to repair and paint six to eight large naval vessels at a time. It employed 5593 workers at the beginning of 1939 which rapidly increased to 18,500 by May 1941, with a monthly payroll of $3,500,000(1941). Then came Pearl Harbor
. During World War II Mare Island specialized in building up the US, Navy's submarine forces in the Pacific as well as building other Naval ships.
When Congress ordered Mare Island closed down in 1993, the shipyard employed 5,800 workers.
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
constructed at least eighty-nine sea-going vessels for the United States Navy—including two for the Revenue Cutter Service. Among the more important ships & boats built were:
Mare Island Construction
See: ‘’’Mare Island Naval Shipyard
(MINS)’’’ for specific ships.
, commonly referred to as NASSCO, is a shipyard in San Diego, California
, and a division of General Dynamics
. It is located next to the San Diego Naval base. What became NASSCO was founded as a small machine shop called California Iron Works (CIW) in 1905. The machine shop and foundry were renamed National Iron Works (NIW) in 1922 and moved to the San Diego waterfront to build ships in 1944-1945. In 1949 NIW was renamed National Steel and Shipbuilding Corporation (NASSCO). The shipyard specializes in maintaining and constructing commercial cargo ships and auxiliary vessels such as minesweeper
s and LST
s, hospital ship
s, patrol craft, and cargo vessels for the US Navy and the Military Sealift Command
. It is the largest new construction shipyard on the West Coast of the United States employing more than 4,600 people and is now the only major ship construction yard on the West Coast of the United States.
See: Ships Built in San Diego, California for write ups on 70 ships built there.
California Shipbuilding Corporation
(often called Calship) built 467 Liberty
and Victory ship
s during World War II
, including Haskell-class
attack transport
s. The Calship shipyard
was created at Terminal Island
in Los Angeles, California
, USA as part of the World War II shipbuilding effort. It was initially 8 ways
, and increased to 14. After the war, it was liquidated. The ships they built were:
Kaiser Ricmond Shipyards
, Richmond, California
(a Kaiser facility) had four Richmond Shipyards, located in the city of Richmond, California
United States
, were run by Permanente Metals
and part of the Kaiser Shipyards
. They were responsible for constructing more Liberty ship
s during World War II
, 747, than any other shipyard
in the United States. Henry J. Kaiser
’s company had been building cargo ships for the U.S. Maritime Commission in the late 1930s. When orders for ships from the British government, already at war with Nazi Germany
, allowed for growth, Kaiser established his first Richmond shipyard, beginning in December, 1940. They specialized in mass producing Liberty ship
s fast and efficiently and that's all they built:
These ships were completed in two-thirds the amount of time and at a quarter of the cost of the average of all other shipyards. The Liberty ship
SS Robert E. Peary
was assembled in less than five days as a part of a special competition among shipyards; but by 1944 it was only taking the astonishingly brief time of a little over two weeks to assemble a Liberty ship by standard methods. They pre-assembled major parts of the ship including the hull sections at various locations in the shipyard and then, when needed, moved them with heavy lift cranes to the shipyard launching site where they welded the pre-built sections together. After the ships were launched they were finished to their final configuration while afloat and the launch way was available to start building another ship.
In 1945, the shipyards were shut down as fast as they had started up four years earlier. Much of the shoreline previously occupied by the shipyards is now owned by Richmond, California
and has been cleaned up and redeveloped under federally-assisted "brownfields" programs. The ‘’Rosie the Riveter’’/Home Front World War II National Historical Park was established on the shipyard site to commemorate and interpret the role of the WW II home front in winning World War II.
, Channel Islands of California
and the rocky mainland coast have historically provided hazardous navigational obstacles to shipping. Intermittent fog
s and dangerous wind
s and storm
s often led ships to rocks, dangerous beaches and islands to be pounded by the Pacific Ocean
's Swell
and storms. Fierce currents have always swept in and out of the entrance to the Golden Gate as the tide
shifts direction. More than 140 shipwrecks have been reported in the waters of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
.
One of the first recorded shipwrecks in California is that of the San Augustin, a richly laden Spanish Manila galleon
, which was driven ashore in a gale in 1595 in Drake’s Bay, northwest of San Francisco.
The Honda Point Disaster
was the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy ships. Honda Point, also called Point Pedernales, is located on the seacoast of what is now Vandenberg Air Force Base, California off Point Arguello
on the coast in Santa Barbara County, California
. On the evening of September 8, 1923, fourteen ships of Destroyer Squadron 11 were traveling at 20 knots (37 km/h) in formation while navigating by dead reckoning
to find the entrance to the sometimes treacherous Santa Barbara Channel
. The squadron was led by Commodore Edward H. Watson
, on the flagship
destroyer USS Delphy. All were Clemson-class
destroyers, less than five years old. At 21:00 hours the ships turned east to course 095, supposedly heading into the entrance of Santa Barbara Channel. Seven destroyers ran aground at Honda Point, a few miles from the northern side of the Santa Barbara Channel
. Two more destroyers sustained some damage. Twenty three men died.
The state of California keeps a Shipwrecks Database of all known California shipwrecks (1540 ea.) and their best known latitude and longitude coordinates, ship type, owner, Captain, etc.--when known. The definition of a shipwreck
included in the database is rather broad including wrecks
by running aground on a shore, rocks or reefs, ship explosion
s, foundering (filling with water and sinking), hitting snags (sunken trees), on board fires, parted lines, etc.--essentially anything that causes damage to the ship. Many of these ships were repaired and remained in service after their accidents. These ships, their cargoes, and the mooring systems which restrained them are the physical remains of the maritime history of California.
A lighthouse
is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to contain a flashing light to warn of hazards or to aid navigation primarily at night. The lights now flash on and off in a predetermined sequence to identify which light they are. Lighthouses are used as an aid to nighttime or fog bound navigation
for ship pilots and Captains
at sea or on inland waterways. They warn of dangerous coastlines, points of land, hazardous shoals, rocks and reefs, or mark ship channels or harbor entrances. Under clear weather a light can be seen at night about 16 miles (25.7 km). Now in areas of fog the lights are typically combined with a foghorn
. Before foghorns were developed cannons and/or large bells (rung by clockworks) were used to warn of fog shrouded hazards. The flashing lights are usually mounted on towers or other prominent structures built on points of land, rocks or shoals near the sea. Some are built on pilings, Caissons
or mounted on isolated rocks. Some light houses are mounted on anchor
ed Lightships
when no other economical alternative exists.
In the 1850s the light was emitted from a system of oil or kerosene lamps. The light was concentrated and focused with a system of Fresnel lenses. In the 1850s the light was provided from a burning Wick
in a whale oil
lamp. Later, as kerosene became available, the light was provided by burning kerosene. They typically used a Argand lamp
which featured a hollow wick in a glass chimney for better, brighter, combustion with a silvered parabolic reflector behind the lamp to direct and intensify the light output. All oil fired lamps used burning wicks to make the light—giving rise to one of the lighthouse keeper's nickname as "wickies" as they spent a great deal of their time trimming the wicks
on their lamps in order to keep them burning brightly with minimum soot
ing. In the 1850s their lights were rotated using clockwork
s, usually powered by falling weights attached to chains. Many lighthouses had vertical shafts in them so the weights could drop the height of the tower. This provided a longer time period before the weights would have to be pulled up again by the lighthouse keeper
s to power the rotation mechanism. Some had to be rewound as often as every two hours.
To keep the clockwork
s wound, refuel the oil needed to keep the light going and keep the lighthouse equipment and windows clean and maintained the lighthouses were typically manned with a lighthouse keeper
s of from one to five men or women. Only the fortunate few lighthouses were located where the crews could live in comfort and/or socialize with others. Because these assignments were often in lonely fog bound locations the crews often rotated on and off duty every few months. Families sometimes were paid to run a lighthouse that way the husband, wife and children could keep together.
Starting in the early 1890s the lights were provided by burning acetylene
gas generated in situ
from calcium carbide
reacting with water. The acetylene-gas illumination system could reliably be turned on and off automatically enabling automated unattended lighthouses to be used. Once electricity became available, often provided by one or more diesel
electric generators in remote locations, the light source was gradually converted to electrical power and the clockwork
s were run by some type of electric motor. For example of modern changes, the Chatham Light
in Chatham, Massachusetts
(near the "elbow" of Cape Cod
) the light was converted in 1969 from its Fresnel lens light assembly to a Carlisle & Finch
DCB-224
rotating light generating over 2.8 million candela. This is visible for over 20 nautical miles on a clear night and has a self changing bulb assembly to replace burned out bulbs.
Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and their replacement by modern electronic navigational aids. Nearly all lighthouses today, that are still being used, are automated to the extent possible with power often provided via solar cells and large batteries in inaccessible areas. Today's lighthouses are all run by the U.S. Coast Guard the successor to United States Lighthouse Service
. The list of active light houses, lighted beacons, etc. that provide detailed information on aids to navigation with their locations and characteristic signals is currently maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard in its Light List
issued each year. California is presently in Eleventh and Thirteenth Coast Guard district.
While the Spanish were in California their shipping was seldom more than ~2.5 ships/Year and they almost never had any way to predict when ships would show up and communication was so slow and uncertain that there was seldom any need for something like lighthouses. When nighttime signals were thought appropriate large fire might be built on the beach. Essentially there was no nighttime navigation—it was too hazardous. During nighttime ships kept well off shore till daylight or anchored. Things only improved slightly when Mexico controlled California as the shipping increased to about 25 ships/year—still too few to make lighthouses or even signal fires almost ever needed. Ships still kept well off shore till daylight or anchored.
When the California Gold Rush
started and the number of ships per year jumped to over 700 ships per year and lighthouse technology had advanced far enough, mainly through the introduction of the Fresnel lens and Argand lamp
s, lighthouses started to become much more useful and feasible. Several bad ship wrecks showed that there were many hazards to navigation that needed to be marked at night or in fog. Since from 1790 till well after 1850 the U.S. Federal Government was over 85% financed by import tariffs (also called customs
duties or Ad-valorem taxes) on imported foreign goods of about 25% there was already a steady flow of money collected from California shipping going to Washington. Since all tariffs were paid by foreign goods shipped into the United States since 1790 by the Revenue Marine
(predecessor of the U.S. Coast Guard) closely monitored ship traffic. Tariffs collected by the Collector of Customs who was charged with inspecting each ship that came into port and collecting the appropriate tariff tax. The first Collector of Customs in California was Edward H. Harrison appointed by General Kearny in 1848. To get some of this revenue flowing back to California, California congressmen started petitioning for lighthouses and Congress soon agreed. By 1850 the East Coast
already had a fairly extensive array of light houses so the same technology, developed over decades of use, was transferred to the West Coast of the United States
.
The firm of Francis A. Gibbons and Francis Kelly was awarded the contract to build California’s first seven lighthouses in 1853. The lighthouse on Alcatraz Island
was the first built and was in operation in the San Francisco Bay
on Alcatraz Island
by 1855—completion was delayed because of the shortage of Fresnel lenses. Over time more than 45 lighthouses were eventually built along the California coast.
Despite the efforts of the brave men and women who were stationed at the Point Reyes lighthouse, ships continued to wreck on the nearby coast. The Life Saving Service opened the first of two Life Saving Stations built at Point Reyes in 1889. The second station, at Drakes Beach, closed in 1968. The workers stationed there attempted the rescue of victims of storm
s and shipwrecks. The incredible danger of their job and the dedication they have to their jobs can be sensed in the U.S. Coast Guard's unofficial motto,
California explorers
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
near the California
History of California
The history of California can be divided into several periods: the Native American period; European exploration period from 1542 to 1769; the Spanish colonial period, 1769 to 1821; the Mexican period, 1821 to 1848; and United States statehood, which continues to the present day...
coast. This Maritime history includes the historical use of water craft such as: dugouts
Dugout (boat)
A dugout or dugout canoe is a boat made from a hollowed tree trunk. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. Monoxylon is Greek -- mono- + ξύλον xylon -- and is mostly used in classic Greek texts. In Germany they are called einbaum )...
, canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
s, sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s, steamships, fisheries, shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
, Gold Rush shipping, port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
s, shipwrecks, Naval ships and installations and Lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
s. The Maritime history of California can be divided into several periods: the Native American period; European exploration period from 1542 to 1769; the Spanish colonial period, 1769 to 1821; the Mexican period, 1821 to 1847; and United States statehood period, which continues to the present day.
Native California maritime peoples
Dugout Canoes
In the northwest coast of California near the RedwoodSequoioideae
Sequoioideae is a subfamily in the Cupressaceae family, with three genera.-Genera:The three redwood subfamily genera are: Sequoia and Sequoiadendron of California and Oregon, USA; and Metasequoia in China. The redwood species contains the largest and tallest trees in the world. These trees can live...
forests several Indian tribes developed large dugout
Dugout (boat)
A dugout or dugout canoe is a boat made from a hollowed tree trunk. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. Monoxylon is Greek -- mono- + ξύλον xylon -- and is mostly used in classic Greek texts. In Germany they are called einbaum )...
canoes they used for fishing, trade and warfare. These canoes were constructed by taking a large tree and shaping it with hand tools and fire to a boat's configuration. A redwood log 4 metres (13.1 ft) long and 240 centimetres (94.5 in) diameter weighs about 2000 kilograms (4,409.2 lb). This large weight meant that the logs were selected that required a minimum of movement—usually driftwood or dead fall trees that had been blown over by the wind. Sometimes logs were cut to length and rolled into water where they could be floated to a selected work area. The logs were usually cut to length by fire and stone age hand tools and the interior of the canoe was typically burned out with small fires. The basic procedure was to start a small fire on the tree where it needed shaping, then extinguish it after a short burn. This would leave one or more centimeters of charred wood where the fire was built that would be easier to remove. By successively using small fires to char the areas that needed to be worked the logs could be shaped by the crude scrapers and rock, shellfish and horn based tools available. A finished 4 metres (13.1 ft) long dugout canoe with a nominal 5 centimetres (2 in) thickness still weighed over 100 kilograms (220.5 lb). Most larger dugouts weighed too much to move easily and were usually just pulled up on a beach far enough to get them above high tide. Constructing these types of dugout canoes took considerable time and skill with stone age tools and fire.
Tule boats (canoes)
Tule
Schoenoplectus acutus , called tule , common tule, hardstem tule, tule rush, hardstem bulrush, or viscid bulrush, is a giant species of sedge in the plant family Cyperaceae, native to freshwater marshes all over North America...
(Schoenoplectus acutus also called bulrushes) have a thin (~1 cm or 0.5 inch) diameter, rounded green stems that grows to 1 to 3 metres (3–10 ft) tall. They grow well in marshes, wetlands or at the edges of bodies of water. The tule stem has a pithy interior filled with spongy tissue packed with air cells—this makes it float well on water as well as a good insulator. Native Americans used tule for making and thatching huts, baskets, mats, boats, decoys, hats, clothing and shoes. Tule was typically cut using deer scapula
Scapula
In anatomy, the scapula , omo, or shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus with the clavicle ....
'saw
Saw
A saw is a tool that uses a hard blade or wire with an abrasive edge to cut through softer materials. The cutting edge of a saw is either a serrated blade or an abrasive...
s' that had rough saw like edges cut into them. Tule has to be handled with care when green to avoid breaking the stem and gains strength when it is partially dried.
Several tribes in and around the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
area and in northern California made and used tule canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
s (also called balsa
Balsa (ship)
A Balsa is a boat or ship built by various pre-Columbian South American civilizations constructed from woven reeds of the Totora bullrush. They varied in size from small canoe sized personal fishing boats to large ships up to 30 meters long...
s). Bay Miwok
Bay Miwok
The Bay Miwok were a cultural and linguistic group of Miwok, a Native American people in Northern California who lived in Contra Costa County. They joined the Franciscan mission system during the early nineteenth century, suffered a devastating population decline, and lost their language as they...
, Coast Miwok
Coast Miwok
The Coast Miwok were the second largest group of Miwok Native American people. The Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Point and eastward to Sonoma Creek...
, Ohlone (Costanoan), Pomo
Pomo people
The Pomo people are an indigenous peoples of California. The historic Pomo territory in northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point...
s, Klamath, Modoc and several other California Indian tribes used the tule plant to make tule canoes. Tule canoes were used in ocean lagoons from Tomales Bay
Tomales Bay
Tomales Bay is a long narrow inlet of the Pacific Ocean in Marin County in northern California in the United States. It is approximately 15 miles long and averages nearly 1.0 miles wide, effectively separating the Point Reyes Peninsula from the mainland of Marin County. It is located...
and Point Reyes National Seashore
Point Reyes National Seashore
Point Reyes National Seashore is a park preserve located on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California, USA. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US National Park Service as a nationally important nature preserve within which existing agricultural uses are allowed to continue...
south to perhaps Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....
. Tule–reed boats were used in lakes, bays and slow-moving rivers in much of Northern California. They were used by the Pomo
Pomo people
The Pomo people are an indigenous peoples of California. The historic Pomo territory in northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point...
s living in the Laguna de Santa Rosa
Laguna de Santa Rosa
The Laguna de Santa Rosa is a long wetland complex that drains a 254-square mile watershed encompassing most of the Santa Rosa Plain in Sonoma County, California, USA.-Description:...
and Clear Lake, Tule Lake
Tule Lake
Tule Lake is an intermittent lake covering an area of , long and across, in northeastern Siskiyou County and northwestern Modoc County in California, along the border with Oregon.-Geography:Tule Lake is fed by the Lost River...
and other areas. They were common in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
and on the extensive Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta and its tributary rivers.
These tule canoes were used for transportation to and from their favorite spots for hunting or harvesting salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
, acorn
Acorn
The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives . It usually contains a single seed , enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm broad...
s, seeds, berries, shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
or oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
s and other fish or foods. Extensive beds and shoals of oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
s (Ostrea lurida
Ostrea lurida
Ostrea lurida is a species of oyster that occurs on the Pacific coast of North America. This bivalve is approximately in length. The shell can be rounded or elongated and is white to purplish black and may be striped with yellow or brown...
) and other crayfish
Crayfish
Crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads – members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea – are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related...
then lay near the shores of San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
and Tomales Bay
Tomales Bay
Tomales Bay is a long narrow inlet of the Pacific Ocean in Marin County in northern California in the United States. It is approximately 15 miles long and averages nearly 1.0 miles wide, effectively separating the Point Reyes Peninsula from the mainland of Marin County. It is located...
and were a food source used for centuries. Tule canoes were also used for gathering more tule reeds and for hunting duck
Duck
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...
s or geese
Goose
The word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....
which were then often present in the wetlands, etc. in the millions. Collecting aquatic food plants and duck and goose eggs was also common. Ducks and geese were often hunted with arrows or nets. Tule canoes were used in fishing with Nets
Fishing net
A fishing net or fishnet is a net that is used for fishing. Fishing nets are meshes usually formed by knotting a relatively thin thread. Modern nets are usually made of artificial polyamides like nylon, although nets of organic polyamides such as wool or silk thread were common until recently and...
, spear
Spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...
s or bone fishhooks for several native fish species present in or migrating through the rivers, ocean and bays.
Tule boats can be quickly built from dried tule, by experienced canoe builders, in less than one day. Tule boats have a limited useful life before they rot and/or come apart—typically only lasting a few weeks. To make a tule boat, green tule (Schoenoplectus acutus or bulrush ) was cut and then spread out in the sun to dry for several days. Tule canoes were constructed of cut stalks of tule plants bundled together around a willow 'core' for extra strength into three to six tied together tapered cigar-shaped bundle of tules. The bundles could be pre-bent to form a raised prow and stern. The length of each bundle depends on the size of the boat that were then typically about 10 feet (3 m) to 15 feet (4.6 m). The bundle that formed the bottom of the canoe on which the boatman or boatmen sat, knelt or stood was much larger than the others. To make the sides of the tule canoe two to six tapered bundles were tied to the bottom bundle with grape vines or other native material with extensive lacing at the at the stern and prow to bend all the tule bundles into a tapered and raised bow and stern. Tule canoes typically accommodated one to four people.
The boatman typically sits, kneels or stands in the boat and either paddles it with a double bladed paddle or with his arms when lying prone. If the boat was not woven tightly enough, then the boatman would find himself sitting, standing or kneeling in several inches of water. The tule canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
s were often used for transportation to oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
mollusk and other shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
beds that could be harvested at low tide. The Emeryville Shellmound
Emeryville Shellmound
The Emeryville Shellmound, in Emeryville, California, is a once-massive archaeological shell midden deposit...
composed mostly of the inedible shells of shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
, presumably mostly harvested utilizing tule boats, is an example of the over 400 shell mounds known in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
area. These multiple mounds, often built up over centuries, showed a stable source of easily obtained food utilized for hundreds of years.
To see pictures of tule canoes use the image option of Google, Bing, etc. and type in "Tule canoe and search--several images are usually found that may be clicked on for more information. Local conservation groups often have courses in building tule canoes.
Sewn Plank (Tomol) canoes
An ancient maritime culture dating back some 8,000 years, perhaps earlier, has been documented by recent dating of middenMidden
A midden, is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, vermin, shells, sherds, lithics , and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupation...
s on San Clemente Island
San Clemente Island
San Clemente Island is the southernmost of the Channel Islands of California. It is owned and operated by the United States Navy, and is a part of Los Angeles County. Defined by the United States Census Bureau as Block Group 2 of Census Tract 5991 of Los Angeles County, California, it is long and...
, some 60 miles offshore Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. Native California peoples lived in large settled villages along the Pacific coastline and on the Channel Islands of California
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...
for thousands of years before European contact.
In some areas, such as along the Santa Barbara Channel
Santa Barbara Channel
The Santa Barbara Channel is a portion of the Pacific Ocean which separates the mainland of California from the northern Channel Islands. It is generally south of the city of Santa Barbara, and west of the city of Ventura....
separating the Channel Islands of California
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...
from the California coast the Chumash and Tongva people in these villages developed highly sophisticated canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
s. These canoes were used in fishing and in widespread trade between different villages on and off the Channel Islands of California
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...
. Boat construction reached its highest development in California among the Chumash and Tongva people. Their sewn plank canoes, called a "tomol
Tomol
Tomols are plank-built boats, historically and currently used by the Chumash and Tongva Native Americans in the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles area. They were also called tii'at by the Tongva. Tomols are long. They were especially important as both tribes relied on the sea for...
," impressed early explorers of the California coast for its versatility, seaworthiness and size.
The canoes were typically made out of plank
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
s split from redwood (Sequoioideae
Sequoioideae
Sequoioideae is a subfamily in the Cupressaceae family, with three genera.-Genera:The three redwood subfamily genera are: Sequoia and Sequoiadendron of California and Oregon, USA; and Metasequoia in China. The redwood species contains the largest and tallest trees in the world. These trees can live...
) or pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
driftwood
Driftwood
Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea or river by the action of winds, tides, waves or man. It is a form of marine debris or tidewrack....
washed up on the shore. This driftwood was usually chosen because it was available and usually knot free and easy to work with. Some of these driftwood
Driftwood
Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea or river by the action of winds, tides, waves or man. It is a form of marine debris or tidewrack....
logs were selected, cut to length, split, shaped and then their split out planks "sewn" together to form a canoe. The side planks and canoe bottom were split out of straight knot free logs utilizing whalebone and antler
Antler
Antlers are the usually large, branching bony appendages on the heads of most deer species.-Etymology:Antler originally meant the lowest tine, the "brow tine"...
Wedges driven by rock mallet
Mallet
A mallet is a kind of hammer, usually of rubber,or sometimes wood smaller than a maul or beetle and usually with a relatively large head.-Tools:Tool mallets come in different types, the most common of which are:...
s. The planks were then shaped, trimmed and leveled using flint and seashell
Seashell
A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer created by an animal that lives in the sea. The shell is part of the body of the animal. Empty seashells are often found washed up on beaches by beachcombers...
tools and shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
hide sandpaper. Where planks needed to be connected holes were bored in the planks using wood drills tipped with chert or bone. These drilled planks were then connected by "sewing" split and shaped knot free planks together on their ends to get the necessary length. They were typically fastened together with red milkweed (tok) fiber cords. After the planks had been shaped and sewn together for length they were carefully shaped, bent and mounted six to eight planks vertically to form the canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
's sides around a large split bottom plank that formed the bottom of the canoe. Over 20 pieces of shaped wood are used to make a typical tomol. Once the planks were bent, fitted and lashed together the heart of dry tule
Tule
Schoenoplectus acutus , called tule , common tule, hardstem tule, tule rush, hardstem bulrush, or viscid bulrush, is a giant species of sedge in the plant family Cyperaceae, native to freshwater marshes all over North America...
rush was forced into the cracks between the planks on the outside of the canoe hull to act as caulking. All seams between planks, plank ends and holes for cords or thongs were then caulked with 'yop', a mixture of hard tar and pine pitch melted and then boiled. In many respects their boat construction technique mirrored that utilized for making small wooden boats around the world. The lack of metal tools and fasteners forced them to use stone age tools and materials.
These canoes were built to carry from 3 to 10 people, one of which was usually assigned to bail, and the rest propelled the canoe by using rough oars. The typical tomol was 12 feet (3.7 m) to 24 feet (7.3 m) long with a beam of 3 foot (0.9144 m) to 5 feet (1.5 m). Sea voyages of over a 130 miles (209.2 km) have been recorded for these craft. They fished the sea with fishing net
Fishing net
A fishing net or fishnet is a net that is used for fishing. Fishing nets are meshes usually formed by knotting a relatively thin thread. Modern nets are usually made of artificial polyamides like nylon, although nets of organic polyamides such as wool or silk thread were common until recently and...
s, harpoon
Harpoon
A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal...
s, spear
Spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...
s and bone fishhooks. One of their common net catches were sardines and larger sardines called pilchards—then common in large schools
Shoaling and schooling
In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are said to be shoaling , and if, in addition, the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are said to be schooling . In common usage, the terms are sometimes used rather loosely...
off the California coast. The Chumash had settlements on the main California coast and on the northern California Channel Islands
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...
. The Tongva (Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe) had several small settlements on the southern Channel Islands
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...
as well as villages on the main California southwest coast.
Chumash and Tongva trading expeditions between the mainland and the Channel Islands were common. Most were to obtain steatite for soapstone bowls and effigy figurine
Figurine
A figurine is a statuette that represents a human, deity or animal. Figurines may be realistic or iconic, depending on the skill and intention of the creator. The earliest were made of stone or clay...
s. The remains of this prehistoric seafaring is being investigated by underwater archaeologists. At least 25 individual sites have been reported between Ventura, California
Ventura, California
Ventura is the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States, incorporated in 1866. The population was 106,433 at the 2010 census, up from 100,916 at the 2000 census. Ventura is accessible via U.S...
Beach and Point Conception
Point Conception
Point Conception is a headland along the Pacific coast of U.S. state of California, located in southwestern Santa Barbara County. It is the point where the Santa Barbara Channel meets the Pacific Ocean, and as the corner between the mostly north-south trending portion of coast to the north and the...
.
Early European explorers
Francisco de Ulloa
Francisco de Ulloa was a Spanish explorer who explored the west coast of present-day Mexico under the commission of Hernán Cortés...
under commission from the Viceroyalty of New Spain and New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
(Mexico) conqueror, Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...
, explored the Gulf of California
Gulf of California
The Gulf of California is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland...
to the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
--establishing Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
as a peninsula. Ulloa then went 800 miles (1,287.5 km) south down the Baja Peninsula in the Gulf of California
Gulf of California
The Gulf of California is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland...
and rounding the tip of the peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
turned north and explored the west coast of the Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
--perhaps to the 28th Parallel (near the Isla Natividad
Isla Natividad
Isla Natividad is an island in the Pacific Ocean 6 km west off Punta Eugenia, the northwestern headland of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. 200 meters off its northwestern end lies Roca María at , with an area of 0.074 km²...
). Ulloa's sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s battered by adverse winds and his men wracked by scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
, returned to New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
(Mexico
History of Mexico
The history of Mexico, a country located in the southern portion of North America, covers a period of more than two millennia. First populated more than 13,000 years ago, the country produced complex indigenous civilizations before being conquered by the Spanish in the 16th Century.Since the...
) without exploring further.
The first European expedition to explore the upper California coast was led by the Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
/Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
explorer and conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
João Rodrigues Cabrilho (~1499-1543). Cabrillo shipped for Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
as a young man and joined forces with Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...
in New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
(Mexico
History of Mexico
The history of Mexico, a country located in the southern portion of North America, covers a period of more than two millennia. First populated more than 13,000 years ago, the country produced complex indigenous civilizations before being conquered by the Spanish in the 16th Century.Since the...
) in about 1820 as a conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
crossbow
Crossbow
A crossbow is a weapon consisting of a bow mounted on a stock that shoots projectiles, often called bolts or quarrels. The medieval crossbow was called by many names, most of which derived from the word ballista, a torsion engine resembling a crossbow in appearance.Historically, crossbows played a...
man. In the conquest of the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
capital of Tenochitlan (Mexico City
History of Mexico City
The city now known as Mexico City was founded by the Mexica, also called the Aztecs, in 1325. The old Mexica city is now referred to as Tenochtitlan. The Mexica were one of the last of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples who migrated to this part of the Valley of Mexico after the fall of the Toltec Empire...
) in 1521 Cortez directed Cabrillo to build thirteen 40 feet (12.2 m) boats to fight on the lake then in the center of Tenochitlan. Rapidly advancing under Cortez's direction he participated in the conquest of El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
and Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
and was rewarded by being granted an extensive Encomienda
Encomienda
The encomienda was a system that was employed mainly by the Spanish crown during the colonization of the Americas to regulate Native American labor....
(a feudal grant of land including the occupants on it) controlling vast land and Native American resources in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
. His success in guiding the Native Americans on his Encomienda
Encomienda
The encomienda was a system that was employed mainly by the Spanish crown during the colonization of the Americas to regulate Native American labor....
in mining gold in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, made him one of the richest of the conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s in Mexico and Guatemala. Sponsored by Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of Mexico led by Hernan Cortes...
, the Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
governor, Cabrillo's directed the building of several small sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s in Guatemala. After Alvarado's death in 1541 the new Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, Marquis of Mondéjar, Count of Tendilla , was the first viceroy of New Spain, serving from April 17, 1535 to November 25, 1550, and the second viceroy of Peru, from September 23, 1551 to July 21, 1552...
took over control of the shipyards and directed Cabrillo to build three ships and lead an expedition further up the Pacific Coast in search of more rich Native American civilizations like the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
and Incas. They were also to see if there was a shorter way to China—the mythical Strait of Anián
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
(or Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
) connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
.
To build the ships the anchors, sails, ship building tool
Tool
A tool is a device that can be used to produce an item or achieve a task, but that is not consumed in the process. Informally the word is also used to describe a procedure or process with a specific purpose. Tools that are used in particular fields or activities may have different designations such...
s and metal fittings were imported from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and then ported by mule and Native American porters across Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and then south to Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
. Cabrillo, a former shipbuilder, with his Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
assistants and Native American workers had the necessary lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
sawed out and assembled to make the first sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s built on the America's Pacific coast—in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
. The ships finished lumber and timbers was sawed out of trees with "new" steel saws manned by Native American laborers under the direction of a few Spanish shipbuilders. The ships built for exploring the Pacific were small open caravel
Caravel
A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward...
s and small bergantina (small open sailboat) built and manned by a mixture of Native Americans and Spanish sailor
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...
s and conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s.
The last sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s built under Cabillo's direction were the California exploration fleet:caravel
Caravel
A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward...
s, San Salvador (about 100 feet (30.5 m) long) and the smaller Victoria, and a bergantina (small sail boat or launch), San Miguel. Cabrillo captained the San Salvador and Bartolomé Ferrelo
Bartolomé Ferrelo
Bartolomé Ferrelo, also known as Bartolomé Ferrer, born 1499 in Bilbao Spain, died 1550 in Mexico.He was the pilot for Juan Rodrigo Cabrillo, the Portuguese captain who was sent by the viceroy of Mexico, with two ships in 1542 to explore what is now Northern California...
the Victoria. These vessels were the first Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s to visit the future state of California
History of California
The history of California can be divided into several periods: the Native American period; European exploration period from 1542 to 1769; the Spanish colonial period, 1769 to 1821; the Mexican period, 1821 to 1848; and United States statehood, which continues to the present day...
.
Navidad
Navidad is the Spanish Christmas album by Christian pop singer Jaci Velasquez and is essentially a Spanish version of her previous album Christmas.-Tracklist:# Oh Ven, Oh Ven, Emmanuel# La Cancion Del Angel# El Rey De Israel...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
up the Pacific coast starting on 17 June 1542. The combination of the south flowing California Current
California Current
The California Current is a Pacific Ocean current that moves south along the western coast of North America, beginning off southern British Columbia, and ending off southern Baja California. There are five major coastal currents affiliated with upwelling zones...
and often opposing winds made progress north up the coast agonizingly slow. The small, open boats with only partially trained crews caused the crews to suffer miserably in the storms they encountered on their way. After landing several times on the Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
coast for water, wood and whatever supplies they could scrounge they finally, after traveling one hundred and three days, entered San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port adjacent to San Diego, California. It is 12 mi/19 km long, 1 mi/1.6 km–3 mi/4.8 km wide...
on 28 September 1542. They continued north up the California coast encountering many Indian villages using Native American "tomol
Tomol
Tomols are plank-built boats, historically and currently used by the Chumash and Tongva Native Americans in the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles area. They were also called tii'at by the Tongva. Tomols are long. They were especially important as both tribes relied on the sea for...
s" (ocean going stitched canoes). The continued north up the coast possibly as far as Pt. Reyes California.
On 23 November 1542, the little fleet limped back down the coast to "San Salvador" (identified as today's Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is long and across at its greatest width. The island is located about south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is...
or Santa Rosa Island
Santa Rosa Island, California
Santa Rosa Island is the second largest of the Channel Islands of California at 53,195 acres . Defined by the United States Census Bureau as Block 3009, Block Group 3, Census Tract 29.10 of Santa Barbara County, California, the 2000 census showed an official population of 2 persons. It is part of...
) to overwinter and make repairs. There, around Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
1542, Cabrillo stepped out of his boat and splintered his shin when he stumbled on a jagged rock. The injury developed gangrene
Gangrene
Gangrene is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition that arises when a considerable mass of body tissue dies . This may occur after an injury or infection, or in people suffering from any chronic health problem affecting blood circulation. The primary cause of gangrene is reduced blood...
and he died on 3 January 1543 and was buried in an unknown location. His second-in-command, Bartolomé Ferrelo
Bartolomé Ferrelo
Bartolomé Ferrelo, also known as Bartolomé Ferrer, born 1499 in Bilbao Spain, died 1550 in Mexico.He was the pilot for Juan Rodrigo Cabrillo, the Portuguese captain who was sent by the viceroy of Mexico, with two ships in 1542 to explore what is now Northern California...
, brought the remainder of the party back to Barra de Navidad
Barra de Navidad
Barra de Navidad is a small town located on the western coast-line of the Mexican state of Jalisco.The town of Barra de Navidad with a population of 7000+ is a small farming and fishing community located on the east end of the Bahía de Navidad, 60 km north of Manzanillo...
, Mexico where they arrived 14 April 1543. They had found no wealth, no advanced Indian civilization, no agriculture and no Northwest passage. As a result California was of little further interest to the Spanish who would basically ignore it for over 220 years.
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
trade route (also called "nao de la China") where they took silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
minted in the Potosi area of Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
or in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and traded it for silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
, porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
, spice
Spice
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
s and other goods from China and other Asian areas including the Spice Islands
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...
. There was a great demand for silver in China. They also traded for gold objects which could be gotten in China in this time period at a silver:gold exchange rate of about 5:1 whereas the rate in Europe was about 16:1. The Spanish centered their trade in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
at first around Cebu
Cebu
Cebu is a province in the Philippines, consisting of Cebu Island and 167 surrounding islands. It is located to the east of Negros, to the west of Leyte and Bohol islands...
, which they had recently conquered, and later in Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
after they conquered it. The trade between the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
and Mexico involved using an annual round trip passage of one or more Manila galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
(s). These galleons left Acapulco
Acapulco
Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...
Mexico and sailed to the Philippines in about 90 days following what's called now the north equatorial current and trade winds.
The higher-latitude Westerlies
Westerlies
The Westerlies, anti-trades, or Prevailing Westerlies, are the prevailing winds in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude, blowing from the high pressure area in the horse latitudes towards the poles. These prevailing winds blow from the west to the east, and steer extratropical...
trade winds and current from east to west at about 30-40 degrees latitude, was not known as a way across the Pacific ocean until Andres de Urdaneta
Andrés de Urdaneta
Friar Andrés de Urdaneta, O.S.A., was a circumnavigator, explorer and Augustinian friar. As a navigator he achieved in 1536 the "second" world circumnavigation after first one led by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano in 1522...
's voyage in the 40 ton San Lucas in 1565. Returning to Mexico from the Philippines the Manila Galleons went north to about 40 degrees Latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
and then turning East they could use the Westerlies
Westerlies
The Westerlies, anti-trades, or Prevailing Westerlies, are the prevailing winds in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude, blowing from the high pressure area in the horse latitudes towards the poles. These prevailing winds blow from the west to the east, and steer extratropical...
trade wind
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...
s and currents to go east. These galleons, after crossing most of the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
, would arrive off the California coast from four to seven months later somewhere near Cape Mendocino
Cape Mendocino
Cape Mendocino located on the Lost Coast entirely within Humboldt County, California, USA, is the westernmost point on the coast of California. It has been a landmark since the 16th century when the Manila Galleons would reach the coast here following the prevailing westerlies all the way across...
(about 300 miles (482.8 km) north of San Francisco) at about 40 degrees N. latitude. They then could turn right and sail south down the California coast utilizing the available winds and the south flowing (about ~1 mi/hr (1.6 km/h)) California Current
California Current
The California Current is a Pacific Ocean current that moves south along the western coast of North America, beginning off southern British Columbia, and ending off southern Baja California. There are five major coastal currents affiliated with upwelling zones...
. The maps and charts were poor and the California coast was often shrouded in fog, so most journeys were well off shore to avoid the Farallon
Farallon Islands
The Farallon Islands, or Farallones , are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, USA. They lie outside the Golden Gate and south of Point Reyes, and are visible from the mainland on clear days...
and California Channel Islands. After sailing about 1500 miles (2,414 km) south and passing the Baja Peninsula tip and crossing the Gulf of California
Gulf of California
The Gulf of California is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland...
they followed the coast to Acapulco
Acapulco
Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...
Mexico. Acapulco was chosen as a home port because of its excellent harbor facilities and its easy access to the city of Vera Cruz Mexico on the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
.
These galleons were some the largest the Spanish built in the 16th and 17th centuries. Because of the limited number of ships and the highly profitable cargo they increased ship size up to 1,700 to 2,000 tons and from seven hundred to over one thousand people would take passage back to Acapulco on these vessels. The Manila Galleon trade (See: Spanish treasure fleet
Spanish treasure fleet
The Spanish treasure fleets was a convoy system adopted by the Spanish Empire from 1566 to 1790...
) was one of the most persistent, perilous, and profitable commercial enterprises in European colonial history. This highly profitable trade (profits could reach 200-300%) with an almost annual trip by one to two ships down the California coast was continued for over 200 years. The number of ships was limited by the Spanish Crown which got 20% of all profits. Because of the high profit and royal taxes smuggling was rampant on these ships. Because of the harsh trip and high profits most officers and crews only made one trip before finding something else to do. The ships were mostly built in the Philippines using Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
laborers to saw out the timber, weave the sails, etc. with Chinese craftsman and blacksmiths doing the ship assembly under the direction of Spanish shipbuilders.
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
Francis Drake
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the...
sailed along the coast of California in 1579 after capturing two Spanish treasure ships in the Pacific. It is believed that he landed somewhere on the California coast. There his only surviving ship, the Golden Hind
Golden Hind
The Golden Hind was an English galleon best known for its circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake...
, set up friendly relations with the local Indians and underwent extensive repairs and cleaning of his hull. Needed supplies of food, water and wood were accumulated by trade and foraging for a trip across the Pacific. Leaving California he followed Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" ....
on the second recorded circumnavigation
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...
of the world and the first English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
circumnavigation of the world, being gone from 1577 to 1580. He returned with several tons of silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
and gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
. Its believed Drake put ashore somewhere north of San Francisco. The exact location of Drake's landing is still undetermined, but a prominent bay on the California coast, Drakes Bay
Drakes Bay
Drakes Bay is a small bay on the coast of northern California in the United States, approximately 30 miles northwest of San Francisco at approximately 38 degrees north latitude. The bay is approximately 8 miles wide...
, bears his name. He claimed the land for England, calling it Nova Albion. The term "Nova Albion" was often used on many European maps to designate territory north of the Spanish Pacific coast settlements. Spanish maps, explorations etc., of this and later eras were generally not published, being regarded as state secrets by the Spanish monarchy. As was typical in this era, there were conflicting claims to the same territory, and the Indians who lived there were never consulted.
After Thomas Cavendish
Thomas Cavendish
Sir Thomas Cavendish was an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliberately tried to emulate Sir Francis Drake and raid the Spanish towns and ships in the Pacific and return by circumnavigating the globe...
raided the Manila Galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
Santa Ana off the tip of Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
in 1587 an attempt was made to explore the coast for a possible town site in California for replenishing and protecting the Manila galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
s. These Manila Galleon explorations met with disaster when the Manila galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
San Agustin got too close to the Point Reyes, California coast in a storm in 1595 and was ship wrecked. Subsequently, the Spanish crown decided that no further exploration or colonization attempts in California would be made with Manila Galleons. A years worth of profit from the Philippines could not be risked. One of the greatest bays on the west coast—San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
—escaped discovery for centuries till it was finally discovered by land exploration on 4 November 1769.
In 1602, 60 years after Cabrillo, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno
Sebastián Vizcaíno
Sebastián Vizcaíno was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain, the Philippines, the Baja California peninsula, the California coast and Japan.-Early career:...
, who had been on the Manila Galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
Santa Ana when it was captured by Thomas Cavendish
Thomas Cavendish
Sir Thomas Cavendish was an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliberately tried to emulate Sir Francis Drake and raid the Spanish towns and ships in the Pacific and return by circumnavigating the globe...
off Cape San Lucas on the Baja Peninsula in 1587, explored California's coastline from San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
as far north as Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....
. He was looking for a possible town site for replenishing and protecting the annual trip of the Manila Galleon. Vizcaíno named San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port adjacent to San Diego, California. It is 12 mi/19 km long, 1 mi/1.6 km–3 mi/4.8 km wide...
and held the first Christian church service recorded in California on the shores of San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port adjacent to San Diego, California. It is 12 mi/19 km long, 1 mi/1.6 km–3 mi/4.8 km wide...
. He also put ashore in Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
and made glowing reports of the Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....
area as a possible anchorage for ships with land suitable for growing crops—the California coastal Indians had no agriculture. He also provided rudimentary charts of the coastal waters, which were used by the Spanish for nearly 200 years.
Spanish California Maritime Activities
A potential colonial power interested in Alta CaliforniaAlta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
was Russia
History of Russia
The history of Russia begins with that of the Eastern Slavs and the Finno-Ugric peoples. The state of Garðaríki , which was centered in Novgorod and included the entire areas inhabited by Ilmen Slavs, Veps and Votes, was established by the Varangian chieftain Rurik in 862...
, already established in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
in Alaska
History of Alaska
The history of Alaska dates back to the Upper Paleolithic period , when Asiatic groups crossed the Bering land bridge into what is now western Alaska. At the time of European contact by the Russian explorers, the area was populated by Alaska Native groups...
. Their Maritime Fur Trade
Maritime Fur Trade
The Maritime Fur Trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese...
originally focused in Alaska
History of Alaska
The history of Alaska dates back to the Upper Paleolithic period , when Asiatic groups crossed the Bering land bridge into what is now western Alaska. At the time of European contact by the Russian explorers, the area was populated by Alaska Native groups...
started making expeditions to the California for harvesting sea otter
Sea Otter
The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals...
s and fur seal
Fur seal
Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds in the Otariidae family. One species, the northern fur seal inhabits the North Pacific, while seven species in the Arctocephalus genus are found primarily in the Southern hemisphere...
s. These furs could be traded in China for large profits. After the conclusion of the Seven Year War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
between Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and their allies (in U. S. called the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
) (1754–1763) France was driven out of North America, Spain
History of Spain
The history of Spain involves all the other peoples and nations within the Iberian peninsula formerly known as Hispania, and includes still today the nations of Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain...
, Russia
History of Russia
The history of Russia begins with that of the Eastern Slavs and the Finno-Ugric peoples. The state of Garðaríki , which was centered in Novgorod and included the entire areas inhabited by Ilmen Slavs, Veps and Votes, was established by the Varangian chieftain Rurik in 862...
and Britain
History of Britain
History of Britain may refer to:*History of the British Isles includes the history of Great Britain and its components**History of the United Kingdom .*History of Britain , a prose work by the English poet John Milton....
were the only colonial powers left in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
To prevent Russia
History of Russia
The history of Russia begins with that of the Eastern Slavs and the Finno-Ugric peoples. The state of Garðaríki , which was centered in Novgorod and included the entire areas inhabited by Ilmen Slavs, Veps and Votes, was established by the Varangian chieftain Rurik in 862...
or Britain
History of Britain
History of Britain may refer to:*History of the British Isles includes the history of Great Britain and its components**History of the United Kingdom .*History of Britain , a prose work by the English poet John Milton....
from establishing settlements in California in 1769, the Spanish Visitor General, José de Gálvez
José de Gálvez
José de Gálvez y Gallardo, marqués de Sonora was a Spanish lawyer, a colonial official in New Spain and ultimately Minister of the Indies . He was one of the prime figures behind the Bourbon Reforms...
, under directions of the Spanish Crown, proceeded to plan a five part expedition
Portola expedition
250px|right|Point of San Francisco Bay DiscoveryThe Portolá Expedition was led by Gaspar de Portolá from July 14, 1769 to January 24, 1770. It was the first recorded Spanish land entry and exploration of present day California, United States...
to settle Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
. Three ships with supplies and men were to go by sea and two expedition by land to start settling Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
. Gaspar de Portola
Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira was a soldier, governor of Baja and Alta California , explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey. He was born in Os de Balaguer, province of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain, of Catalan nobility. Don Gaspar served as a soldier in the Spanish army in Italy and Portugal...
volunteered to command the expedition. The Catholic Church was represented by Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
friar Junipero Serra
Junípero Serra
Blessed Junípero Serra, O.F.M., , known as Fra Juníper Serra in Catalan, his mother tongue was a Majorcan Franciscan friar who founded the mission chain in Alta California of the Las Californias Province in New Spain—present day California, United States. Fr...
and his fellow friars. All five detachments of soldiers, friars and colonists were to meet at the site of San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port adjacent to San Diego, California. It is 12 mi/19 km long, 1 mi/1.6 km–3 mi/4.8 km wide...
. The first sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
, the San Carlos, sailed from La Paz
La Paz, Baja California Sur
La Paz is the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur and an important regional commercial center. The city had a 2010 census population of 215,178 persons, but its metropolitan population is somewhat larger because of surrounding towns like el Centenario, el Zacatal and San Pedro...
on January 10, 1769, and the ship San Antonio sailed on February 15. The first land party, led by Fernando Rivera y Moncada
Fernando Rivera y Moncada
Fernando Javier Rivera y Moncada was a soldier from New Spain who served in the Baja California peninsula and upper Las Californias, participating in several early overland explorations. Fernando Rivera y Moncada served as a Spanish Miilitary Governor from 1774-1777. -Biography:Rivera was born...
, left from the Franciscan Mission San Fernando Velicata
Misión San Fernando Rey de España de Velicatá
Located in Baja California, Mexico about 200 miles south of Ensenada, Misión San Fernando Rey de España de Velicatá was the only mission founded by Franciscans in Baja California....
on March 24, 1769. The third vessel, the sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
San José, left New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
later that spring but was lost at sea with no survivors. With Rivera was Father Juan Crespi
Juan Crespi
Father Juan Crespí was a Majorcan missionary and explorer of Las Californias. He entered the Franciscan order at the age of seventeen. He came to America in 1749, and accompanied explorers Francisco Palóu and Junípero Serra. In 1767 he went to the Baja Peninsula and was placed in charge of the...
, famed diarist of the entire expedition. The expedition led by Portolà, which included Father Junípero Serra
Junípero Serra
Blessed Junípero Serra, O.F.M., , known as Fra Juníper Serra in Catalan, his mother tongue was a Majorcan Franciscan friar who founded the mission chain in Alta California of the Las Californias Province in New Spain—present day California, United States. Fr...
, the President of the Missions, along with a combination of missionaries, settlers, and leather-jacket soldiers, including José Raimundo Carrillo
José Raimundo Carrillo
Captain José Raimundo Carrillo was an early Spanish settler of San Diego, California and founder of the Carrillo family in Spanish California.-Biography:Carrillo was born in 1749 in New Spain at Loreto, Baja California...
, left Velicata on May 15, 1769 accompanied by about 46 mules, 200 cows and 140 horses—all that could be spared by the poor Baja Missions. Fernando de Rivera
Fernando Rivera y Moncada
Fernando Javier Rivera y Moncada was a soldier from New Spain who served in the Baja California peninsula and upper Las Californias, participating in several early overland explorations. Fernando Rivera y Moncada served as a Spanish Miilitary Governor from 1774-1777. -Biography:Rivera was born...
was appointed to command the lead party that would scout out a land route and blaze a trail to San Diego. Food was short, and the Indians accompanying them were expected to forage for most of what they needed. Many Indian neophytes died along the way—even more deserted. On the 15th of May 1769, the day after Rivera and Crespi reached San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
Portola and Serra set out from Velicata
Misión San Fernando Rey de España de Velicatá
Located in Baja California, Mexico about 200 miles south of Ensenada, Misión San Fernando Rey de España de Velicatá was the only mission founded by Franciscans in Baja California....
. The two groups traveling from Lower California on foot had to cross about 300 miles (482.8 km) of the very dry and rugged Baja Peninsula. The overland part of the expedition took about 40–51 days to get to San Diego. All five detachments were to meet at San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port adjacent to San Diego, California. It is 12 mi/19 km long, 1 mi/1.6 km–3 mi/4.8 km wide...
.
The contingent coming by sea, encountered the south flowing California Current
California Current
The California Current is a Pacific Ocean current that moves south along the western coast of North America, beginning off southern British Columbia, and ending off southern Baja California. There are five major coastal currents affiliated with upwelling zones...
and strong head winds and were still straggling in three months after they set sail. After their arduous journeys, most of the men aboard the ships were ill, chiefly from scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
, and many had died. Out of a total of about 219 men who had left Baja California, little more than 100 now survived. The Spanish settlements of Alta California were the last expansion of Spain's vastly over-extended empire in North America, and they tried to do it with minimal cost and support.
A few leather jacket soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
s and Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
friar
Friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:...
s financed by the Catholic Church and Spanish Crown would form the backbone of the proposed settlement of Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
. The settlements eventually included: twenty one surviving Missions
Spanish missions in California
The Spanish missions in California comprise a series of religious and military outposts established by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823 to spread the Christian faith among the local Native Americans. The missions represented the first major effort by Europeans to...
--typically manned by two to three friars and five to ten soldiers; four military Presidio
Presidio
A presidio is a fortified base established by the Spanish in North America between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The fortresses were built to protect against pirates, hostile native Americans and enemy colonists. Other presidios were held by Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth...
s were built—manned by 10 to 100 soldiers and four small settlements (Pueblos) were set up to grow food for the Presidios.
July 14, 1769, an expedition was dispatched to find the port of Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
. Not recognizing the Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....
from the description written by Sebastián Vizcaíno
Sebastián Vizcaíno
Sebastián Vizcaíno was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain, the Philippines, the Baja California peninsula, the California coast and Japan.-Early career:...
almost 200 years prior, the expedition traveled beyond it to what was called San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
area. The exploration party
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
, led by Don Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira was a soldier, governor of Baja and Alta California , explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey. He was born in Os de Balaguer, province of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain, of Catalan nobility. Don Gaspar served as a soldier in the Spanish army in Italy and Portugal...
arrived on November 2, 1769, at San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
., One of the greatest ports on the west coast of America had finally been discovered—by land. The expedition finally returned to San Diego on Jan. 24, 1770 weak with hunger and suffering from scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
.
Without any agricultural crops or experience eating the food the Indians subsisted on (ground acorns), the shortage of food at San Diego became extremely critical during the first few months of 1770. They subsisted on some of their cattle (Texas Longhorns
Texas longhorn (cattle)
The Texas Longhorn is a breed of cattle known for its characteristic horns, which can extend to tip to tip for steers and exceptional cows, and tip to tip for bulls. Horns can have a slight upward turn at their tips or even triple twist. Texas Longhorns are known for their diverse coloring...
, wild geese, fish, and other food exchanged with the Indians for clothing, but the ravages of scurvy continued for there was restricted amounts of food and no understanding of the cause or cure of scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
then. A small quantity of corn they had planted grew well—only to be eaten by birds. Portolá sent Captain Rivera and a small detachment of about 40 men to the Baja California missions in February to obtain more cattle and a pack-train of supplies. This temporarily eased the drain on San Diego's scant provisions, but within weeks, acute hunger and increased sickness again threatened to force abandonment of the port. Portolá resolved that if no relief ship arrived by March 19, 1770 they would leave the next morning "because there were not enough provisions to wait longer and the men had not come to perish from hunger." At three o'clock in the afternoon on March 19, 1770, as if by a miracle, the sails of the sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
San Antonio loaded with relief supplies were discernible on the horizon. The settlement of Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
would continue.
Juan Bautista de Anza
Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto was a Novo-Spanish explorer and Governor of New Mexico for the Spanish Empire.-Early life:...
led a contingent of soldiers, settlers and friars to the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
area in 1776. There the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
built the Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions...
, (or Mission Dolores), the Presidio of San Francisco
Presidio of San Francisco
The Presidio of San Francisco is a park on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area...
and Yerba Buena, California (San Francisco). They came with about 200 leather jacketed soldiers, and settlers with their families and two Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
Friar
Friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:...
s. They brought with them about 600 horses and mules, 300 Texas Longhorn
Texas longhorn (cattle)
The Texas Longhorn is a breed of cattle known for its characteristic horns, which can extend to tip to tip for steers and exceptional cows, and tip to tip for bulls. Horns can have a slight upward turn at their tips or even triple twist. Texas Longhorns are known for their diverse coloring...
bulls and cows. These soldiers, Frairs, settlers and livestock came over the Anza Trail
Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
thumb|325px|MAP: [[Juan Bautista de Anza]] National Historic Trail routes in [[Arizona]] and [[California]].The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail is a National Park Service unit in the United States National Historic Trail and National Millennium Trail programs...
from Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
Mexico four years before it was closed for over 40 years by the Quechan people (Yumas).
In 1780 the Spanish established two combination missions and pueblos at the Yuma Crossing
Yuma Crossing
Yuma Crossing is a site in Arizona and California that is significant for its association with transportation and communication across the Colorado River. It connected New Spain and Las Californias in the Spanish Colonial period in and also during the Western expansion of the United States. ...
of the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
: Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer
Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer
Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer was founded on January 7, 1781 by Father Francisco Garcés to protect the Anza Trail where it forded the Colorado River....
and Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción
Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción
Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción was founded in October, 1780, by Father Francisco Garcés. The settlement was not part of the California mission chain, but was administered as a part of the Arizona missions...
. July 1781 the Yuma (Quechan
Quechan
The Quechan are a Native American tribe who live on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation on the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California just north of the border with Mexico...
) Indians, in a dispute with the Spanish destroyed both missions and pueblos—killing 103 soldiers, colonists and Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
Friar
Friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:...
s and capturing about 80—mostly women and children. Despite four expeditions to reassert Spanish control the Yuma Crossing
Yuma Crossing
Yuma Crossing is a site in Arizona and California that is significant for its association with transportation and communication across the Colorado River. It connected New Spain and Las Californias in the Spanish Colonial period in and also during the Western expansion of the United States. ...
remained under the Quechan
Quechan
The Quechan are a Native American tribe who live on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation on the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California just north of the border with Mexico...
s control for the next 40 years—the easiest land route to California was closed. This restriction caused most settler traffic and supplies to Alta California to come on a 30-60 day sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
journey form New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
's towns on the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. Because there were only a few settlers and they had essentially nothing to export or trade so there were only a few ships that came to Alta California. Combined with the Spanish restriction that prohibited non-Spanish shipping the average number of ships going to Alta California from 1770 to 1821 was 2.5 ship/year with 13 years showing no recorded ships.
On November 20, 1818 Hippolyte de Bouchard
Hippolyte de Bouchard
Hippolyte de Bouchard, or Hipólito de Bouchard , was a French and Argentine sailor and corsair who fought for Argentina, Chile, and Peru....
raided the Presidio of Monterey in Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
. Bouchard, a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
who later became a citizen of Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, is sometimes referred to as California’s only pirate, although some Argentines prefer to use the term corsair
Corsair
Corsairs were privateers, authorized to conduct raids on shipping of a nation at war with France, on behalf of the French Crown. Seized vessels and cargo were sold at auction, with the corsair captain entitled to a portion of the proceeds...
.
Since much of his crew died from scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
, Bouchard went in search of new crew members in the Sandwich Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
(now Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
), and then sailed to the coast near Mission Santa Bárbara
Mission Santa Barbara
In 1840, Alta California and Baja California were removed from the Diocese of Sonora to form the Diocese of Both Californias. Bishop Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno, OFM, established his cathedra at Mission Santa Barbara, making the chapel the pro-cathedral of the diocese until 1849...
and threatened the nearby town.
Bouchard and his crew left without attacking after some soldiers from El Presidio de Santa Bárbara confronted them, and arranged a prisoner exchange.
On December 14, 1818 Bouchard attacked Mission San Juan Capistrano
Mission San Juan Capistrano
Mission San Juan Capistrano was a Spanish mission in Southern California, located in present-day San Juan Capistrano. It was founded on All Saints Day November 1, 1776, by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order...
and he and his crew damaged several buildings, including the Governor's house, the King's stores, and the barracks.
Californio Maritime Activities 1821-1846
Even before Mexico gained control of Alta CaliforniaAlta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
the onerous Spanish rules against trading with foreigners began to break down as the declining Spanish fleet couldn’t enforce their no trading policies. The Californios, with essentially no industries or manufacturing capabilities, were eager to trade for new commodities, glass, hinges, nails, finished goods, luxury goods and other merchandise. The Mexican government abolished the no trade with foreign ships policy and soon regular trading trips were being made. The main products of these California Ranchos
Ranchos of California
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...
were cow hides
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
(called California greenbacks), tallow
Tallow
Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, processed from suet. It is solid at room temperature. Unlike suet, tallow can be stored for extended periods without the need for refrigeration to prevent decomposition, provided it is kept in an airtight container to prevent oxidation.In industry,...
(rendered fat for making candles and soap) and longhorn cattle
Texas longhorn (cattle)
The Texas Longhorn is a breed of cattle known for its characteristic horns, which can extend to tip to tip for steers and exceptional cows, and tip to tip for bulls. Horns can have a slight upward turn at their tips or even triple twist. Texas Longhorns are known for their diverse coloring...
horns that were traded for other finished goods and merchandise. This hide-and-tallow trade was mainly carried on by Boston, Massachusetts based ships that traveled for about 200 days in sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s about 17000 miles (27,358.8 km) to 18000 miles (28,968.1 km) around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
to bring finished goods and merchandise to trade with the Californio Ranchos
Ranchos of California
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...
for their hides, tallow and horns. The cattle and horses that provided the hides, tallow and horns essentially grew wild. The Californios’ hides, tallow and horns provided the necessary trade articles for a mutually beneficial trade. The first United States, English and Russian trading ships
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
began showing up in California before 1816. The classic book “Two Years Before the Mast
Two Years Before the Mast
Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946.- Background :...
” by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Richard Henry Dana Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of an eminent colonial family who gained renown as the author of the American classic, the memoir Two Years Before the Mast...
written about 1832 provides a good first hand account of this trade.
From 1825 to 1848 the average number of ships traveling to California increased to about 25 ships per year—a large increase from the average of 2.5 ships per year from 1769 to 1824. The port of entry for trading purposes was Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
where custom duties (tariffs) of about 100% were applied. These high duties gave rise to much bribery and smuggling, as avoiding the tariffs made more money for the ship owners and made the goods less costly to the customers. Essentially all the cost of the California government (what little there was) was paid for by these Tariffs (custom duties). In this they were much like the United States in 1850, where about 89% of the revenue of its federal government came from import tariffs (also called Customs or Ad-valorem taxes), although at an average rate of about 20%.
By 1845, the province of Alta California had a non-native population of about 1,500 Californio adult men along with about 6,500 women and children, who lived mostly in the southern half of the state around Los Angeles. Most immigrants (nearly all of whom were adult males) lived in the northern half of California.
Californio Maritime Activities 1821-1846
Even before Mexico gained control of Alta CaliforniaAlta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
the onerous Spanish rules against trading with foreigners began to break down as the declining Spanish fleet couldn’t enforce their no trading policies. The Californios, with essentially no industries or manufacturing capabilities, were eager to trade for new commodities, glass, hinges, nails, finished goods, luxury goods and other merchandise. The Mexican government abolished the no trade with foreign ships policy and soon regular trading trips were being made. The main products of these California Ranchos
Ranchos of California
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...
were cow hides
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
(called California greenbacks), tallow
Tallow
Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, processed from suet. It is solid at room temperature. Unlike suet, tallow can be stored for extended periods without the need for refrigeration to prevent decomposition, provided it is kept in an airtight container to prevent oxidation.In industry,...
(rendered fat for making candles and soap) and longhorn cattle
Texas longhorn (cattle)
The Texas Longhorn is a breed of cattle known for its characteristic horns, which can extend to tip to tip for steers and exceptional cows, and tip to tip for bulls. Horns can have a slight upward turn at their tips or even triple twist. Texas Longhorns are known for their diverse coloring...
horns that were traded for other finished goods and merchandise. This hide-and-tallow trade was mainly carried on by Boston, Massachusetts based ships that traveled for about 200 days in sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s about 17000 miles (27,358.8 km) to 18000 miles (28,968.1 km) around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
to bring finished goods and merchandise to trade with the Californio Ranchos
Ranchos of California
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...
for their hides, tallow and horns. The cattle and horses that provided the hides, tallow and horns essentially grew wild. The Californios’ hides, tallow and horns provided the necessary trade articles for a mutually beneficial trade. The first United States, English and Russian trading ships
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
began showing up in California before 1816. The classic book “Two Years Before the Mast
Two Years Before the Mast
Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946.- Background :...
” by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Richard Henry Dana Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of an eminent colonial family who gained renown as the author of the American classic, the memoir Two Years Before the Mast...
written about 1832 provides a good first hand account of this trade.
From 1825 to 1848 the average number of ships traveling to California increased to about 25 ships per year—a large increase from the average of 2.5 ships per year from 1769 to 1824. The port of entry for trading purposes was Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
where custom duties (tariffs) of about 100% were applied. These high duties gave rise to much bribery and smuggling, as avoiding the tariffs made more money for the ship owners and made the goods less costly to the customers. Essentially all the cost of the California government (what little there was) was paid for by these Tariffs (custom duties). In this they were much like the United States in 1850, where about 89% of the revenue of its federal government came from import tariffs (also called Customs or Ad-valorem taxes), although at an average rate of about 20%.
By 1845, the province of Alta California had a non-native population of about 1,500 Californio adult men along with about 6,500 women and children, who lived mostly in the southern half of the state around Los Angeles. Most immigrants (nearly all of whom were adult males) lived in the northern half of California.
U.S. California Naval activity
Before the American RevolutionAmerican Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
(1775–1783) the colonies that would become the United States had a already developed a strong seafaring tradition in the future New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
and Mid-Atlantic states
Mid-Atlantic States
The Mid-Atlantic states, also called middle Atlantic states or simply the mid Atlantic, form a region of the United States generally located between New England and the South...
. The colonies with good access to British shipbuilding experience and technology and with good access to the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
and extensive forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
s had already developed an advanced shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
industry even before they gained independence. They were already building many of the ships used in the extensive British colonial trade as well as whaling and fishing vessels. Whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
recovered soon after the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
ended in 1783 and the United States whaling industry began to prosper. The whalers used bases primarily at Nantucket
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the United States. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the coterminous Nantucket County, which are consolidated. Part of the town is designated the Nantucket...
island and New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...
. About ten thousand United State's seamen manned whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
ships on whaling voyages that could last over two years. The United States grew to become the pre-eminent whaling
History of whaling
The history of whaling is very extensive, stretching back for millennia. This article discusses the history of whaling up to the commencement of the International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986....
nation in the world by the 1830s. From 1835 to 1860 the American whaling fleet averaged about 620 vessels annually with a shipping tonnage aggregating 190,500 tons. In thhis time period most of the whalers were whaling in the Pacific Ocean. From 1835 to 1860 the annual United States whale oil
Whale oil
Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...
usage averaged 118,000 barrels of sperm oil, 216,000 barrels of other whale oil and 2,323,000 pounds of whalebone (baleen
Baleen
Baleen or whalebone is a filter-feeder system inside the mouths of baleen whales. The baleen system works when a whale opens its mouth underwater and then water pours into the whale's mouth. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen and remain as food...
)—with a total average value of over $8,000,000 a year of 1830 dollars. The whale oil
Whale oil
Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...
was used primarily in whale oil lamp
Oil lamp
An oil lamp is an object used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and is continued to this day....
s for illumination at night and for some lubrication
Lubrication
Lubrication is the process, or technique employed to reduce wear of one or both surfaces in close proximity, and moving relative to each another, by interposing a substance called lubricant between the surfaces to carry or to help carry the load between the opposing surfaces. The interposed...
purposes. The baleen was used for corset
Corset
A corset is a garment worn to hold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes...
s, brushes, whips, and other uses that required a strong flexible material—plastic hadn't been invented yet. Kerosene, when it was introduced in the early 1850s, was much cheaper and easily made by fractional distillation of petroleum. Kerosene started to rapidly replace whale oil
Whale oil
Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...
for lighting in the 1850s—saving many more whales than any conservation movement. The Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
whaling ships started getting fresh supplies, water and wood from California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Sandwich Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
(Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
). Many whaling vessels preferred stopping in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
Area before stopping to pay the high custom duties (also called tariffs and Ad Valorem taxes) at Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
wanted by the Californio
Californio
Californio is a term used to identify a Spanish-speaking Catholic people, regardless of race, born in California before 1848...
government—avoiding taxes has a long history. By 1846 several hundred whaling ships per year were using Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
(then called the Sandwich Islands) as a temporary base.
Shortly after the United States gained independence in 1783 trade was instituted from East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
ports with the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
to gather fur
Fur
Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...
s in the Maritime Fur Trade
Maritime Fur Trade
The Maritime Fur Trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese...
to trade with China for porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
, silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
, spices etc.. British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
commander George Vancouver
George Vancouver
Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...
sailed up the west coast past the mouth of the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
and on April 1792 and observed a change in the water's color, which implied there may be a major river emptying into the Pacific. Later that month, Vancouver encountered the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
captain Robert Gray at Grays Harbor--later named that in his honor. Gray also reported that he had seen the possible entrance to the Columbia a few years earlier and had spent nine days trying but failing to enter the river over its extensive sand bars and turbulent waves; but bad weather forced him to give up. Gray returned to the river mouth a second time in May 1792. This time he ordered a small sailboat
Sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails. The term covers a variety of boats, larger than small vessels such as sailboards and smaller than sailing ships, but distinctions in the size are not strictly defined and what constitutes a sailing ship, sailboat, or a...
launched to attempt to find a safe passage across the sand bars and turbulent waves by sounding
Depth Sounding
Depth sounding refers to a historical nautical term for measuring depth; it is often referred to simply as sounding. Sounding is finding the depth of a given point in a body of water. Sounding data is used in bathymetry to make maps of the floor of a body of water. Soundings were traditionally...
(measuring the depth with a weight attached to a line of known length) the water depth to find a channel
Channel (geography)
In physical geography, a channel is the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks.A channel is also the natural or human-made deeper course through a reef, sand bar, bay, or any shallow body of water...
deep enough for his ship. Finally in the evening of May 11, 1792, Gray's men found a safe channel
Channel (geography)
In physical geography, a channel is the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks.A channel is also the natural or human-made deeper course through a reef, sand bar, bay, or any shallow body of water...
and he and his crew sailed their ship Columbia into the estuary
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
of what he named the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
after his ship.
Once across the sand bars and turbulent water at the entrance to the river (later called the Columbia Bar
Columbia Bar
The Columbia Bar is a system of bars and shoals at the mouth of the Columbia River spanning the US states of Oregon and Washington. The bar is about wide and long....
) they sailed up the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
several miles while exploring the river. Gray's discovery was one of the claims the United States had for possession of the Oregon Territory
Oregon Territory
The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. Originally claimed by several countries , the region was...
. The Lewis and Clark Expedition
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, or ″Corps of Discovery Expedition" was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Coast by the United States. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and led by two Virginia-born veterans of Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, Meriwether Lewis and William...
(1804–1806) was the first overland expedition to the Pacific Coast and reinforced the United States claim for possession.
Beginning about 1790 United States ships often sailed along the West Coast to gather fur
Fur
Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...
s for trading with China. They traded steel knives, hatchets, blankets, kettles, whiskey, guns, powder, lead and other trade goods for furs collected by the natives. An attempt was made by the Spanish in Spanish California to severely restrict trade from San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
to San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. The land above San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
had no Spanish presence. The Russian-American Company
Russian-American Company
The Russian-American Company was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the so-called Shelekhov-Golikov Company of Grigory Shelekhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov The Russian-American Company (officially: Under His Imperial Majesty's Highest Protection (patronage)...
was created in 1799 as a joint venture between Russian fur traders and United States ship merchants who agreed to purchase fur seal
Fur seal
Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds in the Otariidae family. One species, the northern fur seal inhabits the North Pacific, while seven species in the Arctocephalus genus are found primarily in the Southern hemisphere...
and sea otter
Sea Otter
The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals...
furs obtained by the Russians. The Russian Czar was to get 20% of all profits. American ships brought food and other supplies to the Russian settlements, assisted in fur hunts, and took furs away. The company constructed settlements in what is today Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, and California
History of California
The history of California can be divided into several periods: the Native American period; European exploration period from 1542 to 1769; the Spanish colonial period, 1769 to 1821; the Mexican period, 1821 to 1848; and United States statehood, which continues to the present day...
.
Fort Ross, California
Fort Ross is a former Russian establishment on the Pacific Coast in what is now Sonoma County, California, in the United States. It was the hub of the southernmost Russian settlements in North America in between 1812 to 1841...
in 1812 on the California coast in Sonoma County, California
Sonoma County, California
Sonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....
--just north of San Francisco. This was the southernmost outpost of the Russian-American Company. To keep unwanted Spanish intrusion away the Russians built a palisade
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
d fort equipped with several cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
s. Their objective in setting up Ft. Ross was to harvest fur seal
Fur seal
Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds in the Otariidae family. One species, the northern fur seal inhabits the North Pacific, while seven species in the Arctocephalus genus are found primarily in the Southern hemisphere...
s and sea otter
Sea Otter
The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals...
s and grow grain and vegetables for the use of other Russian trading centers in Russian Alaska
Russian Alaska
Russian America was the name of Russian colonial possessions in the Americas from 1733 to 1867 that today is the U.S. state of Alaska and settlements farther south in California and Hawaii...
. The fur company at Fort Ross typically had a few score Russians with up to 75 Aleut Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
s who harvested (usually under some duress) the fur seal
Fur seal
Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds in the Otariidae family. One species, the northern fur seal inhabits the North Pacific, while seven species in the Arctocephalus genus are found primarily in the Southern hemisphere...
s and sea otter
Sea Otter
The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals...
s from their kayak
Kayak
A kayak is a small, relatively narrow, human-powered boat primarily designed to be manually propelled by means of a double blade paddle.The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler...
s on or near the Farallon Islands
Farallon Islands
The Farallon Islands, or Farallones , are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, USA. They lie outside the Golden Gate and south of Point Reyes, and are visible from the mainland on clear days...
, the Channel Islands of California
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...
and in the ports and bays around San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
. The Aleuts of Russian Alaska
Russian Alaska
Russian America was the name of Russian colonial possessions in the Americas from 1733 to 1867 that today is the U.S. state of Alaska and settlements farther south in California and Hawaii...
probably had the largest effect on the Channel islands and its people. These otter-hunters from the Aleutian Islands set up camps on the surrounding Channel Islands and traded with the native peoples in exchange for permission to hunt otters and seals around the island.
American fur trader John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor , born Johann Jakob Astor, was a German-American business magnate and investor who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States...
built Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria was the Pacific Fur Company's primary fur trading post in the Northwest, and was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast. After a short two-year term of US ownership, the British owned and operated it for 33 years. It was the first British port on the Pacific coast...
on the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
in 1811. Under pressure brought by the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
Astor sold the fort to what would become the The British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
. In 1830 Hudson Bay Co. built a new Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading outpost along the Columbia River that served as the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the company's Columbia District...
slightly up the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
in the future Washington state
Washington State
Washington State may refer to:* Washington , often referred to as "Washington state" to differentiate it from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States* Washington State University, a land-grant college in that state- See also :...
. This fort was the main supply depot for Hudson Bay forts in all the Pacific Northwest. Within a few years they were growing quantities of wheat, constructed saw and flour mills, and yearly shipped lumber to the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
and flour to Sitka, Alaska. They were resupplied every year by two to three ships that brought trading supplies around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
from England.
Sea otter
Sea Otter
The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals...
s and fur seals were severely depleted on the California coast and islands by the 1820s. Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
entered the coast trade in the 1820s with the intention of driving the Americans away. This was accomplished by about 1840 just as the fur trade industry started dying due to lack of supply and a style change in felt
Felt
Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woollen fibres. While some types of felt are very soft, some are tough enough to form construction materials. Felt can be of any colour, and made into any shape or size....
hats—felt was made from fur. In its late period the maritime fur trade
Maritime Fur Trade
The Maritime Fur Trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese...
was largely conducted by the British Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
and the Russian-American Company
Russian-American Company
The Russian-American Company was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the so-called Shelekhov-Golikov Company of Grigory Shelekhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov The Russian-American Company (officially: Under His Imperial Majesty's Highest Protection (patronage)...
. The depleted supply of sea otters and the easy trade with the British in Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading outpost along the Columbia River that served as the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the company's Columbia District...
for food stuffs led the Russians to abandon Fort Ross, California
Fort Ross, California
Fort Ross is a former Russian establishment on the Pacific Coast in what is now Sonoma County, California, in the United States. It was the hub of the southernmost Russian settlements in North America in between 1812 to 1841...
in 1841 and sell the cannon and other supplies to John Augustus Sutter. The Hudson Bay Company departed from their trading post they had set up in San Francisco in 1845 because of the declining fur trade and the death of their agent there.
The United States Exploring Expedition
United States Exploring Expedition
The United States Exploring Expedition was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States from 1838 to 1842. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones. The voyage was authorized by Congress in...
(1838–1842) was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean ("the Southern Seas") conducted by the United States Navy to learn more about the Pacific Ocean and its ports. The expedition with five ships was authorized by Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
in 1836. It is sometimes called the "Ex. Ex." for short, or "the Wilkes Expedition" in honor of its next appointed commanding officer, U.S. Navy Lt. Charles Wilkes
Charles Wilkes
Charles Wilkes was an American naval officer and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 and commanded the ship in the Trent Affair during the American Civil War...
(1798–1877). The expedition was of major importance to the growth of oceanography
Oceanography
Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...
and cartography
Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
of the Pacific. Two of these ships were lost from accidents—one on the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
in 1841. From the area of modern-day Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, an overland party headed by George F. Emmons
George F. Emmons
George Foster Emmons was a rear admiral of the United States Navy, who served in the early to mid 19th century.-Biography:Born in Clarendon, Vermont, Emmons began his distinguished career as a midshipman on 1 April 1828...
was directed to proceed via an inland route to San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
. This Emmons party traveled south along the Siskiyou Trail
Siskiyou Trail
The Siskiyou Trail stretched from California's Central Valley to Oregon's Willamette Valley; modern-day Interstate 5 follows this pioneer path...
, including the Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
, making the first official recorded visit by Americans to and scientific note of Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta is located at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California and at is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California...
, in northern California. The Emmons party rejoined the ships, which had sailed south, in San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
. After their return Wilkes published the major scientific works Western America, including California and Oregon (1849) and Theory of the Winds (1856).
The Pacific Squadron
Pacific Squadron
The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval supplies and purchased food and obtained water from local...
, established 1821, was part of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships
Combat stores ship
Combat stores ships, or Storeships were originally a designation given to captured ships in the Age of Sail and immediately afterward, used to stow supplies and other goods for naval purposes. Modern combat store ships are operated by the United States Navy...
which provided naval supplies and purchased fresh supplies of food, wood and water from local ports of call in California, Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
and ports and harbors on the Pacific Coast
Pacific Coast
A country's Pacific coast is the part of its coast bordering the Pacific Ocean.-The Americas:Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western border.* Geography of Canada* Geography of Chile* Geography of Colombia...
. The Pacific Squadron
Pacific Squadron
The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval supplies and purchased food and obtained water from local...
was instrumental in the capture of Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
in the Mexican–American War
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known as the First American Intervention, the Mexican War, or the U.S.–Mexican War, was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S...
of 1846 to 1848. After war was declared on 24 April 1846. The American navy with its force of 350-400 U.S. Marines and bluejacket U.S. Navy sailor
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...
s on board several sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s near California were essentially the only significant United States military force on the Pacific coast in the early months of the Mexican–American War. Marines were stationed aboard each warship to assist in close in ship to ship combat for either boarding
Boarding (attack)
Boarding, in its simplest sense, refers to the insertion on to a ship's deck of individuals. However, when it is classified as an attack, in most contexts, it refers to the forcible insertion of personnel that are not members of the crew by another party without the consent of the captain or crew...
or repelling boarders and could be detached for use on land. In addition there were some sailors on each ship that could be detached from each vessel for shore duty and still leave the ship functional though short handed.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. The Battle of Palo Alto
Battle of Palo Alto
The Battle of Palo Alto was the first major battle of the Mexican-American War and was fought on May 8, 1846, on disputed ground five miles from the modern-day city of Brownsville, Texas...
, the first major battle of the Mexican-American War, was fought on May 8, 1846, a few miles from the modern-day city of Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville is a city in the southernmost tip of the state of Texas, in the United States. It is located on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Brownsville is the 16th largest city in the state of Texas with a population of...
. A force of some 3,400 Mexican troops (a portion of the Army of The North) led by Mexican General Mariano Arista
Mariano Arista
Mariano Arista was a noted veteran of many of Mexico's nineteenth century wars who served as president of Mexico from 15 January 1851 to 6 January 1853....
engaged a force of 2,400 United States troops under General Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...
. Taylor's forces drove the Mexicans from the field. The United States Congress responded to these hostilities by issuing a Declaration of War
Declaration of war
A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more states.The legality of who is competent to declare war varies...
against Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
on May 13, 1846—the Mexican-American War had began.
Speculating that war with Mexico over Texas and other land was very possible, the U.S. Navy had sent several additional naval vessels to the Pacific in 1845 to protect U.S. interests there. It took about 200 days, on average, for sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s to travel the greater than 12000 miles (19,312.1 km) trip from the East coast around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
to California. Initially as the war with Mexico started there were five vessels in the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron
Pacific Squadron
The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval supplies and purchased food and obtained water from local...
near California. In 1846 and 1847 this was increased to 13 Navy vessels—over half the U.S. Navy's available ships.
The former fleet surgeon William M. Wood and John Parrot, the American Consul of Mazatlan
Mazatlán
Mazatlán is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa; the surrounding municipio for which the city serves as the municipal seat is Mazatlán Municipality. It is located at on the Pacific coast, across from the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula.Mazatlán is a Nahuatl word meaning...
, arrived in Guadalajara
Guadalajara
Guadalajara may refer to:In Mexico:*Guadalajara, Jalisco, the capital of the state of Jalisco and second largest city in Mexico**Guadalajara Metropolitan Area*University of Guadalajara, a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco...
Mexico on 10 May 1846. There they heard word of the on-going hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico forces and sent a message by special courier back to Commodore Sloat then visiting Mazatlan. On 17 May 1846 this courier's messages informed Commodore Sloat that hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico had commenced. Commodore (Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
) John D. Sloat
John D. Sloat
John Drake Sloat was a commodore in the United States Navy who, in 1846, claimed California for the United States.-Life:...
, commander of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron
Pacific Squadron
The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval supplies and purchased food and obtained water from local...
and his fleet of four vessels were then at anchor in the harbor of Mazatlan
Mazatlán
Mazatlán is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa; the surrounding municipio for which the city serves as the municipal seat is Mazatlán Municipality. It is located at on the Pacific coast, across from the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula.Mazatlán is a Nahuatl word meaning...
Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. On hearing the news Commodore Sloat dispatched his flagship, the Frigate USS Savannah
USS Savannah (1842)
The second USS Savannah was a frigate in the United States Navy. She was named after the city of Savannah, Georgia.Savannah was begun in 1820 at the New York Navy Yard, but she remained on the stocks until 5 May 1842, when she was launched...
, and the Sloop
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
USS Levant
USS Levant (1837)
The first USS Levant was a second-class sloop-of-war in the United States Navy.Levant was launched on 28 December 1837 by New York Navy Yard; and commissioned on 17 March 1838, with Commander Hiram Paulding in command....
to Monterey
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
harbor where they arrived on 2 July 1846. They joined the Sloop
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
USS Cyane
USS Cyane (1837)
The second USS Cyane was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the Mexican-American War.Cyane was launched 2 December 1837 by Boston Navy Yard. She was commissioned in May 1838, Commander John Percival in command....
which was already there. There were U.S. fears that the British might try to annex California to satisfy British creditors. The British Pacific Station
Pacific Station
The Pacific Station, often referred to as the Pacific Squadron, was one of the geographical divisions into which the Royal Navy divided its worldwide responsibilities...
's ships off California were stronger in ships, guns and men.
Hearing rumors of possible Mexican military action against the newly arrived settlers in California (this had already happened in 1840), some settlers decided to neutralize the small Californio
Californio
Californio is a term used to identify a Spanish-speaking Catholic people, regardless of race, born in California before 1848...
garrison at Sonoma, California
Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. It was the capital of the short-lived California Republic...
. On June 15, 1846, some thirty settlers, mostly former American citizens, staged a revolt and seized the small Californio
Californio
Californio is a term used to identify a Spanish-speaking Catholic people, regardless of race, born in California before 1848...
garrison in Sonoma without firing a shot. Initially there was little resistance from anyone in California as they replaced the dysfunctional and ineffective Mexican government—which already had 40 Presidents in the first 24 years of its existence. Most settlers and Californio
Californio
Californio is a term used to identify a Spanish-speaking Catholic people, regardless of race, born in California before 1848...
s were neutral or actively supported the revolt. John A. Sutter and his men and supplies at Sutter’s Fort joined the revolt. They raised the "Bear Flag" of the California Republic
California Republic
The California Republic, also called the Bear Flag Republic, is the name used for a period of revolt against Mexico initially proclaimed by a handful of American settlers in Mexican California on June 14, 1846, in Sonoma. This was shortly before news of the Mexican–American War had reached the area...
over Sonoma. The republic was in existence scarcely more than a week before Frémont returned and took over on June 23 from William B. Ide
William B. Ide
William Brown Ide was a California pioneer and Commander of the short-lived California Republic.-Life:...
the leader of the Bear Flag Revolt. The California state flag of today is based on this original Bear Flag and still contains the words "California Republic".
In 1846 the U.S. Navy was under orders to take over all California ports in the event of war. There were about 400–500 U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy bluejacket sailor
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...
s available for possible land action on the Pacific Squadron
Pacific Squadron
The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval supplies and purchased food and obtained water from local...
’s ships. Hearing word of the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma, California
Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. It was the capital of the short-lived California Republic...
and the arrival of the large British 2,600 ton, 600 man, man-of-war HMS Collingwood (1841)
HMS Collingwood (1841)
HMS Collingwood was an 80-gun two-deck second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 August 1841 at Pembroke Dockyard.She was fitted with screw propulsion in 1861, and sold out of the navy in 1867.-References:...
, flagship under Sir George S. Seymour, outside Monterey Harbor, Commodore Sloat was finally stirred to action. On 7 July 1846—seven weeks after war had been declared, Commodore John D. Sloat
John D. Sloat
John Drake Sloat was a commodore in the United States Navy who, in 1846, claimed California for the United States.-Life:...
instructed the Captains of the ships:USS Savannah
USS Savannah (1842)
The second USS Savannah was a frigate in the United States Navy. She was named after the city of Savannah, Georgia.Savannah was begun in 1820 at the New York Navy Yard, but she remained on the stocks until 5 May 1842, when she was launched...
and Sloops: USS Cyane
USS Cyane (1837)
The second USS Cyane was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the Mexican-American War.Cyane was launched 2 December 1837 by Boston Navy Yard. She was commissioned in May 1838, Commander John Percival in command....
and USS Levant
USS Levant (1837)
The first USS Levant was a second-class sloop-of-war in the United States Navy.Levant was launched on 28 December 1837 by New York Navy Yard; and commissioned on 17 March 1838, with Commander Hiram Paulding in command....
of the Pacific Squadron
Pacific Squadron
The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval supplies and purchased food and obtained water from local...
in Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....
to occupy Monterey, California
Battle of Monterey
-Preliminaries:Prior to the Mexican-American War the Californio forces had already driven the Mexican appointed Governor Manuel Micheltorena and most of his soldiers from Alta California...
—the Alta California capital. Fifty American marines and about 100 bluejacket sailors landed and captured the city without incident—the few Californio troops formerly there having already evacuated the city. They raised the flag of the United States
Flag of the United States
The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...
without firing a shot. The only shots fired were a 21 gun salute to the new U.S. Flag fired by each of the U.S. Navy ships in the harbor. The British ships observed but took no action—getting a message to and from Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
requesting new orders to interfere would have taken from one to two years.
The abandoned Presidio
Presidio
A presidio is a fortified base established by the Spanish in North America between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The fortresses were built to protect against pirates, hostile native Americans and enemy colonists. Other presidios were held by Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth...
and Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions...
(Mission Dolores) at San Francisco, (then called Yerba Buena
Yerba Buena
Yerba buena is a rambling aromatic herb of western and northwestern North America, ranging from maritime Alaska southwards to Baja California Sur...
), was occupied without firing a shot on 9 July 1846 by U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy sailors from the Sloop
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
USS Portsmouth (1843). Militia Captain Thomas Fallon
Thomas Fallon
Thomas Fallon was an Irish-born, Canadian-raised American capitalist and politician, the tenth Mayor of San Jose, California.-Biography:...
led a small force of about 22 men from Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
and captured the small town of Pueblo de San Jose
History of San Jose, California
-Site chosen by De Anza:For thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers, the area now known as San Jose was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans...
without bloodshed on 11 July 1846. Fallon received an American flag from Commodore John D. Sloat, and raised it over the pueblo on July 14. On 15 July 1846, Commodore (Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
) John D. Sloat
John D. Sloat
John Drake Sloat was a commodore in the United States Navy who, in 1846, claimed California for the United States.-Life:...
transferred his command of the Pacific Squadron
Pacific Squadron
The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval supplies and purchased food and obtained water from local...
to Commodore Robert F. Stockton
Robert F. Stockton
Robert Field Stockton was a United States naval commodore, notable in the capture of California during the Mexican-American War. He was a naval innovator and an early advocate for a propeller-driven, steam-powered navy. Stockton was from a notable political family and also served as a U.S...
when Stockton's ship, the Frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
USS Congress (1841)
USS Congress (1841)
USS Congress — the fourth United States Navy ship to carry that name — was a sailing frigate, like her predecessor, .Congress served with distinction in the Mediterranean, South Atlantic Ocean, and in the Pacific Ocean...
, arrived from the Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. Stockton, a much more aggressive leader, asked Fremont to form a joint force of Fremont’s soldiers, scouts, guides etc. and a volunteer militia—many former Bear Flag Revolters. This unit called the California Battalion
California Battalion
The first California Volunteer Militia was commonly called the California Battalion was organized by John C. Fremont during the Mexican-American War in Alta California, present day California, United States.-Formation:...
was mustered into U.S. service and were paid regular army wages. On July 19, Frémont's newly formed "California Battalion
California Battalion
The first California Volunteer Militia was commonly called the California Battalion was organized by John C. Fremont during the Mexican-American War in Alta California, present day California, United States.-Formation:...
" swelled to about 160 men. These men included Fremont's 30 topographical men and their 30 scouts and hunters, U.S. Marine Lieutenant Archibald H. Gillespie
Archibald H. Gillespie
Major Archibald H. Gillespie was an officer in the United States Marine Corps during the Mexican-American War....
, a U.S. Navy officer to handle their two cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
s, a company of Indians trained by Sutter and many other permanent California settlers from several different countries as well as American settlers. The California Battalion members were used mainly to garrison and keep order in the rapidly surrendering California towns. The Navy went down the coast from San Francisco, occupying ports without resistance as they went. The small pueblo (town) of San Diego surrendered 29 July 1846 without a shot being fired. The small pueblo (town) of Santa Barbara surrendered without a shot being fired in August 1846. On 13 August 1846 a joint force of U.S. Marines, bluejacket sailors and parts of Fremont’s California Battalion carried by the USS Cyane (1837)
USS Cyane (1837)
The second USS Cyane was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the Mexican-American War.Cyane was launched 2 December 1837 by Boston Navy Yard. She was commissioned in May 1838, Commander John Percival in command....
entered Los Angeles, California with flags flying and band playing. Captain Archibald H. Gillespie
Archibald H. Gillespie
Major Archibald H. Gillespie was an officer in the United States Marine Corps during the Mexican-American War....
, (Fremont's second in command), with a inadequate force of 40 to 50 men were left to occupy and keep order in the largest town (about 3,500) in Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
—Los Angeles.
On July 11 the British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
sloop HMS Juno enters San Francisco Bay causing Montgomery to man his defenses. The large British ship, 2,600 ton, man-of-war HMS Collingwood
HMS Collingwood (1841)
HMS Collingwood was an 80-gun two-deck second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 August 1841 at Pembroke Dockyard.She was fitted with screw propulsion in 1861, and sold out of the navy in 1867.-References:...
, flagship under Sir George S. Seymour, also shows up about this time outside Monterey Harbor. Both British ships observe, but did not enter the conflict.
Shortly after July 9 when it became clear the American Navy was taking action, the short-lived Bear Flag Republic
California Republic
The California Republic, also called the Bear Flag Republic, is the name used for a period of revolt against Mexico initially proclaimed by a handful of American settlers in Mexican California on June 14, 1846, in Sonoma. This was shortly before news of the Mexican–American War had reached the area...
was converted into a United States military conflict for possession of California and the Bear Flag (the basis for today's California Flag
California Flag
California Flag is a thoroughbred racehorse, foaled at Hi Card Ranch on February 19, 2004. He is sired by Avenue of Flags, a son of Seattle Slew, out of the Afleet mare Ultrafleet....
) was replaced by the U.S. Flag. Fremont expeditionary forces joined forces with a volunteer force of California residents to form a small volunteer militia. The frigate USS Congress
USS Congress (1841)
USS Congress — the fourth United States Navy ship to carry that name — was a sailing frigate, like her predecessor, .Congress served with distinction in the Mediterranean, South Atlantic Ocean, and in the Pacific Ocean...
was the flagship of Commodore
Commodore (rank)
Commodore is a military rank used in many navies that is superior to a navy captain, but below a rear admiral. Non-English-speaking nations often use the rank of flotilla admiral or counter admiral as an equivalent .It is often regarded as a one-star rank with a NATO code of OF-6, but is not always...
Robert F. Stockton
Robert F. Stockton
Robert Field Stockton was a United States naval commodore, notable in the capture of California during the Mexican-American War. He was a naval innovator and an early advocate for a propeller-driven, steam-powered navy. Stockton was from a notable political family and also served as a U.S...
when he took over as the senior United States military commander in California in late July 1846. Stockton asked Fremont to muster the troops and volunteers under his command into the California Battalion
California Battalion
The first California Volunteer Militia was commonly called the California Battalion was organized by John C. Fremont during the Mexican-American War in Alta California, present day California, United States.-Formation:...
to help garrison the towns rapidly being captured from the Californios. Most towns surrendered without a shot being fired. Fremont's California Battalion members were sworn in and the volunteers paid the regular United States Army salary of $25.00 a month for privates with higher pay for officers. The California Battalion varied in size with time from about 160 initially to over 450 by January 1847. Pacific Squadron war ships and storeship
Combat stores ship
Combat stores ships, or Storeships were originally a designation given to captured ships in the Age of Sail and immediately afterward, used to stow supplies and other goods for naval purposes. Modern combat store ships are operated by the United States Navy...
s served as floating store houses keeping Fremont's volunteer force in the California Battalion supplied with black powder, lead shot
Lead shot
Lead shot is a collective term for small balls of lead. These were the original projectiles for muskets and early rifles, but today lead shot is fired primarily from shotguns. It is also used for a variety of other purposes...
and supplies as well as transporting them to different California ports. The USS Cyane
USS Cyane (1837)
The second USS Cyane was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the Mexican-American War.Cyane was launched 2 December 1837 by Boston Navy Yard. She was commissioned in May 1838, Commander John Percival in command....
transported Fremont and about 160 of his men to the small port of San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
which was captured on 29 July 1846 without a shot being fired.
A minor Californio revolt broke out in Los Angeles and the United States force there of 40–50 men evacuated the city for a time. Later, U.S.forces fought minor scrimmages in the Battle of San Pasqual
Battle of San Pasqual
The Battle of San Pasqual, also spelled San Pascual, was a military encounter that occurred during the Mexican-American War in what is now the San Pasqual Valley community of the city of San Diego, California. On December 6 and December 7, 1846, General Stephen W...
, the Battle of Dominguez Rancho
Battle of Dominguez Rancho
The Battle of Dominguez Rancho or The Battle of the Old Woman's Gun was a military engagement of the Mexican-American War...
, and the Battle of Rio San Gabriel
Battle of Rio San Gabriel
The Battle of Rio San Gabriel fought on January 8, 1847 was a decisive action of the California campaign of the Mexican-American War and occurred at a ford of the San Gabriel River, at what are today parts of the cities of Whittier, Pico Rivera and Montebello, about ten miles south-east of downtown...
. After the Los Angeles revolt started the California Battalion was expanded to a force of about 400 men. In early January 1847 a 600 man joint force of U.S. Marine, U.S. Navy bluejacket sailors, General Stephen W. Kearny
Stephen W. Kearny
Stephen Watts Kearny surname also appears as Kearney in some historic sources; August 30, 1794 October 31, 1848), was one of the foremost antebellum frontier officers of the United States Army. He is remembered for his significant contributions in the Mexican-American War, especially the conquest...
's 80 U.S. Army dragoons (cavalrymen) and about two companies of Fremont's California Battalion
California Battalion
The first California Volunteer Militia was commonly called the California Battalion was organized by John C. Fremont during the Mexican-American War in Alta California, present day California, United States.-Formation:...
re-occupied Los Angeles after some minor skirmishes—after four months the same U.S. Flag again flew over Los Angeles. The minor armed resistance in California ceased when the Californios signed the Treaty of Cahuenga
Treaty of Cahuenga
The Treaty of Cahuenga, also called the "Capitulation of Cahuenga," ended the fighting of the Mexican-American War in Alta California in 1847. It was not a formal treaty between nations but an informal agreement between rival military forces in which the Californios gave up fighting...
on January 13, 1847. The Californios who had wrested control of California from Mexico in 1845 now had a new government.
After the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed, the Pacific Squadron
Pacific Squadron
The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval supplies and purchased food and obtained water from local...
then went on to capture all Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
cities and harbors and sink or capture all the Mexican Pacific Navy they could find. Baja California was returned to Mexico in subsequent Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
negotiations. More reinforcements of about 320 soldiers (and a few women) of the Mormon Battalion
Mormon Battalion
The Mormon Battalion was the only religiously based unit in United States military history, and it served from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican-American War. The battalion was a volunteer unit of between 534 and 559 Latter-day Saints men led by Mormon company officers, commanded by regular...
arrived at San Diego, California on 28 January 1847—after hostilities had ceased. They had been recruited from the Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
camps on the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
—about 2000 miles (3,218.7 km) away. These troops were recruited with the understanding they would be discharged in California with their weapons. Most were discharged before July 1847. More reinforcements in the form of Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson
Jonathan D. Stevenson
Jonathan Drake Stevenson was born in New York; won a seat in the New York State Assembly ; was the commanding officer of the First Regiment of New York Volunteers during the Mexican-American War in California; entered California mining and real estate businesses; and died in San Francisco on...
's 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers
1st Regiment of New York Volunteers
1st Regiment of New York Volunteers, for service in California and during the war with Mexico, was raised in 1846 during the Mexican American War by Jonathan D. Stevenson. Accepted by the United States Army on August 1846 the 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers was transported around Cape Horn to...
of about 648 men showed up in March–April 1847—again after hostilities had ceased. Three private merchant ships, Thomas H Perkins, Loo Choo, and Susan Drew, were chartered, and the sloop USS Preble
USS Preble (1839)
USS Preble was a United States Navy sloop-of-war with 16 guns, built by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, launched June 13, 1839 and commissioned in 1840. She was named after Commodore Edward Preble ....
was assigned convoy detail. On 26 September the four ships left New York
History of New York
The history of New York begins around 10,000 BCE, when the first Native Americans arrived. By 1100 CE, New York's main tribes, the Iroquoian and Algonquian cultures, had developed. New York was discovered by the French in 1524 and first claimed in 1609 by the Dutch...
for California. Fifty men who had been left behind for various reasons sailed on 13 November 1846 on the small storeship USS Brutus. The Susan Drew and Loo Choo reached Valparaiso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
by 20 January 1847 and after getting fresh supplies, water and wood were on their way again by 23 January. The Perkins did not stop until San Francisco, reaching port on 6 March 1847. The Susan Drew arrived on 20 March 1847 and the Loo Choo arrived on 26 March 1847, 183 days after leaving New York. The Brutus finally arrived on 17 April 1847. After desertions and deaths in transit, four ships brought Stevenson's 648 men to California. Initially they took over all of the Pacific Squadron's on-shore military and garrison duties and the Mormon Battalion and California Battalion's garrison duties. The New York Volunteer companies were deployed from San Francisco in Alta California to La Paz, Mexico in Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
. The ship Isabella sailed from Philadelphia on 16 August 1847, with a detachment of one hundred soldiers, and arrived in California on 18 February 1848, the following year, at about the same time that the ship Sweden arrived with another detachment of soldiers. These soldiers were added to the existing companies of Stevenson's 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers
1st Regiment of New York Volunteers
1st Regiment of New York Volunteers, for service in California and during the war with Mexico, was raised in 1846 during the Mexican American War by Jonathan D. Stevenson. Accepted by the United States Army on August 1846 the 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers was transported around Cape Horn to...
. These troops were recruited with the understanding they would discharged in California. When gold was discovered in late January 1848, many of Stevenson's troops deserted.
California Gold Rush Shipping
The first to hear confirmed information of the California Gold RushCalifornia Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
were the people in Oregon
History of Oregon
The history of Oregon, a U.S. state, may be considered in five eras: geologic history, inhabitation by native peoples, early exploration by Europeans , settlement by pioneers, and modern development....
, the Sandwich Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
(Hawaii), Mexico, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
and Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and they were the first to start flocking to the state in late 1848. By the end of 1848, some 6,000 Argonauts had come to California. President James K. Polk
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...
made the “official” announcement of the discovery of gold in California during his State of the Union Address on December 5, 1848 and displayed about 300 ounces of California gold at the War Department. Excitement grew as rumors, reports of officers and soldiers in California, newspaper accounts all seemed to confirm that there was a tremendous amount of gold in California—waiting to be picked up and the ease of getting it. Sam Brannan, publisher of the Alta California at San Francisco, is regarded as starting the "Gold Rush" with stories about the amount of gold throughout late 1848 and 1849. He then became California's first millionaire by "mining the miners" with the sale of provisions. These “forty-niners” left behind families and jobs in the hope of instant wealth. A few succeeded, but the gold fields destroyed some and disappointed many more. Americans and foreigners of many different countries, statuses, classes, and races rushed to California for gold. Almost all (~96%) were young men under 40. Women in the California Gold Rush
Women in the California Gold Rush
Women in California Gold Rush were scarce but played an important role. Some of the first people in the mining fields were wives and families who were already in California. A few women and children worked right alongside the men but most men left their wives and families home...
were few and had many opportunities to do new things and take on new tasks in women poor California. Argonauts
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
, as they were often called, walked over the California Trail
California Trail
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California...
or came by sea. About 80,000 Argonauts arrived in 1849 alone—about 40,000 over the California trail and 40,000 by sea. In April 1850, a harbor master’s estimate counted 62,000 people from across the globe arriving in San Francisco by ship in the preceding 12 months. Hundreds of ships lay abandoned, anchored in San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
, their passengers and crews out searching for gold. According to Golden State historian Riccardo Gaudino, the Napa Valley became the first wheat granary, not only for the food staple, but also growing barley and hops to fill the demand of these thirsty men who wanted to drink beer.
A popular concept of the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
portrays the overland migration by wagon, yet according to the evidence, more people journeyed by sea. A significant factor in this maritime traffic was cargo—supplies, food, tools, lumber etc. for miners and an expanding population. Sea transport was about the only way cargo of any kind could be delivered to California. Carrying material cross country by wagon over 2000 miles (3,218.7 km) of bad road was a slow, costly process that was seldom done. Research documents show that there were more Portuguese whalers off the California coast than population on the ranchos. In 1846, the first European rural labor was imported to the Pacific from the Portuguese Azores for farm labor on the Sandwich Islands. Not until the Transcontinental Railroad
Transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies...
was completed in 1869 was there any easy way to move cargo across land to California. Even today, bulky or heavy heavy cargo is usually sent by ship because it is cheap and efficient, though slower than other methods.
Some enterprising migrants set up businesses to furnish, feed, and entertain the region’s growing population. Merchants were more likely to prosper than prospectors. Failed miners became settlers, and San Francisco boomed. The population of California grew from 8,000 in 1846 to about 120,000 in 1850. The majority of the California Argonauts (as they were frequently called) were young Anglo men from the United States. But many were Latins from Chile and Lima-Peru: a mix of indiginents, Spanish, seafaring Genovese Italians and Jewish traders. Those on the East Coast, who could afford the accommodations and bordellos, traveled with sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s via New Orleans, Mexico and Central America routes to California. Those who lacked the wealth usually went by wagon, as they had the self-reliant experience and often the supplies and equipment for a long wagon trip.
There were three main ways to get to California by land in 1848 and later: overland by wagon train from the California Trail
California Trail
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California...
, across the desert via the Gila Trail or, for winter travel, by the Salt Lake City to Los Angeles Trail. All land routes were restricted to the seasons where travel was feasible. The trip by wagon was a four to six month ordeal across over 2000 miles (3,218.7 km) of land from a Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
town to California or across the deserts of Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
or Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
. Those going by wagon train could not leave until the trails were dry and enough grass had started to feed their livestock—usually early May.
The Paddlewheel Steamer
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s of several different types. Clipper
Clipper
A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area...
s, and Paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
s with paddles mounted on the side or rear. River steam boats typically used rear mounted paddles and had flat bottoms and shallow hulls designed to carry large loads on generally smooth and occasionally shallow rivers. Ocean going paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
s typically used side wheeled paddles and used narrower deeper hulls designed to travel in the often stormy weather encountered at sea. The ship hull
Hull (watercraft)
A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
design was often based on the Clipper
Clipper
A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area...
ship design with extra bracing to support the loads and strains imposed by the paddle wheels when they encountered rough water.
The first paddle-steamer to make a long ocean voyage was the 320 ton 98 feet (29.9 m) long Savannah, built in 1819 expressly for packet ship
Packet ship
A "packet ship" was originally a vessel employed to carry post office mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. In sea transport, a packet service is a regular, scheduled service, carrying freight and passengers...
mail and passenger service to and from Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. On May 22, 1819, the watch on the Savannah sighted Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
after 23 days at sea. The Allaire Iron Works
Allaire Iron Works
The Allaire Iron Works was a leading 19th-century American marine engineering company based in New York City. Founded in 1816 by engineer and philanthropist James P...
of New York supplied Savannah's
Speedwell Ironworks
Speedwell Ironworks was an ironworks in Speedwell, New Jersey, USA, just north of Morristown, New Jersey. It is on Speedwell Avenue, part of U.S. Route 202...
of New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. The 90-horsepower low-pressure engine was of the inclined direct-acting type, with a single 40 inches (101.6 cm) cylinder and a 5 feet (1.5 m) stroke. Savannah
The SS Savannah was too small to carry much fuel and the engine was intended only for use in calm weather and to get in and out of harbors. Under favorable winds the sails alone were able to provide a speed of at least four knots. The SS Savannah
SS Savannah
SS Savannah was an American hybrid sailing ship/sidewheel steamer built in 1818. She is notable for being the first steamship in the world to cross the Atlantic Ocean, a feat that was accomplished from May to June 1819, although only a fraction of the distance was covered with the ship under steam...
was judged not a commercial success and its engine was removed and it was converted back to a regular sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
. By 1848 steamboats built by both United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
shipbuilders were already in use for mail and passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
—a 3000 miles (4,828 km) journey.
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
s typically required from 5 to 16 tons of coal per day to keep their engines running, they were more expensive to run. Initially, nearly all sea going steamboats were equipped with mast and sails to supplement the steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
power and provide power for occasions when the steam engine needed repair or maintenance. These steamships typically concentrated on high value cargo, mail and passengers and only had moderate cargo capabilities because of their required loads of coal. The typical paddle wheel steamship was powered by a coal burning engine that required firemen to shovel the coal to the burners.
By 1849 the screw propeller
Propeller
A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's...
had been invented and was slowly being introduced as iron increasingly was used in ship construction and the stress introduced by propellers could be compensated for. As the 1800s progressed the timber and lumber needed to make wooden ships got ever more expensive and the iron plate needed for iron ship construction got much cheaper as the massive iron works at Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is a town in Wales, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales. It also gives its name to a county borough, which has a population of around 55,000. It is located in the historic county of...
Wales, for example, got ever more efficient. The propeller put a lot of stress on the rear of the ships and would not see large spread use till the conversion from wood boats to iron boats was complete—well underway by 1860. By the 1840s the ocean going steam ship industry was well established as the Cunard Line
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
and others demonstrated.
Starting in 1848 Congress had subsidized the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants, William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland...
with $199,999 to set up regular packet ship
Packet ship
A "packet ship" was originally a vessel employed to carry post office mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. In sea transport, a packet service is a regular, scheduled service, carrying freight and passengers...
, mail, passenger and cargo routes in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. This was to be a regular scheduled route from Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
to and from San Francisco and Oregon
History of Oregon
The history of Oregon, a U.S. state, may be considered in five eras: geologic history, inhabitation by native peoples, early exploration by Europeans , settlement by pioneers, and modern development....
. The Atlantic Ocean mail contract from East Coast cities and New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
to and from the Chagres River
Chagres River
The Chagres River is a river in central Panama. The central part of the river is dammed by the Gatun Dam and forms Gatun Lake, an artificial lake that constitutes part of the Panama Canal. Upstream lies the Madden Dam, creating the Alajuala Lake that is also part of the Canal water system...
in Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
was won by the United States Mail Steamship Company
United States Mail Steamship Company
The United States Mail Steamship Company – also called the United States Mail Line, or the U.S. Mail Line – was a passenger steamship line formed in 1920 by the United States Shipping Board to run the USSB's fleet of ex-German ocean liners that had been seized by the United States during World War...
whose first steamship, the SS Falcon (1848') was dispatched on 1 December 1848 to the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
terminus of the Isthmus of Panama
Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal...
trail—the Chagres River
Chagres River
The Chagres River is a river in central Panama. The central part of the river is dammed by the Gatun Dam and forms Gatun Lake, an artificial lake that constitutes part of the Panama Canal. Upstream lies the Madden Dam, creating the Alajuala Lake that is also part of the Canal water system...
. The SS California (1848)
SS California (1848)
The SS California was one of the first steamships, to steam in the Pacific Ocean and the first steamship to travel from Central America to North America. She was built for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company which was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company in the State of New York by a...
, the first Pacific Mail Steamship Company
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants, William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland...
steamship, showed up in San Francisco, loaded with about twice the passengers it had been designed for, on February 28, 1849. It had made the trip from Panama and Mexico after steaming around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
from New York
History of New York
The history of New York begins around 10,000 BCE, when the first Native Americans arrived. By 1100 CE, New York's main tribes, the Iroquoian and Algonquian cultures, had developed. New York was discovered by the French in 1524 and first claimed in 1609 by the Dutch...
. Other steamships soon followed and by late 1849 paddle wheel steamships like the SS Mckim (1848) were carrying miners the 125 miles (201.2 km) trip from San Francisco up the extensive Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta to Stockton, California
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
, Marysville, California
Marysville, California
Marysville is the county seat of Yuba County, California, United States. The population was 12,072 at the 2010 census, down from 12,268 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistical Area, often referred to as the Yuba-Sutter Area after the two counties, Yuba and...
, Sacramento
History of Sacramento, California
The history of Sacramento, California, began with its founding by Samuel Brannan and John Augustus Sutter, Jr. in 1848 around an embarcadero that his father, John Sutter, Senior constructed at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers a few years prior.Before the arrival of Europeans,...
, etc. to get about 125 miles (201.2 km) closer to the gold fields. Steam powered tugboat
Tugboat
A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...
s and towboat
Towboat
Not to be confused with the historic boat type with the same name, also called horse-drawn boat.A towboat is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. Towboats are characterized by a square bow with steel knees for pushing and powerful engines...
s started working in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
soon after this to expedite shipping in and out of the bay.
As the passenger, mail and high value freight business to and from California boomed more and more paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
s were brought into service—eleven by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants, William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland...
alone. About 20% of the California Argonauts are thought to have returned to their homes, mostly on the East Coast of the United States. Some returned with their wives
Wife
A wife is a female partner in a marriage. The rights and obligations of the wife regarding her spouse and others, and her status in the community and in law, varies between cultures and has varied over time.-Origin and etymology:...
, family and/or sweethearts. Most used the Panama Route. Between the 1849 and 1869 when the First Transcontinental Railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
was completed across the United States about 800,000 travelers used the Panama route. Most of the millions of dollars of gold that was found in California were shipped East via the Panama route on paddle steamers. After 1855 when the Panama Railroad was completed the Panama Route was the quickest and easiest way to get to or from California. The sinking of the Central America loaded with gold influenced the US Congress to pass the transcontinental railroad legislation.
The Sailing ships
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s that had been developed and refined over centuries of use were the cheapest and the slowest transports available. There were several types of sailing ships. They had typically been optimized to carry a large amount of cargo using a small crew of about 20 men and utilized sails in a combination of fore and aft riging and square rig
Square rig
Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which the primary driving sails are carried on horizontal spars which are perpendicular, or square, to the keel of the vessel and to the masts. These spars are called yards and their tips, beyond the last stay, are called the yardarms...
ging. Unless the cargo was time sensitive, they were utilized for nearly all long distance shipping and passenger service. At the end of the sailing era windjammers were developed to carry large volumes of low value cargo long distances. Some of the most popular ships were four-masted barques, since the four-masted barque is considered the most efficient rig available because of its ease of handling, small need of manpower, good running capabilities, and good capabilities of rising toward wind.
Once in San Francisco the crews often deserted the ships. The ship owners found little cargo of value to ship back to the East Coast out of California and the ships often went back in ballast
Sailing ballast
Ballast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. Insufficiently ballasted boats will tend to tip, or heel, excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the boat capsizing. If a sailing vessel should need to voyage without cargo then ballast of...
with a cargo of useless rocks. Since many of the ships were older and required expensive maintenance and crews were very hard to find and/or very expensive many hundreds of vessels were simply abandoned or sold at very low cost in San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
. Others were converted into store ships or floating warehouses, stores, hotels, prisons, etc.. Some abandoned ships were bought cheap, filled with ballast and sunk on the mud flats at high tide to enlarge the available wharves
Wharf
A wharf or quay is a structure on the shore of a harbor where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.Such a structure includes one or more berths , and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships.A wharf commonly comprises a fixed...
and docks. The ships were typically stripped of her upper works and all usable fittings by one of San Francisco's many marine salvage firms of Gold Rush days and then covered with debris and sand as developers filled in the mud flats on the bay and built wharves
Wharf
A wharf or quay is a structure on the shore of a harbor where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.Such a structure includes one or more berths , and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships.A wharf commonly comprises a fixed...
out to deeper water to accommodate docking ships. By 1857 nearly all abandoned shipping in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
that had not been re-used was sent to a marine salvage or ship breaking
Ship breaking
Ship breaking or ship demolition is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for scrap recycling. Most ships have a lifespan of a few decades before there is so much wear that refitting and repair becomes uneconomical. Ship breaking allows materials from the ship, especially...
firms where all usable fixtures, anchors, etc. were removed, the copper bottom (about 8000 pounds (3,628.7 kg) of copper) salvaged and the timbers were removed and set aside for other uses. The rapidly expanding city of San Francisco needed room to store all of the incoming goods and much larger dockside facilities—there were none when California was annexed. There initially was not time to build adequate warehouses, wharves, docks on the water front. In early September 2001, the General Harrison, was discovered at the northwest corner of Battery and Clay streets during construction. She was built in 1840 in Newburyport, Massachusetts
Newburyport, Massachusetts
Newburyport is a small coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, 35 miles northeast of Boston. The population was 21,189 at the 2000 census. A historic seaport with a vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island...
and abandoned sometime before 1850 and turned into a store ship (warehouse). She was 126.1 feet (38.4 m) long, 26.5 feet (8.1 m) wide, 13.25 feet (4 m) in depth and
displaced 409 tons. She was burned to the water line in one of San Francisco's early fires. The remains, including some of the stores on board, were filled with sand and built over.
The average realized speed for the typical sailing ship was about 3.5 miles (5.6 km)per hour, the Clippers could often reach about 10 miles (16.1 km)per hour of realized speed with steam ships averaging about 8 miles (12.9 km)per hour. The trips by steamship to Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
and Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Philadelphia and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
were about 2600 miles (4,184.3 km) long and took about two weeks. Trips across the Isthmus of Panama
Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal...
or Nicaragua typically took about one week. The 4000 miles (6,437.4 km) trip to San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
could be done by side wheel steamer in about three weeks. In addition to this travel time via the Panama route typically had a two to four week waiting period to find a ship going from Panama City, Panama to San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. Once in San Francisco the Argonauts typically took a steamer (starting in1849) to Stockton, California
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
or Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
to get closer to the gold fields.
The Clippers
The ClipperClipper
A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area...
s, developed and mainly used between about 1840 and 1860 were some of the last and “best” commercial sailing ships invented. The Clippers had more sails and faster hulls and were some of the fastest sailing ships ever developed. The Clippers required a larger crew to man the larger expanse of sails and typically carried high value cargo with few passenger accommodations. Under ideal conditions Clippers have been logged at over 20 mile per hour—covering over 450 miles (724.2 km) in one day. The average speed over a long journey was about 8 mile per hour. The typical Clipper carried high value, large volume cargo and normally carried only about six passengers. They competed with the paddle steamers on the shorter Panama, Nicaragua, and Mexican routes. Because of their shorter runs these paddle steamers were faster but much more costly to run and typically only took high value cargo like passengers, mail and gold shipments. Clippers averaged about 120 days passage on the about 17000 miles (27,358.8 km) trip between East Coast cities and San Francisco—about 80 days faster to travel the conventional sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s.
In 1845 the Rainbow
Rainbow (clipper)
The Rainbow, launched in New York in 1845 to sail in the China trade for the firm Howland & Aspinwall, was the first extreme clipper ship.-The first extreme clipper ship:...
, 757 tons OM, the first extreme clipper
Extreme clipper
An extreme clipper is a clipper designed to sacrifice cargo capacity for speed. They had a bow lengthened above the water, a drawing out and sharpening of the forward body, and the greatest breadth further aft. Extreme clippers were built in the period 1845 to 1855.-Medium and extreme clippers:From...
was launched in New York. These American clippers were larger vessels designed to sacrifice cargo capacity for speed. They had a bow lengthened above the water, a drawing out and sharpening of the forward body, and the greatest breadth further aft. Extreme clippers were built in the period 1845 to 1855.
Clippers sometimes took a trip across the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
to Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
or some other port in China to pick up a cargo of tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
, silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
, porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
, etc. for a profitable return trip to their home port. The alternative was to return in ballast
Ballast
-Objects:* Ballast tank, a device used on ships and submarines and other submersibles to control buoyancy and stability* Ballast weights, metallic plates used to bring auto racing vehicles up to the minimum mandated weight...
with a useless cargo of rocks. Some Clippers were used on the Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
to California routes as they shipped mainly food stocks to California.
In 1853 the Clipper
Clipper
A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area...
’’Flying Cloud’’ sailed from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and made San Francisco around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
in 89 days, 8 hours; a record that stood 136 years until 1989 when the breakthrough-designed sailboat Thursday's Child
VELUX 5 Oceans Race
The VELUX 5 OCEANS Race is a round-the-world single-handed yacht race, sailed in stages, managed by Clipper Ventures Plc since 2000. Its current name comes from its main sponsor, VELUX, a Danish company. Originally known as the BOC Challenge, for the title sponsor BOC Gases, the first edition was...
completed the passage in 80 days, 20 hours. The record was once again broken in 2008 by the special built French racing yacht Gitana 13
Gitana 13
Gitana 13 is a maxi-catamaran that participated to many races. It, is at the moment, skippered by Lionel Lemonchois and is the property of the Gitana Team.It has had several names :...
, with a time of 43 days and 38 minutes.
To California via Panama
By mid 1849 there were steamship lines dropping people from off at the mouth of the Chagres RiverChagres River
The Chagres River is a river in central Panama. The central part of the river is dammed by the Gatun Dam and forms Gatun Lake, an artificial lake that constitutes part of the Panama Canal. Upstream lies the Madden Dam, creating the Alajuala Lake that is also part of the Canal water system...
on the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
side of Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
. There were then no docking facilities off the Chagres River mouth and passengers had to come ashore in small boats—not an easy task in bad weather. The east to west transit across the Isthmus of Panama
Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal...
was about 30 miles (48.3 km) by native dugout boats
Dugout (boat)
A dugout or dugout canoe is a boat made from a hollowed tree trunk. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. Monoxylon is Greek -- mono- + ξύλον xylon -- and is mostly used in classic Greek texts. In Germany they are called einbaum )...
(later modified lifeboats were used) up the often wild and dangerous Chagres River
Chagres River
The Chagres River is a river in central Panama. The central part of the river is dammed by the Gatun Dam and forms Gatun Lake, an artificial lake that constitutes part of the Panama Canal. Upstream lies the Madden Dam, creating the Alajuala Lake that is also part of the Canal water system...
and then by mule back for the final 20 miles (32.2 km) over the old Spanish trails. The trails had fallen into serious disrepair after almost 50+ years of little or no maintenance and up to 3 meters of rain each year in the roughly April to December rainy season. One of the major problems was getting reliable transport of luggage and freight over the Isthmus of Panama. Even after all arrangements were made and payments made it was not unusual to have to wait weeks longer in Panama City for your luggage to arrive. A transit from the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
to the Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
(or from Pacific to Atlantic) would usually take four to eight days by dugout canoe and mule back. The transit was fraught with dangers and disease. After the arrival in Panama City
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
the traveler had to wait in a hot, dirty, crowded, disease laden city for their luggage to arrive and then for passage on a paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
to California. One of the main problems initially encountered was getting further passage on a ship to California—there were not enough steamers to carry the passengers and cargo that built up in Panama City. By late 1849 paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
routes had been established to and from Panama City
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
and other ports in Nicaragua and Mexico to San Francisco. Panama City
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
had a poor harbor and again the ships anchored off shore and a small boat was required to board them.
Those going to California by crossing Panama, Nicaragua or Mexico had a much quicker trip than going around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
or taking the California Trail
California Trail
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California...
to California. A typical trip could be done in about 30–90 days assuming shipping and transit connections could be made. The biggest handicap the Panama, Nicaragua or Mexico routes had was the wait until scheduled Pacific shipping was established in late 1849 to carry them to California. These routes also suffered form the risk of catching a possibly fatal disease and having to potentially endure threats of attack by bandits. Unfortunately, getting shipping from the Pacific ports of Panama, Nicaragua, or Mexico to California was very problematic until mid to late 1849. Mail, returning gold miners and gold shipments nearly all used the Panama Route. The number of passengers who used the Panama route in 1849 and 1850 is unknown but must be numbered in the tens of thousands. In 1851 29,600 passengers used the Panama Route. This increased to 33,000 passengers in 1852 and dropped to 27,200 passengers in 1853. by the time the First Transcontinental Railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
was completed in the United States in 1869 its believed 800,000 travelers had used the Panama Route to get to and from California. Its estimated that 20% of the original Argonauts left to return home—most via the Panama Route. Many returned to California with their wives and families.
As steamships became available, regular paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
service opened a major mail, passenger and high value cargo link between the two coasts of the United States. The first transcontinental railroad, the Panama Railroad, was finished in 1855 at a cost of about 5,000 lives and $8,000,000 and provided a major faster link with the East Coast and West Coast. Regardless of how the miners had originally got to California nearly all returned back East via Panama—the easiest and fastest route. The returning miners and the returning gold were welcomed in the East and the mail and newspapers exchanged soon established strong east-west bonds. After it was completed in 1855 the ease of use of the Panama Railroad meant that the Panama Route carried most of the high value, time sensitive freight to and from California. Most female traffic went from east to west over the Panama Route which was the easiest and fasted route after about 1852. Women in the California Gold Rush
Women in the California Gold Rush
Women in California Gold Rush were scarce but played an important role. Some of the first people in the mining fields were wives and families who were already in California. A few women and children worked right alongside the men but most men left their wives and families home...
were scarce but played an major role in settling California. Wives and sweethearts passage via Panama to California was normally paid for by miners or businessmen who had decided to stay in California. These women arriving in nearly every ship from Panama soon changed the character of women scarce California as they rapidly out numbered the prostitutes
Women in the California Gold Rush
Women in California Gold Rush were scarce but played an important role. Some of the first people in the mining fields were wives and families who were already in California. A few women and children worked right alongside the men but most men left their wives and families home...
who had initially flocked there.
Money in California was scarce as very few had brought much with them and the costly living expenses soon exhausted much of it. Shipments of specie
Specie
Specie may refer to:* Coins or other metal money in mass circulation* Bullion coins* Hard money * Commodity money* Specie Circular, 1836 executive order by US President Andrew Jackson regarding hard money* Specie Payment Resumption Act...
were brought in but they never seemed to be enough and workers were happy to be paid in a amalgam of several different coins from several different countries. Loose gold dust was valued at $16.00 per troy ounce then and almost all merchants, bars, gambling dens etc. had scales available to allow the miners to pay for their purchases in gold. After passing though many hands in California gold eventually, almost inevitably, went East to pay for merchandise bought in the west and imported from the East. The primary gold shipment route was via well guarded paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
s to and from Panama. Gold shipments on Panama paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
s often totaled over $1,000,000 per voyage and totaled over $64,000,000 in gold by 1853.
To California via Mexico
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
to Vera Cruz
Veracruz, Veracruz
Veracruz, officially known as Heroica Veracruz, is a major port city and municipality on the Gulf of Mexico in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located in the central part of the state. It is located along Federal Highway 140 from the state capital Xalapa, and is the state's most...
Mexico, making your way 500 miles (804.7 km) across Mexico to Acapulco
Acapulco
Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...
on Mexico’s Pacific coast. This reversed the path taken by much of the Manila Galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
's cargo from Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
which was unloaded at Acapulco
Acapulco
Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...
Mexico and transferred to Veracruz for further shipment to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
The Manila Galleon was Spain's main link to the spices from the Spice Islands
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...
and silk etc. from China. By 1849 the paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
had been developed and Veracruz soon became a scheduled stop for many paddle steamers. One of the main hazards of this route was being accosted by robbers and it was recommended that this passage should by done in groups of 50 or more. After the Panama Railroad was completed in 1855 with a cost of about 5,000 lives and $8,000,000 the Mexico route was almost shut down.
Other longer routes typically involved landing at Tampico, Mexico and then traversing the country to catch a ship in Mazatlan, Mexico. These routes were used mainly by those who had business in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
or some other Mexican city. All Mexican travel suffered from the relative lack of steamship service and risk of robberies compared to the Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
route.
To California via Nicaragua
Lake Nicaragua
Lake Nicaragua or Cocibolca or Granada or is a vast freshwater lake in Nicaragua of tectonic origin. With an area of , it is the largest lake in Central America, the 19th largest lake in the world and the 9th largest in the Americas. It is slightly smaller than Lake Titicaca. With an elevation...
with only a short excursion to the Pacific. By 1851 trips by steamship to Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
and Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Philadelphia, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and New Orleans were about 2600 miles (4,184.3 km) long and took about two weeks by steamship. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt , also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American entrepreneur who built his wealth in shipping and railroads. He was also the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family and one of the richest Americans in history...
established a route through Nicaragua in 1850 that would shorten the water distance between New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and San Francisco by nearly 500 miles (800 km). The route was by paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
to the San Juan River in Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and then up the river by small steamboat or native craft to Lake Nicaragua
Lake Nicaragua
Lake Nicaragua or Cocibolca or Granada or is a vast freshwater lake in Nicaragua of tectonic origin. With an area of , it is the largest lake in Central America, the 19th largest lake in the world and the 9th largest in the Americas. It is slightly smaller than Lake Titicaca. With an elevation...
. After transiting the lake by small boat the travelers could exit and take a stagecoach or mule ride to San Juan del Sur
San Juan del Sur
San Juan del Sur is a municipality and coastal town on the Pacific Ocean, in the Rivas department in south-west Nicaragua. San Juan del Sur is popular among surfers and is a vacation spot for many Nicaraguan families and foreign tourists....
or other city in the Pacific side of Nicaragua. From there it was a short steamer ride to San Francisco after steamship lines were established. By early 1852 Vanderbilt was employing seven steamers and offering serious competition to the Panama route.
Early travelers til about 1851 had a difficult time knowing if and when a paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
would arrive. Vanderbilt started his service with steamer steamer Independence in July 1851 and was soon joined by the steamer Prometheus and Pacific. The line prospered offering serious competition to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants, William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland...
. By 1852 there are a recorded 17,400 Nicaragua crossing passengers compared to 29,600 crossing Panama. These numbers closed to 24,000 Nicaragua crossings in 1852 to 27,200 Panama crossings in 1853. As the Panama Railroad progressed across the Isthmus of Panama they took more and more of the traffic and after the railroad was completed in 1855 with a cost of about 5,000 lives and $8,000,000, combined with civil strife in Nicaragua, the Nicaragua route was almost shut down.
To California via Cape Horn
When news of the California Gold RushCalifornia Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
was confirmed late in 1848 many on the East Coast were ready to start on their way to California. The route was well known because of the many whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
ships who had already traversed Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
on their way to Pacific whaling grounds or ports of call in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
and California. Moreover due to the extensive whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
industry, ships were available in profusion; and was not the ocean the traditional Yankee highway? In most East coastal cities there were mariners who were well acquainted with the Horn route and who knew precisely how to prepare for a voyage to California. One of the chief advantages of the Cape Horn route was that those going by Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
or the Straits of Magellan could leave at any time of the year they could find a ship. Then there were Argonauts who foresaw the broad needs and demands of a mining center on the Pacific Coast and who brought along goods of all descriptions and sizes, from needles to knocked-down steamboats, on which they hoped to realize good profits. Indeed, some had no intention to do actual mining but to earn their fortune by providing goods and services to the miners.
Most passengers initially got sea-sick and spent a miserable time before getting their sea legs. The nature of the passage involving crossing the equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....
twice and the length of the average voyage in miles and time-often more than six months-meant unusual supply difficulties. Some ships stocked chickens, pigs and/or goats to supply fresh eggs and meat some time during the voyage. Large amounts of fresh water and food (usually salted meat and sea biscuits or hardtack
Hardtack
Hardtack is a simple type of cracker or biscuit, made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. Inexpensive and long-lasting, it was and is used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods, commonly during long sea voyages and military campaigns. The name derives from the British sailor slang...
) were required for the trip. The salted meat (about the only way meat could be preserved then) would have to be soaked overnight in fresh water to leach out the salt and make it semi-edible. Most Captains understood the causes of scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
and provided some lemon
Lemon
The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...
or lime
Lime (fruit)
Lime is a term referring to a number of different citrus fruits, both species and hybrids, which are typically round, green to yellow in color, 3–6 cm in diameter, and containing sour and acidic pulp. Limes are a good source of vitamin C. Limes are often used to accent the flavors of foods and...
juice to prevent it. Despite the monotonous and often tasteless fare many gained weight on the trip as they had virtually nothing to do except occasional laundry and endless card games. Storms were a time of high suspense as the storm tossed their ship heavily from side to side and end to end. Goods, suitcases, etc. not tied down were soon rolling and sliding across the decks. Clothes were often washed by tying them to a rope and letting them be pulled behind the ship. Many spent hours fishing but rarely caught anything. When fish were caught they were a welcome addition to the monotonous diet. Sleeping was often done in crowded passenger quarters or on the deck—weather permitting. If the weather was fine and the crew permitted it many tied a hammock in the rigging and slept outside. Those who purchased cabin fare usually had a narrow cabin with a door and a cot that was under 5.5 feet (1.7 m) long (people were shorter then) and about 1.5 foot (0.4572 m) wide. The only extra room was the space under the bed for personal effects and luggage. Those who paid "steerage" fares (about 50% less) slept in common bunk rooms.
It was common practice to stop at a least two ports en-route in order to take on additional supplies of fresh food, water and wood as well as a welcome chance to get off the ships. Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
or Santa Catarina (island)
Santa Catarina (island)
Florianópolis Island is an island in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. It is located on the south coast of Brazil between the south 27° latitude and west 48° longitude...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
(often called St. Catharine’s then) were common stopping places on the Atlantic side of South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. Some passengers were so desperate for fresh food that they often procured thousands of oranges or other fruit that was ripe while they were there and ate it after they continued on.
The Strait of Magellan
Strait of Magellan
The Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland South America and north of Tierra del Fuego...
comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and north of Tierra del Fuego
Tierra del Fuego
Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of a main island Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego divided between Chile and Argentina with an area of , and a group of smaller islands including Cape...
. The waterway is the most important natural passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, but it is considered a difficult route to navigate because of the unpredictable winds and currents and the narrowness of the passage.
Captains who elected to utilize the Strait of Magellan
Strait of Magellan
The Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland South America and north of Tierra del Fuego...
to bypass Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
and shorten the trip by about 500 miles (804.7 km) experienced a passage of from three to six weeks' duration in surroundings so forbidding and monotonous it often provoked despair. The narrow channels of the straits the unpredictable currents, tides, and winds were constant hazards, especially to sailing vessels—steamed powered vessels had an easier passage.
Drake Passage
The Drake Passage or Mar de Hoces—Sea of Hoces—is the body of water between the southern tip of South America at Cape Horn, Chile and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica...
south of Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
. It is the body of water between the southern tip of South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
at Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and the South Shetland Islands
South Shetland Islands
The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...
of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
(Scotia Sea
Scotia Sea
The Scotia Sea is partly in the Southern Ocean and mostly in the South Atlantic Ocean.-Location and description:Habitually stormy and cold, the Scotia Sea is the area of water between Tierra del Fuego, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula, and...
) with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
and extends into the Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...
. The passage is named after the 16th century English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
Sir Francis Drake who was the first to discover the passage in 1578. Most sailing ship Captain
Captain (nautical)
A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...
s preferred the Drake Passage, which is open water for hundreds of miles, despite being often marked by very rough conditions and high winds. There is no significant land anywhere around the world at the 55.6 to 62.8 degrees South latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
s of the Drake Passage, which is important to the unimpeded flow of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current
Antarctic Circumpolar Current
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is an ocean current that flows from west to east around Antarctica. An alternative name for the ACC is the West Wind Drift. The ACC is the dominant circulation feature of the Southern Ocean and, at approximately 125 Sverdrups, the largest ocean current...
which carries a huge volume of water (about 600 times the flow of the Amazon River
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
) through the Passage and around Antarctica. There are nearly always strong currents and high winds in Drakes Passage—called the Roaring Forties
Roaring Forties
The Roaring Forties is the name given to strong westerly winds found in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40 and 49 degrees. Air displaced from the Equator towards the South Pole, which travels close to the surface between the latitudes of 30 and 60 degrees south, combines...
.
In the Pacific Juan Fernández Islands
Juan Fernández Islands
The Juan Fernández Islands are a sparsely inhabited island group reliant on tourism and fishing in the South Pacific Ocean, situated about off the coast of Chile, and is composed of three main volcanic islands; Robinson Crusoe Island, Alejandro Selkirk Island and Santa Clara Island, the first...
of Talcahuano
Talcahuano
Talcahuano is a port city and commune in the Biobío Region of Chile. It is part of the Greater Concepción conurbation. Talcahuano is located in the south of the Central Zone of Chile.-Geography:...
, Valparaiso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
or Callao
Callao
Callao is the largest and most important port in Peru. The city is coterminous with the Constitutional Province of Callao, the only province of the Callao Region. Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area, a large metropolis that holds almost...
Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
were among the favorite watering and re-stocking ports in the Pacific. Valparaiso, despites its mediocre harbor, then was the main entrepôt
Entrepôt
An entrepôt is a trading post where merchandise can be imported and exported without paying import duties, often at a profit. This profit is possible because of trade conditions, for example, the reluctance of ships to travel the entire length of a long trading route, and selling to the entrepôt...
(trans-shipping) port on the Pacific side of South America. After leaving the South America coast the ships were buffeted by often baffling and contrary breezes as they traveled across the equatorial trade winds before reaching California waters. Contrary winds often forced the ships far out into the Pacific-sometimes as distant as 140 degrees west (-140) longitude before they encountered a favorable on shore breeze and could sail towards San Francisco Bay. San Francisco is at -122.5 degrees longitude.
The last hazards to California-bound vessels were the approach and entrance to San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
. The Spanish had picked Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
as their first Capitol due to its easier and safer approach to the harbor as well as having a better climate. The Farallon Islands
Farallon Islands
The Farallon Islands, or Farallones , are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, USA. They lie outside the Golden Gate and south of Point Reyes, and are visible from the mainland on clear days...
off the mouth of San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
were the graveyard of several ships, and the narrow, often fog-shrouded opening into the bay was always a danger. Soon after the ship traffic built up ship pilots
Maritime pilot
A pilot is a mariner who guides ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbours or river mouths. With the exception of the Panama Canal, the pilot is only an advisor, as the captain remains in legal, overriding command of the vessel....
who were knowledgeable of the bay were at work boarding incoming (and outgoing) ships and guiding the ships to a safe anchorage in the bay. By 1851 the tangle of ships in the Bay had led to the creation of a Harbourmaster
Harbourmaster
A harbourmaster is an official responsible for enforcing the regulations of a particular harbour or port, in order to ensure the safety of navigation, the security of the harbour and the correct operation of the port facilities.-Responsibilities:Harbourmasters are normally responsible for issuing...
who dictated where ships could drop anchor. Once inside San Francisco Bay, vessels were reported and identified to the people of San Francisco by the watchman with a telescope in a tower erected in September 1849 on Telegraph Hill, San Francisco
Telegraph Hill, San Francisco
Telegraph Hill refers to a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's 44 hills, and one of its original "Seven Hills."-Location:...
. The watchman signaled the presence of incoming ships to the people in the city by hoisting up the telegraph mast one semaphore arm for a schooner, two for a brig, three for a ship and two raised about 45 degree semaphore signals for a paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
. These signals were soon known by most residents of San Francisco.
Once inside the Bay and anchored the next visitors were typically members of the Revenue Cutter Service (predecessor of U.S. Coast Guard). Founded by Alexander Hamilton on 4 August 1790, the Revenue Cutter Service is the United States' oldest continuous seagoing service and enforced the tarrif laws and tariff collection via custom duties (tariffs or ad-valorem taxes) on foreign import goods. In the 1800s about 85%-95% of the money collected and used by the Federal Government were from tariff collections. Custom collections were set up by late 1847 in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
--the designated port of entry
Port of entry
In general, a port of entry is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has a staff of people who check passports and visas and inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not imported. International airports are usually ports of entry, as are road and rail crossings on a...
for most of California.
The all sea trip around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
to California by the standard sailing vessels typically took about 200 days (about 6.5 months) and covered from 16000 miles (25,749.4 km)} to 18000 miles (28,968.1 km)}. Some trips took almost a year. The all sea route enabled enterprising emigrants to ship baggage and supplies they hoped to sell in California for gold dust. The Cape Horn route was essentially the only route where low, medium or high weight or high volume goods could be shipped cheaply. Other routes, which often cost significantly more, usually specialized in high value, low weight goods like mail, passengers or gold dust. Starting out with essentially nothing, goods from the East Coast or Britain were often desperately needed and usually sold for high profits. The long delay between seeing a market, ordering the goods and shipping the goods made business risky. Some of the cargoes that were usually profitable were food, liquor, lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
and building supplies. Other ship loads of goods when they showed up saturated the marketplace and the goods often had to be auctioned off at a loss. Most cargoes included a variety of goods to minimize this problem.
When the Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
started construction of the Transcontinental railroad
Transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies...
in 1863 all their locomotives, box cars, rails and railroad supplies were shipped via this route. It might be slow but a ship going around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
to California could carry high weight and high volume products cheaper than anything else. Nearly all the ships that were abandoned in San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
came by the Cape Horn route. Since the route back to the East coast was so long and return cargo almost nonexistent the ships which arrived in San Francisco, initially tended to stay there as the crew and passengers abandoned the ship for the gold fields. As it became clear what was needed in San Francisco and the rest of California some of the newer ships were put back into service with higher paid crews. Some were put back into service crewed by disillusioned gold diggers seeking a cheap way back home. Many ships were used for shorter runs to Pacific ports for food supplies or lumber—essentially all that was available then. During October 1849, 63 vessels left San Francisco; 25 sailed for South America, primarily Valparaiso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
or Callao
Callao
Callao is the largest and most important port in Peru. The city is coterminous with the Constitutional Province of Callao, the only province of the Callao Region. Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area, a large metropolis that holds almost...
; 10 vessels sailed for the Hawaiian islands
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
(20–30 days each way), 9 went to Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
and the 9 to other non-Pacific ports. The high fares initially charged for paddle steamer passages to Panama induced some Captains to allow passengers to work their way back to the East Coast for a low cost return. This made it possible to put a crew together at a "reasonable" cost.
To California from China
News of the California Gold Strike arrived in China by the end of 1848. Only a few hundred Chinese traveled to California in 1849; but this turned into a steady flood as travel arrangements were worked out by 1851 and later. The Taiping Revolution in ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and the poverty and violence in China induced many Chinese to leave China searching for a way to earn a better living. Most Chinese, like most early California travelers, came to California with the goal of quickly making enough money to pay for their passage and improve their own and their family’s status and lifestyle in China after they returned.
Nearly all Chinese immigrants to California were young men with almost no women. Their wives, families and relatives remained in China. The Chinese tended to congregate in heavily male small semi-isolated “China Towns” wherever they settled. One of the primary problems they encountered in California was the acute lack of Chinese women—almost none initially immigrated. This "problem" was somewhat alleviated when recruiters ending up procuring or “buying” Chinese prostitutes and shipping them to the United States. There they went to work in brothels or were "bought" by wealthy Chinese. Some of the more affluent Chinese in California could “buy” a Chinese mistress for about $300 to $500. The large population, the common condition of extreme poverty in China and the low status of women in China made recruiting or "buying" women for this “profession” fairly easy in China.
Nearly all these Chinese men initially planned to return to China once they had made enough money. About half of the initial Chinese immigrants did return to China where their wives and families lived. Most of the Chinese immigrants booked their passages on ships with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants, William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland...
(founded 1848) or on the American China Clippers who often left California empty and looking for a new cargo before returning home. Nearly all Chinese immigrants neither spoke and understood English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
nor were they familiar with western culture
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
and life. While in the United States they had little incentive to assimilate into the dominate culture or learn anything more than a rudimentary English language skills. They did nearly all their business with a few Chinese business men that established businesses in California "China Towns". The hostility they experienced from nearly all other cultures in America and their belief that they would return to China often discouraged them from even attempting to assimilate. The bankers and shipping companies, who first backed the emigration project with British trading companies, then turned to Italy for the "Whitening of America" project by promoting the "gold in the streets" dream to fill cheap, foreign labor contracts.
Port of San Francisco
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
, Stockton
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
and Marysville, California
Marysville, California
Marysville is the county seat of Yuba County, California, United States. The population was 12,072 at the 2010 census, down from 12,268 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistical Area, often referred to as the Yuba-Sutter Area after the two counties, Yuba and...
which were all about 120 miles (193.1 km) closer to the goldfields. Paddle steamers were put in service by late 1849 and provided "easy" transport of passengers and freight to Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
, etc.--the start of the gold country. San Francisco soon boomed as the chief entrepot
Entrepôt
An entrepôt is a trading post where merchandise can be imported and exported without paying import duties, often at a profit. This profit is possible because of trade conditions, for example, the reluctance of ships to travel the entire length of a long trading route, and selling to the entrepôt...
(port) of California. Homes, hotels, banks, bar rooms, gambling establishments, wharfs, warehouses and other needed buildings were built as rapidly as possible.
There were many Argonauts and companies of Argonauts who foresaw the broad needs and demands of a rapidly increasing and hopefully wealthy population in California. Many Argonauts brought along goods of all descriptions and sizes, from needles to knocked-down steamboats, on which they hoped to sell and realize good profits. Indeed, many had no intention of panning gold or of digging for it in the mines. They would rather sell goods and go into a business which the new mining community would support. After all, gold was the objective; what did it matter whether the means of attaining it were direct or indirect? Ships provided almost the only link for new supplies—overland travel was too difficult and took too long. One downside that soon developed in California was the long delay in communication between the east and west coast. It took over 40 days to get a message back to the East Coast of the United States
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
and often over 200–300 days to get new supplies shipped in by sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
s. Only high priced and lighter and smaller items could take the shorter and quicker paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
route over the Isthmus of Panama
Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal...
, nearly everything else had to travel the approximate 17000 miles (27,358.8 km) and over 200 day route all sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
route around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
or the Straits of Magellan. Higher priced, time sensitive goods, were often shipped in the faster Clipper
Clipper
A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area...
sailing ship
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
which could make the trip from New York, Boston, etc. to San Francisco in about 120 days. Goods when they were shipped from the East coast (and Europe) were in shipload quantities when they arrived. This often suppressed the local market for that product and some goods would have to be auctioned off at low prices to pay for freight etc. with little or no profit. Very mixed cargo was typical of early shipments to minimize this problem. Food, liquors and building supplies nearly always be sold at a profit. Some business men thrived in this chaotic environment, many others lost their shirts.
One of the first and urgent products needed was food and building supplies which could be bought and shipped from local Pacific ports to San Francisco, Sacramento, etc. Soon ships were going to and from Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Valparaíso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
Chile, etc. to get food and building supplies that could be shipped back to San Francisco. San Francisco shipping boomed and wharves and piers had to be developed to handle the onslaught of cargo--Long Wharf was probably the most prominent. Farmers, laborers, business men, prospective miners, gamblers, entertainers and prostitutes
Women in the California Gold Rush
Women in California Gold Rush were scarce but played an important role. Some of the first people in the mining fields were wives and families who were already in California. A few women and children worked right alongside the men but most men left their wives and families home...
, etc. from around the world came to San Francisco.
The few Californio
Californio
Californio is a term used to identify a Spanish-speaking Catholic people, regardless of race, born in California before 1848...
ranchers already living in California initially prospered as the sudden increase in the demand for meat drove up the price paid for livestock. Prices zoomed from the about $2.00 a hide to about $30.00-$40.00 per cow for meat they could get from hungry miners. Initially the Californios prospered. Later, these food shipments changed mainly to shipments from Oregon and internal shipments in California as agriculture was developed in both states. Taxes, mortgages, squatters and the cost of proving ownership of their enormous land holdings combined with droughts that seriously decreased the size of their herds led many of the about 500 Californio ranch owners to lose some or all of their enormous land holdings.
Some of the goods that were imported by ship included liquor: absinthe, alcohol, ale, beer, whiskey, cognac, cider, champagne, wine, sherry, brandy, claret. Tools like shovels, picks and gold balances. Consumables like cigars, cards, candles; clothing: boots, shoes, underwear; pants, shirts, etc. Fruit like bananas, oranges, and lemons. Food like molasses, flour, oysters, hams, barrels of salted meat, rice, coffee, tea, eggs (from Mexico); cheese, sugar, coffee, potatoes, onions, limes, coconuts, raisins, almonds. Lumber from Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
and other parts of the U.S. and England (500,000 board feet of lumber and 500,000 bricks from Bath England in one ship's cargo). Building materials like nails, bricks, linseed oil, shingles, windows, stoves, lumber, etc.. Miscellaneous items like furniture, wagons, carts, fishing boats, steam engines, etc. Coal that was needed to power the steam ships. Livestock like hogs, cows, horses, sheep, chickens, etc. Completed knocked down houses both metal and wooden. Some ships carried mostly mail and passengers. Almost anything could eventually be bought at some price.
San Francisco was designated the official Port of entry
Port of entry
In general, a port of entry is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has a staff of people who check passports and visas and inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not imported. International airports are usually ports of entry, as are road and rail crossings on a...
for all California ports where U.S. Customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
(also called tariffs and Ad valorem tax
Ad valorem tax
An ad valorem tax is a tax based on the value of real estate or personal property. It is more common than a specific duty, a tax based on the quantity of an item, such as cents per kilogram, regardless of price....
s) (averaging about 25%) were collected by the Collector of customs from all ships bearing foreign goods. The first Collector of customs was Edward H. Harrison appointed by General Kearny. Shipping boomed from the average of about 25 vessels from 1825 to 1847 to about 793 ships in 1849 and 803 ships in 1850. All ships were inspected for what goods they carried to collect the appropriate customs. Passengers disembarking in San Francisco had one of the easier accesses to the gold country since they could from San Francisco take a paddle wheel steamer, after 1849, to Sacramento and several other towns.
Starting in 1849 many of the ship crews jumped ship and headed for the gold fields when they reached port. Soon San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
had many hundreds of abandoned ships anchored off shore. The better ships were re-crewed and put back in the shipping and passenger business. Others were bought cheap and hauled up on the mud flats and used as store ships, saloons, temporary stores, floating warehouses, homes and a number of other uses. Many of these re-purposed ships were partially destroyed in one of San Francisco's many fires and ended up as landfill to expand the available land. The population of San Francisco exploded from about 200 in 1846 to 36,000 in the 1852 California Census. Unfortunately, the 1850 U.S. Census of San Francisco was burned in one of its frequent fires.
In San Francisco initially many people were housed in wooden houses, ships hauled up on the mud flats to serve as homes or businesses, wood framed canvas tents used for saloons, hotels and boarding houses as well as other flammable structures. Lighting and heat were provided by burning oil lamps or open fires. All these canvas and wood structures housing fires, lanterns and candles combined with a lot of drunken gamblers and miners led almost inevitably to many fires. Most of San Francisco burned down six times in six Great Fires between 1849 and 1852.
Native Fisheries
California has had an extensive fishery since it was discovered over 10,000 years ago. The Native AmericanIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
inhabitants of California, nearly all hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
s, harvested many types of fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
and shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
as a regular and often major component of their diet. Several varieties of salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
and Steelhead were one of the mainstays of the California Indians living in the Northwest coast of California. The natives moved along the rivers and across the seas using canoes
Dugout (boat)
A dugout or dugout canoe is a boat made from a hollowed tree trunk. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. Monoxylon is Greek -- mono- + ξύλον xylon -- and is mostly used in classic Greek texts. In Germany they are called einbaum )...
they had made using fire and stone age tools out of large trees—usually redwood
Redwood
-Trees:Conifers* Family Cupressaceae *** Sequoia sempervirens - coast redwood**** Albino redwood*** Sequoiadendron giganteum - giant sequoia*** Metasequoia glyptostroboides - dawn redwood* Family Pinaceae...
. Salmon spawned in most rivers in California sometime during the year and were a welcome addition to the diet of people living near almost all streams. Many tribes migrated to a given area during spawning runs to harvest the fish. Fish were caught with spear
Spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...
s, harpoon
Harpoon
A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal...
s, fish nets, fish trap
Fish trap
A fish trap is a trap used for fishing. Fish traps may have the form of a fishing weir or a lobster trap. A typical trap might consist of a frame of thick steel wire in the shape of a heart, with chicken wire stretched around it. The mesh wraps around the frame and then tapers into the inside of...
s (fishing weir
Fishing weir
A fishing weir, or fish weir, is an obstruction placed in tidal waters or wholly or partially across a river, which is designed to hinder the passage of fish. Traditionally they were built from wood or stones. They can be used to trap fish...
s), hook
Fish hook
A fish hook is a device for catching fish either by impaling them in the mouth or, more rarely, by snagging the body of the fish. Fish hooks have been employed for centuries by fishermen to catch fresh and saltwater fish. In 2005, the fish hook was chosen by Forbes as one of the top twenty tools...
s and fishing line
Fishing line
A fishing line is a cord used or made for angling. Important parameters of a fishing line are its length, material, and weight...
s, gathering seafood by hand
Gathering seafood by hand
Gathering seafood by hand can be as easily as picking shellfish or kelp up off the beach, or doing some digging for clams or crabs, or perhaps diving under the water for abalone or lobsters....
and using specific plant toxin
Toxin
A toxin is a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms; man-made substances created by artificial processes are thus excluded...
s (soaproot, buckeye nuts, and wild cucumber
Cucumber
The cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash, and in the same genus as the muskmelon. The plant is a creeping vine which bears cylindrical edible fruit when ripe. There are three main varieties of cucumber: "slicing", "pickling", and...
root) to temporarily paralyze the fish so they would float to the surface where could easily be captured. About the only early competitor for fish was the Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
s who lived in California then and who also liked salmon. Like acorn
Acorn
The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives . It usually contains a single seed , enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm broad...
s, the other staple of the California Indian diet, salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
and other fish were usually smoked or sun dried and stored in woven basket
Basket
A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibres, which can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehair, baleen, or metal wire can be used. Baskets are...
s so they could not spoil and were available to eat nearly year round.
The Chumash people and Tongva people used sewen plank canoes (Tomol
Tomol
Tomols are plank-built boats, historically and currently used by the Chumash and Tongva Native Americans in the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles area. They were also called tii'at by the Tongva. Tomols are long. They were especially important as both tribes relied on the sea for...
s) to travel across and fish in the seas between the Southwest California Coast and the Channel Islands of California
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...
. Some of their chief catches were sardine
Sardine
Sardines, or pilchards, are several types of small, oily fish related to herrings, family Clupeidae. Sardines are named after the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, around which they were once abundant....
s (pilchards) who were mentioned several times by the early Spanish explorers. The sardines were caught primarily with some kind of net.
The Native Americans in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
constructed the Emeryville Shellmound
Emeryville Shellmound
The Emeryville Shellmound, in Emeryville, California, is a once-massive archaeological shell midden deposit...
and over 400 other shellmounds made up of inedible shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
shells from millions of meals consumed at or near the shellmound sites. The size of these mounds indicate that they had to have accumulated over hundreds if not thousands of years and indicate a well used and stable resource. The shells they threw aside from their catches of shellfish eventually covered some hundreds of thousands of square feet, sometimes tens of feet thick. Most of the shells are from oysters (Ostrea lurida
Ostrea lurida
Ostrea lurida is a species of oyster that occurs on the Pacific coast of North America. This bivalve is approximately in length. The shell can be rounded or elongated and is white to purplish black and may be striped with yellow or brown...
) which occurred in large oyster reefs throughout the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
area. How they are harvested is unknown but may have been by hand or by using oyster rake
Rake (tool)
A rake is a broom for outside; an horticultural implement consisting of a toothed bar fixed transversely to a handle, and used to collect leaves, hay, grass, etc., and, in gardening, for loosening the soil, light weeding and levelling, removing dead grass from...
s. Tule (Schoenoplectus acutus) canoes were often used for fishing, moving between shell beds, hunting and fishing sites in the Bay area and the extensive Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta.
Modern Fisheries
During the Spanish colonization and Mexican periods there are no known fisheries developed. Indeed they probably contracted as the Chumash people and Tongva people were enticed to move to the Spanish Missions of California and their movement and populations rapidly decreased.During the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
there were many new immigrants who were familiar with fishing. There was a large demand for fresh food including fresh fish and shellfish among the rapidly increasing California immigrants. In particular, the seamen from the Ligurian Coast of the Italian Riviera, sailing to the continent of America from the famous Port of Genova, had enjoyed a privilege role as navigators in the Spanish Empire's expansion in Pacific-America. While many started as cabin boys at the age of six years, the mariners would jump ship and use their subsistence skills as fishermen for survival. Along the California Coast, many Azorean-Portuguese had already turned from whaling to fishing. When they didn't get rich mining gold, the sea offered a bounty. But the Anglo-Argonauts, like Lewis and Clarke before them, may have preferred to eat dog meat instead of salmon. From the village of Riva Trigoso, these sailors expanded their chain of fishing colonies to sell "fresha fishie" in towns at San Diego, San Pedro, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Stockton, Sausalito, Eureka to Alaska. They built their own small fishing boats and economy using the traditional "lateen" sail technology to feed a hungry nation.
Some of the first "modern" fishermen in California were also Chinese sampan
Sampan
A sampan is a relatively flat bottomed Chinese wooden boat from long. Some sampans include a small shelter on board, and may be used as a permanent habitation on inland waters. Sampans are generally used for transportation in coastal areas or rivers, and are often used as traditional fishing boats...
s fishing for squid
Squid
Squid are cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, a mantle, and arms. Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs and two, usually longer, tentacles...
, abalone
Abalone
Abalone , from aulón, are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis...
and fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
on Monterey Bay. The Chinese, who came from the coastal Canton region of South China Sea, were able to export roughly two hundred to eight hundred pounds of fresh fish to San Francisco every day or one hundred tons per year. They were soon joined by many Ligurians who shared cultural-interchange by using Chinese and Portuguese techniques for fishing the rocky coast for rock cod, salmon and other fisheries. The small Latin fishing communities expanded with the growth of "Good Friday" by making a living at fishing for the markets and supplying San Francisco packers. The Chinese then specialized in squid fishing at night for their Asian markets.
In 1899, the sardine fishery collapsed in Italy, energizing the immigration to America's fishing villages.
At Black Diamond (now Pittsburg), Frank Booth ran a successful salmon cannery with the Sicilian settlement on the Sacramento River. At Monterey in 1902, he purchased a struggling cannery next to Fisherman's Wharf, and began experimenting with the bay's abundant sardines. Booth succeeded, owing to his preseverence and the critical contributions of two immigrant men. Knut Hovden was a Norwegian fisheries expert and engineer who designed a modern assembly line operation and much of the machinery for mass production. Pietro Ferrante was a fisherman whose early success on the Delta led to conflicts with the Genovese, resulting in his interest to relocate in Monterey where Booth needed a loyal fleet. In 1905, Ferrante arrived with his brother-in-law Orazio Enea, quickly attracting their extended families from the inland Delta and Palermo, Italy areas. The sardine canning industry steadily assumed control, displacing the competition of Asian and Genovese smaller catches for the fresh fish markets. The ready cannery labor force included the families of fishermen. Booth's cannery of "cousins" led California fisheries into the industrial age.
One of the more unusual developments in the exploitation of natural resources was the market for fresh eggs during the Gold Rush leading people to take small boats to the Farallon Islands
Farallon Islands
The Farallon Islands, or Farallones , are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, USA. They lie outside the Golden Gate and south of Point Reyes, and are visible from the mainland on clear days...
to collect wild bird eggs. They sometimes collected up to 500,000 eggs in a year. The Egg War
Egg War
The Egg War is the name given to an 1863 conflict between rival egging companies on the Farallon Islands, 25 miles off San Francisco. It was the culmination of several years of tension between the Egg Company, which claimed the right to collect the eggs on the islands, and several rival firms...
is the name given to an 1863 armed conflict between rival egging companies on the Farallon Islands
Farallon Islands
The Farallon Islands, or Farallones , are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, USA. They lie outside the Golden Gate and south of Point Reyes, and are visible from the mainland on clear days...
, 25 miles west of San Francisco.
Fishing vessel
A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing....
s first used were powered by wind and oar
Oar
An oar is an implement used for water-borne propulsion. Oars have a flat blade at one end. Oarsmen grasp the oar at the other end. The difference between oars and paddles are that paddles are held by the paddler, and are not connected with the vessel. Oars generally are connected to the vessel by...
s. Since "modern" fishing in California was developed after 1850 (at about the same time as steamships) there were soon some steam powered fishing vessels being used for longer distance fishing in bigger boats. The steam was used both for propulsion and also for winch
Winch
A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in or let out or otherwise adjust the "tension" of a rope or wire rope . In its simplest form it consists of a spool and attached hand crank. In larger forms, winches stand at the heart of machines as diverse as tow trucks, steam shovels and...
ing in nets, unloading catches, lifting and lowering anchors etc. As the diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
s and petrol engine
Petrol engine
A petrol engine is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on petrol and similar volatile fuels....
s (gasoline engine) were developed in the early 1900s they were soon the engine of choice. Diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
s are now the engine of choice for powering most commercial fishing vessel
Fishing vessel
A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing....
s. Their economical operation and long lifetimes make their higher initial cost normally well worthwhile. Today many smaller and sports boats are powered by an outboard motor
Outboard motor
An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom and are the most common motorized method of propelling small watercraft...
consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. The outboard motor
Outboard motor
An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom and are the most common motorized method of propelling small watercraft...
provides steering control both as a movable rudder
Rudder
A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...
and by pivoting over their mountings to control the direction of thrust. Outboard motors have less than one horsepower to over 200 hp and are relatively easy to remove for service or replacement.
Commercial fishing today uses a variety of techniques for fishing. Fishing rod
Fishing rod
A fishing rod or a fishing pole is a tool used to catch fish, usually in conjunction with the pastime of angling, and can also be used in competition casting. . A length of fishing line is attached to a long, flexible rod or pole: one end terminates in a hook for catching the fish...
s with baited hooks and fishing line
Fishing line
A fishing line is a cord used or made for angling. Important parameters of a fishing line are its length, material, and weight...
s used in various ways are used for fishing for some particular types of fish. Fishing using nets like cast net
Cast net
A cast net, also called a throw net, is a net used for fishing. It is a circular net with small weights distributed around its edge.The net is cast or thrown by hand in such a manner that it spreads out on the water and sinks. This technique is called net casting or net throwing. Fish are caught as...
s, hand net
Hand net
A hand net, also called a scoop net, is a net or mesh basket held open by a hoop. It may or may not be on the end of a handle. Hand nets have been used since antiquity and can be used for scooping fish near the surface of the water, such as muskellunge or northern pike.A hand net with a long handle...
s, drift net
Drift net
Drift netting is a fishing technique where nets, called drift nets, are allowed to float freely at the surface of a sea or lake. Usually a drift net is a gill net with floats attached to a rope along the top of the net, and weights attached to another rope along the foot of the net to keep the net...
s, gillnet
Gillnet
Gillnetting is a common fishing method used by commercial and artisanal fishermen of all the oceans and in some freshwater and estuary areas. The gillnet also is used by fisheries scientists to monitor fish populations. Because gillnets can be so effective their use is closely monitored and...
s, seine nets, trawl nets, surrounding net
Surrounding net
A surrounding net is a fishing net which surrounds fish on the sides and underneath. It is typically used by commercial fishers, and pulled along the surface of the water. There is typically a purse line at the bottom, which is closed when the net is hauled in.-External links:*...
s etc. of various sizes and construction as well as longline fishing with hundreds of hooks on a line fishing both for bottom and Pelagic fish
Pelagic fish
Pelagic fish live near the surface or in the water column of coastal, ocean and lake waters, but not on the bottom of the sea or the lake. They can be contrasted with demersal fish, which do live on or near the bottom, and reef fish which are associated with coral reefs.The marine pelagic...
(near surface fish) are the most common devices used to catch high yields of fish. The crab fisheries
Crab fisheries
Crab fisheries are fisheries which capture or farm crabs. True crabs make up 20% of all crustaceans caught and farmed worldwide, with about 1.4 million tonnes being consumed annually. The horse crab, Portunus trituberculatus accounts for one quarter of that total...
uses crab pots baited with dead fish to catch crabs.
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
, fishing with baited
Fishing bait
Fishing bait is any substance used to attract and catch fish, e.g. on the end of a fishing hook, or inside a fish trap. Traditionally, nightcrawlers, insects, and smaller bait fish have been used for this purpose...
traps
Fish trap
A fish trap is a trap used for fishing. Fish traps may have the form of a fishing weir or a lobster trap. A typical trap might consist of a frame of thick steel wire in the shape of a heart, with chicken wire stretched around it. The mesh wraps around the frame and then tapers into the inside of...
is also common. Common commercial methods for catching shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
and prawns include bottom trawling
Bottom trawling
Bottom trawling is trawling along the sea floor. It is also often referred to as "dragging".The scientific community divides bottom trawling into benthic trawling and demersal trawling...
, cast net
Cast net
A cast net, also called a throw net, is a net used for fishing. It is a circular net with small weights distributed around its edge.The net is cast or thrown by hand in such a manner that it spreads out on the water and sinks. This technique is called net casting or net throwing. Fish are caught as...
s, seines, shrimp baiting
Shrimp baiting
Shrimp baiting is a method used by recreational fisherman for of catching shrimp. In the 1980s the sport became popular in the southeastern coastal states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida...
and dip netting
Hand net
A hand net, also called a scoop net, is a net or mesh basket held open by a hoop. It may or may not be on the end of a handle. Hand nets have been used since antiquity and can be used for scooping fish near the surface of the water, such as muskellunge or northern pike.A hand net with a long handle...
. Bottom trawling often tears up the ocean bottom and can be very destructive to all bottom dwelling fish. Trawling
Trawling
Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net that is used for trawling is called a trawl....
involves the use of a system of nets deployed on or near the sea floor. Benthic
Benthic zone
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean or a lake, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. Organisms living in this zone are called benthos. They generally live in close relationship with the substrate bottom; many such...
trawling is towing or dragging a net at the very bottom of the ocean. Demersal
Demersal zone
The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean comprising the water column that is near to the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of the larger profundal zone....
trawling is towing a net just above the benthic zone. Midwater trawling (pelagic trawling) is trawling, or net fishing nearer the surface of the ocean.
For some applications a fish trap
Fish trap
A fish trap is a trap used for fishing. Fish traps may have the form of a fishing weir or a lobster trap. A typical trap might consist of a frame of thick steel wire in the shape of a heart, with chicken wire stretched around it. The mesh wraps around the frame and then tapers into the inside of...
is used. Fish trap
Fish trap
A fish trap is a trap used for fishing. Fish traps may have the form of a fishing weir or a lobster trap. A typical trap might consist of a frame of thick steel wire in the shape of a heart, with chicken wire stretched around it. The mesh wraps around the frame and then tapers into the inside of...
s or fishing weir
Fishing weir
A fishing weir, or fish weir, is an obstruction placed in tidal waters or wholly or partially across a river, which is designed to hinder the passage of fish. Traditionally they were built from wood or stones. They can be used to trap fish...
s restricts the flow of fish so that they are directed into a trap. The fish stay alive until they are removed and these techniques can be used to free some types of fish that are preferentially not caught. Today elaborate fishing trawlers, etc. are all examples of the fishing techniques
Fishing techniques
Fishing techniques are methods for catching fish. The term may also be applied to methods for catching other aquatic animals such as molluscs and edible marine invertebrates....
used today. To keep the caught fish fresh they are often kept in refrigerated holds or packed in ice.
As is typical worldwide of public owned resources, unlimited fishing has led to severe overfishing
Overfishing
Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
for some fisheries. In response to this quotas, catch limits, closed and open seasons and other regulations had to be set in place to control the who, when, how and where questions of fishing. In 1851—California enacted a law concerning oysters and oyster beds. In 1852 the first regulation of salmon fishing occurred when fishing weir
Fishing weir
A fishing weir, or fish weir, is an obstruction placed in tidal waters or wholly or partially across a river, which is designed to hinder the passage of fish. Traditionally they were built from wood or stones. They can be used to trap fish...
s or stream fish obstructions were prohibited and closed seasons established. In 1870 California Board of Fish Commissioners, predecessor to the California Department of Fish and Game
California Department of Fish and Game
The California Department of Fish and Game is a department within the government of California, falling under its parent California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Game manages and protects the state's diverse fish, wildlife, plant resources, and native habitats...
was established. In 1870 the eastern oyster
Eastern oyster
The eastern oyster — also called Atlantic oyster or Virginia oyster — is a species of true oyster native to the eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico coast of North America. It is also farmed in Puget Sound, Washington, where it is known as the Totten Inlet Virginica. Eastern oysters are and have...
(Crassostrea virginica) was introduced, in 1871 shad
Shad
The shads or river herrings comprise the genus Alosa, fish related to herring in the family Clupeidae. They are distinct from others in that family by having a deeper body and spawning in rivers. The several species frequent different areas on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea....
, in 1874 Catfish
Catfish
Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...
and in 1879 striped bass
Striped bass
The striped bass is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire...
were all introduced to California waters. California has about 4,000 lakes and 37000 miles (59,545.6 km) of streams and canals suitable for game fish. To help fish get around dams fish ladder
Fish ladder
A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass or fish steps, is a structure on or around artificial barriers to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration. Most fishways enable fish to pass around the barriers by swimming and leaping up a series of relatively low steps into the waters on...
s are constructed to allow them to pass on upstream for spawning
Spawn (biology)
Spawn refers to the eggs and sperm released or deposited, usually into water, by aquatic animals. As a verb, spawn refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, also called spawning...
etc. To preserve, protect and enhance existing fishing the California Department of Fish and Game
California Department of Fish and Game
The California Department of Fish and Game is a department within the government of California, falling under its parent California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Game manages and protects the state's diverse fish, wildlife, plant resources, and native habitats...
(DFG) tries to keep all fishing laws enforced. The 720 properties managed by the DFG are: 110 wildlife areas, 130 ecological reserves, 11 marine reserves, 159 public access areas, 21 fish hatcheries and 289 other types of properties. To help keep California waters stocked with fish in 1870 the first California fish hatcheries were built—mostly trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
hatcheries. Today (2011) there are eight salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
and steelhead hatcheries and 13 trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
hatcheries. Though hatcheries may help some fishing stocks they are no panacea to counteract overfishing
Overfishing
Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
, habitat destruction, stream restrictions, water diversions, etc.
In 1899 the first sardine
Sardine
Sardines, or pilchards, are several types of small, oily fish related to herrings, family Clupeidae. Sardines are named after the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, around which they were once abundant....
cannery (San Francisco Bay) was built. Sardines, at this time, existed in large schools
Shoaling and schooling
In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are said to be shoaling , and if, in addition, the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are said to be schooling . In common usage, the terms are sometimes used rather loosely...
of millions of fish migrating each year up the California coast to spawn. The first factory was soon supplemented by about 40 more factories starting about 1902—most around Monterey California. On the Sacramento River, the Sicilians from Parlermo's village of Isola Della Femina immigrants had established a chain of colonies using gill nets for the salmon fisheries. Baseball hall-of-fame slugger Joe DiMaggio's family was from Martinez. Fishing technology at Monterey at the time was archaic and inefficient; the canning process was equally crude. The unsightliness, odor, and processing waste from harbor canneries dictated that all future canneries would have to locate away from any business or residential district. A process was developed for “reducing” fish heads, tails, guts and skin into meal that could be processed into fertilizer and livestock feed. "Reduction" was cheap because it didn’t require much labor, and the market for fishmeal was unlimited. Monterey became a cannery town. About 70% of all sardines were ground up and used as fertilizer and lifestock feed with only about 30% canned. The yield of sardines landed was about 500,000 tons in 1940 down to only 53 tons in 1953. In 1940 sardines were the most valuable fishing stock in the state. As the temperature of the ocean dropped the migrating sardine schools largely disappeared after 1950 from California waters and nearly all the canneries shut down. The ocean temperature has an irregular cycle called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation
Pacific decadal oscillation
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation is a pattern of Pacific climate variability that shifts phases on at least inter-decadal time scale, usually about 20 to 30 years. The PDO is detected as warm or cool surface waters in the Pacific Ocean, north of 20° N...
turned water temperatures colder in the mid-1940s, driving sardines southward and intensifying the pressures brought on by overfishing. As the ocean temperatures are cycling higher now there is some evidence that the sardines are starting to return. Today the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey Bay Aquarium
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is located on the former site of a sardine cannery on Cannery Row of the Pacific Ocean shoreline in Monterey, California. It has an annual attendance of 1.8 million visitors. It holds thousands of plants and animals, representing 623 separate named species on display...
, displaying many types of marine life, is located on the former site of a sardine cannery on Cannery Row
Cannery Row
Cannery Row is the waterfront street in the New Monterey section of Monterey, California. It is the site of a number of now-defunct sardine canning factories. The last cannery closed in 1973...
off the Pacific Ocean shoreline in Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is a US Federally protected marine area offshore of California's central coast around Monterey Bay....
(MBNMS) is a U.S. Federally protected marine area offshore of California's central coast around Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....
.
See: Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is a US Federally protected marine area offshore of California's central coast around Monterey Bay....
link to get a list and links to other protected marine preserves
Marine Protected Area
Marine Protected Areas, like any protected area, are regions in which human activity has been placed under some restrictions in the interest of conserving the natural environment, it's surrounding waters and the occupant ecosystems, and any cultural or historical resources that may require...
in California.
The major types of sport and commercial fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
and shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
now found in California waters are: Abalone
Abalone
Abalone , from aulón, are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis...
, Albacore Tuna, Anchovy
Anchovy
Anchovies are a family of small, common salt-water forage fish. There are 144 species in 17 genera, found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Anchovies are usually classified as an oily fish.-Description:...
, Barracuda
Barracuda
The barracuda is a ray-finned fish known for its large size and fearsome appearance. Its body is long, fairly compressed, and covered with small, smooth scales. Some species could reach up to 1.8m in length and 30 cm in width...
, Surfperch, Billfish
Billfish
The term billfish is applied to a number of different large, predatory fish characterised by their large size and their long, sword-like bill. Billfish include the sailfish and marlin, which make up the family Istiophoridae, and the swordfish, sole member of the family Xiphiidae...
es, Bluefin Tuna, Bonito
Bonito
Bonito is a name given to various species of medium-sized, predatory fish in the Scombridae family. First, bonito most commonly refers to species in the genus Sarda, including the Atlantic bonito and the Pacific bonito ; second, in Japanese cuisine, bonito refers to the skipjack tuna , which, in...
, Cabezone
Cabezone
The Cabezon or also commonly referred to as the mother-in-law fish to Floridians, Scorpaenichthys marmoratus, is a sculpin native to the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America...
, California Halibut
California halibut
The California halibut or California flounder, Paralichthys californicus, is a large-tooth flounder native to the waters of the Pacific Coast of North America from the Quillayute River in Washington to Magdalena Bay in Baja California. It feeds near shore and is free swimming. It typically weighs...
, Carp
Carp
Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. The cypriniformes are traditionally grouped with the Characiformes, Siluriformes and Gymnotiformes to create the superorder Ostariophysi, since these groups have certain...
, Catfish
Catfish
Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...
, Clam
Clam
The word "clam" can be applied to freshwater mussels, and other freshwater bivalves, as well as marine bivalves.In the United States, "clam" can be used in several different ways: one, as a general term covering all bivalve molluscs...
s, California Corbina
California corbina
The California corbina is a saltwater fish and member of the croaker family. California corbina occur from the Gulf of California, Mexico, to Point Conception, California. It is a bottom fish found along sandy beaches and in shallow bays. This species travels in small groups along the surf zone in...
, Crab
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
s, Crappie
Crappie
Crappie is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. The type species is P. annularis, the white crappie...
, Croaker
Sciaenidae
Sciaenidae is a family of fish commonly called drums, croakers, or hardheads for the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make...
, Dungeness Crab
Dungeness crab
The Dungeness crab, Metacarcinus magister , is a species of crab that inhabits eelgrass beds and water bottoms on the west coast of North America. It typically grows to across the carapace and is a popular seafood...
, Eel
Eel
Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...
s, Flounder
Flounder
The flounder is an ocean-dwelling flatfish species that is found in coastal lagoons and estuaries of the Northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.-Taxonomy:There are a number of geographical and taxonomical species to which flounder belong.*Western Atlantic...
, Flying fish, Giant sea bass
Giant sea bass
The giant sea bass is a fish native to the northern Pacific Ocean. Despite its conspicuous size and curious nature, relatively little is known about its biology or behavior....
, Greenling, Groundfish (includes Rockfish
Sebastes
Sebastes is a genus of fish in the family Sebastidae , most of which have the common name of rockfish. Most of the world's almost 110 Sebastes species live in the north Pacific, although two live in the south Pacific/Atlantic and four Sebastes is a genus of fish in the family Sebastidae (though...
species), Grouper
Grouper
Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes.Not all serranids are called groupers; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name grouper is usually given to fish in one of two large genera: Epinephelus...
, Grunion
Grunion
Grunion are two fish species of the genus Leuresthes: the California grunion, L. tenuis, and the Gulf grunion L. sardinas...
, Halibut
Halibut
Halibut is a flatfish, genus Hippoglossus, from the family of the right-eye flounders . Other flatfish are also called halibut. The name is derived from haly and butt , for its popularity on Catholic holy days...
, Hardhead
Mylopharodon conocephalus
The hardhead, Mylopharodon conocephalus, is a cyprinid fish native to California, it is the sole member of its genus. Hardhead are found in both small to large streams in low to mid-elevations. Hardhead may also inhabit reservoirs and lakes. Hardhead are omnivores at all ages although the juvenile...
, Herring
Herring
Herring is an oily fish of the genus Clupea, found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Three species of Clupea are recognized. The main taxa, the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring may each be divided into subspecies...
, Hake
Hake
The term hake refers to fish in either of:* family Phycidae of the northern oceans* family Merlucciidae of the southern oceans-Hake fish:...
, Jack mackerel, Kelp Bass
Kelp Bass
The Kelp Bass , sometimes referred to as the Calico Bass , is a species of marine fish found in the north-eastern Pacific Ocean from Baja California, Mexico, to Washington, USA...
, Largemouth Bass
Largemouth bass
The largemouth bass is a species of black bass in the sunfish family native to North America . It is also known as widemouth bass, bigmouth, black bass, bucketmouth, Potter's fish, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, green bass, green trout, linesides, Oswego bass, southern largemouth...
, Lingcod
Lingcod
The lingcod, Ophiodon elongatus, is a fish of the greenling family Hexagrammidae. It is the only extant member of the genus Ophiodon...
, Mackerel
Pacific jack mackerel
The Pacific jack mackerel,Trachurus symmetricus , is an abundant species of pelagic marine fish in the jack family, Carangidae...
, Oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
s, Pacific Shrimp
Whiteleg shrimp
Whiteleg shrimp , also known as Pacific white shrimp, is a variety of prawn of the eastern Pacific Ocean commonly caught or farmed for food.-Description:...
, Perch
Perch
Perch is a common name for fish of the genus Perca, freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which there are three species in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Perciformes, from the Greek perke meaning spotted, and the...
, Pikeminnow (Squawfish), Prawn
Prawn
Prawns are decapod crustaceans of the sub-order Dendrobranchiata. There are 540 extant species, in seven families, and a fossil record extending back to the Devonian...
, Rock Crab, Sablefish
Sablefish
The sablefish, Anoplopoma fimbria, is one of two members of the fish family Anoplopomatidae and the only species in the Anoplopoma genus...
, Sacramento Blackfish
Sacramento Blackfish
The Sacramento blackfish, Orthodon microlepidotus, is a cyprinid fish of central California. It is the sole member of its genus.Blackfish are distinctive for their overall dark color . Younger individuals are more silvery, but darken as they age. The scales are unusually small, counting 90-114...
, Salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
, Sardine
Sardine
Sardines, or pilchards, are several types of small, oily fish related to herrings, family Clupeidae. Sardines are named after the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, around which they were once abundant....
, Scallop
Scallop
A scallop is a marine bivalve mollusk of the family Pectinidae. Scallops are a cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world's oceans. Many scallops are highly prized as a food source...
s, Scorpionfish
Scorpionfish
Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfish, are a family of mostly marine fish that includes many of the world's most venomous species. As the name suggests, scorpionfish have a type of "sting" in the form of sharp spines coated with venomous mucus. The family is a large one, with hundreds of members. They are...
, Sharks, Sheephead, Skate
Skate
Skates are cartilaginous fish belonging to the family Rajidae in the superorder Batoidea of rays. There are more than 200 described species in 27 genera. There are two subfamilies, Rajinae and Arhynchobatinae ....
, Shortspine thornyhead
Shortspine thornyhead
The shortspine thornyhead is a species of fish in the Scorpaenidae family. It is sometimes refer to as the "idiot fish" or "idiot cod" due to its large oversize head/eyes. It is found in Canada, Russia, and the United States. Adult S...
, Skipjack tuna
Skipjack tuna
The skipjack tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis, is a medium-sized perciform fish in the tuna family, Scombridae. It is otherwise known as the aku, arctic bonito, mushmouth, oceanic bonito, striped tuna, or victor fish...
, Smallmouth Bass
Smallmouth bass
The smallmouth bass is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of the order Perciformes. It is the type species of its genus...
, Smelts, Sole
Sole (fish)
Sole is a group of flatfish belonging to several families. Generally speaking, they are members of the family Soleidae, but, outside Europe, the name sole is also applied to various other similar flatfish, especially other members of the sole suborder Soleoidei as well as members of the flounder...
, Spider or Sheep Crab
Majidae
Majidae is a family of crabs, comprising around 700 marine species with a carapace that is longer than it is broad, and which forms a point at the front. The legs can be very long in some species, leading to the name "spider crab"...
, Splittail
Pogonichthys macrolepidotus
Pogonichthys macrolepidotus, the Splittail or Sacramento splittail, is a species of cyprinid fish that is now restricted to the San Francisco Bay Delta and the lower reaches of the Sacramento River in California, USA. It formerly could be found throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system....
, Spiny Lobster
Spiny lobster
Spiny lobsters, also known as langouste or rock lobsters, are a family of about 45 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda Reptantia...
, Squid
Squid
Squid are cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, a mantle, and arms. Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs and two, usually longer, tentacles...
, Steelhead, Striped Bass
Striped bass
The striped bass is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire...
, Sturgeon
Sturgeon
Sturgeon is the common name used for some 26 species of fish in the family Acipenseridae, including the genera Acipenser, Huso, Scaphirhynchus and Pseudoscaphirhynchus. The term includes over 20 species commonly referred to as sturgeon and several closely related species that have distinct common...
, Surfperch, Swordfish
Swordfish
Swordfish , also known as broadbill in some countries, are large, highly migratory, predatory fish characterized by a long, flat bill. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category, though elusive. Swordfish are elongated, round-bodied, and lose all teeth and scales by adulthood...
, Turbot
Turbot
The turbot is a species of flatfish in the family Scophthalmidae. It is native to marine or brackish waters of the North Atlantic, Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.-Etymology:...
, Trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
, Whitefish
Freshwater whitefish
The freshwater whitefish are fish of the subfamily Coregoninae in the salmon family Salmonidae. Along with the freshwater whitefish, the Salmonidae includes the freshwater and anadromous trout and salmon species as well as graylings...
, Whiting (fish), Yellowtail (fish)
See: NOAA Long list of California fish for more specific names:
Nearly all fishing is subject to quotas, allowed seasons, licensing, allowed tackle, type and number of lines or net types, excluded (closed) areas, allowed size range, allowed catch size, and other restrictions. The jurisdictions and roles of several state and federal agencies often overlap in the maritime domain giving rise to an alphabet soup of agencies and jurisdictions. Each state normally maintains joint jurisdiction over the first 3.4 miles (5.5 km) (3 nautical mile) of their coastal waters. The main agency charged with ensuring deep sea fishing regulations and restrictions in the United States Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ) of 227 miles (365.3 km) (200 nautical miles) off its shores are enforced on the high seas by the United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
(NOAA) agency within the United States Department of Commerce
United States Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
is charged with protecting and preserving the nation's living marine resources through scientific research, fisheries management, enforcement
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement is a federal police part of the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland...
and habitat conservation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement is a federal police part of the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland...
tries to enforce the about 35 laws and regulations and regulations
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement is a federal police part of the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland...
passed by Congress. NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) is responsible for carrying out more than 35 federal statutes and regulations. The agency's jurisdiction spans more than 11500000 sqkms ocean in the U.S.'s Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ) spread over more than 85000 miles (136,793.9 km) of U.S. coastline and the country's 13 National Marine Sanctuaries and its Marine National Monuments. It and the United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
are also responsible for enforcing U.S. treaties and international law governing the high seas and international trade. With such a large coverage area, it's no wonder that NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement operates joint enforcement agreements with 27 coastal states and partners with other agencies to help get the job done. Article III, Section 2
Article Three of the United States Constitution
Article Three of the United States Constitution establishes the judicial branch of the federal government. The judicial branch comprises the Supreme Court of the United States and lower courts as created by Congress.-Section 1: Federal courts:...
of the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
grants original jurisdiction to U.S. federal courts over admiralty and maritime matters, however that jurisdiction is not exclusive and most maritime cases can be heard in either state or federal courts under the "saving to suitors" clause. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement is a federal police part of the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland...
and NOAA Fisheries works within the laws as enacted in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Marine Sanctuaries Act and the Endangered Species Act
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and...
. NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement now has 146 special agents and 17 enforcement officers working out of six divisional offices and 52 field offices throughout the United States and U.S. territories. Many have criticized this meager manpower as grossly inadequate.
Overfishing
Overfishing
Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
is one of the main problems with many marine fisheries with about 30% of all marine fisheries thought to be over fished. Inadequate data is one of the main restrictions to finding and instituting reasonable and sustainable limits on many fishing stocks. To control overfishing
Overfishing
Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
NOAA has instituted the National Marine Fisheries Service
National Marine Fisheries Service
The National Marine Fisheries Service is a United States federal agency. A division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Commerce, NMFS is responsible for the stewardship and management of the nation's living marine resources and their habitat within the...
(NMFS) to set quotas, specify open and closed fisheries and seasons and other limits on what, when and how fish are caught within federal guidelines. With the help of the six regional science centers, eight regional fisheries management
Fisheries management
Fisheries management draws on fisheries science in order to find ways to protect fishery resources so sustainable exploitation is possible. Modern fisheries management is often referred to as a governmental system of appropriate management rules based on defined objectives and a mix of management...
councils, the coastal states and territories, and three interstate fisheries management commissions, These councils have had varying amounts of success, but seem to at least have started the rehabilitation of some fisheries. United States Fish and Wildlife Service
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is a federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats...
National Fish Passage Program tries to remove barriers blocking the natural migration of fish to historic habitat used for reproduction and growth.
Since fisheries are the mainstay of some communities as well as being a $38 billion dollar industry there are many conflicting pressures on controlling fishing. More data gathered by more people on: bycatch
Bycatch
The term “bycatch” is usually used for fish caught unintentionally in a fishery while intending to catch other fish. It may however also indicate untargeted catch in other forms of animal harvesting or collecting...
(caught but unusable fish), fish life cycles, fish habitats at different parts of their life cycle, destructive fish harvesting methods, least damaging ways to harvest fish, etc. are needed to make reasonable choices and set quotas, seasons, etc. necessary to preserve our fisheries. All of this should be set with a maximum of scientific and a minimum of political input. With today's increasingly efficient fishing techniques and fleets, necessary restrictions are the only thing that will assure a continuing source of fishing related jobs and fish products for our descendants—being responsible stewards of our natural resources is often a difficult job but one we can learn and implement.
Mare Island
Mare Island
Mare Island is a peninsula in the United States alongside the city of Vallejo, California, about northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the east side of San Pablo Bay. Mare Island is considered a peninsula because no full...
, near the city of Vallejo, California
Vallejo, California
Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, California, United States. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay...
, was first Naval Base in California. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait
Carquinez Strait
The Carquinez Strait is a narrow tidal strait in northern California. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay...
juncture with the east side of San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in northern California in the United States. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep water channel approximately in mid bay, which allows access to Sacramento, Stockton, Benicia, Martinez, and...
. In 1850, Commodore John Drake Sloat, in charge of a commission to find a California naval base, recommended the island across the Napa River from the settlement of Vallejo; it being "free from ocean gales and from floods and freshets."
On November 6, 1850, two months after California was admitted to statehood, President Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office of president...
reserved Mare Island for government use. The U.S. Navy Department acted favorably on Commodore Sloat's recommendations and Mare Island was purchased in July, 1852, for the sum of $83,410 for the use as a naval shipyard. Two years later, on September 16, 1854, Mare Island became the first permanent U.S. naval installation on the west coast, with Commodore David G. Farragut, as Mare Island's first base commander. For more than a century, Mare Island served as the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
's Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the...
. A 508-foot (155 m) drydock was built by the Public Works Department
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works is responsible for the construction and operation of Los Angeles County's roads, building safety, sewerage, and flood control...
on an excellent rock foundation of cut granite blocks. The work took nineteen years and was completed in 1891. During the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
, a concrete drydock on wooden piles, 740 feet (230 m) long, was completed after eleven years of work, in 1910. By 1941, a third drydock had been completed and the drydock number four was under construction. The ammunitions depot and submarine repair base were modern, fireproof buildings. A million dollar, three-way vehicle causeway to Vallejo was completed.
Before World War II, Mare Island had been in a continual state of upbuilding. By 1941, new projects included improvements to the central power plant, a new pattern storage building, a large foundry, machine shop, magazine building, paint shop, new administration building, and a huge storehouse. The yard was expected to be able to repair and paint six to eight large naval vessels at a time. Several finger piers had recently[when?] been built, as well as a new shipbuilding wharf, adding one 500-foot (150 m) and a 750-foot (230 m) berth. It employed 5593 workers at the beginning of 1939, and rapidly increased to 18,500 busily engaged by May 1941, with a monthly payroll of $3,500,000(1941). Then came Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
. In 1941, the drafting department had expanded to three buildings accommodating over 400 Naval architects, engineers and draftsmen. The hospital carried 584 bed patients. Mare Island became one of the U.S. Navy's ship building sites in World War II specializing in building diesel engine powered submarines—they eventually built 32 of them. After the war was over Mare Island became a premier site for building Nuclear powered submarines—building 27 of them.
In 1969, the US Navy transferred its (Vietnam War) Brown Water Navy Riverine Training Forces from Coronado, California, to Mare Island. Swift Boats (Patrol Craft Fast-PCF), and PBRs (Patrol Boat River), among other types of riverine craft, conducted boat operations throughout the currently named Napa-Sonoma Marshes State Wildlife Area, which are located on the north and west portions of Mare Island. Mare Island Naval Base was deactivated during the 1995 cycle of US base closures, but the US Navy Reserves still have access to the water portions of the State Wildlife Area for any riverine warfare training being conducted from their new base in Sacramento, California.
In 1996 Mare Island Naval Shipyard was closed.
Naval Base San Diego
Naval Base San Diego was started on land acquired in 1920. San Diego has become the home port of the largest naval fleet in the world, and includes two supercarriers, as well as Marine Corps
Marine corps
A marine is a member of a force that specializes in expeditionary operations such as amphibious assault and occupation. The marines traditionally have strong links with the country's navy...
stations, U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
ports, and US Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
installations. Naval Base San Diego is the largest base of the United States Navy on the west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. Naval Base San Diego is the principal homeport of the Pacific Fleet
United States Pacific Fleet
The United States Pacific Fleet is a Pacific Ocean theater-level component command of the United States Navy that provides naval resources under the operational control of the United States Pacific Command. Its home port is at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii. It is commanded by Admiral Patrick M...
, consisting of 54 ships and over 120 tenant commands. The base is composed of 13 piers stretched over 977 acres (3.95 km2) of land and 326 acres (1.32 km2) of water. The total on base population is 20,000 military personnel and 6,000 civilians.
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the...
(MINS)’’’ in Vallejo, California
Vallejo, California
Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, California, United States. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay...
was the premier naval construction site for Navy ships on the West Coast of the United States
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
from about 1855 to 1993. Before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Mare Island had been in a continual state of upbuilding. By 1941, the yard was expected to be able to repair and paint six to eight large naval vessels at a time. It employed 5593 workers at the beginning of 1939 which rapidly increased to 18,500 by May 1941, with a monthly payroll of $3,500,000(1941). Then came Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
. During World War II Mare Island specialized in building up the US, Navy's submarine forces in the Pacific as well as building other Naval ships.
When Congress ordered Mare Island closed down in 1993, the shipyard employed 5,800 workers.
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the...
constructed at least eighty-nine sea-going vessels for the United States Navy—including two for the Revenue Cutter Service. Among the more important ships & boats built were:
Mare Island Construction
- 2 Wood sloop-of-warSloop-of-warIn the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
- 1 iron monitorMonitor (warship)A monitor was a class of relatively small warship which was neither fast nor strongly armoured but carried disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s until the end of World War II, and saw their final use by the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.The monitors...
- 1 revenue cutter (USRC)
- 1 aircraft carrierAircraft carrierAn aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
- 1 harbor tug boat for the Revenue Cutter Service
- 1 training ship
- 1 collierCollier (ship type)Collier is a historical term used to describe a bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially for naval use by coal-fired warships. In the late 18th century a number of wooden-hulled sailing colliers gained fame after being adapted for use in voyages of exploration in the South Pacific, for...
- 1 aircraft carrierAircraft carrierAn aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
- 3 tankerTanker (ship)A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier.-Background:...
s - 2 gunboatGunboatA gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...
s - 19 destroyerDestroyerIn naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
s - 15 submarine chasers - wood
- 1 cruiserCruiserA cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
- 1 heavy cruiserHeavy cruiserThe heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range, high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 203mm calibre . The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, although the term 'heavy cruiser' only came into formal use in 1930...
- 2 battleshipBattleshipA battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
s - 2 submarine tenderSubmarine tenderA submarine tender is a type of ship that supplies and supports submarines.Submarines are small compared to most oceangoing vessels, and generally do not have the ability to carry large amounts of food, fuel, torpedoes, and other supplies, nor to carry a full array of maintenance equipment and...
s - 32 DieselDiesel engineA diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
powered submarineSubmarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s - 17 Nuclear-poweredNuclear marine propulsionNuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship by a nuclear reactor. Naval nuclear propulsion is propulsion that specifically refers to naval warships...
submarineSubmarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s - 1 Bathyscaphe Trieste IIBathyscaphe Trieste IITrieste II ' was the successor to Trieste — the United States Navy's first bathyscaphe purchased from its Swiss designers. The original Trieste design was heavily modified by the Naval Electronics Laboratory in San Diego, California and built at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard...
See: ‘’’Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the...
(MINS)’’’ for specific ships.
National Steel and Shipbuilding Company
National Steel and Shipbuilding CompanyNational Steel and Shipbuilding Company
National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, commonly referred to as NASSCO, is a shipyard in San Diego, California and Norfolk, Virginia and a division of General Dynamics. The shipyard specializes in constructing commercial cargo ships and auxiliary vessels for the US Navy and Military Sealift...
, commonly referred to as NASSCO, is a shipyard in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, and a division of General Dynamics
General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation is a U.S. defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world. Its headquarters are in West Falls Church , unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Falls Church area.The company has...
. It is located next to the San Diego Naval base. What became NASSCO was founded as a small machine shop called California Iron Works (CIW) in 1905. The machine shop and foundry were renamed National Iron Works (NIW) in 1922 and moved to the San Diego waterfront to build ships in 1944-1945. In 1949 NIW was renamed National Steel and Shipbuilding Corporation (NASSCO). The shipyard specializes in maintaining and constructing commercial cargo ships and auxiliary vessels such as minesweeper
Minesweeper (ship)
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...
s and LST
LST
LST is a three-character initialism that may refer to:* Landing Ship, Tank, a U.S. Navy ship class, of type Amphibious Warfare* Laplace-Stieltjes transform, a transform similar to the Laplace transform* Launceston Airport* Least slack time scheduling...
s, hospital ship
Hospital ship
A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital; most are operated by the military forces of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones....
s, patrol craft, and cargo vessels for the US Navy and the Military Sealift Command
Military Sealift Command
The Military Sealift Command is a United States Navy organization that controls most of the replenishment and military transport ships of the Navy. It first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service became solely responsible for the Department of Defense's...
. It is the largest new construction shipyard on the West Coast of the United States employing more than 4,600 people and is now the only major ship construction yard on the West Coast of the United States.
See: Ships Built in San Diego, California for write ups on 70 ships built there.
California Shipbuilding Corporation
.California Shipbuilding Corporation
California Shipbuilding Corporation
California Shipbuilding Corporation built 467 Liberty and Victory ships during World War II, including Haskell-class attack transports. California Shipbuilding Corporation was often referred to as Calship...
(often called Calship) built 467 Liberty
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
and Victory ship
Victory ship
The Victory ship was a type of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace shipping losses caused by German submarines...
s during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, including Haskell-class
Haskell class attack transport
Haskell-class attack transports were amphibious assault ships of the United States Navy created in 1944. They were designed to transport 1,500 troops and their combat equipment, and land them on hostile shores with the ships' integral landing craft....
attack transport
Attack transport
Attack Transport is a United States Navy ship classification.-History:In the early 1940s, as the United States Navy expanded in response to the threat of involvement in World War II, a number of civilian passenger ships and some freighters were acquired, converted to transports and given hull...
s. The Calship shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
was created at Terminal Island
Terminal Island
Terminal Island is an island located in Los Angeles County, California between Los Angeles Harbor and Long Beach Harbor. Originally a mudflat known to the Spanish as Isla Raza de Buena Gente, and later called Rattlesnake Island, it has officially been Terminal Island since 1918...
in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, USA as part of the World War II shipbuilding effort. It was initially 8 ways
Slipway
A slipway, boat slip or just a slip, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats. They are also used for launching and retrieving small boats on trailers and flying boats on their undercarriage. The...
, and increased to 14. After the war, it was liquidated. The ships they built were:
- 306 EC2-S-C1 Liberty shipLiberty shipLiberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
cargo transport - 30 Z-ET1-S-C3 Liberty ship tanker *
- 32 VC2-S-AP3 Victory shipVictory shipThe Victory ship was a type of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace shipping losses caused by German submarines...
cargo transport, 8,500 hp - 30 VC2-S-AP5 Haskell class USN attack transportAttack transportAttack Transport is a United States Navy ship classification.-History:In the early 1940s, as the United States Navy expanded in response to the threat of involvement in World War II, a number of civilian passenger ships and some freighters were acquired, converted to transports and given hull...
- 69 VC2-S-AP2 Victory ship cargo transport, 6,000 hp
Kaiser Richmond shipyards
Richmond Shipyards
The four Richmond Shipyards, located in the city of Richmond, California, United States, were run by Permanente Metals and part of the Kaiser Shipyards, and were responsible for constructing more ships during World War II than any other shipyard in the country. The shipyards are part of the Rosie...
, Richmond, California
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...
(a Kaiser facility) had four Richmond Shipyards, located in the city of Richmond, California
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...
United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, were run by Permanente Metals
Permanente Metals
Permanente Metals Company managed the Richmond Shipyards, owned by Henry J. Kaiser. These four of the Kaiser Shipyards were known for the construction of Liberty ships.The company was also a major producer of magnesium during World War II...
and part of the Kaiser Shipyards
Kaiser Shipyards
The Kaiser Shipyards were seven major shipbuilding yards located mostly on the U.S. west coast during World War II. They were owned by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, a creation of American industrialist Henry J...
. They were responsible for constructing more Liberty ship
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
s during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, 747, than any other shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
in the United States. Henry J. Kaiser
Henry J. Kaiser
Henry John Kaiser was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. He established the Kaiser Shipyard which built Liberty ships during World War II, after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente health care...
’s company had been building cargo ships for the U.S. Maritime Commission in the late 1930s. When orders for ships from the British government, already at war with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, allowed for growth, Kaiser established his first Richmond shipyard, beginning in December, 1940. They specialized in mass producing Liberty ship
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
s fast and efficiently and that's all they built:
- 747 EC2-S-C1 Liberty shipLiberty shipLiberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
cargo transport
These ships were completed in two-thirds the amount of time and at a quarter of the cost of the average of all other shipyards. The Liberty ship
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
SS Robert E. Peary
SS Robert E. Peary
SS Robert E. Peary was a Liberty ship which gained fame during World War II for being built in a shorter time than any other such vessel. Named after Robert Peary, an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person to reach the geographic North Pole, she was launched on November 12,...
was assembled in less than five days as a part of a special competition among shipyards; but by 1944 it was only taking the astonishingly brief time of a little over two weeks to assemble a Liberty ship by standard methods. They pre-assembled major parts of the ship including the hull sections at various locations in the shipyard and then, when needed, moved them with heavy lift cranes to the shipyard launching site where they welded the pre-built sections together. After the ships were launched they were finished to their final configuration while afloat and the launch way was available to start building another ship.
In 1945, the shipyards were shut down as fast as they had started up four years earlier. Much of the shoreline previously occupied by the shipyards is now owned by Richmond, California
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...
and has been cleaned up and redeveloped under federally-assisted "brownfields" programs. The ‘’Rosie the Riveter’’/Home Front World War II National Historical Park was established on the shipyard site to commemorate and interpret the role of the WW II home front in winning World War II.
- Richmond Shipyards Images
- Kaiser Shipyards
California Ports
| City | Port Name | Latitude., Longitude | Size | Main Use | Ref | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antioch, CA Antioch, California Antioch is a city in Contra Costa County, California. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area along the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, it is a suburb of San Francisco and Oakland. The city's population was 102,372 at the U.S... |
San Joaquin Harbor | 38.018446,-121.753331 | S | Ship Repairs | ||||||
| Avalon, CA Avalon, California Avalon, or Avalon Bay, is the only incorporated city on Santa Catalina Island of the California Channel Islands, and the southernmost city in Los Angeles County. Besides Avalon, the only other center of population on the island is the small unincorporated town of Two Harbors... |
Avalon Harbor | 37.91319,-122.350316 | S | Tourists | ||||||
| Benicia, CA Benicia, California Benicia is a waterside city in Solano County, California, United States. It was the first city in California to be founded by Anglo-Americans, and served as the state capital for nearly thirteen months from 1853 to 1854. The population was 26,997 at the 2010 census. The city is located in the San... |
Port of Benicia | 38.045168,-122.156296 | M | Automobiles | ||||||
| Bodega Bay, CA Bodega Bay, California Bodega Bay is a town and census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 1,077 at the 2010 census. The town is on the eastern side of Bodega Harbor, an inlet of Bodega Bay on the Pacific coast.... |
Porto Bodega Marina | 38.334124,-123.051295 | VS | Tourists | ||||||
| Crescent City, CA Crescent City, California Crescent City is the county seat and only incorporated city in Del Norte County, California. Named for the crescent-shaped stretch of sandy beach south of the city, Crescent City had a total population of 7,643 in the 2010 census, up from 4,006 in the 2000 census... |
Crescent City Harbor | 41.748119,-124.184496 | S | Fishing, Tourists | ||||||
| Crockett, CA Crockett, California Crockett is a census-designated place in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 3,094 at the 2010 census... |
Port of Crockett | 38.057705,-122.217686 | S | Sugar | ||||||
| Dana Point, CA Dana Point, California -Climate:Dana Point enjoys a mild climate where temperatures tend to average around the 60's. The warmest month of the year is August with an average temperature of 79 degrees Fahrenheit. The coldest month is December with an average minimum temperature of 44 degrees Fahrenheit.-2010:The 2010... |
Dana Point Harbor | 33.459963,-117.699344 | S | Fishing, Tourists | ||||||
| El Segundo, CA El Segundo, California El Segundo is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on the Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is one of the Beach Cities of Los Angeles County and part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments... |
El Segundo Oil Terminal | 33.907109,-118.429184 | VS | Oil Tankers | ||||||
| Eureka, CA Eureka, California Eureka is the principal city and the county seat of Humboldt County, California, United States. Its population was 27,191 at the 2010 census, up from 26,128 at the 2000 census.... |
Humboldt Bay Harbor | 40.738805,-124.217134 | M | Lumber, Logs | ||||||
| Fort Bragg, CA Fort Bragg, California Fort Bragg is a city located in coastal Mendocino County, California along State Route 1, the major north-south highway along the Pacific Coast. Fort Bragg is located west of Willits, at an elevation of 85 feet... |
Noyo Harbor | 39.42474,-123.800758 | S | Fishing, Tourists | ||||||
| Half Moon Bay, CA Half Moon Bay, California Half Moon Bay is a coastal city in San Mateo County, California, USA. Its population was 11,324 as of the 2010 census. Immediately at the north of Half Moon Bay is the Pillar Point Harbor and the unincorporated community of Princeton-by-the-Sea.... |
Pillar Point Harbor | 37.50147,-122.482646 | S | Fishing, Tourists | ||||||
| Long Beach, CA Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257... |
Port of Long Beach Port of Long Beach The Port of Long Beach, also known as Long Beach’s Harbor Department, is the 2nd busiest container port in the USA. It adjoins the separate Port of Los Angeles. Acting as a major gateway for U.S.-Asian trade, the port occupies of land with of waterfront in the city of Long Beach, California... |
33.732834,-118.254175 | VL | Containers, Recreational | ||||||
| Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles, California Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California... |
Port of Los Angeles Port of Los Angeles The Port of Los Angeles, also called Los Angeles Harbor and WORLDPORT L.A, is a port complex that occupies of land and water along of waterfront. The port is located on San Pedro Bay in the San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles, approximately south of downtown... |
33.743558,-118.201454 | VL | Containers, Recreational | ||||||
| Martinez, CA Martinez, California Martinez is a city and the county seat of Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 35,824 at the 2010 census. The downtown is notable for its large number of preserved old buildings... |
Shell Oil Terminal Martinez | 38.032476,-122.130461 | S | Oil Tankers, Recreation | ||||||
| Monterey, CA Monterey, California The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of... |
Monterey Harbor | 36.605555,-121.892243 | S | Fishing, Tourists | ||||||
| Morro Bay, CA Morro Bay, California Morro Bay is a waterfront city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,234, down from 10,350 at the 2000 census.- History :... |
Morro Bay Harbor | 35.370181,-120.858021 | S | Fishing, Tourists | ||||||
| Moss Landing, CA Moss Landing, California Moss Landing is a census-designated place in Monterey County, California, United States. Moss Landing is located on the Pajaro Valley Consolidated Railroad north-northeast of Monterey, at an elevation of 10 feet . As of the 2010 census, the CDP population was 204, down from 300 at the 2000... |
Moss Landing | 36.80243,-121.785132 | S | Fishing, Tourists | ||||||
| Oakland, CA Oakland, California Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724... |
Port of Oakland Port of Oakland The Port of Oakland was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. It is now the fifth busiest container port in the United States, behind Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, and Savannah... |
37.793474,-122.299161 | VL | Containers, Recreational | ||||||
| Oceanside, CA Oceanside, California -2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Oceanside had a population of 167,086. The population density was 3,961.8 people per square mile... |
Oceanside Harbor | 33.211161,-117.395557 | S | Fishing, Tourists | ||||||
| Pittsburg, CA Pittsburg, California Pittsburg is a city located in eastern Contra Costa County, California, the outer portion of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 63,264 at the 2010 census.... |
Port of Pittsburg | 38.035222,-121.882496 | S | Fishing, Tourists | ||||||
| Port Hueneme, CA Port Hueneme, California Port Hueneme is a small beach city in Ventura County, California surrounded by the city of Oxnard and the Pacific Ocean. The name derives from the Spanish spelling of the Chumash wene me, meaning "Resting Place". The area was discovered by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in the mid 16th century... |
Port Hueneme | 34.149992,-119.207819 | M | Fruit Imports, Automobiles | ||||||
| San Luis Obispo, CA San Luis Obispo, California San Luis Obispo is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. Junipero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities... |
Port San Luis Harbor | 35.169371, -120.745593 | S | Tourists | ||||||
| Redondo Beach, CA Redondo Beach, California Redondo Beach is one of the three Beach Cities located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 66,748 at the 2010 census, up from 63,261 at the 2000 census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the greater Los Angeles area.Redondo Beach was originally part of... |
Redondo Beach Harbor | 33.848142,-118.397266 | S | Tourists | ||||||
| Redwood City, CA Redwood City, California Redwood City is a California charter city located on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California, approximately 27 miles south of San Francisco, and 24 miles north of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans from its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people, to its tradition as a port for... |
Port of Redwood City Port of Redwood City The Port of Redwood City is a marine freight terminal on the western side of the southern San Francisco Bay, on the West Coast of the United States. This marine terminal is situated within the city of Redwood City, California. The port was developed from a natural deepwater channel discovered in... |
37.507819, -122.213974 | M | Metal Scrap, Cement, Oil | ||||||
| Richmond, CA Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been... |
Port of Richmond (California) | 37.914206, -122.364006 | M | Liquid bulk, Automobiles | ||||||
| San Diego, CA San Diego, California San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round... |
Port of San Diego Port of San Diego The Port of San Diego is a self-supporting public benefit corporation established in 1962 by an act of the California State Legislature. In 2007, The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics ranked the Port of San Diego as one of America's top 30 U.S. containership ports bringing in nearly of... |
32.715197,-117.223992 | L | Cruise ships, Lumber, Auto. | ||||||
| San Diego, CA San Diego, California San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round... |
San Diego Navy Base | 32.676228, -117.126017 | L | Navy, USCG | ||||||
| San Francisco, CA San Francisco, California San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland... |
Port of San Francisco Port of San Francisco The Port of San Francisco lies on the western edge of the San Francisco Bay near the Golden Gate. It has been called one of the three great natural harbors in the world, but it took two long centuries for navigators from Spain and England to find the anchorage originally called Yerba Buena... |
37.780721,-122.386365 | L | Cruise ships, General Cargo | ||||||
| Santa Barbara, CA Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean... |
Santa Barbara Harbor | 34.405901, -119.691002 | S | Tourists, Sterns Wharf | ||||||
| Santa Cruz, CA Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946... |
Santa Cruz Harbor | 36.966532,-122.002573 | S | Fishing, tourists | ||||||
| Stockton, CA Stockton, California Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city... |
Port of Stockton Port of Stockton The Port of Stockton is a major inland deepwater port in Stockton, California located on the San Joaquin River before it joins the Sacramento River to empty into Suisun Bay, eighty miles inland. The port sits on about , and occupies an island in the San Joaquin Delta, and a portion of a... |
37.952032, -121.323395 | M | Rice, Cement, Bulk cargo | ||||||
| Two Harbors, CA Two Harbors, California Two Harbors, colloquially known as "The Isthmus", is a small unincorporated island village on Santa Catalina Island, California with a population of 298 . It is the second center of population on the island, besides the city of Avalon. It is mainly a resort village. It has only one restaurant, one... |
Two Harbors | 33.444011, -118.496851 | S | Resort | ||||||
| West Sacramento, CA West Sacramento, California West Sacramento is a city in Yolo County, California. It is contiguous with Sacramento, but is separated by the Sacramento River which is also the county line, so West Sacramento is in a different county than Sacramento... |
Port of West Sacramento | 38.564341, -121.549602 | S | Rice, Bulk Cargo | ||||||
| Notes: VS= very small, S=small, M=medium, L=large, VL=very large Aerial views, map views, etc., of each port may be obtained from Google Maps, Bing Maps, Google Earth, etc. by copying and pasting the given Latitude and Longitude coordinates into the map address box and pressing enter. Some ports are medium to large and/or spread out and may require navigation and/or scale changes (+ -) to see more of the port. Nearly all ports (except oil terminals) have a small to large number of private boats used for recreation, etc. |
||||||||||
California Shipwrecks
The Farallon IslandsFarallon Islands
The Farallon Islands, or Farallones , are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, USA. They lie outside the Golden Gate and south of Point Reyes, and are visible from the mainland on clear days...
, Channel Islands of California
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...
and the rocky mainland coast have historically provided hazardous navigational obstacles to shipping. Intermittent fog
Fog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
s and dangerous wind
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...
s and storm
Storm
A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...
s often led ships to rocks, dangerous beaches and islands to be pounded by the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
's Swell
Swell (ocean)
A swell, in the context of an ocean, sea or lake, is a series surface gravity waves that is not generated by the local wind. Swell waves often have a long wavelength but this varies with the size of the water body, e.g. rarely more than 150 m in the Mediterranean, and from event to event, with...
and storms. Fierce currents have always swept in and out of the entrance to the Golden Gate as the tide
Tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....
shifts direction. More than 140 shipwrecks have been reported in the waters of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary is one of 13 marine sanctuaries in the U.S., found outside San Francisco's Golden Gate surrounding the Gulf of the Farallones-History:...
.
One of the first recorded shipwrecks in California is that of the San Augustin, a richly laden Spanish Manila galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
, which was driven ashore in a gale in 1595 in Drake’s Bay, northwest of San Francisco.
The Honda Point Disaster
Honda Point Disaster
The Honda Point Disaster was the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy ships. On the evening of September 8, 1923, seven destroyers, while traveling at 20 knots , ran aground at Honda Point, a few miles from the northern side of the Santa Barbara Channel off Point Arguello on the coast in Santa...
was the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy ships. Honda Point, also called Point Pedernales, is located on the seacoast of what is now Vandenberg Air Force Base, California off Point Arguello
Point Arguello
Point Arguello is a headland used as a launch site by the United States Navy. Point Arguello was first used in 1959 for the launch of military and sounding rockets. It was transferred to the United States Air Force in 1964, at which time it became part of Vandenberg Air Force Base.There were 6...
on the coast in Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, on the Pacific coast. As of 2010 the county had a population of 423,895. The county seat is Santa Barbara and the largest city is Santa Maria.-History:...
. On the evening of September 8, 1923, fourteen ships of Destroyer Squadron 11 were traveling at 20 knots (37 km/h) in formation while navigating by dead reckoning
Dead reckoning
In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating one's current position by using a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time, and course...
to find the entrance to the sometimes treacherous Santa Barbara Channel
Santa Barbara Channel
The Santa Barbara Channel is a portion of the Pacific Ocean which separates the mainland of California from the northern Channel Islands. It is generally south of the city of Santa Barbara, and west of the city of Ventura....
. The squadron was led by Commodore Edward H. Watson
Edward H. Watson
Edward Howe Watson was a career United States Navy officer, who led a squadron of destroyers aground off Point Honda on the California coast in 1923.-Early life and marriage:...
, on the flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
destroyer USS Delphy. All were Clemson-class
Clemson class destroyer
The Clemson class was a series of 156 destroyers which served with the United States Navy from after World War I through World War II.The Clemson-class ships were commissioned by the United States Navy from 1919 to 1922, built by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, New York Shipbuilding...
destroyers, less than five years old. At 21:00 hours the ships turned east to course 095, supposedly heading into the entrance of Santa Barbara Channel. Seven destroyers ran aground at Honda Point, a few miles from the northern side of the Santa Barbara Channel
Santa Barbara Channel
The Santa Barbara Channel is a portion of the Pacific Ocean which separates the mainland of California from the northern Channel Islands. It is generally south of the city of Santa Barbara, and west of the city of Ventura....
. Two more destroyers sustained some damage. Twenty three men died.
The state of California keeps a Shipwrecks Database of all known California shipwrecks (1540 ea.) and their best known latitude and longitude coordinates, ship type, owner, Captain, etc.--when known. The definition of a shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
included in the database is rather broad including wrecks
Collision
A collision is an isolated event which two or more moving bodies exert forces on each other for a relatively short time.Although the most common colloquial use of the word "collision" refers to accidents in which two or more objects collide, the scientific use of the word "collision" implies...
by running aground on a shore, rocks or reefs, ship explosion
Explosion
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. An explosion creates a shock wave. If the shock wave is a supersonic detonation, then the source of the blast is called a "high explosive"...
s, foundering (filling with water and sinking), hitting snags (sunken trees), on board fires, parted lines, etc.--essentially anything that causes damage to the ship. Many of these ships were repaired and remained in service after their accidents. These ships, their cargoes, and the mooring systems which restrained them are the physical remains of the maritime history of California.
| California Shipwreck Write Ups | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ship | Ship | Ship | ||
| USS Abercrombie (DE-343) USS Abercrombie (DE-343) USS Abercrombie was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort in the service of the United States Navy, named after Ensign William Abercrombie.... |
USS Agerholm (DD-826) USS Agerholm (DD-826) USS Agerholm was a Gearing class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was the only ship named for Harold Crist Agerholm , a Private First Class in the 2nd Marine Division of the United States Marine Corps... |
USS Anthony (DD-172) USS Anthony (DD-172) USS Anthony was a Wickes class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was named for Marine Sergeant Major William Anthony .-History:... |
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| USS Anthony (DD-172) USS Anthony (DD-172) USS Anthony was a Wickes class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was named for Marine Sergeant Major William Anthony .-History:... |
USS Archer-Fish (SS-311) | USS Aspro (SS-309) USS Aspro (SS-309) USS Aspro , a Balao-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the aspro, a fish found abundantly in the upper Rhône River. According to legend, the aspro comes to the surface only in bad weather, when other fishes take refuge near the bottom... |
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| USS Aspro (SS-309) USS Aspro (SS-309) USS Aspro , a Balao-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the aspro, a fish found abundantly in the upper Rhône River. According to legend, the aspro comes to the surface only in bad weather, when other fishes take refuge near the bottom... |
USS Atlanta (CL-104) USS Atlanta (CL-104) USS Atlanta of the United States Navy was a Cleveland-class light cruiser during World War II. She was the fourth Navy ship named after the city of Atlanta, Georgia.... |
SS Avalon (1891) | ||
| USS Barbel (SS-580) USS Barbel (SS-580) USS Barbel was the lead ship of her class of submarines in the United States Navy. She was the second Navy ship named for the barbel, a cyprinoid fish, commonly called a minnow or carp.... |
USS Benevolence (AH-13) USS Benevolence (AH-13) USS Benevolence was built as SS Marine Lion in 1944 by Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Chester, Pa., under a Maritime Commission contract. 11,141 tons. 520 x 71.6 x 24. 24 knots. Sponsored by Mrs. Daisy Unter; transferred to the Navy 31 July 1944; converted to a hospital ship by Todd-Erie... |
USS Blackfin (SS-322) USS Blackfin (SS-322) USS Blackfin , a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the blackfin, a food fish of the Great Lakes.... |
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| USS Boston (1884) USS Boston (1884) The fifth USS Boston, a protected cruiser, was launched 4 December 1884 by John Roach & Sons, Chester, Pennsylvania, and commissioned 2 May 1887, Captain Francis M. Ramsay in command.... |
Brother Jonathan (steamer) Brother Jonathan (steamer) The Brother Jonathan was a paddle steamer that crashed on an uncharted rock near Point St. George, off the coast of Crescent City, California, on July 30, 1865. The ship was carrying 244 passengers and crew with a large shipment of gold. Only 19 survived the wreck, making it the deadliest shipwreck... |
USS Bunting (AMc-7) USS Bunting (AMc-7) USS Bunting was a coastal minesweeper in the United States Navy. She was named after the bunting, a seed eating bird intermediate in size between starlings and finches.- Acquisition and modification :... |
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| USS Burrfish (SS-312) USS Burrfish (SS-312) USS Burrfish , a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the burrfish, a swellfish of the Atlantic coast.... |
Carrier Pigeon (ship) Carrier Pigeon (ship) The Carrier Pigeon was an American clipper ship that was launched in the fall of 1852 from Bath, Maine. Her value was estimated at $54,000. She was wrecked on her maiden voyage, off Santa Cruz, California.-History:... |
Centerville Beach Cross Centerville Beach Cross On January 6, 1860 the SS Northerner, owned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company struck a rock near Cape Mendocino and wrecked on Centerville Beach, in Humboldt County, California.-History:... |
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| USS Champlin (DD-104) USS Champlin (DD-104) The first USS Champlin was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I. She was named in honor of Stephen Champlin.-History:... |
USS Charles J. Kimmel (DE-584) USS Charles J. Kimmel (DE-584) The Charles J. Kimmel was a Rudderow class destroyer escort serving in the US Navy from 1944 through 1947. She served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of WWII... |
USS Charles J. Kimmel (DE-584) USS Charles J. Kimmel (DE-584) The Charles J. Kimmel was a Rudderow class destroyer escort serving in the US Navy from 1944 through 1947. She served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of WWII... |
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| USS Charles J. Kimmel (DE-584) USS Charles J. Kimmel (DE-584) The Charles J. Kimmel was a Rudderow class destroyer escort serving in the US Navy from 1944 through 1947. She served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of WWII... |
USS Chauncey (DD-296) USS Chauncey (DD-296) The second USS Chauncey was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named for Isaac Chauncey.-History:... |
SS City of Rio de Janeiro SS City of Rio De Janeiro The SS City of Rio de Janeiro was an iron hulled steam powered passenger ship, launched in 1878, which sailed between San Francisco and various Asian Pacific ports. On 21 February 1901, the vessel sank after striking a submerged reef at the entry to San Francisco Bay while inward bound from Hong... |
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| USS Colahan (DD-658) USS Colahan (DD-658) USS Colahan was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy, named for Commander Charles E. Colahan .Colahan was launched on 3 May 1943 by Bethlehem Steel Co., Staten Island, N.Y., sponsored by Mrs. P. C. Hinkamp, adopted granddaughter of Commander Colahan; and commissioned on 23 August... |
SS Columbia (1880) SS Columbia (1880) The SS Columbia was a cargo/passenger steamship that was owned by the San Francisco and Portland Steamship Company. The Columbia was lost on July 20, 1907 after a collision with the lumber schooner San Pedro off of Shelter Cove.... |
USS Conyngham (DD-371) USS Conyngham (DD-371) The second USS Conyngham was a in the United States Navy during World War II. She was named for Gustavus Conyngham.-History:... |
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| SS Cuba (1920) SS Cuba (1920) The Cuba was a steamship owned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Originally launched in 1897 as the German SS Coblenz, she was seized by the United States in 1917, and named SS Sachem, until Pacific Mail purchased her from the Shipping Board on 6 February 1920 for US$400,000 and renamed SS... |
USS DeLong (DD-129) USS DeLong (DD-129) USS DeLong was a Wickes class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named for Lieutenant Commander George W. DeLong , an Arctic explorer.-History:... |
USS Delphy (DD-261) USS Delphy (DD-261) USS Delphy was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. Named for Richard Delphy, she was the flagship of the destroyer group involved in the Honda Point Disaster.-History:... |
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| USS Deperm (ADG-10) USS Deperm (ADG-10) USS Deperm was a degaussing vessel of the United States Navy, named after the term deperm, a procedure for erasing the permanent magnetism from ships and submarines to camouflage them against magnetic detection vessels and enemy marine mines. Originally planned as a patrol craft escort ', she was... |
USS Devilfish (SS-292) USS Devilfish (SS-292) USS Devilfish , a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the devil fish, any of several gigantic, viviparous rays found in warm seas, the octopus or other large cephalopods.... |
Diosa del Mar Diosa del Mar The Diosa del Mar was a wooden schooner that sank off of the coast of Catalina Island at 2:25 pm on July 30, 1990.-Overview:... |
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| SS Dominator | USS Duncan (DD-874) USS Duncan (DD-874) USS Duncan was a of the United States Navy, the third named for Captain Silas Duncan USN . The ship was laid down by the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange, Texas on 22 May 1944, launched on 27 October 1944 by Mrs. D. C. Thayer and commissioned on 25 February 1945, Commander P. D... |
SS Emidio SS Emidio SS Emidio was a 6912-ton tanker of the General Petroleum Corporation , which became the first casualty of the Imperial Japanese Navy's submarine force action on California's Pacific Coast. Emidio was sailing in ballast from Seattle, Washington enroute to San Pedro, California... |
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| SS Escambia SS Escambia The steam ship Escambia was an iron screw steamer built at Sunderland in 1879, by the Sunderland Ship Building Company. She was classed 100A1, and was 2,154 tons gross... |
USS F-1 (SS-20) USS F-1 (SS-20) USS F-1 was an F-class submarine. She was named Carp when her keel was laid down by Union Iron Works of San Francisco, California, making her the first ship of the United States Navy named for the carp. She was launched on 6 September 1911 sponsored by Ms. J. Tynan, renamed F-1 on 17 November... |
USS Falgout (DE-324) USS Falgout (DE-324) USS Falgout was an Edsall-class destroyer escort built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys. Post-war, she was borrowed by the U.S... |
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| USS Fuller (DD-297) USS Fuller (DD-297) USS Fuller was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was the first Navy ship named for Marine Captain Edward Fuller , who was killed in the Battle of Belleau Wood.-History:... |
USS George K. MacKenzie (DD-836) USS George K. MacKenzie (DD-836) USS George K. MacKenzie was a of the United States Navy, named for Lieutenant Commander George K. MacKenzie .George K. MacKenzie was launched on 13 May 1945 by the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine; sponsored by Miss Donna MacKenzie, daughter; and commissioned on 13 July 1945, Commander Alvin W... |
USS Harveson (DE-316) USS Harveson (DE-316) USS Harveson was an built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean the Pacific Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.... |
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| USS Herreshoff No. 321 (SP-2235) USS Herreshoff No. 321 (SP-2235) USS Herreshoff No. 321 , also written Herreshoff #321, was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1918 to 1921.-Construction, acquisition, and commissioning:... |
USS Hogan (DD-178) USS Hogan (DD-178) USS Hogan was a in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the first ship named for Seaman Daniel Hogan.Hogan was launched by Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California, 12 April 1919; sponsored by Mrs. Magnus A. Anderson, a sister of the Secretary of the Interior Franklin K.... |
Honda Point Disaster Honda Point Disaster The Honda Point Disaster was the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy ships. On the evening of September 8, 1923, seven destroyers, while traveling at 20 knots , ran aground at Honda Point, a few miles from the northern side of the Santa Barbara Channel off Point Arguello on the coast in Santa... |
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| USS Hornbill (AMc-13) USS Hornbill (AMc-13) |-External links:* * *... |
James Rolph (ship) James Rolph (ship) The James Rolph was a schooner that transported cargo around the West Coast and Hawaii. Built near Eureka, California in 1899, the ship was based in San Francisco and owned by its namesake, shipping executive and future Governor of California, James Rolph.... |
Johanna Smith (ship) Johanna Smith (ship) The Johanna Smith was a wooden-hulled schooner that transported lumber along the West Coast. She was built near North Bend, Oregon in 1917. She was sold to the Coos Bay Lumber company in 1918 and transported lumber until 1928.... |
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| USS John R. Craig (DD-885) USS John R. Craig (DD-885) USS John R. Craig was a . She was named for Lieutenant Commander John R. Craig USN , commanding officer of killed in action when the submarine was sunk by enemy Japanese destroyers in the Blackett Strait on 5 March 1943 and posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.John R... |
King Philip shipwreck King Philip shipwreck The King Philip shipwreck is the wreck of the King Philip, a 19th century clipper ship—a fast commercial three-masted sailing ship—which was named after an Indian chief. The wreck of this ship is only rarely visible; very infrequently the timbers can be seen protruding from the sands of Ocean... |
USS Knight (DD-633) USS Knight (DD-633) USS Knight , a Gleaves-class destroyer, is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Admiral Austin M. Knight.Knight was laid down 18 March 1941, by Boston Navy Yard; launched 27 September 1941 Liberty Fleet Day; sponsored by Miss Elizabeth H. Royal, granddaughter of Admiral Knight,... |
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| Labouchere (paddle steamer) Labouchere (paddle steamer) The Labouchere was a paddle steamer in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company,built in 1858 at Green's in Blackwall, London, England. Under the command of Captain J. Trivett it was mostly in service in British Columbia and the rest of the Pacific Northwest in the 1850s and 1860s... |
USS Lewis (DE-535) USS Lewis (DE-535) USS Lewis was a acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The primary purpose of the destroyer escort was to escort and protect ships in convoy, in addition to other tasks as assigned, such as patrol or radar picket.... |
USS Magnet (YDG-9) USS Magnet (YDG-9) The third USS Magnet was a degaussing vessel of the United States Navy, named after the magnet, an object that has a magnetic field... |
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| USS Marcus (DD-321) USS Marcus (DD-321) USS Marcus was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was named for Arnold Marcus.-History:... |
USS McCulloch (1897) USS McCulloch (1897) Built by William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, USS McCulloch commissioned 12 December 1897 as a cruising cutter of the Revenue Cutter Service, Capt. D. B. Hogsdon, RCS, in command.... |
USS Milwaukee (C-21) USS Milwaukee (C-21) The second USS Milwaukee was a St. Louis-class protected cruiser in the United States Navy. Milwaukee was laid down 30 July 1902 by Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California; launched 10 September 1904; sponsored by Miss Janet Mitchell, daughter of U.S. Senator John L... |
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| Montebello (oil tanker) | USS Moray (SS-300) USS Moray (SS-300) USS Moray , a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the moray, a family of large eels found in crevices of coral reefs in tropical and subtropical oceans.... |
USS Naifeh (DE-352) USS Naifeh (DE-352) USS Naifeh was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort in the United States Navy. It was named for Navy Lieutenant Alfred Naifeh who died when the USS Meredith sank during the Solomon Islands campaign of World War II. Lt. Naifeh was posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal... |
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| USS Nicholas (DD-311) USS Nicholas (DD-311) USS Nicholas was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was the first Navy ship named for Samuel Nicholas , the first Commandant of the United States Marine Corps.-History:... |
SS Northerner | SS Ohioan (1914) SS Ohioan (1914) SS Ohioan was a cargo ship built in 1914 for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. During World War I, she was taken over by the United States Navy and commissioned as USS Ohioan .... |
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| SS Palo Alto | USS Pensacola (1859) | USS Radford (DD-120) USS Radford (DD-120) The first USS Radford was a Wickes class destroyer in the United States Navy during the World War I, later reclassified AG-22. She was named for William Radford.-History:... |
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| USS Richard S. Bull (DE-402) USS Richard S. Bull (DE-402) USS Richard S. Bull was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort acquired by the United States Navy during World War II. The primary purpose of the destroyer escort was to escort and protect ships in convoy, in addition to other tasks as assigned, such as patrol or radar picket.She was named in... |
USS Richey (DE-385) USS Richey (DE-385) USS Richey was an Edsall-class destroyer escort built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.She was named in honor of ensign Joseph Lee... |
USS S-37 (SS-142) USS S-37 (SS-142) USS S-37 was an S-class submarine of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down on 12 December 1918 by the Union Iron Works in San Francisco, California. She was launched on 20 June 1919 sponsored by Miss Mildred Bulger, and commissioned on 16 July 1923 with Lieutenant Paul R... |
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| USS S. P. Lee (DD-310) USS S. P. Lee (DD-310) The first USS S. P. Lee was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was named for Samuel Phillips Lee.-History:... |
USS Sabalo (SS-302) USS Sabalo (SS-302) USS Sabalo , a , was the first submarine and second ship of the United States Navy to be named sabalo, another name for the tarpon, a large, silvery game fish of the herring group, found in the warmer parts of the Western Atlantic.... |
USS Savage (DE-386) USS Savage (DE-386) USS Savage was an Edsall-class destroyer escort ship built for the United States Navy during World War II.She was laid down 30 April 1943 by Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, Texas; launched 15 July 1943; and commissioned on 29 October 1943 manned by a Coast Guard crew under the command of... |
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| USS Sea Devil (SS-400) USS Sea Devil (SS-400) USS Sea Devil , a Balao-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sea devil , the largest of all rays, noted for power and endurance.-Construction and commissioning:... |
Sibyl Marston (ship) Sibyl Marston (ship) The Sibyl Marston was a wooden schooner cargo ship built by W.A. Boole & Sons of Oakland CA and belonging to the Sibyl Marston Co. The Sibyl Marston sank off of the coast of Lompoc, California on January 12, 1909.-Overview:On Jan... |
USS Skate (SS-305) USS Skate (SS-305) USS Skate was a United States Navy Balao-class submarine named for the skate, a type of ray.Skate was laid down at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard of Vallejo, California, 1 August 1942. She was launched on 4 March 1943, sponsored by Mrs. George P. Shamer and commissioned on 15 April with Commander... |
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| USS Skipjack (SS-184) USS Skipjack (SS-184) USS Skipjack , a Salmon-class submarine, wasthe second ship of the United States Navy to be named after the fish. Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, on 22 July 1936... |
USS Sloat (DD-316) USS Sloat (DD-316) The first USS Sloat was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was named for John Drake Sloat.-History:... |
SS Monte Carlo SS Monte Carlo The SS Monte Carlo was an oil tanker launched in 1921 as the SS McKittrick but later became a gambling and prostitution ship in 1936 off the coast of Coronado, California.- Grounding :... |
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| USS Stewart (DD-224) USS Stewart (DD-224) USS Stewart was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the second ship named for Rear Admiral Charles Stewart. Scuttled in a port, she was later raised by the Japanese and commissioned as Patrol Boat No. 102... |
USS Stribling (DD-96) USS Stribling (DD-96) USS Stribling was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I and the years following. She was the first ship named in honor of Cornelius Stribling.... |
USS Thompson (DD-305) USS Thompson (DD-305) USS Thompson , a Clemson-class destroyer of the U.S. Navy named in honor of Secretary of the Navy Richard W. Thompson , never saw action against an enemy. She was the first Navy ship of that name; the second, , named for Robert M... |
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| USS Tingey (DD-539) USS Tingey (DD-539) USS Tingey was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy. She was the third Navy ship to be named for Commodore Thomas Tingey .... |
USS Traw (DE-350) USS Traw (DE-350) USS Traw was a acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The primary purpose of the destroyer escort was to escort and protect ships in convoy, in addition to other tasks as assigned, such as patrol or radar picket.... |
USS Ulvert M. Moore (DE-442) USS Ulvert M. Moore (DE-442) USS Ulvert M. Moore was a acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The primary purpose of the destroyer escort was to escort and protect ships in convoy, in addition to other tasks as assigned, such as patrol or radar picket... |
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| USS Williams (DE-372) USS Williams (DE-372) USS Williams was a acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The primary purpose of the destroyer escort was to escort and protect ships in convoy, in addition to other tasks as assigned, such as patrol or radar picket.... |
SS Winfield Scott | USS Woodbury (DD-309) USS Woodbury (DD-309) The third USS Woodbury was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named for Levi Woodbury.-History:Woodbury was laid down on 3 October 1918 at San Francisco, California, by the Union Iron Works plant of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation; launched on 6 February 1919;... |
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| Wreck Alley Wreck Alley Wreck Alley is an area a few miles off the coast of Mission Beach, San Diego, California with several ships intentionally sunk as artificial reefs and as SCUBA diving attractions for wreck divers.- Wrecks :Six of these were intentionally sunk.* Ruby E... |
USS Young (DD-312) USS Young (DD-312) The first USS Young was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was named for John Young.-History:... |
HMCS Yukon (DDE 263) HMCS Yukon (DDE 263) HMCS Yukon was a that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later the Canadian Forces.She was the first Canadian naval unit to carry this name.... |
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| Zenobia (1837 ship) Zenobia (1837 ship) The Zenobia was an 1837 full rigged ship built in Medford, MA. She was known for transporting a cargo of ice from Sitka, Alaska to San Francisco.-Voyages under Capt. Lovejoy:... |
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| USS Chauncey (DD-296) USS Chauncey (DD-296) The second USS Chauncey was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named for Isaac Chauncey.-History:... 1 |
USS Delphy (DD-261) USS Delphy (DD-261) USS Delphy was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. Named for Richard Delphy, she was the flagship of the destroyer group involved in the Honda Point Disaster.-History:... 1 |
USS Farragut (DD-300) USS Farragut (DD-300) The second USS Farragut was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named for Admiral David Farragut.-History:... 1 |
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| USS Fuller (DD-297) USS Fuller (DD-297) USS Fuller was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was the first Navy ship named for Marine Captain Edward Fuller , who was killed in the Battle of Belleau Wood.-History:... 1 |
USS Nicholas (DD-311) USS Nicholas (DD-311) USS Nicholas was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was the first Navy ship named for Samuel Nicholas , the first Commandant of the United States Marine Corps.-History:... 1 |
USS S. P. Lee (DD-310) USS S. P. Lee (DD-310) The first USS S. P. Lee was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was named for Samuel Phillips Lee.-History:... 1 |
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| USS Somers (DD-301) USS Somers (DD-301) USS Somers , a Clemson-class destroyer, engaged in peacetime operations with the Pacific Fleet from 1920 until she was scrapped under the London Naval Treaty in 1930... 1 |
USS Woodbury (DD-309) USS Woodbury (DD-309) The third USS Woodbury was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named for Levi Woodbury.-History:Woodbury was laid down on 3 October 1918 at San Francisco, California, by the Union Iron Works plant of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation; launched on 6 February 1919;... 1 |
USS Young (DD-312) USS Young (DD-312) The first USS Young was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She was named for John Young.-History:... 1 |
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| Note 1: Honda Point Disaster Honda Point Disaster The Honda Point Disaster was the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy ships. On the evening of September 8, 1923, seven destroyers, while traveling at 20 knots , ran aground at Honda Point, a few miles from the northern side of the Santa Barbara Channel off Point Arguello on the coast in Santa... |
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California Lighthouses
| California Lighthouses from Oregon to Mexico | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lighthouse | Year Built | Lat. | Long. | Ref. |
| St. George Reef Light | 1883 | 41.83699 | ||
| Battery Point Light Battery Point Light Battery Point Light is a lighthouse in Crescent City, California, United States. It is registered as California Historical Landmark number 951.-History:... 1 |
1856 | 41.74416 | ||
| Trinidad Head Light Trinidad Head Light Trinidad Head Lighthouse is a lighthouse in United States, in Trinidad Harbor, California. The historic site is located north of Eureka, California.-History:... |
1871 | 41.05205 | ||
| Trinidad Memorial Light | NA | 41.05834 | ||
| Table Bluff Light Table Bluff Light Table Bluff Lighthouse is a lighthouse in California,United States, on southern Humboldt Bay, near Eureka, California. The Table Bluff Lighthouse was one of the first to be automated. The light house tower portion is now located at the Woodley Island Marina within the City of Eureka.-History:Table... |
1894 | 40.8082 | ||
| Humboldt Harbor Light Humboldt Harbor Light The Humboldt Harbor Light was an early lighthouse marking the entrance to Humboldt Bay. Plagued by fog, earthquakes, and flooding, it was eventually abandoned in favor of a new light at Table Bluff.-History:... |
1856 | 40.7691 | ||
| Cape Mendocino Light Cape Mendocino Light Cape Mendocino Lighthouse is a lighthouse in California,United States, off Shelter Cove near Point Delgado, California. The tower had the highest focal plane at in the U.S.... |
1868 | 40.02236 | ||
| Punta Gorda Light Punta Gorda Light Punta Gorda Lighthouse is a lighthouse in United States, south of Cape Mendocino, California. Access is by vehicle and one and an hour hike on foot... |
1912 | 40.24941 | ||
| Point Cabrillo Light Point Cabrillo Light Point Cabrillo Light is a lighthouse in northern California, United States, between Point Arena and Cape Mendocino, just south of the community of Caspar... |
1909 | 39.34868 | ||
| Point Arena Light Point Arena Light Point Arena Light is a lighthouse in Mendocino County, California, United States, two miles north of Point Arena, California. It is located approximately north of San Francisco in the Fort Point Group of lighthouses. The lighthouse features a small museum and giftshop... |
1870 | 38.9546 | ||
| Point Reyes Light | 1871 | 37.9955 | ||
| Farallon Island Light | 1855 | 37.69915 | ||
| Point Bonita Light Point Bonita Light Point Bonita Light is a lighthouse located at Point Bonita at the San Francisco Bay entrance in the Marin Headlands near Sausalito, California. Point Bonita was the last manned lighthouse on the California coast.-History:... |
1855 | 37.8155 | ||
| Mile Rocks Light | 1906 | 37.79282 | ||
| Point Diablo Light | 1923 | 37.8201 | ||
| Fort Point Light | 1855 | 37.8108 | ||
| Lime Point Light | 1883 | 37.82545 | ||
| Point Knox Light | 1887 | 37.85615 | ||
| East Brother Light | 1874 | 37.96325 | ||
| Alcatraz Island Light | 1854 | 37.8262 | ||
| Point Blunt Light | 1961 | 37.8532 | ||
| Yerba Buena Light | 1873 | 37.8073 | ||
| Relief Lightship Light | 1950 | 37.79569 | ||
| Oakland Harbor Light | 1890 | 37.78132 | ||
| Carquinez Strait Light | 1873 | 38.06781 | ||
| Southampton Shoal Light Southampton Shoal Light Southampton Shoal is a former lighthouse site in California, United States. A platform sits at the southwest edge of Southampton Shoals, northeast of Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay... |
1905 | 38.03596 | ||
| Point Montara Light | 1874 | 37.53652 | ||
| Pigeon Point Light | 1871 | 37.18171 | ||
| Año Nuevo Light | 1872 | 37.1084 | ||
| Santa Cruz Light | 1870 | 36.95146 | ||
| Santa Cruz Breakwater Light | 1964 | 36.96067 | ||
| Point Pinos Lighthouse Point Pinos Lighthouse Point Pinos Lighthouse was built in 1855 to guide ships on the Pacific coast of California. It is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States and even the lens is original. Alcatraz Island Lighthouse preceded Point Pinos by 8 months, but was replaced in 1909... |
1855 | 36.6334 | ||
| Point Sur Lighthouse Point Sur Lighthouse Point Sur Lightstation is a lighthouse at Point Sur, California, south of San Francisco, on the -tall rock at the head of the point. The light house is tall and above sea level. It was established in 1889... |
1887 | 36.30632 | ||
| Piedras Blancas Light | 1875 | 35.66563 | ||
| San Luis Obispo Light San Luis Obispo Light San Luis Obispo Lighthouse, also known as Port Harford Light, is a lighthouse in California, United States, on the San Luis Obispo Bay, California-History:... |
1890 | 35.1604 | ||
| Point Arguello Light Point Arguello Light Point Arguello Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Point Arguello, serving the Santa Barbara Channel, California adjoining Vandenberg Air Force Base near the city of Lompoc, California.... |
1901 | 34.57712 | ||
| Point Conception Light Point Conception Light Point Conception Light is a lighthouse on Point Conception at the west entrance of the Santa Barbara Channel, California. It is one of the earliest California lighthouses and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.-History:... |
1856 | 34.44872 | ||
| Santa Barbara Light Santa Barbara Light Santa Barbara Lighthouse was a lighthouse in California, United States, on the Santa Barbara Harbour, California-History:When Santa Barbara Lighthouse was established on December 1, 1856, it was typical of the other pioneer West Coast lights, with the tower rising through the center of the... |
1856 | 34.39626 | ||
| Point Hueneme Light Point Hueneme Light Point Hueneme Lighthouse is a lighthouse on the southeast entrance to the Santa Barbara Channel, in Ventura County, California-History:thumb|left|Original 1874 Lighthouse, [[USCG]] photo... |
1874 | 34.1452 | ||
| Anacapa Island Light | 1930 | 34.0159 | ||
| Point Vicente Light Point Vicente Light Point Vicente Lighthouse is a lighthouse in California,United States, in Palos Verdes, north of Los Angeles Harbor, California. It is between Point Loma Lighthouse to the south and Point Conception Lighthouse to the north.... |
1925 | 33.74193 | ||
| Point Fermin Light Point Fermin Light -History:The original fourth order Fresnel lens was removed in 1942 and a wood replica lantern was installed in 1974. The lighthouse was saved from demolition in 1972 and refurbished in 1974, and a new lantern room and gallery were built by local preservationists... |
1874 | 33.70544 | ||
| Long Beach Light Long Beach Light Long Beach Light also known as the Long Beach Harbor Light, is a lighthouse on Long Beach Harbor in California.-History:Long Beach Harbor Light looks different from a traditional lighthouse. Labeled the "robot light" when established in 1949, it is completely automated and was the forerunner of the... |
1949 | 33.72322 | ||
| Los Angeles Harbor Light Los Angeles Harbor Light Los Angeles Harbor Light, ', also known as Angels Gate Light, is a lighthouse in California,United States, at San Pedro Breakwater in Los Angeles Harbor, California. The lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places... |
1913 | 33.7086 | ||
| Point Loma Light (old) | 1855 | 32.6720 | ||
| Point Loma Light (new) Point Loma Light (new) New Point Loma Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Point Loma in California,United States, near San Diego, California. It was built in 1891 to replace the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, that was ineffective due to elevation .thumb|left|Undated [[USCG]] photo... |
1891 | 32.66503 | ||
| --------------------------------------------------------------- | ||||
| 1)Crescent City, California Crescent City, California Crescent City is the county seat and only incorporated city in Del Norte County, California. Named for the crescent-shaped stretch of sandy beach south of the city, Crescent City had a total population of 7,643 in the 2010 census, up from 4,006 in the 2000 census... . To see Light location on a map open Google or Bing etc. Maps. Copy and paste Light latitude and longitude in search window, click on Search Maps—Voila. |
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A lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to contain a flashing light to warn of hazards or to aid navigation primarily at night. The lights now flash on and off in a predetermined sequence to identify which light they are. Lighthouses are used as an aid to nighttime or fog bound navigation
Navigation
Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...
for ship pilots and Captains
Captain (nautical)
A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...
at sea or on inland waterways. They warn of dangerous coastlines, points of land, hazardous shoals, rocks and reefs, or mark ship channels or harbor entrances. Under clear weather a light can be seen at night about 16 miles (25.7 km). Now in areas of fog the lights are typically combined with a foghorn
Foghorn
A foghorn or fog signal or fog bell is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of hazards or boats of the presence of other vehicles in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport...
. Before foghorns were developed cannons and/or large bells (rung by clockworks) were used to warn of fog shrouded hazards. The flashing lights are usually mounted on towers or other prominent structures built on points of land, rocks or shoals near the sea. Some are built on pilings, Caissons
Caisson (engineering)
In geotechnical engineering, a caisson is a retaining, watertight structure used, for example, to work on the foundations of a bridge pier, for the construction of a concrete dam, or for the repair of ships. These are constructed such that the water can be pumped out, keeping the working...
or mounted on isolated rocks. Some light houses are mounted on anchor
Anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...
ed Lightships
Lightvessel
A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship which acts as a lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction...
when no other economical alternative exists.
In the 1850s the light was emitted from a system of oil or kerosene lamps. The light was concentrated and focused with a system of Fresnel lenses. In the 1850s the light was provided from a burning Wick
Candle wick
A candle wick is a string, cord, or wooden object that holds the flame of a candle. A candle wick works by capillary action, drawing the fuel to the flame. When the liquid fuel, typically melted candle wax, reaches the flame it then vaporizes and combusts. The candle wick influences how the...
in a whale oil
Whale oil
Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...
lamp. Later, as kerosene became available, the light was provided by burning kerosene. They typically used a Argand lamp
Argand lamp
The Argand lamp is home lighting oil lamp producing a light output of 6 to 10 candlepower which was invented and patented in 1780 by Aimé Argand...
which featured a hollow wick in a glass chimney for better, brighter, combustion with a silvered parabolic reflector behind the lamp to direct and intensify the light output. All oil fired lamps used burning wicks to make the light—giving rise to one of the lighthouse keeper's nickname as "wickies" as they spent a great deal of their time trimming the wicks
Candle wick
A candle wick is a string, cord, or wooden object that holds the flame of a candle. A candle wick works by capillary action, drawing the fuel to the flame. When the liquid fuel, typically melted candle wax, reaches the flame it then vaporizes and combusts. The candle wick influences how the...
on their lamps in order to keep them burning brightly with minimum soot
Soot
Soot is a general term that refers to impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolyzed fuel particles such as cenospheres,...
ing. In the 1850s their lights were rotated using clockwork
Clockwork
A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a mechanical device utilizing a complex series of gears....
s, usually powered by falling weights attached to chains. Many lighthouses had vertical shafts in them so the weights could drop the height of the tower. This provided a longer time period before the weights would have to be pulled up again by the lighthouse keeper
Lighthouse keeper
A lighthouse keeper is the person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Keepers were needed to trim the wicks, replenish fuel, wind clockworks and perform maintenance tasks such as cleaning...
s to power the rotation mechanism. Some had to be rewound as often as every two hours.
To keep the clockwork
Clockwork
A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a mechanical device utilizing a complex series of gears....
s wound, refuel the oil needed to keep the light going and keep the lighthouse equipment and windows clean and maintained the lighthouses were typically manned with a lighthouse keeper
Lighthouse keeper
A lighthouse keeper is the person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Keepers were needed to trim the wicks, replenish fuel, wind clockworks and perform maintenance tasks such as cleaning...
s of from one to five men or women. Only the fortunate few lighthouses were located where the crews could live in comfort and/or socialize with others. Because these assignments were often in lonely fog bound locations the crews often rotated on and off duty every few months. Families sometimes were paid to run a lighthouse that way the husband, wife and children could keep together.
Starting in the early 1890s the lights were provided by burning acetylene
Acetylene
Acetylene is the chemical compound with the formula C2H2. It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in pure form and thus is usually handled as a solution.As an alkyne, acetylene is unsaturated because...
gas generated in situ
In situ
In situ is a Latin phrase which translated literally as 'In position'. It is used in many different contexts.-Aerospace:In the aerospace industry, equipment on board aircraft must be tested in situ, or in place, to confirm everything functions properly as a system. Individually, each piece may...
from calcium carbide
Calcium carbide
thumb|right|Calcium carbide.Calcium carbide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula of CaC2. The pure material is colorless, however pieces of technical grade calcium carbide are grey or brown and consist of only 80-85% of CaC2 . Because of presence of PH3, NH3, and H2S it has a...
reacting with water. The acetylene-gas illumination system could reliably be turned on and off automatically enabling automated unattended lighthouses to be used. Once electricity became available, often provided by one or more diesel
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
electric generators in remote locations, the light source was gradually converted to electrical power and the clockwork
Clockwork
A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a mechanical device utilizing a complex series of gears....
s were run by some type of electric motor. For example of modern changes, the Chatham Light
Chatham Light
Chatham Lighthouse, known as Twin Lights prior to 1923, is a lighthouse in Chatham, Massachusetts, near the "elbow" of Cape Cod.The station was established in 1808, the second light on Cape Cod. To distinguish it from Highland Light, the first Cape Cod light, and to act as a range, twin octagonal...
in Chatham, Massachusetts
Chatham, Massachusetts
Chatham is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 6,625 at the 2000 census...
(near the "elbow" of Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
) the light was converted in 1969 from its Fresnel lens light assembly to a Carlisle & Finch
Carlisle & Finch
Carlisle & Finch is a producer of nautical equipment and searchlights, and the inventor of the electric toy train. It is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.-History :...
DCB-224
DCB-224
The model DCB-224 is a high-power spotlight designed and built by Carlisle & Finch. Originally intended for use use as an aero beacon, it was also widely used in marine lighthouses....
rotating light generating over 2.8 million candela. This is visible for over 20 nautical miles on a clear night and has a self changing bulb assembly to replace burned out bulbs.
Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and their replacement by modern electronic navigational aids. Nearly all lighthouses today, that are still being used, are automated to the extent possible with power often provided via solar cells and large batteries in inaccessible areas. Today's lighthouses are all run by the U.S. Coast Guard the successor to United States Lighthouse Service
United States Lighthouse Service
The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the US Federal Government that was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all lighthouses in the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 until 1939...
. The list of active light houses, lighted beacons, etc. that provide detailed information on aids to navigation with their locations and characteristic signals is currently maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard in its Light List
Light List
The United States Coast Guard Light List is an American navigation publication in 7 volumes made available yearly by the U.S. Coast Guard which gives information on lighted navigation aids, unlighted buoys, radiobeacons, radio direction finder calibration stations, daybeacons, racons, and LORAN...
issued each year. California is presently in Eleventh and Thirteenth Coast Guard district.
While the Spanish were in California their shipping was seldom more than ~2.5 ships/Year and they almost never had any way to predict when ships would show up and communication was so slow and uncertain that there was seldom any need for something like lighthouses. When nighttime signals were thought appropriate large fire might be built on the beach. Essentially there was no nighttime navigation—it was too hazardous. During nighttime ships kept well off shore till daylight or anchored. Things only improved slightly when Mexico controlled California as the shipping increased to about 25 ships/year—still too few to make lighthouses or even signal fires almost ever needed. Ships still kept well off shore till daylight or anchored.
When the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
started and the number of ships per year jumped to over 700 ships per year and lighthouse technology had advanced far enough, mainly through the introduction of the Fresnel lens and Argand lamp
Argand lamp
The Argand lamp is home lighting oil lamp producing a light output of 6 to 10 candlepower which was invented and patented in 1780 by Aimé Argand...
s, lighthouses started to become much more useful and feasible. Several bad ship wrecks showed that there were many hazards to navigation that needed to be marked at night or in fog. Since from 1790 till well after 1850 the U.S. Federal Government was over 85% financed by import tariffs (also called customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
duties or Ad-valorem taxes) on imported foreign goods of about 25% there was already a steady flow of money collected from California shipping going to Washington. Since all tariffs were paid by foreign goods shipped into the United States since 1790 by the Revenue Marine
United States Revenue Cutter Service
The United States Revenue Cutter Service was established by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in 1790 as an armed maritime law enforcement service. Throughout its entire existence the Revenue Cutter Service operated under the authority of the United States Department of the Treasury...
(predecessor of the U.S. Coast Guard) closely monitored ship traffic. Tariffs collected by the Collector of Customs who was charged with inspecting each ship that came into port and collecting the appropriate tariff tax. The first Collector of Customs in California was Edward H. Harrison appointed by General Kearny in 1848. To get some of this revenue flowing back to California, California congressmen started petitioning for lighthouses and Congress soon agreed. By 1850 the East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
already had a fairly extensive array of light houses so the same technology, developed over decades of use, was transferred to the West Coast of the United States
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
.
The firm of Francis A. Gibbons and Francis Kelly was awarded the contract to build California’s first seven lighthouses in 1853. The lighthouse on Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. Often referred to as "The Rock" or simply "Traz", the small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a Federal...
was the first built and was in operation in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
on Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. Often referred to as "The Rock" or simply "Traz", the small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a Federal...
by 1855—completion was delayed because of the shortage of Fresnel lenses. Over time more than 45 lighthouses were eventually built along the California coast.
Storm
A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...
s and shipwrecks. The incredible danger of their job and the dedication they have to their jobs can be sensed in the U.S. Coast Guard's unofficial motto,
- "You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back in."
See also
- History of California to 1899History of California to 1899Human history in California begins with indigenous Americans first arriving in California some 13,000-15,000 years ago. Exploration and settlement by Europeans along the coasts and in the inland valleys began in the 16th century...
- History of CaliforniaHistory of CaliforniaThe history of California can be divided into several periods: the Native American period; European exploration period from 1542 to 1769; the Spanish colonial period, 1769 to 1821; the Mexican period, 1821 to 1848; and United States statehood, which continues to the present day...
California explorers
- Portrait of A Ligurian Fishing Colony www.rivatrigoso.com/street/approfondimenti.asp
- Humboldt BayHumboldt BayHumboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, United States entirely within Humboldt County. The regional center and county seat of Eureka and the college town of Arcata adjoin the bay, which is the second largest enclosed...
- Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest
- West coast lumber tradeWest coast lumber tradeThe West Coast lumber trade was a maritime trade route on the West Coast of the United States. It carried lumber from the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and Northern and Central California mainly to the port of San Francisco.-Lumber schooners:...
- Maritime history of the United States
External links
- Abandoned Shipwreck Act Guidelines at nps.gov
- Maritime Museum of San Diego at sdmaritime.com
- The Newport Harbor Nautical Museum