The Monterey Clipper is a fishing boat common to the San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

, the Monterey Bay Area

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....

 and east to the Sacramento delta.
It has a variety of alternative names. The history of this boat has swung with the fortunes of the local fish industry and the paces of industrialization. The original design comes from millennial

Millennial

Millennial may refer to:* Millennium * Millennialism* The Millennial Generation...

 lines modified with current efficiencies. This classic boat enjoys the fame and pride of families. It also continues to this day as a popular theme for postcards, noted artists, and patient hobbyists.

Alternative names

The Monterey Clipper has been known by a variety of names:

• Monterey Hull
• Put-puts
• Silena boats
• Lampra boats

History

The Monterey Clipper has long been considered part of the local fishing fleet to the San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay Area and east to the Sacramento delta. The original 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 introduced in to the area by Italians in the late 1860s. The design came from Genoese

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 lateen-rigged sailboats, known as silenas, then later referred to as San Francisco feluccas.

The feluccas were at first used to gather 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...

 in the SF bay, but when this fishery was abandoned to the Chinese, they gillnetted

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...

 for local bay fish, trolled for ocean fish, and pulled up the famous 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...

s. During this period, they made up about two-thirds of the 85 or so fishing boats that served the city. Later, as the fleet grew, about 50 boats serviced just the crab fisheries. By 1890, there were about 1000 felucca

Felucca

A felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat used in protected waters of the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean including Malta, and particularly along the Nile in Egypt, Sudan, and also in Iraq. Its rig consists of one or two lateen sails....

s in the wharf.

The Monterey Clipper came into being with industrialization around 1925. The boat was improved with a small single-cylinder gasoline engine

Internal combustion engine

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...

 and amenities such that, "it could engage in multiple types of fishing and spend several days at sea".

All total, around this period, about 500 of the small fishing boats were based in San Francisco. Companies like the Beviaqua yard and the Genoa Boat Works were instrumental in adding to the fleet.

By the 1930s, the local 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....

 industry came alive with more canneries built in San Francisco and Monterey. The Monterey Clipper was key in the development of this industry. This continued until the early 1950s "when the production and the exploitation of the fishery peaked". By this time, large vessels and the introduction of inventions like the Purse-Seiners reduced the fleet to about 200 in San Francisco.

Today, this boat is too small, too slow, and inadequate for commercial fishing

Fishing industry

The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products....

. In its day, it could support a family, and sometimes two, but it now serves mainly as a pleasure craft. These boats can be found as far north as 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...

 and as far south as San Diego. In spite of its downturn, its value as a small craft continues to be seen in similar hulls built in other parts of the world such as South Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, 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...

, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, and India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

External links

• Fishing a Monterey Clipper out of SF's Fisherman's Wharf in the 1960s