They Came By Sea: A Pictorial History of San Diego Bay by Jerry MacMullen

Description: This is not a history of San Diego Bay in terms of change-of-command ceremonies nor of civic banquets; it will not tell you about the social significance of the tuna industry nor will it supply tables of statistics on cargoes or the revenue from tideland leases. Rather, it will try to plug up some of the holes left by those who, in bygone years, apparently felt that nothing of interest occurred from the arrival of the sea-borne elements of Don Gaspar de Portola's expedition in 1769 until the Navy began to fly cloth-and-bamboo aeroplanes on North Island. It is just as well to face the fact that "New" San Diego was brought in, piece by piece, in sailing vessels and lumbering sidewheelers, and that bellying canvas played an important part in the town's economy for many years. In the now wraith-like fleet were sturdy wooden medium clippers out of Searsport and Bath; iron and steel ship and barks hailing from Dundee and Liverpool and Havre and Bremen - and from London and Trondhjem and Barry. They brought steaming coal from New South Wales and blacksmith coal (which had to be watched for spontaneous combustion) from Pennsylvania; they brought steel and glass and cement from Continental Europe, and there was a veritable armada of small schooners from the "dog-holes" of Northern California's Mendocino coast, with redwood from which to build a city. From time to time empty Cape Horners would load San Diego County grain from rolling fields which today grow dense with split-level homes, for the brewers of Germany. Up from the Lower Coast, as the Mexican waters were called, came the tiny schooners and big sloops of the "Mosquito Fleet" with sea-otter pelts and with orchilla and seal-oil. and gold and copper ore. The tall ships and their lusty crews came and went and were quickly forgotten; everyone was too busy re-telling the story of California's missions, and of the Romantic Days of the Dons.

Price: 5.85 USD

Location: San Diego, California

End Time: 2025-01-21T23:21:00.000Z

Shipping Cost: 4.69 USD