News & Tall Tales. 1800s.
San Francisco Yacht Club
April 9, 1898, San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California
ABOUT YACHTING AND THE VARIOUS CLUBS.
The programmes of the San Francisco Yacht Club for the coming season are in print and the invitations for the opening day have been distributed. The house committee, consisting of Fleet Captain Dr. A. W. McKenzie. Secretary Charles B. Hill and Financial Secretary W. G. Morrow, has near completed the arrangements for the reception and dance at the clubhouse on Saturday, April 23. The Regatta committee, consisting of Vice-Commodore George T. S. White, Treasurer R. B. Hogue and Measurer J. K. Punnett, has charge of the sports and small-boat regatta to be held on Sunday, the 24th. Financial Secretary W. G. Morrow is expected to reach San Francisco from the East in a few days.
Commodore Dr. T. L. Hill, with some difficulty and after missing the tide owing to non-arrival of the launch to take him in tow, got his flagship Cygnus out of the Corte Madera Creek last Sunday. She is now at her moorings off the San Francisco Club house. Vice-Commodore Q. T. S. White's sloop Will o' the Wisp is ready for the season, and will get under way on Sunday.
Messrs. Buckley and Kanzee, who have for so long been enthusiastic launchmen, are about to become yachtsmen. Menotti is to build a yawl for them, to be ready in about four months. R. B Hogue, treasurer of the San Francisco Yacht Club, for several seasons one of the leading players of the Alameda Cricket Club, is desirous of becoming a yacht-owner. On Tuesday last he paid a visit to Tiburon and looked over T. F. Tracy's sloop Secret.
It now seems that the projectors of the proposed pleasure resort at North Sausalito will build a little higher up toward Richardsons Bay so that Menotti's boat building yard will not be disturbed, and it will not become necessary to find a new site for the "ways" of the San Francisco Yacht Club. It is reported that Hewson, a ship-builder, is thinking of opening a yard in Sausalito.
It is now some years since the enameled flags of the San Francisco Yacht Club, worn by the members as scarf pins or as badges on the lapel of the waistcoat, were made. Now a downtown jeweler has undertaken to manufacture a supply of them as soon as he receives a reasonable number of orders.
The following are the officers of the Pacific Yacht Club for IS9S: President, J. H. Dickinson; vice-president, William Cunningham; Commodore, E. A. Wlltsee; Vice Commodore, Martin R. Roberts Jr.; Rear Commodore, J. F. Connelly; port captain, J. H. Dickinson; secretary, J. D. Maxwell: assistant secretary, T. E. Jones; treasurer, C. O. Perry; measurer, Alexander Swanson; directors Herbert E. Law, J. H. Dickinson, William Cunningham, E. A. Wiltsee, J. T. Dare, F. Hohwiesner and Charles F. Crocker.
The sloop Sappho, owned by Herbert E. Law, Commodore of the Pacific Yacht Club last season, has been sold to Lewis Q. Haven, who has become a member of the San Francisco Yacht Club. Ex-Commodore Herbert E. Law will build a new yacht, to be rigged as a schooner.
The following programme of events "for the Pacific Yacht Club was prepared before George S. Andres, the seller of La Paloma, resigned the commodore ship of the club, but there is no reason to suppose that his successor, Commodore E. A. Wlltsee, will seriously disturb it:
May 7, opening day, race of fifteen-footers for Law cup; May 8, cruise in squadron under signal from the commodore; May 14, cruise to Vallejo; May 15, return; May 21, cruise to McNears Landing: May 22, return; May 28, open: May 29, cruise to Oakland to witness California Yacht Club regatta; May 30, cruise in the channel to witness Corinthian Yacht Club regatta; June 4, cruise to Martinez; June 5, return; June 11, cruise to Quarry Cove; June 12, cruise in squadron under signal from the commodore; June 18, open; June IS), race of fifteen-footers; June 25, cruise to Paradise Cove; June 26, cruise outside the heads; July 2. 3 and i, open, special orders; July 9, open; July 10. race of fifteen-footers; July 16, cruise to Dillons Point; July 17, return; July 23, cruise to Lighthouse Cove; July 24, cruise in squadron in Upper Bay; July 30, annual upriver cruise, yachts not going on the cruise company fleet to Vallejo; July 31, escorting yachts return; August 6, cruise to Vallejo to meet fleet on return from upriver cruise; August 7, return; August 13, cruise to McNears Landing; August 14, return: August 20, open; August 21, race of fifteen-footers; August 27, cruise to Martinez; August 28, return; September 3, cruise to Quarry Cove; September 4, return; September 5, Labor day, open; September 9, open; September 10, cruise to Paradise Cove; September 11, return; September 17. cruise to Vallejo; September 18, return; September 24, open; September 25, race of fifteen-footers; October 1, cruise to McNears Landing; October 2, return; October 8, cruise to Quarry Cove; October 9, return; October 15, closing day; October IG, cruise in squadron.
Plenty of work is being done at Tiburon on the boats of the Corinthian fleet, many of which will be got ready during the next two weeks, and will attend the opening of the San Francisco Yacht Club on April 23 and 24. Last Sunday Joe Mattoon's sloop Amigo came down from Benicia, where she has been lying all winter, to her moorings at Tiburon. The yawl Arcturus is expected to be off Frank Stone's "ways" at Tiburon in a day or two. The Aeolus will then take her place. The Freda and Ella are on Stone's "ways" at Hunters Point. The new suit of sails for ex-Commodore J. W. Pew's Truant has arrived, and the Truant will be put on the "ways" in about a week's time.
Last year the Corinthians, represented by the Aeolus, won from the Encinal Yacht Club the perpetual challenge cup offered by the San Francisco's. Up to the present time no challenge for the cup has been received.
E. B. Lathrop, secretary of the Corinthians, has had a long- spoil of ill-health, but it is sincerely hoped by his friends that he will be able very shortly to resume business at the old stand.
The debt of the Encinal Yacht Club has recently been taken up by several of its members, who have accepted the club's notes. The club is now entirely free of debt to outside parties. The new directors are displaying much energy, and are stirring up the club from the lethargic condition into which the old board had permitted it to fall. There is a marked Increase in the club's receipts, and a considerable number of new members is expected. Several new electric lights have been put into the clubhouse, and the swimming facilities have been Increased by the addition of a trapeze and a new chute. Last Saturday evening a private party was given at the clubhouse, which was prettily decorated and hung with Japanese lanterns. Many or the guests were from Oakland or San Francisco. Next morning the visitors were taken out for a trip on the bay in a gasoline launch, which had two or three Whitehalls in tow.
On April 16, as already announced, the California Yacht Club opens. There will be a low jinxs in the evening at the clubhouse, and the first sail in squadron of the season will take place next day. A. M. Clay's sloop Sea Fox and some others are ready. Admiral E. A. yon Schmidt's Whirlwind will be on hand on the opening day, but may not be much seen during the season, as the admiral has interests in Alaska that may draw him away.
The California Yacht Club's "ways" are not available for use at present, having been badly strained last season, when the Thelma was upon them; but they will probably be rebuilt during the summer. At present boats are hauled out on the sandspit.
The new sloop Occident, owned by Messrs. Hager and Miller of West Oakland, will be launched before the end of the month. She is a handsome boat of the overhang type, forty-one feet over all. with plenty of outside ballast to give her stability. She is expected to prove a fast boat.
The Sea Chart
The Illustrated History of Nautical Maps and Navigational Charts
The sea chart was one of the key tools by which ships of trade, transport and conquest navigated their course across the oceans. John Blake looks at the history and development of the chart and the related nautical map, in scientific and aesthetic terms, as a means of safe and accurate seaborne navigation. Contains 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.
Shanghaiing Days
The Thrilling Account of 19th Century Hell-Ships, Bucko Mates and Masters, and Dangerous Ports-Of-Call from San Francisco 
Richard H. Dillon
In the last quarter of the 19th Century, American Merchant Marine went into a decline, and sailors were forced to serve under conditions that were little better than serfdom. Seamen were exploited in wholesale fashion, disfranchised of almost all their civil and human rights, and brutally punished forminor offenses. Successful skippers turned into slave drivers, cracking down on the sailors, sometimes even murdering their "hands." Though captains were legally prohibited from flogging their crews, they did not hesitate to wield belaying pins, marlin spikes, or bare fists. The seamen's lot was so horrible that entire crews jumped ship when in port. New crews were kidnaped, crimped, or shanghaied from the unsuspecting populace of the ports. These "impressed" or "hobo" crews were still further conspired against. They often had their wages stolen from them; they were poorly fed and clothed. Their lives became "hell afloat and purgatory ashore." Our "first and finest employ" in colonial days was turned into a disreputable profession-one that was classed with criminals and prostitutes.
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Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories
Simon Winchester
"Variably genial, cautionary, lyrical, admonitory, terrifying, horrifying and inspiring. A lifetime of thought, travel, reading, imagination and memory inform this affecting account." Kirkus Reviews
Blending history and anecdote, geography and reminiscence, science and exposition, the New York Times bestselling author tells the breathtaking saga of the Atlantic Ocean, setting it against the backdrop of mankind's intellectual evolution. Until a thousand years ago, no humans ventured into the Atlantic or imagined traversing its vast infinity. But once the first daring mariners successfully navigated to far shores whether it was the Vikings, the Irish, the Chinese, Christopher Columbus in the north, or the Portuguese and the Spanish in the south the Atlantic evolved in the world's growing consciousness as an enclosed body of water bounded by the Americas to the West, and by Europe and Africa to the East. Atlantic is a biography of this immense space, of a sea which has defined and determined so much about the lives of the millions who live beside or near its tens of thousands of miles of coast.
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James T. deKay
Navigating the World's Oceans
Donald Johnson and Juha Nurminen
Royal prestige, intellectual curiosity, and territorial expansion all propelled mankind to undertake perilous voyages across unpredictable oceans. This large and lavishly illustrated volume brings that history to life. From the early Phoenician navigation techniques to the technologies behind today's mega-ships, the greatest advances in shipbuilding are covered, accompanied by hundreds of images, with an in-depth look at navigational instruments (including those used by the Vikings).
The Naval Order of the United States has a history dating from 1890. Membership includes a wide range of individuals, many with highly distinguished career paths.
The San Francisco Commandery meets the first Monday of each month at the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club in San Francisco, California and holds two formal dinners each year.
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