Howdy, As a followup to my sea stuff, I am TODAY sending three SF maritime postings that I made on another list. They give us a little SF history. Here's the first one: "Howdy, To digress, while resting my mules/oxen out on the overland trail :-), I would like to quote from James P. Delgado's "To California by Sea -A Maritime History of the California Gold Rush." He succinctly and, I believe authoritatively, describes San Francisco's maritime condition in 1849 and 1850, as follows: "The sheer number of vessels lying at anchor off San Francisco made a lasting impression on many Gold Rush visitors and firmly established San Francisco as a maritime city. It also conferred a negative image of the port to wary shipowners reluctant to send a ship for a prolonged layover. In the summer of 1849, as the first onslaught of Gold Rush arrivals began, the harbormaster counted 72 vessels at the port. By October 30, l849, the San Francisco DAILY ALTA CALIFORNIA counted 308 vessels at anchor 'in the Port of San Francisco,' although some were not laid up but merely between voyages... "In the June 6, 1850 edition, the ALTA counted 509 vessels in port, a few dozen between voyages. By November 1851, the ALTA published the deputy harbormaster's enumeration of 452 vessels in the harbor, which included 242 American-registered, 36...from Great Britain, and 11 French, 10 German, 3 Swedish, 3 Austrian, 5 Chilean, 2 Dutch, 1 Italian.... "Despite the large number of laid-up vessels on the San Francisco waterfront, the statistics of arrivals and departures indicate an active port. Initially marine news focused largely on arrivals - very few vessels departed San Francisco in 1849. The formal recording of arrivals commenced on March 26, l849..." NOTE: To conserve space, I am combining Delgado's Tables 1 and 2, which show the 1849 and 1850 San Francisco ship arrivals: Month 1849 Ship Arrivals 1850 Ship Arrivals January N/A 55 February N/A 46 March N/A 54 April 64 50 May 43 75 June 74 85 July 93 62 August 112 54 September 128 39 October 90 49 November 82 55 December 89 32 ---------- ---------- Probably accurate, but I wouldn't bet the farm on those numbers. As with all statistics, there is disagreement. In 1854, the San Francisco DAILY HERALD recorded 650 arrivals in 1849, 1,521 arrivals in 1850, 977 in 1851, 743 in 1852, and 862 in 1853. Interestingly, the majority of vessels arriving after 1850 were from foreign ports. Maybe a little overlap with Clark's Clipper book - read Delgado first:-), Bob Norris in Dallas BNorris166aol.com>