(by Gina Bardi, Reference Librarian)
Due to the great work NOAA is doing locating
wreck sites in the Gulf of the Farallones Marine Sanctuary there has been a lot
of interest in the subject of local shipwrecks. The following is a list of
material available at the San Francisco Maritime Research Center on the subject
of shipwrecks along the California Coast along with some online resources. Also included is material on subjects related
to shipwrecks such as underwater archaeology and the Life-Saving Service. This is by no means an exhaustive list, rather
it is to give the researcher a taste of the collection. To do further research, please see our Keys catalog. To see anything on this list, please
contact Reference Librarian Gina Bardi: gina_bardi@nps.gov
Books on Shipwrecks
Overviews
Delgado, James P. Shipwrecks at the
Golden Gate: A History of Vessel Losses from Duxbury Reef
to Mussel Rock. Lagunitas, CA: Lexikos, 1989. Print.
Delgado, James P. Submerged
Cultural Resource Assessment: Golden Gate National Recreation
Area, Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, and Point Reyes
National Seashore. Santa Fe, N.M: Southwest Cultural Resources
Center, 1989. Print.
Jackson, Walter A. The Doghole
Schooners: The Ship Builders, “Dog-Hole” Captains,
Wrecks and Locations, Ports of Call, Ship Owners and the Schooners of Early
Coastal Shipping. Mendocino, CA: Bear & Stebbins, 1977.
Print.
James,
Rick. West Coast Wrecks & Other
Maritime Tales.
Raincoast Chronicles 21. Madeira Park, B.C: Harbour Pub, 2011. Print.
Pelkofer, Marilyn Ann. California
Shipwrecks : Historical Profiles. Submerged
Cultural Resources Unit, California State Lands Commission, 1993. Print.
Simpson, Glenn D. Evaluating Shipwreck
Significance in the Humboldt Bay Region. n.p., 2001. Print.
http://keys.bywatersolutions.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=33952
White, Michael. Shipwrecks of the
California Coast: Wood to Iron, Sail to Steam. Charleston, SC:
History Press, 2014. Print.
Collections of Stories
While some of the books on overviews include stories, these titles are
more sensational and often include first person accounts. They are not
California specific rather they are international in scope.
Baldwin,
Hanson Weightman. Sea Fights and Shipwrecks; True Tales of the Seven Seas. 1st ed. Garden City, N.Y: Hanover
House, 1955. Print.
Colter,
John R. The Desert Island Adventure Book; True Tales of Famous Castaways
Told by Themselves.
New York: Macmillan, 1933. Print.
Kephart,
Horace. Castaways and Crusoes; Tales of Survivors of Ship-Wreck
in New Zealand, Patagonia, Tobago, Cuba, Magdalen Islands, South Seas and the
Crozets. Outing Adventure Library, No. 2. New York: Outing
Publishing Company, 1915. Print.
Martingale,
Hawser. Wonderful Adventures on the Ocean: Being True Descriptions of
Battles, Tempests, Shipwreck, and Perilous Encounters: Also Lively Yarns and
Curious Stories Spun in the Forecastle over Hard Tack and Salt Junk, or in the
Dog Watches.
Boston: Cottrell. Print.
Snow,
Edward Rowe. Edward Rowe Snow Disaster at Sea: Three Volumes in One. New York: Avenel Books, 1990.
Print.
Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny,
Murder, and Piracy,
a Weird Series of Tales of Shipwreck and Disaster from the Earliest Part of the
Century to the Present Time, with Accounts of Providential Escapes and
Heartrending Fatalities.
New York: Hurst & Co. Pub, 18. Print.
Specific Wrecks
Beckwith,
Herbert. San Francisco Call-Bulletin clipping file on
the “Ohioan”, 1936-1938.
1987. Print.
Delgado, James P. Documentation and
Identification of the Remains of the 1882 Schooner Neptune at Fort Funston,
Ocean Beach, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco. National Park
Service, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, 1983. Print.
---. “Great Leviathan
of the Pacific”: The Saga of the Gold Rush Steamship
Tennessee.
Diss. East Carolina
University, 1985.
---. Shipwreck Survey
of a Portion of Ocean Beach, Golden Gate National Recreation
Area, San Francisco, California to Locate the Remains of the United States
Revenue Cutter C.W. Lawrence. San Francisco: U.S. Dept. of the
Interior, National Park Service, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, 1984.
Print.
Knight, Donald G. Agony and Death
on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the
Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade. Ventura, CA, U.S.A: Pathfinder Publisher of
California, 1990. Print.
Layton, Thomas N. Gifts from the
Celestial Kingdom : A Shipwrecked Cargo for Gold Rush
California.
Stanford University Press, 2002. Print.
Meeker, Lionel. “Collision : USNHS
Benevolence, SS Mary Luckenbach : Analysis and Comment.” Nautical
brass (1984) (1990): vol. 10, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1990), p. 8–16. Print.
O’Starr, Max. Immigrant steamer. The story of
the Rio de Janeiro. The life, death, and the wake of a ship. San Francisco,
1975.
Shapreau, Carla J. Case Notes : The
Brother Jonathan Decision : Treasure Salvor’s “Actual
Possession” of Shipwreck Gives Rise to Federal Jurisdiction for Title Claim. Oxford
University Press, c1998. Print.
Stocking, Fred M. The Wreck of S.S.
Tennessee: Or, “How We Gave a Name to Tennessee Cove.” San Francisco:
Golden Gate National Recreation Area, 1984. Print.
Books on subjects related to
shipwrecks
Maritime
Archaeology
I kept these resources to material published in the last
20 years with a few exceptions.
Babits,
Lawrence Edward, and Hans Van Tilburg, eds. Maritime Archaeology: A Reader of Substantive and
Theoretical Contributions.
The Plenum Series in Underwater Archaeology.
New York: Plenum Press, 1998. Print.
Catsambis,
Alexis, Ben Ford, and Donny Leon Hamilton, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology. Oxford ; New York: Oxford
University Press, 2011. Print.
Delgado,
James P., ed. Encyclopedia of Underwater and
Maritime Archaeology.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. Print.
Fleming,
Robert M. A Primer of Shipwreck Research and Records for Skin Divers,
Including an Informal Bibliography Listing over 300 Sources of Shipwreck
Information.
Milwaukee, Wis: Global MFG. Corp, 1971. Print.
Gould,
Richard A. Archaeology and the Social History
of Ships.
Cambridge, U.K. ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Print.
Green,
Jeremy N. Maritime Archaeology: A Technical
Handbook.
2nd ed. Amsterdam ; Boston: Elsevier/Academic Press, 2004. Print.
Hicks,
Brian. Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and
Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine. 1st ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 2002. Print.
James,
Stephen R. Underwater Archaeological
Investigations
“Docks Area” Sacramento, California. [Austin, Tex: Espey, Huston, & Associates, Inc.],
1986. Print.
Journal of Maritime Archaeology. New York, NY: Springer, 2006.
Print.
Lenihan,
Daniel. Submerged: Adventures of America’s Most Elite
Underwater Archeology Team.
1st ed. New York: Newmarket Press, 2002. Print.
Skowronek,
Russell K., and Charles Robin Ewen, eds. X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy. New Perspectives on Maritime
History and Nautical Archaeology.Gainesville, Fla: University Press of Florida,
2006. Print.
Life Saving Services
Bennett, Robert F. Sand Pounders: An
Interpretation of the History of the U.S. Life-Saving Service, Based on Its Annual
Reports for the Years 1870 through 1914. Washington, D.C: U.S. Coast Guard
Historian’s Office, U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, 1998. Print.
Lyle, D. A. Report on Foreign
Life-Saving Apparatus. Washington, [D.C.]: U.S. Govt. Print. Off,
1880. Print.
Noble, Dennis L. That Others Might
Live: The U.S. Life-Saving Service, 1878-1915. Annapolis, MD:
Naval Institute Press, 1994. Print.
Rogers, Henry J. Rogers’
Life-Saving Signal Book: Or Appendix to the American Code;
for the Use of Life-Boat Stations and Vessels in Distress, Also for Making
International Communications between Vessels of Different Nations, at Sea, or
off the Coast, during Periods of Calms, Light Winds, Storms, or Rough Weather. New ed.
Baltimore: New York: H. Rogers ; E. & G. W. Blunt, 1856. Print.
Shanks, Ralph. The U.S. Life-Saving
Service: Heroes, Rescues and Architecture of the
Early Coast Guard. Petaluma, CA: Costadno Books, 1996. Print.
Shanks, Ralph C. “The United States
Life-Saving Service in California.” Sea letter (1977): n31. p12.
Print.
United States. Annual Report of
the United States Life-Saving Service. Washington: Gov. Print. Off. Print.
U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association.
Life Line: Newsletter of
the U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association. [Caledonia, MI:
U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association. Print.
Photographs
Our Archival photographic collection
contains hundreds of images of shipwrecks.
Listed below are a few of the more notorious shipwrecked vessels in our
archives.
Aberdeen: Steam schooner, built 1899.
Wrecked June 23rd, 1916.
Atlantic: Bark, built 1851. Wrecked
December 16th, 1886.
Benevolence: Hospital ship, built
1944. Wrecked August 25, 1950.
City of Chester: Steamer, built 1888.
Wrecked August 22nd, 1888.
City of New York: Steamer, built 1875.
Wrecked October 26, 1893.
City of Rio de Janeiro: Steamer, built
1878. Wrecked February 22, 1901.
Frank H. Buck: Tanker, built 1914.
Wrecked March 6th, 1936.
The Ohioan: Freighter built 1914.
Wrecked October 7th, 1936.
Polaris: Four-masted schooner, built
1902. Wrecked January 16, 1914.
Reporter: Three-masted schooner,
built. Wrecked March 13th, 1902.
Historical Documents
HDC278
The John Lyman Papers
This collection includes a blueprint of a large format
map titled “Strandings and Wrecks of Vessels of the Coasts of California,
Oregon and Washington”. This highly detailed map includes vessel names, dates,
cause of wrecks and casualties.
HDC 559
San Francisco Marine
Exchange Records
The San Francisco Marine
Exchange collection {HDC 559} consists of [12] Ledgers, scrapbooks of marine
disasters, mishaps, and total losses.
The Jane Proctor Letter
Letter written by Mrs.
Proctor in 1901 when she was a nurse in the Army Hospital on the Presidio of
San Francisco. It describes her reaction to the wreck of the CITY OF RIO DE
JANERIO.
HDC 1099
Irwin T. McGuire letter
A survivor's account of
the collision and subsequent sinking of the hospital ship Benevolence under the
Golden Gate Bridge.
HDC 1276
Leo J. Wright historic
scrapbook
One scrapbook of newspaper
clipping, ca. 1900-1930. The articles are mainly , but not exclusively
concerned with disasters at sea, especially in the Pacific.
HDC 1310
Herbert Meyers scrapbooks
This collection consists
of 83 scrapbooks of clippings and photographs collected by seaman Herbert
Meyers. They document maritime disasters
on the Pacific Coast and worldwide from 1892 to 1973.
HDC 1393
South Coast, Brooklyn,
Nevada, Iowa shipwreck ledger
The South Coast, Brooklyn,
Nevada, Iowa shipwreck ledger collection consists of one ledger, titled “Record
of Lost Vessels and Departed Seamen,” 1930 to 1936.
Plans
We have many plans in our collection
of vessels that have wrecked. Looking at
plans of a vessel might help in the understanding of how and why the accident
occurred. We also have plans of support vessels such as coast guard cutters and
lifeboats.
Online resources
This site is a
database with shipwreck listing all along the coast of California. It’s wide
but not very deep. You won’t find sensational accounts or much background
information, but latitude and longitude of wreck, when built, when wrecked,
captain and measurements of vessel.
Levy, D. Blethen Adams. Shipwrecks
in Pacific Waters. The Maritime Heritage Project. Web. 24 Mar.
2015.
Reports,
newspaper accounts, photos and other material on shipwrecks near our coast.
National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration. Wrecks and Obstructions Database. Office of Coast Survey. Web. 30 Mar.
2015.
An
informative site especially for boaters, this site contains information on
wrecks and submerged obstructions in U.S. maritime boundaries.
Sanctuaries Web Team. National
Marine Sanctuaries. National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Adminstration. Web. 21 Mar. 2015
This site outlines information about
the 14 Marine Sanctuaries, home to many shipwrecks, in the United States.
You can read primary accounts of
shipwrecks and their aftermaths at this full text newspaper site. Search by vessel name and narrow your date
range to the wreck date. Sometimes wrecks were reported on for weeks, months or
years afterwards if there were lawsuits involved so be sure to search for at
least a few years after the actual wreck date.
