C.A. Thayer (1895)

Last updated
C.A. Thayer
CA Thayer HAER 041940.jpg
C.A. Thayer in 1988
History
Flag of the United States.svg United States
NamesakeClarence A. Thayer
Launched1895
Out of servicec.1950
Status Museum ship
General characteristics
Tonnage453 (gross)
Length219 ft (67 m)
Beam36 ft (11 m)
Depth of hold11.38 ft (3.47 m)
C.A. Thayer
C.A. Thayer 1903.jpg
C.A. Thayer, launched November 12, 1895
USA California location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location2905 Hyde Street, San Francisco, California 94109
Coordinates 37°48′33″N122°25′18″W / 37.80917°N 122.42167°W / 37.80917; -122.42167
Arealess than one acre
Built1895
NRHP reference No. 66000229
Significant dates
Added to NRHP13 November 1966 [1]
Designated NHL13 November 1966 [2]

C.A. Thayer is a schooner built in 1895 near Eureka, California. The schooner has been preserved and open to the public at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park since 1963. She is one of the last survivors of the sailing schooners in the West coast lumber trade to San Francisco from Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. She was designated a National Historic Landmark on 13 November 1966. [1]

Contents

History

As a lumber schooner

C.A. Thayer was built by Danish-born Hans Ditlev Bendixsen in his shipyard, located across the narrows of Humboldt Bay from the city of Eureka in Northern California. Bendixsen also built the Wawona (1897) which was dismantled in 2009. The C.A. Thayer was named for Clarence A. Thayer, a partner in the San Francisco-based E.K. Wood Lumber Company.

Between 1895 and 1912, C.A. Thayer usually sailed from E.K. Wood's mill in Grays Harbor, Washington, to San Francisco. But she also carried lumber as far south as Mexico, and occasionally even ventured offshore to Hawaii and Fiji.

C.A. Thayer is typical of the sort of three-masted schooners often used in the west coast lumber trade. She is 219 feet (67 m) in length and has a cargo capacity of 575,000 board feet (47,900 cu ft; 1,360 m3). She carried about half of her load below deck, with the remaining lumber stacked 10 feet (3.0 m) high on deck. In port, her small crew of eight or nine men were also responsible for loading and unloading the ship. Unloading 75,000 to 80,000 board feet (6,300 to 6,700 cu ft; 180 to 190 m3) was an average day's work.

With the increase in the use of steam power for the lumber trade, and after sustaining serious damage during a gale, C.A. Thayer was retired from the lumber trade in 1912, and converted for use in the Alaskan salmon fishery.

In the Alaskan salmon fishery

Early each April from 1912 to 1924, C.A. Thayer sailed from San Francisco for Western Alaska. On board she carried 28-foot (8.5 m) gillnet boats, bundles of barrel staves, tons of salt, and a crew of fishermen and cannery workers. She then spent the summer anchored at a fishery camp such as Squaw Creek or Koggiung. While there, the fishermen worked their nets and the cannery workers packed the catch on shore. C.A. Thayer returned to San Francisco each September, carrying barrels of salted salmon.

Vessels in the salt-salmon trade usually laid up during the winter months, but when World War I inflated freight rates, C.A. Thayer carried Northwest fir and Mendocino redwood to Australia. These off-season voyages took about two months each way. Her return cargo was usually coal, but sometimes hardwood or copra.

As a cod fisherman

Between 1925 and 1930, C.A. Thayer made yearly voyages from Poulsbo, Washington, to Alaska's Bering Sea cod-fishing waters. In addition to supplies, she carried upwards of thirty men north, including fourteen fishermen and twelve "dressers" (the men who cleaned and cured the catch). At about 4:30am each day, the fishermen launched their Grand Banks dories over the rails, and then fished standing up, with handlines dropped over both sides of their small boats. When the fishing was good, a man might catch 300-350 cod in a five-hour period.

After a decade-long, Depression-era lay-up in Lake Union, the U.S. Army purchased C.A. Thayer from J.E. Shields for use in the war effort. In 1942, the Army removed her masts and used Thayer as an ammunition barge in British Columbia. After World War II, Shields bought his ship back from the Army, fitted her with masts once again, and returned her to codfishing. Her final voyage was in 1950.

Restoration

C.A. Thayer C A Thayer.JPG
C.A. Thayer

The State of California purchased C.A. Thayer in 1956 from Charles McNeal who used her as a tourist attraction. After preliminary restoration in Seattle, Washington, a volunteer crew sailed her down the coast to San Francisco. (In the 1956 movie Julie, there is a scene where a man is sitting on an airplane reading a San Francisco newspaper. The newspaper has the headline "Ex-master Awaits Return of Schooner C.A.Thayer" above a photo of what is clearly the ship C.A.Thayer. To the right is a photo showing the ex-master of the ship next to his wife.) [3]

The San Francisco Maritime Museum performed more extensive repairs and refitting, and opened C.A. Thayer to the public in 1963. The vessel was transferred to the National Park Service in 1978, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1984.

After 40 years as a museum ship, C.A. Thayer has again been restored, a restoration which took three years from 2004, and which resulted in her temporary removal from her berth at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Approximately 80% of the ship's timbers were replaced with new timbers matching the original wood. The ship sailed back to the Hyde Street Pier on 12 April 2007.

In Nov. 2016 she was moved to Alameda to be painted, get new booms and gaffs, and have three masts and a bowsprit installed by the Bay Ship and Yacht Company. She returned to the Hyde Street Pier in Feb. 2017. [4] In 2017 she will be rigged with a new set of sails. [5]

See also

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 15, 2006.
  2. ↑ "C.A. Thayer (schooner)". National Historic Landmarks Program. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
  3. ↑ 1956 film Julie, times 01:09:13 and 01:11:12. The newspaper is page 55 of the Monday, April 9, 1956 edition of The San Francisco Examiner https://www.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22awaits+return+of+Schooner+C.A.Thayer%22.
  4. ↑ Joe Rosato Jr. "Historic San Francisco Schooner Returns to Glory". NBC - Bay Area. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  5. ↑ Rick Spilman (29 February 2016). "New Masts for the 1895 Lumber Schooner C.A.Thayer". The Old Salt Blog. Retrieved 2 July 2017.

Related Research Articles

<i>Star of India</i> (ship) A museum ship harbored in San Diego, USA

Star of India is an iron-hulled sailing ship, built in 1863 in Ramsey, Isle of Man as the full-rigged ship Euterpe. After a career sailing from Great Britain to India and New Zealand, she was renamed, re-rigged as a barque, and became a salmon hauler on the Alaska to California route. Retired in 1926, she was restored as a seaworthy museum ship in 1962–3 and home-ported at the Maritime Museum of San Diego in San Diego, California. She is the oldest ship still sailing regularly and also the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship still afloat. The ship is both a California Historical Landmark and United States National Historic Landmark.

<i>Falls of Clyde</i> (ship) 1878 sail-driven oil tanker

Falls of Clyde is the last surviving iron-hulled, four-masted full-rigged ship, and the only remaining sail-driven oil tanker. Designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1989, she is now a museum ship in Honolulu, but her condition has deteriorated. She is currently not open to the public. In September 2008, ownership was transferred to a new nonprofit organization, the Friends of Falls of Clyde. Efforts to raise $1.5 million to get the ship into drydock did not succeed. In November 2021 HDOT accepted a bid from Save Falls of Clyde – International (FOCI) to transport the ship to Scotland for restoration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwest Seaport</span>

Northwest Seaport Maritime Heritage Center is a nonprofit organization in Seattle, Washington dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Puget Sound and Northwest Coast maritime heritage, expressed through educational programs and experiences available to the public aboard its ships. The organization owns three large historic vessels docked at the Historic Ships' Wharf in Seattle's Lake Union Park; the tugboat Arthur Foss (1889), Lightship 83 Swiftsure (1904), and the halibut fishing schooner Tordenskjold (1911). These vessels are used as platforms for a variety of public programs, ranging from tours and festivals to restoration workshops and vocational training.

<i>Balclutha</i> (1886) Steel-hulled full rigged ship that was built in 1886

Balclutha, also known as Star of Alaska, Pacific Queen, or Sailing Ship Balclutha, is a steel-hulled full-rigged ship that was built in 1886. She is representative of several different commercial ventures, including lumber, salmon, and grain. She is a U.S. National Historic Landmark and is currently preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California. She was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 7 November 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park</span> Place in California listed on National Register of Historic Places

The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is located in San Francisco, California, United States. The park includes a fleet of historic vessels, a visitor center, a maritime museum, and a library/research facility. Formerly referred to as the San Francisco Maritime Museum, the collections were acquired by the National Park Service in 1978. The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park was authorized in 1988; the maritime museum is among the park's many cultural resources. The park also incorporates the Aquatic Park Historic District, bounded by Van Ness Avenue, Polk Street, and Hyde Street.

<i>Alma</i> (1891)

Alma is an 1891-built scow schooner, which is now preserved as a National Historic Landmark at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California.

<i>Hercules</i> (1907) 1907-built American steam tugboat

Hercules is a 1907-built steam tugboat that is now preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California.

<i>Elissa</i> (ship) Museum ship in Galveston, Galveston County, Texas

The tall ship Elissa is a three-masted barque. She is based in Galveston, Texas, and is one of the oldest ships sailing today. Launched in 1877, she is now a museum ship at the Texas Seaport Museum. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990. The Texas Legislature designated Elissa the official tall ship of Texas in 2005.

<i>Wawona</i> (schooner)

Wawona was an American three-masted, fore-and-aft schooner that sailed from 1897 to 1947 as a lumber carrier and fishing vessel based in Puget Sound. She was one of the last survivors of the sailing schooners in the West Coast lumber trade to San Francisco from Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.

The West Coast lumber trade was a maritime trade route on the West Coast of the United States. It carried lumber from the coasts of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington mainly to the port of San Francisco. The trade included direct foreign shipment from ports of the Pacific Northwest and might include another product characteristic of the region, salmon, as in the schooner Henry Wilson sailing from Washington state for Australia with "around 500,000 feet of lumber and canned salmon" in 1918.

<i>Bowdoin</i> (Arctic schooner)

Bowdoin is a historic schooner built in 1921 in East Boothbay, Maine, at the Hodgdon Brothers Shipyard. Designed by William H. Hand, Jr. under the direction of explorer Donald B. MacMillan, the gaff-rigged vessel is the only American schooner built specifically for Arctic exploration. She has made 29 trips above the Arctic Circle in her life, three since she was acquired by the Maine Maritime Academy as a sail training ship in 1988. She is currently owned by the Academy, located in Castine, Maine, and is named for Bowdoin College.

<i>Lettie G. Howard</i> Schooner

Lettie G. Howard, formerly Mystic C and Caviare, is a wooden Fredonia schooner built in 1893 in Essex, Massachusetts, USA. This type of craft was commonly used by American offshore fishermen, and is believed to be the last surviving example of its type. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. She is now based at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City.

Metha Nelson was built as a wooden‑hulled merchant schooner which was later used in historic movies as a full-rigged ship. During World War II, she served the United States Navy.

<i>Wapama</i> (steam schooner)

Wapama, also known as Tongass, was a vessel last located in Richmond, California. She was the last surviving example of some 225 wooden steam schooners that served the lumber trade and other coastal services along the Pacific Coast of the United States. She was managed by the National Park Service at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park until dismantled in August 2013.

<i>Grace Bailey</i> (schooner)

Grace Bailey, also known for many years as Mattie, is a two-masted schooner whose home port is Camden Harbor, Camden, Maine. Built in 1882 in Patchogue, New York, she is one of four surviving two-masted wooden-hulled schooners, once the most common vessel in the American coasting trade. She was one of the first ships in the fleet of historic vessels known as "Maine windjammers", which offer cruises in Penobscot Bay and the Maine coast, entering that service in 1939. She last underwent major restoration in 1989–90. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992.

<i>Lewis R. French</i> (schooner)

Lewis R. French is a gaff-rigged topsail schooner sailing out of Camden, Maine as a "Maine windjammer" offering 3 to 6 night cruises to tourists. Built in 1871, she is the oldest known two-masted schooner in the United States, and one of a small number of this once-common form of vessel in active service. The ship was designated a US National Historic Landmark in 1992.

Fairhaven is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) adjacent to Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, United States. It is located 2.25 miles (3.6 km) west-southwest of downtown Eureka, at an elevation of 10 feet (3.0 m) above sea level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Ditlev Bendixsen</span> American shipbuilder

Hans Ditlev Bendixsen was a Danish-American shipbuilder who was instrumental in the development of the merchant marine industry on the West Coast of the United States. His lumber schooners were built in or near Eureka, California in shipyards on Humboldt Bay for over 30 years. These schooners played a major role in the historic west coast lumber trade.

<i>Inca</i> (schooner) Five-masted schooner Washington state, U.S.

The Inca was "the first true five-masted schooner built on the West Coast."

<i>Regina Maris</i> (1908)

The sailing ship Regina Maris was originally built as the three-masted topsail schooner Regina in 1908. She was a 144-foot (44-meter), wooden, completely fore-and-aft–rigged sailing ship with three masts. She was re-rigged in 1963 as a 148-foot (45-meter) barquentine. Regina Maris could reach a speed of up to 12 knots, especially on a half-wind course or with a fresh back-stay breeze.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.