Seaports: Oakland, California

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: ° Alameda: ° Berkeley ° Oakland
Contra Costa County: ° Crockett, ° Martinez ° Port Costa
Marin County: ° Point Reyes, ° San Rafael (China Camp), ° Sausalito, ° Tiburon
° Mendocino ° Sacramento
San Francisco (City and County)
Solano: ° Benicia (St. Paul's Church), ° Vallejo,° Mare Island
Sonoma: ° Petaluma ° Fort Ross
CENTRAL & SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: ° Long Beach ° Los Angeles ° Monterey County ° San Diego County ° Santa Barbara ° Santa Monica ° The Channel Islands

Berkeley

While Berkeley was not a shipping seaport, a number of noted sea captains established grand residences in Berkeley. Among them were Charles Boudrow and William E. Mighell.

Oakland

June 9, 1895, San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California

THREE CAPTAINS BADLY FOOLED
Sent Boats to the Rescue of a Supposed Drowning Man.
He Seemed to Be Struggling for Life With a Big Pack on His Back.  He Was Only Testing a New Invention for Saving Life at Sea

However, three captains on three of the Oakland freight boats were unwittingly fooled yesterday morning.

A man swimming in the creek with a pack tied to his back was the cause of all the trouble, and as steamer after steamer lowered a boat and went to his rescue, only to find that it was some crank trying a new invention, the sailors swore not only deep but loud.

The freight boat Emma was the first to run across the swimmer, and Captain Johnston tells the following; story:

"As far as I can gather." said he, "the man has a new life-saving apparatus by which he can support himself for days, and in which he can carry enough food to support life for a week at least. The buoy not only keeps him afloat, but out of it he can get his meals.

"The inventor was testing his invention yesterday. He and a strong swimmer went to Alameda mole and in a boat reached the breakwater. There the swimmer took off his clothes and appeared in a bathing suit. His garments were packed in the buoy and when it was attached to him he sprang into the water and started for the Webster-street bridge. He was half way up when we met him and he only laughed when we offered him assistance. His companion was following him up the breakwater and yelled to us, 'Call your boat back; it's only an experiment we are trying. The man was a good swimmer and the man on the mole had to hustle in order to keep up with him."

Shortly after the Emma had passed the swimmer the big steamer Transit backed out from the Southern Pacific freight slip. Her captain noticed the swimmer, and, making the same mistake as the captain of the Emma, lowered a boat and the sailors were again greeted with a laugh when they proffered the man assistance.

Considerably above Peralta street the Garden City, bound from Webster street for San Francisco, also encountered the man in the water, and there was another stop and another boat lowered. This time the sailors were within an ace of taking the man out whether be liked it or not, but finally desisted when the man said he was swimming a race against time.

March 22, 1896, San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California

The Oakland Harbor

The people of  Oakland have abundant reason to rejoice over the notice issued by Colonel Charles R. Sutter that' the Secretary of War proposes to consolidate the Webster-street and Alice-street drawbridges over the Oakland estuary, and to erect a modern steel bridge in their place with a draw of 150 feet operated otherwise than by hand." This means that the stubborn obstacles which the Southern Pacific Company oppose to the free use of the estuary for water traffic are to be abolished.

Should the Supreme Court sustain the decision by Judge Ogden awarding the water front to Oakland the victory of the city will be complete and its commercial importance assured. The General Government at last seems to have been awakened to the splendid harbor facilities of Sari Francisco Bay. There can be little doubt that under the pressure being brought to bear by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Congress will make an appropriation for the removal of sunken rocks dangerous to navigation. The State of California is ably arid intelligently doing its part in developing the best efficiency of the harbor, as it is steadily constructing a seawall on the San Francisco side and is beginning the erection of a superb ferry building at a cost of $000,000. The benefits which California would receive from the improvement of the harbor and the encouragement of shipping are of minor importance when compared with the great national interests involved.

This bay is one of the most interesting sheets of water in the world. The greater part of it is shoal and unfit for navigation, but all that is required for commerce is fortunately self-dredging through the action of the tides, and hence can never shoal and will never require heavy expenditures for keeping it in perfect condition. It would be better if the broad stretch of water in the southern end were converted into land, leaving such needful channels as those to the; various shipping points all the way : around. The marshes bordering the bay constitute in themselves an empire, and in good time they will be reclaimed arid devoted to agriculture, to assist in maintaining the dense population that must line the shore in the years to come. It is not difficult to foresee the time when i this splendid bay, backed as it is by the most fertile country in the Union and constituting the "entrepot of the United States" for the trade of the Orient, will have its shore lined with great cities of which thos:e already in existence are hardly a beginning. No transient hindrances to transportation can operate against this destiny.

March 7, 1899, San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California

Oakland Harbor Bill Passed.

SACRAMENTO, March 6.— Senator Leavitt's Oakland harbor bill passed the Assembly to-day as it was amended on Friday. It went through without discussion, with a vote in its favor of 50 to 8. Leavitt's bill creates a commission of threemembers and it enables the city of Oakland to give the uso of its water front to the State, while not conferring the title. It formulates an elaborate system of dock rules and regulations and is designed to put Oakland's shipping facilities on the footing they should be. The bill was transmitted to the Senate for concurrence in the Assembly amendment.

June 18, 1899, San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California

Oakland to Become a Grain Trade Center
Deepening Harbor Creates Opportunities
Plans Framed for the Building of Balfour, Guthrie & Co's Proposed Big Warehouses.

OAKLAND, June 17.— John L. Howard has framed plans for the Improvement of the old nail works property at the foot of Market street, recently purchased by Ralfour, Guthrie & Co., and it now transpires that the great shipping firm proposes to erect thereon a large grain warehouse, construct a wharf and conduct a genera] grain shipping business from this port. The contract for the erection of a bulkhead on the water front adjoining the old nail works has been let to Johnson & Peterson. The bulkhead is to extend out to the Government bulkhead line, and beyond this a wharf is to he contracted out as far as the pier-head line permits. A contract for dredging will be let In a few days, and it is proposed to pump the ! slickens and muds into the bulkhead inclosure. The proposed warehouses will be of corrugated Iron and brick, and of a capacity for holding 8000 tons of grain. Railroad tracks will be laid on each side, and It is probable that, when the entire improvement has been completed, most of the 'grain produced south of the bay, in Alameda, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, will be shipped from Oakland Harbor, and Balfour, Guthrie & Co. will thus be enabled to load their largest ships at the foot of Market street and send them off to Liverpool and Antwerp direct.

December 20, 1899, San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California

Oakland Shipping

Oakland, December 19 -- Andrew Hollywood, Collector of Port in Oakland, makes the following statements in his annual shipping report: Owing to the fact that duty is collected In San Francisco and not at the sub-port or point of consignment only $3439.20 of duty has been paid In this city for the year as compared to an estimated $113,439.20 which would have been paid were not duty first collected in San Francisco. This $3439.20 includes also duty by "Inward transportation," or by way of New York, the goods not having been opened until reaching here. During the current year up to December 15, vessels discharged cargoes on this side of the bay. More sugar has been received than any other article. In all 1,503 ,501 sacks. or 150,456,120 pounds, of this article have been landed at Long Wharfn. The other consignments range as follows: Coal. 101,1167 tons; coke, 11,730 tons; cement, 35.03 barrels; glass, 10,419 cases.

 

March 13, 1911, San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California

Jews Plead for Russian Brethren
United Mass Meeting Will Be Held on Wednesday Evening, March 15

OAKLAND, March 12. -Indications point to a large attendance at the mass meeting to be held Wednesday evening, March 15, in the synagogue, Twelfth and Castro streets, under the auspices of the First Hebrew congregation and the B'nai B'rith lodge. Rabbi M. Friedlander, head of the committee in charge of the gathering is making great efforts to arouse the public as to the condition of the Jews in Russia, the object of the meeting being to protest against the persecution of the Jews in that country. A call has been made to every Jewish organization to help in the fight to arouse the American conscience upon the true conditions in Russia.

Among the speakers will be Benjamin Ide Wheeler of the University of California; Rev. Frank L. Goodspeeil, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, and William R. Davis. The committee in charge is composed of Rabbi Friedlander, Milton Shwarz and Morris Schneider.

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Immigration at the Golden Gate: Passenger Ships, Exclusion, and Angel Island
Robert Eric Barde
Perhaps 200,000 immigrants passed through the Angel Island Immigration Station during its lifetime, a tiny number compared to the 17 million who entered through New York's Ellis Island.

Nonetheless, Angel Island's place in the consciousness of Americans on the West Coast is large and out of proportion to the numerical record. Angel Island's Immigration Station was not, as some have called it, the Ellis Island of the West, built to facilitate the processing and entry of those welcomed as new Americans. Its role was less benign: to facilitate the exclusion of Asians, starting with the Chinese, then Japanese, Koreans, Indians, and all other Asians.

Migration in World History 
(Themes in World History) 
Patrick Manning
Drawing on examples from a wide range of geographical regions and thematic areas, noted world historian Patrick Manning guides the reader through trade patterns, including the early Silk Road and maritime trade, effect of migration on empire and industry, earliest human migrations, major language groups, various leading theories around migration.

Merchants of Grain: 
The Power and Profits of the Five Giant Companies at the Center of the World's Food Supply 
Dan Morgan 
Details how a handful of families have controlled the worlds grain trade for centuries. A great piece for families that till the soil, but one that is even more important to the people who live in the city; and have no idea of the power and control that these families wield. 
From Captain John R. Sutton: "I am a captain on Mississippi River towboats. I have pushed millions of tons of grain down the Mississippi River for years. But I never really understood the global impact of the world's grain company's until I read this book."