Holiday hours

The Library will be closed from Saturday, December 21, 2013 through Wednesday, January 1, 2014, resuming normal service hours on Thursday, January 2, 2014.

Now online: Gilman & Co.'s list of whaling ships

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

The Library is continuing its pilot program to digitize and make available online items of various lengths, materials, and contents in the Library collection.  The latest item digitized, and now available online, is a fragile folded sheet published in Hawaii in 1854, Gilman & Co., ship chandlers and general agents, Lahaina, Maui, S.I. : ships supplied with recruits, storage, and money.

Chiefly columns of data about whaling ships, the columns include arrival date, ship name, master, from, months out, whole voyage, on board, this season, and remarks.  Printed on one folded sheet of thin blue paper, the entire item is now available online in color as images available in the Keys Catalog (just click on the "Images" tab of the Keys Catalog record to see them), and in multiple formats via the Internet Archive and NPS Focus.

Want to see the hard copy?  Just stop by the Library and ask to page this item.

Our gunning skiff in Oakland

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian and Kirsten Kvam, Registrar)

Local Public Radio station KALW has posted a photo of our gunning skiff, or Alviso duck boat (SAFR 13298), in Steven Short's article, "The only ghost town in the Bay Area--Drawbridge."  Our skiff is currently on view with several other items from our museum collection through February 23, 2014 in the Oakland Museum's exhibit, "Above and below: stories from our changing Bay."  It's a great opportunity to not only see our boat, but our cool shipwreck map, some of our diving gear, and some of our Niantic artifacts as well!

Want to learn more about Drawbridge and its history?  Drawbridge, California : a hand-me-down history is available in the Library.  Interested in obtaining a copy from another library or a bookseller?  If you follow that link (above) to the book's record in our Keys Catalog, you can then select the "More searches" link to the right of the catalog record detail, and choose "Worldcat."  It will take you to the Worldcat.org records for this title and others on Drawbridge.

Edited to add:  Thank you to Judy Hitzeman's commenting on our Park's Facebook page with a link to our Museum Web Catalog record for the skiff!  --November 25, 1013

Thanksgiving holiday hours

The Library will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, Wednesday, November 27 through Friday, November 29, resuming normal hours on Monday, December 2.

Zabaglione

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

The next recipe in the Library's copy of The captain's table : 18 recipes for famous dishes served aboard the S.S. United States and S.S. America is for one of my favorites--zabaglione.  It's a very easy dessert to make, especially if you have leftover egg yolks, after having used the whites to top a meringue pie.

Zabaglione
With this rich, fascinating dessert there is never a dull moment.

In top of double boiler over hot, not boiling, water, beat 6 egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar until thick and pale colored. Gradually beat in 2/3 cup marsala and continue beating steadily until mixture foams and thickens. Place immediately in sherbet glasses. Serves 6.

With this recipe, the final in the book, we end our series on reprinting the recipes in the cookbook.  On the last page of the cookbook, we're told:

Although the recipes in this book are designed for home preparation, they taste even better aboard the S.S. United States--world's fastest ship--or the S.S. America.  The ocean's breeze is a sauce you cannot duplicate ashore.

No doubt!

The Skipper's Woes

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

"The Skipper's Woes," by An Old Salt, is the next poem, included in Nautical Nursery Rhymes by Billy Ringbolt, which resides in the Peterson, Peter H. (Capt.) Papers, (SAFR 18665, HDC 571).  Due to its length, we haven't reprinted it here, but it is available online from very interesting sources:

• "The Skipper's Woes" at Papers past:  Available in English and Maori, the Papers Past site contains over three million pages of digitized New Zealand newspapers and periodicals
• Many versions of "The Skippers Woes" via Trove:  Gateway site for searching over three million Australian and online resources.

Business as usual

All normal services in the Library will be resumed as of Friday, October 18, 2013.  Thank you for your patience as we restart services after the federal government shutdown.

Questions?  Call 415-561-7030.