Sea Captains: San Francisco 1800s

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Captain Lewis Meyer

Sacramento Daily Union, Sacramento, California

Pacific Mail Steamers.

New York. March 3d. The Tribune says the Pacific Railroad party, with Jay Gould at its head, have acquired a controlling interest in the Pacific Mail stock, and the directory of the company will be changed so as to give them a proportionate representation. Huntington, Dillon, Ames and Colton are mentioned as likely to be the representatives as aforesaid. The new programme is circumstantially set forth, and involves immediate increase of freight and passage rates by both lines.

The Occidental and Oriental Steamship Line is left out in the cold apparently. It is stated that the Pacific Mail Company, as a consequence; of the withdrawal of the subsidy of 1872, has notified the Post-office Department at Washington that hereafter, beginning with April 1st, the mail service to Yokohama will be monthly, instead of semi-monthly, as under the old arrangements.

San Francisco Bay. 1899.

Another dispatch says the Agent of the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company abroad has given notice to the representatives of the company in this city that he has drawn upon them for £10,000 sterling, or $50,000, to meet engagements entered into at the time when the White Star steamers Belgiac, Gaelic and Celtic were chartered. The steamers are expected on. the Pacific soon, when they will ply between China and Japan, acting as feeders to the Pacific Railroad, which has agreed to take the bulk of -the new company's stock.

October 29, 1875

The British steamer Belgiac of O. and O.S.S. Lines arrived this morning twenty-seven days from Hong Kong and 17 days from Yokohama. There were four whites and 326 heathen passengers.

October 2, 1903, Los Angeles Herald, Los Angeles, California

AN OLD PILOT DEAD 
Captain Lewis Meyer Sends a Bullet Into His Brain

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 1. Captain Lewis Meyer, at one time commander of the steamer Belgic, plying between this port and the Orient, and later a bar pilot, was found dead today in the rustic arbor in Golden Gate park with a bullet hole in his right temple. He was sitting on a bench with his head bent forward, and the pistol with which he had shot himself was under the bench on which he was sitting.

Ill-health and despondency are the supposed causes of his suicide.

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Captain "Hell Roaring" Mike Healy

From American Slave to Arctic Hero
(New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology)

Dennis L. Noble retired from the U.S. Coast Guard as a senior chief petty officer and is the author of Rescue of the Gale Runner. Truman R. Strobridge's many positions in the federal government included command historian of the joint-service Alaska Command and also the U.S. Army, Alaska, and he has coauthored two books with Noble.

The Authority to Sail: The History of U.S. Maritime Licenses and Seamen's Papers
Robert Stanley Bates, George Marsh (Editor), John F. Whiteley (Forward) (Batek Marine Publishing, 2011; Nominated in 2012 for a Pulitzer Prize)
This book depicts important aspects of our maritime history as a result of original research done by the author, Commodore Bates, the holder of an unlimited master's license who has enjoyed a distinguished fifty-year career in both the Coast Guard and the American Merchant Marine.

The U.S. Coast Guard issues all Captain Licenses for U.S. Ports.
Note: Other countries have different regulations, i.e. the RYA (Royal Yachting Association), conducts certification for Britain and Ireland. As of 2011, they did not recognize the USCG certification; certification through their courses was required.

Master Unlimited is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of a vessel any gross tons. 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. All persons on board, including officers and crew, other shipboard staff members, passengers, guests and pilots, are under the captain's authority and are his or her ultimate responsibility. The STCW defines the Master as Person having command of the ship.

The Sea Chart
The Illustrated History of Nautical Maps and Navigational Charts

John Blake
The sea chart was one of the key tools by which ships of trade, transport and conquest navigated their course across the oceans. Herein is a history and development of the chart and the related nautical map, in both scientific and aesthetic terms, as a means of safe and accurate seaborne navigation. 150 color illustrations including the earliest charts of the Mediterranean made by 13th-century Italian merchant adventurers, as well as 18th-century charts that became strategic naval and commercial requirements and led to Cook's voyages in the Pacific, the search for the Northwest Passage, and races to the Arctic and Antarctic.

Get Your Captain's License. Fifth Edition
Charlie Wing
Considered the quickest, easiest, and least expensive way to prepare for the U.S. Coast Guard captain's ratings exams required for anyone who takes paying passengers on a boat, and useful for serious boaters who want to save money on insurance. 350 pages of seamanship and navigation tutorials. More than 1,500 questions and answers from the Coast Guard exams. Includes an interactive CD-ROM with all 14,000 questions and answers in the USCG database, so you can take an unlimited number of practice exams