"Master Under God" 
To California by Sea, James Delgado (pp 102-103) ". . . The Legislative Assembly of the District of San Francisco considered the appointment of a harbormaster during two weeks of meetings commencing on March 17, 1849. On April 3, 1849, it passed a law establishing the office and appointed Captain Edward A. King to the position. The assembly quickly moved to inform the newly appointed harbormaster of his responsibilities: In view of the approaching bad weather and heavy winds, as well as for the safety of private property and the promotion of the commerce of the town, the Council request the Harbor Master to have all vessels, not receiving or discharging cargoes, removed to Wood Island or to the south side of Rincon Point.
"The harbormaster was given the power to call upon the 'mayor, marshal, and police of the city, to aid and assist him.' When the appointment of Captain King was approved by the military governor of California, Brevet Brigadier General Bennett Riley, on June 19, 1849, the harbormaster was ready for business."
Daily Alta California, November 7, 1849
King ordered all 'merchant ships in this harbor will clear hawser on or before the 15th instant, and cockbill their lower yards.' Clearing the crowded anchorage, replete with ships tangling in one another's moorings and rigging, was an impossible task for one man, so King's wise decision to order each master or owner to attend to his own vessel solved the problem for the entire harbor.
Edward A. King served as San Francisco's appointed harbormaster through the end of 1849.
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