California Seaports

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

Santa Monica

April 11, 1893, Los Angeles Herald, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

THE TWO HARBORS. 
Opposition to Santa Monica Taken to Task.

Editors Herald: Can you, through the medium of your paper, tell us why the Los Angeles Times is so set against the proposition of a deep water harbor at Santa Monica. What difference does it make to the citizens of Los Angeles whether a breakwater is located in San Pedro or Santa Monica, so long as they get the breakwater? Certainly the citizens of Santa Monica have just as much right legally and morally to work for the appropriation as the citizens of San Pedro, and assuredly more right to fight for the appropriation for Santa Monica than the editor of the Los Angeles Times has to fight against it. Whenever a good thing has been done for this place the Times is always the last paper in Los Angeles to mention it.

I cannot see what difference it would make to the merchants of Los Angeles whether they secured their freight by the way of Santa Monica or San Pedro, as long as they are of easy access to both places. Certainly Santa Monica has as good railway facilities and is nearer to Los Angeles by several miles, and freight and passengers could be landed in Los Angeles several hours in advance of landing their freight by the way of San Pedro.

The Times says that if we expect to get an appropriation from the government, we should be united, and still further, we should be united on San Pedro, because the board of engineers have recommended in favor of San Pedro. What other report could they have made? They could not very well say that all former surveys made by their predecessors were wrong that they were not competent to transact their business properly. Practically they made no surveys in Santa Monica or San Pedro bays. They never made a survey of either bay only theoretically. They were not here in Santa Monica more than six hours, and spent most of that time in wining and dining. Now, I think the majority of the citizens of Los Angeles do not care whether this appropriation is made for San Pedro or Santa Monica, as long as the appropriation is made. Now, I would say that if the Times and board of trade will let San Pedro and Santa Monica fight their own battles, the sooner this matter will be settled.

October 19, 1893, Sacramento Daily Union, Sacramento, California

Governor Markham as appointed and commissioned F. C. Dornfield of Santa Monica as pilot for the Bay of Santa Monica.

May 1, 1895, San Francisco Call, San Francisco

SANTA MONICA'S HARBOR
Senator Cullom Inspects the Crescent-Shaped Ocean Front.

SANTA MONICA, Cal., April 30. Senator Cullom of Illinois, accompanied by Mrs. Cullom, Mrs. Ridgeley, Miss Bunn and Mr. Ray, of the Senator's private party, and Colonel J. A. Muir, J. M. Crawley and E. L. Swain of the Southern Pacific, spent the day here looking over the town and bay. They were met here by Mrs. Senator J. P. Jones and Messrs. Robert F. and Roy Jones, nephew and son of Senator J. P. Jones, and his representatives here; Mrs. E. J. Gorman, A. C. Hamilton, Mayor J. J. Carrillo, E. B. Woodworth, Dr. N. H. Hamilton, Captain Dornfield, D. J. Kennelly, City Surveyor I. H. James and others.

The party made a thorough inspection of the wharf and bay. The Senator was pleasantly surprised at finding the ocean front here crescent shaped, and so well protected, instead of a straight beach front. He was particularly zealous in securing all facts, figures and dates as to currents, anchorage, etc.

He enjoyed his visit and went away with pleasant memories of the city by the Western sea.

April 26, 1908, Los Angeles Herald, Los Angeles, California

BID FAREWELL TO ATLANTIC FLEET
THOUSANDS GATHER AT SANTA MONICA 
WARSHIPS MANEUVER IN THE HARBOR 
Beautiful Spectacle Draws Cheers from 
Vast Throng Assembled in Beach City to Say Goodby to Vessels

By Associated Press.

SANTA MONICA, April 25. Sailing away into a summer haze that hung over the bay of Santa Monica the sixteen battleships of the Atlantic fleet steamed slowly past Point Dume shortly after 9 o'clock this morning with a hundred thousand people assembled along the shores to extend them a reluctant farewell.

No spectacle so superb has ever been witnessed off the coast of Southern California unless it was the arrival of the same ships a week ago today, and it will be long before the patriotic enthusiasm of the great multitude subsides to forgetfulness of the impressions made today.

Cheers did not suffice to express their emotion, the waving of flags and the booming of guns seemed inadequate, but the groups of tired people that stood for hours patiently awaiting the coming of the ships and the tears that filled eyes straining seaward as one by one they faded from view were evidences of the welcome that the fleet has known and of the regret that attended its leaving.

Multitude Awaits Ships

Never before has such a multitude gathered along the shores of Santa Monica bay, and rarely if ever have so many people submitted to discomfort and inconvenience to witness a spectacle however thrilling and unusual. Since noon yesterday every available oar of the Los Angeles-Pacific system was operated without interruption, and for eighteen hours a stream of people poured into Venice, Ocean Park and Santa Monica, the three beach cities that commanded a view of the theater where the warships would make their last appearance. Days ago the quest for accommodations for last night had been abandoned as hopeless and with every resource exhausted, with hotels and lodging houses and private residences crowded far beyond their normal capacity, men, women and children slept last night on the beach or in the canyons just outside Santa Monica.

Others passed the night on the floors of offices in the city hall, and hundreds who had gathered at Venice whiled away the hour before daylight by dancing to music furnished by a band that furnished a concert last night. As a final test many of the sleepless but eager sightseers, finding that the restaurants were unable to provide breakfast for half the people who waited in lines before their doors, cheerfully sacrificed the meal for early choice of a view somewhere along the shore.

Seek Points of Vantage

Before daylight the crowds were abroad, seeking points of vantage along the high bluffs at Santa Monica, lining the walk extending along the water's edge before the three beach cities and taking their way to the summit of the sharp ridges back of the towns. As daylight broke the waiters on the shore were able to make out the four ships of the third division, the Maine lying farthest off shore and the others close to the end of the pier.

As the sun rose the haze of early morning cleared away from the shore, but hung in an impenetrable veil across the mouth of the bay, hiding point Vincent, where the warships would first be seen, and Point Dume, beyond which they would vanish.

As if to clear the stage for the stirring spectacle soon to be presented the four battleships in the harbor weighed anchor and steamed away in the direction of Redondo, where the fourth division lay and where the sixteen battleships would again unite for departure.

To the thousands who arrived yesterday and during the night there were added new thousands who came by train by an unbroken procession of electric cars, by automobile and by nearly every vehicle that could be spared from the requirements of business. Where the crowds were thick before they now became congested. Men and women climbed to roof tops, mounted Into the branches of trees and risked life and limb In the effort to improve their viewpoint.

Conspicuous in the great gathering were the faded blue uniforms and the battered slouch hats of the veterans of the Soldiers' home, to whom the visit of the fleet has been a most notable occasion, That their patriotism is undiminished shown by the fact that hundreds of the elder soldiers remained at the beach all night, finding accommodations where they could, in order that they might miss no part of the spectacle. The hour that elapsed after the departure of the third division was a tedious one. Eyes never wavered from the gray fog bank that overhung the southern horn of the crescent shaped bay, but the moments passed slowly and the wait was a tiresome one for the many who had stood in their places since daybreak.

Ships Sighted

It was a few moments after 7 o'clock when a white shot flickered for an instant off Point Vincente and was lost to view. Again it showed, and again there was only the fog bank. A moment of uncertainty and there were two white spots and a cheer went up as the fortunate possessors of strong glasses announced that they could make out the dim outlines of the ships . . . one by one the battleships crept out of the misty background and became a part of the picture. It was fifteen minutes before the spectators could count the full sixteen, and by that time the Connecticut was drawing abreast of Venice, about four miles from shore. Here occurred the one maneuver of the reunited fleet. Opposite Venice the Connecticut turned sharply inshore, breaking the formation that showed perfectly even at this remote distance. Reaching the same spot, the Kansas followed, and one by one, like a file of well drilled infantrymen, the big warships turned their curving stems toward the beach, reducing their speed and looming larger and larger as they approached the white line of the surf.

Signals Ships

A mile off shore the Connecticut was barely under way. The signal flags fluttered, were withdrawn and appeared again and the file of ships seemed to mark time while the flagship reviewed the formation. A mile and a half from the beach the Connecticut wheeled again, pointing her nose northward and parallel with the beach, where the people were waving flags and where the rusty guns mounted on the Venice pier had begun to boom out a salute of welcome, to which the etiquette of the Navy forbade a reply . . . Viewed from the Santa Monica cliffs the scene was one never to be forgotten. In this perspective the foremost ships loomed large, the red of their armor belts showing plainly, the brass of the decks glittering in tho sunlight and their masts and smokestacks forming a thick forest with a cloud of black smoke overhanging the blue water of the bay. Execute Double Turn As the battleships executed the double turn they appeared in hopeless confusion So sharp was the change of course that each of the big vessels passed directly across the bow of one of the sister ships, and the people viewed the unaccustomed sight with some trepidation, fearing a disaster. But as the Connecticut drew away and each of tho succeeding ships withdrew from the group, maintaining an exact interval of a few hundred feet, the momentary fear gave way to admiration and the exhibition of seamanship was applauded by cheers and the waving of flags . . . It was a few minutes after 9 when the Minnesota, last of the fourth division and last In the column of ships, faded from view. The few launches and sailboats that had followed the warships turned as they disappeared, and the crowd, hurrying back from the beaches, the hills and the cliffs, hurried to the lines of waiting cars that carried them back to Los Angeles.