San Francisco Bar Pilots Association is the official maritime pilot group for the San Francisco harbor and associated waterways. The pilots in the group are licensed and regulated by California Board of Pilot Commissioners. [1] The Association was created in 1850 and is a member of the American Pilots Association. [2] The association is the oldest purely maritime organization on the Pacific coast of the United States predating the oldest lighthouse in California erected on Alcatraz Island in 1854. [3] The pilots were required by law to maintain a constant round the clock watch with enough pilots aboard a pilot boat on the bar to pilot any arriving ship safely into port. [3]
A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, bar pilot, or simply pilot, is a sailor who maneuvers ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbors or river mouths. They are navigational experts possessing knowledge of the particular waterway such as its depth, currents, and hazards.
Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun is the California state agency responsible for licensing and regulating pilots within one of the largest harbors in the world and the tributary Sacramento River delta. It licenses and regulates up to 60 pilots of the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association. They are called "bar pilots" because they maneuver ships across a large and dangerous sand bar just outside the Golden Gate at the mouth of San Francisco Bay.
Alcatraz Island is located in San Francisco Bay, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison (1828), and a federal prison from 1934 until 1963. Beginning in November 1969, the island was occupied for more than 19 months by a group of Native Americans from San Francisco, who were part of a wave of Native activism across the nation, with public protests through the 1970s. In 1972, Alcatraz became part of a national recreation area and received designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
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In 1910 the 58 feet 2 inches (17.7 m) motor boat California was built for the pilots. [4] In 1935 three schooner pilot vessels were maintained to provide rotating five-day watches on the bar near the lightship with two, the large schooner California and Gracie S. being regulars with Adventuress as reserve. [3] At that time the pilot vessels were crewed by seven men hosting up to ten pilots awaiting ships with a rule that at sunset enough should be aboard to pilot all vessels expected before noon of the next day. [3]
USS California (SP-647) -- later known as USS SP-647 -- was originally a motorboat used by the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association as a pilot boat. She was leased by the Navy, and outfitted as an armed patrol craft, assigned to patrol and protect San Francisco harbor. At war’s end, she was returned to the pilot’s association.
Adventuress is a 133-foot (41 m) gaff-rigged schooner launched in 1913 in East Boothbay, Maine. She has since been restored, and is listed as a National Historic Landmark. She is one of two surviving San Francisco bar pilot schooners.
Today the Bar Pilots are responsible for piloting ships into nine ports within San Francisco Bay as far as the Ports of Stockton and Sacramento and the Port of Monterey outside the bay. [5]
Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Captain Charles Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquired Rancho Campo de los Franceses. The city is named after Robert F. Stockton, and it was the first community in California to have a name not of Spanish or Native American origin. The city is located on the San Joaquin River in the northern San Joaquin Valley and had an estimated population of 320,554 by the California Department of Finance for 2017. Stockton is the 13th largest city in California and the 63rd largest city in the United States. It was named an All-American City in 1999, 2004, 2015 and again in 2017.
Founded on June 3, 1770, Monterey was the capital of Alta California under both Spain and Mexico until 1850. Monterey hosted California's first theater, public building, public library, publicly funded school, printing press, and newspaper. Monterey was the only port of entry for taxable goods in California. In 1846, the U.S. flag was raised over the Customs House, and California became part of the United States after the Mexican–American War.
