January 4, 2022

San Francisco

A view of the historic ships at the Hyde Street Pier. In the foreground on the right, the schooner C. A. Thayer seen from the beachhead near the Dolphin Club

Hyde Street Pier

Located at the west end of Fisherman's Wharf, Hyde Street Pier is home to the fleet of historic landmark vessels in the collection of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, which is a unit of the National Park System.

Placard at the entrance to the Hyde Street Pier

1895 schooner C. A. Thayer

The C.A. Thayer is a wooden-hulled, three-masted schooner, designed for carrying lumber.
She was built in 1895 in Northern California at Hans D. Bendixsen’s shipyard in Fairhaven, CA.
The original hull was made of dense, old-growth Douglas fir carefully chosen for shipbuilding.
She sailed with a small crew consisting of four seamen, two mates, a cook, and the captain.

1895 schooner C. A. Thayer

C. A. Thayer

Lumber Schooner

In 1895, Danish-born Hans D. Bendixsen built C.A. Thayer in his Northern California shipyard (located across the narrows of Humboldt Bay from the city of Eureka). She was named for Clarence A. Thayer, a partner in the San Francisco-based E.K. Wood Lumber Company.

Between 1895 and 1912, Thayer usually sailed from E.K. Wood's mill in Grays Harbor, Washington, to San Francisco. But she also carried lumber as far south as Mexico, and occasionally even ventured offshore to Hawaii and Fiji.

Thayer is fairly typical of West Coast, three-masted lumber schooners in size (219' extreme) and cargo capacity (575,000 board feet). She carried about half of her load below; the remaining lumber was stacked ten feet high on deck, and secured with chain (as illustrated in this 1912 photo). In port, her small crew (eight or nine men) served double-duty as longshoremen; unloading 75,000 to 80,000 board feet was an average day's work.

After sustaining serious damage during a heavy, southeasterly gale, C.A. Thayer's lumber trade days ended in an Oakland shipyard, in 1912. But it was really the rise of steam power, and not the wind, that pushed her into a new career.

Exerpt from: National Park Service San Francisco Maritime

On the deck of the 1895 schooner C. A. Thayer

On the deck of the 1895 schooner C. A. Thayer

On the deck of the 1895 schooner C. A. Thayer

On the deck of the 1895 schooner C. A. Thayer

The bow and bowsprit of the C. A. Thayer

C. A. Thayer

On the deck of the 1895 schooner C. A. Thayer

A view of the distant Transamerica and Salesforce Tower as seen from the entrance to 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka

A view of the stern of the 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka

A view of the 1914 paddlewheel tug Eppleton Hall

The 1914 paddlewheel tug Eppleton Hall

• Balclutha is a three-masted, steel-hulled, square-rigged ship built to carry a variety of cargo all over the world.

• Launched in 1886 by the Charles Connell and Company shipyard near Glasgow, Scotland, the ship carried goods around Cape Horn (tip of South America) 17 times.

• It took a crew of about 26 men to handle the ship at sea with her complex rigging and 25 sails.

The sailing ship Balclutha, a 1,689 ton, three-masted, steel-hulled, square-rigged ship, is located in San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California. 

The 1886 sailing ship Balclutha

The Transamerica Pyramid and the Salesforce Tower as viewed from the Hyde Street Pier

• Hercules is a steam powered tug built for ocean towing.

• The 151-foot ship, of riveted steel construction, still contains her original triple expansion steam engine.

• Built on the East Coast in 1907, she towed her sister ship from Camden, New Jersey around South America to San Francisco.

• From: National Park Service San Francisco Maritim

1907 steam tug Hercules

• Hercules also towed sailing ships, disabled vessels, barges, log rafts, a cassion (a steel structure used for closing the entrance to locks) for a dry dock at Pearl Harbor, and a caisson to help build a Panama Canal lock.

• The tug usually carried a crew of three firemen, three oilmen, a chief and two assistant engineers, three deckhands, cook, two mates and a captain.

From: National Park Service San Francisco Maritime

Engine room of the Hercules

Hercules Statistics

A view of the 1907 steam tug Hercules

A view of the 1907 steam tug Hercules

Alcatraz Island as seen from the Hyde Street Pier

Alcatraz Island as seen from the Hyde Street Pier

Inside the 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka

♦ Eureka is a wooden-hulled, sidewheel paddle steamboat.
♦ From the passenger deck up, she is nearly identical fore and aft.
♦ Her "double-end" design made disembarking quicker and easier.
♦ Eureka's large "walking beam" steam engine remains intact.

Inside the 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka

Inside the 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka

Inside the 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka

Atop the 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka

♦ Eureka is a wooden-hulled, sidewheel paddle steamboat.
♦ From the passenger deck up, she is nearly identical fore and aft.
♦ Her "double-end" design made disembarking quicker and easier.
♦ Eureka's large "walking beam" steam engine remains intact.

Inside the Eureka

The Walking Beam Engine

Eureka's tall "walking beam" is the last working example of an engine-type once common on America's waterways. Manufactured by Fulton Iron Works of San Francisco, this engine remains unaltered to this day.

Oil was burned in boilers to produce the steam, which drove a huge, vertical piston. Perched atop the engine, the walking beam changed this up-and-down motion into rotary motion via a connecting rod linked directly to the paddlewheel shaft. The twin paddlewheels (each twenty-seven feet in diameter) made twenty-four revolutions per minute.

Exerpt from: National Park Service San Francisco Maritime

Inside the 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka

Eureka's Statistics

Restoration

In February of 1994, Eureka exited San Francisco Drydock after a $2.7 million restoration project. The steamship had been in the shipyard since October, where a crew of 45 skilled craftsmen caulked 2.5 miles of planking seams, and hammered in over 9000 eight-inch spikes. They applied stockholm tar, laid Irish Felt, and then plated the hull with 12,000 square feet of shining copper (cut down from modern dimensions to traditional-sized pieces to maintain the historical facade).

The vessel had suffered from rot in the edges of her main deck, and the caulking between her four-inch thick hull planks had softened. The immense beams holding up her paddle wheels and paddle boxes had deteriorated, and were replaced with steel. The overhanging ends and sides of the ferry were also repaired. To prevent the recurrence of rot, borate rods have been installed in all the new timbers. This is cutting edge preservation technology, pioneered by the park to treat its other ships. Over time, rainwater intrusion (a primary cause of dry rot) causes the rods to dissolve, and the borate leaches out into the wood, preventing rot from taking hold.

October of 1999, Eureka entered San Francisco Drydock for a $1 million restoration project focusing on the vessel’s superstructure -- the above-water portions of the vessel. A significant portion of that drydock was the replacement of the boat’s "kingposts" -- four large wooden structures which support the paddlewheels and upper decks.

Exerpt from: National Park Service San Francisco Maritime

Steam Ferryboats on San Francisco Bay

The Bay's first steam ferry (the tiny Sitka) arrived in 1847, stowed aboard a Russian cargo ship. But the ferry, Kangaroo, made the first regularly scheduled crossings in 1850.

After Mexico ceded California to the United States in 1848 (and John Marshall discovered gold in the American River) the Bay Area's population exploded. It is said that San Francisco's Ferry Building was once second only to London's Charing Cross Railway Station as the busiest passenger terminal in the world.

At one time, Southern Pacific Railroad operated forty-two ferryboats on the Bay (they transported 50,000,000 passengers per year). Construction of the Bay and Golden Gate bridges (mid 1930s) signaled the end of the ferryboat era, however.

In 1941, Eureka had the dubious distinction of making the last Marin County run, and by the 1950s regular ferry service was limited to railroad connections.

Eureka kept working, but in 1957, when her crankpin snapped in mid-crossing, she was removed from service. Just one year later, the San Leandro made the last transbay ferryboat run.

Exerpt from: National Park Service San Francisco Maritime

The 1907 steam tug Hercules 

The sailing ship Balclutha, a 1,689 ton, three-masted, steel-hulled, square-rigged ship.

The Petaluma's sternwheel

The Petaluma, built in 1914, was the last of the San Francisco riverboats. Running between San Francisco and Petaluma, the sternwheeler Petaluma made over 10,000 trips over the 36-mile route. She carried passangers and served the chicken ranches for which Petaluma is famous. Petaluma's shallow hull and sternwheel remained useful on the Petaluma River long after her sisters had quit the major rivers. Finally retired in 1950, she was exhibited in Oakland until she burned and sank in 1956. 

"After 35 years, 8 months and 10 days we tie up for good. This ends 103 years of stern wheel navigation of S.F. Bay and tributaries. John H. Urton, Master"
Final Log Entry, dated August 24, 1950.

Detail of the Petaluma's sternwheel

The Petaluma's sternwheel

The Petaluma's sternwheel

A view of the historic ships from the beach in front of the Dolphin Club.

The 1886 sailing ship Balclutha, and the 1895 schooner C. A. Thayer

1895 schooner C. A. Thayer

The C.A. Thayer is a wooden-hulled, three-masted schooner, designed for carrying lumber.
She was built in 1895 in Northern California at Hans D. Bendixsen’s shipyard in Fairhaven, CA.
The original hull was made of dense, old-growth Douglas fir carefully chosen for shipbuilding.
She sailed with a small crew consisting of four seamen, two mates, a cook, and the captain.

The 1895 schooner C. A. Thayer and the 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka 

The Dolphin Club

The Dolphin Club

South End Rowing Club

For more of my photos, and additional information about the ships at the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco, visit the 2017 Photo Newsletter.