Video: 2017-01-19 - Early California Steamships with Robert Chandler (54 minutes)

Full Transcript of the Video:

We're very fortunate to have tonight Dr. Robert, Bob Chandler, and Ms. White-Sue, who came up through the storm last night with the causeway looking, literally, looking at their tire, so a little sense of what our time here is going to be. We tuned, I think, to think about the Conestoga wagons, the sort of the iconic wave getting to California, but in fact people came around the form across the Isthmus in great numbers. And so what Bob's agreed to talk about tonight is getting there, sorry, getting there to get the goal of fortune seekers on oceans, rivers, and those change that account. Bob was, for 32 years, a historian for Wells Fargo. He's written, like, 60-sub articles and many books, and he's very generously donated several of his books and several of his articles to the rabble tonight, so if you haven't already got your secret yet on the board. Buy early and often. So I'm going to just let Bob take the stage and he will tell you all about that. Thank you all. Susan and I are happy to be here. Can you hear me without playing with the mic or do you want me to play with the mic? You're good. What? You're good. Okay. First time, last time I could say that all night. Susan and I were here on July 4th, 2007, and we went into a hat shop in Nevada City, hence the hat which I wear when I vote to take it where the polling place is. I also had a flag design t-shirt. The July 4th parade that year was in Grass Valley, but I also picked up a broken flag that had been on one of the polls, so I stuck that into my suspenders. So I was in Nevada City and this little girl about so big and her mom came by and says, look mom, look, he's a parade unto himself. So I thought I would wear my Nevada hat, which the family loves. I could say I'm all steamed up to see you tonight. But Linda Jax asked me to talk on how the gold seekers and merchants came to Nevada County in the 1850s and 60s and stuff by sea. I wasn't certain that a 300 foot side wheeler could make it up Dear Creek to tie up on Broad Street, but with the way the rains have been, and I'm not even going to try to have a get near Grass Valley along Mill Street. So I thought I'd give you a bit on steam navigation on the rivers. That's of course a bad pun to Captain George Kidd, who I'll talk about. And I'll briefly mention stage coaching. Details are in the displays over there. I didn't bring any PowerPoint or anything else, so you can pick up and look at that stuff there. Also I abbreviated postal history because that would be another second thought, and that would only be for the real nutcases like myself. There were essentially three ways to California. There's overland by slow wagons, which are about three months. Season was March to September to get there before the snows as the Donner party found out when they didn't make it. But David Comstock and his book Old Biggers and Camp Followers has several chapters describing the overland journey. The other way was to sail around Cape Horn by sail, which means no steam. In 1849, the fleet, the ships of the fleet that came, took an average of 140 to 260 days. The average was six months. Soon you had the California Clippers, which were not especially passengers ships. They carried, you know, a half dozen or so. But basically they were to get here within three or four months so that when the spring market opened, the San Francisco merchants could be the first to get a certain type of goods so they could sell out before the other ships came in and the other guys had them. I'm glad to hear that there's a full house. I think we'll have to break out all the chairs. The steamers, which I'll talk about, took between 23 and 25 days. So you can see there was quite a time saving. Of course, they came down to Panama, travels across the Isthis and up, they didn't have to go around the Horn. But for a comparison between sail and steam, there's a ship that arrived in 1852 in June after 130 days, and the pastor is writing to his girlfriend. I thought you'd like a few accounts to make this talk somewhat interesting, but sleepers were always encouraged. Day after day, we sail over cool waves surrounded by sparkles of gay foam and joyous and very inspiration of motion. And then these southern latitudes, where there are larger constellations burning, mellower moons and happier skies here, I often stand on the deck at night and feel strange emotions till they find an explanation in happiness. Here we have the gray and solid albatross, which wheels wondering about us. The delicate petrol flutters in our wake, and myriads of the deep leap ahead as if to pilot us through their home. Some discomforts there are, the greatest is the poor food. The next serious deprivation is the absence of the daily papers. But never was European political or California news sought with such intense excitement as our daily latitude and longitude. In other words, how close are we getting to that land of gold? After 55 days of pleasant sailing, we pass the most extreme southern point of the much-famed Cape Horn. It is a high bluff, rising some 400 or 500 feet from the level of the sea. We pass so near it seemed to me that I could have thrown a stone at it. When he goes on to his girl, little did I think when I was writing you, that the next morning I should witness a gale that would take out a double-reed topsoil from the boat road and snap it in the strips as though at this paper, without even asking leave of the good skipper. But so it was, and it's continued for eight days, within a few hours of this time. The ship was blown two degrees latitude south, so you know it was a big storm. But now we were heading much more for a week-four port, which of course they got to 80 days later. Passengers' steamships became profitable because U. S. government mailed subsidies. The government, to encourage public works and the settlement of this great nation, would subsidize stagecoach companies to carry the mail and also to build roads. And of course stagecoaches were also public transportation. So by carrying the mail, you were also extending the reach of the government and the settlement of the people. Same way, oh, I might mention on stagecoach contracts, once the stage company lost the mail contract, the proprietor usually sold the stage line because he couldn't make it pay. So you had a new guide. Might be the same stage, it's the same agents, but you sold out. Government did the same way with the ships from California. These first ships from the 1850s were commanded by United States Navy officers. The Navy also mandated that all engines would be below sea level. So you had side lever engines and things like that. In 1861, when the contract aspired, you had ships called the walking beam engine, which is what you usually see, a diamond-shaped thing that went up and down. I have a picture of the Constitution's walking beam back there in one of the stereos. William Henry Aspenwall got the mail contract in 1847, formed the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, delivered mail to California and Oregon. In January 2, 1848, he laid the keel for the first of his three ships. The three of them, of course, where he was going, the California, the Oregon, and the Panama. The keels of these ships were laid before the Marshal was screwing around on an employer's time and started damning things, in particular, a mill race, and decided he was a good amateur geologist. And, of course, when he opened it, it acted like a giant sloose, and he found the gold caught in the crevices. And, of course, you had the gold discovery, which, of course, spread to San Francisco, and the rest of California, then Hawaii, and Oregon, and Chile, and Sonoma, and Mexico. All before December 5, 1848, when President Polk announced to Congress that yes, there is gold in California, and you have the rest of the 49ers. So what you had was the Pacific Mail coming into being even before the gold discovery, and they had a sense of duty, a sense of good service, and a sense of what a steamship would be. Writers have commented they had the best steam sailing fleet in the United States, and their ships even influenced the design of the Atlantic steamers. William H. Webb, who became a naval architect, and there's an architectural school he did, was the prime builder. What we're going to have, then, is two generations or three generations of steamers. Of course, the California had sailed before the President's message. By the time it reached Panama in January, the isthmus was crowded. The ship was built to carry 75 first class and 200 steerage. She arrived in San Francisco with 365 passengers, 90 over her limit, plus her 34 crew. So you have these ships about 200 feet in length in carrying that number of passengers. Two more generations of ships. I'm not going to name them all because there are only 100 in, and I'm somewhat limited on time. Second generation be the ships, the Golden Gate, which I have a picture back there, burning, unfortunately, the Golden Age, the Sonora, and the John L. Stevens. They carried first and second class at long shaded decks and cabins fronting along these long dining salons. The only difference in the food between first and second class was nothing at this depending on when you ate. And, of course, steerage was four part of the ship or in the hold. Golden Gate, 270 feet, 300 in cabin, 500 steerage. And these, of course, were all wooden ships. Of course, there was always the problem, how are these steam ships powered with coal? And if you screw up and put in wet coal, you get spontaneous combustion on a wooden ship. So normally, each voyage, the captain would have a fire drill, blow a whistle, sailors would rush to quarters, they would have the pumps working, the hoses, they would bring out the boats, and everything was very good. Except again, you have a wooden ship filled with coal. And as you'll know from the Golden Gate back there, June 27, 1862, the Golden Gate was sailing along, suddenly came the cry of fire. The captain turned the ship towards the shore and eventually beached her. So about 250 people on board, anywhere from 175 to 200, did not make it. It was the only loss of life of the Pacific Mail before the railroad was completed. Two of their China ships burnt. The America, I think, was arson, and it's one of the Japanese ports. And the Japan had loaded wet coal in Japan and was sailing to Hong Kong. They tried everything and back 400 or more Chinese went down with the ship. There's a new book out on the Japan. On the Golden Gate, I might mention, if you're a bunch of ding-dongs, the ship's bail is in the San Francisco History Center in the San Francisco Public Library. So you can ring the Golden Gate's bail. Where was it beached? About 15 miles from Manzanilla. It had, of course, its full complement. I forgot how much gold, I think, was maybe 1. 5 million or so. And sailors immediately, from 1863 to 1930, they were pulling up gold from the ship's stronger. Third generation, 61 to 65, it did William Webb. You have the Golden City, the Colorado, the Constitution, and the Sacramento. I have a picture of the Golden City back there. These are 343-foot steam boats, side-wheel steamers made out of wood. The best side-wheelers ever built. Had a crew of 85 and could carry 2,000 people. And they were technology till about up to about 1870. And then, finally, iron screw propeller steamers became the norm. And Pacific males sort of fell behind a bit with their side-wheelers, because these Chinese ones, from the China trade, they'd have to go 3,000 miles or so across the ocean. And you didn't want your ship breaking down in the middle of the ocean. And the navigation was so good that the high point of the trip was where the two steamers would pass. One going to Yokohama and the other going to San Francisco. So, 74, 75, said it male-built the city of Peking and the city of Tokyo. Anyway, enough of that. Distance. Male steamers sailed approximately 5,400 nautical miles, or 6,000 ordinary statute miles, from New York to California, in 22 to 26 days. They dropped from 40 degrees north latitude in New York. It's about where we are now, somewhat. Down to 7 degrees, and then returned to 38 degrees, 7 to 8. New York to Aspen Wall, which is now the kind of Cologne. They were cheap so-and-sos on the Atlantic, and the service wasn't as good, nor was the food, and everyone complained bitterly about it. They only went at eight and a quarter nauts in 110 and a half days. On the Pacific, which was longer, they went at lower 10 nauts and 13 and a half days. At first, the ships sailed monthly, but then you had opposition to the Pacific mail and other steamers. So you had semi-monthly sailings, with roughly a year and 19,000 arriving by sea, and 11,000 leaving by steamer. The arrival and departure of these ships became known as steamer day. When the steamers came in past the heads, coming into the bay past the ports, you'd hear a loud boom as the ship's guns would fire. The Telegraph, which was a semaphore on top of Telegraph Hill, arms out, side wheeled steamer, the mail steamer was in, and everyone would rush down to get their mail, meet friends, and everything else. Steamer day leaving was every two weeks, and of course, loans were short-term and businessmen had to settle up on the steamer sail to pay your creditors back east. So you had to rustle around and scrounge up money, so many weren't too happy about believing steamer day. So one wrote, a proper bad day is that ill, dismal sounding steamer day, is pay-up day, and therefore a day dreaded by most Californians. But essentially, the arrival and departure of these mail steamers was how California's total time, their calendars, is what their life revolved around. Among other things, the Pacific Mail needed to care for its ships, so in 1950, at Venetia, it built the first industrial complex in California, including an office and a huge machine shop. These two buildings are still there, not in very good condition, but as we speak, the owners petitioning Venetia to tear them down. So we're level to lose the last two Pacific Mail steam ship buildings in the state of California, which dates from 1950, which even in a place like Nevada City is old. Part of it was the whole economy of coal. At 10 knots, the Golden Gate burned 38 tons. At 12 knots, it burned 65 tons a day. So they usually tried to keep it around 45 tons. Average cost to outfit the ship was about $38,000. Passengers revenues were about $36,000, and the $7,000 mail subs that he held at the PMS has become solvent, and it did pay dividends regularly. Of course, for you poor suckers paying the fares, it's whatever the travel would bear. In 49, it cost you about $450 to get out here. This, of course, when gold was measured at $20. 67 a troy ounce, compared to $1,200 today, and of course, U. S. coinage was based on gold. Stairage was $250. By 51-52, the price for first class was $330 to $200. Why the drop? Well, it depends if there was opposition. Stairage was down to $200 to $100, and then it dropped. In fact, by 53, if you were steerage, you could sometimes get it from $50. But as I say, it just depended if there was competition or not. So I will return to reading a few accounts. One gentleman wrote his wife from San Francisco, March 13, 1865. Your wife. He's here and she's in New York. Now about your passage. When you receive your money, go to the offices of both the old line and the opposition line if there was any opposition at the time. And if there wasn't, she was supposed to wait till there was an opposition. If you can get your passage near as cheap on the old line, come on in for it is the best. This is a specific panel. They carried for $50 in both lines and the steerage. But when there was no opposition, the passage is $128. So you can see why you waited for opposition. You will be sure and bring a blanket sheet or comforter and you will have to buy a straw mattress in New York or they will not give you any on the boat. She's coming steerage. You'll pack your things you will not want to use in your trunk and take the things you will want on the steamer in your carpet bag. The good stuff. It will be well for you to take some good brandy for you might be sick and you could not get on the board. Be sure and have a sharp look for your things on the board for they will steal everything they can get their hands on. You will be careful and not eat too much fruit at Aspenwall or sleep on the deck at night from Panama fever, that's yellow fever, is very easy to take of course as we know now mosquitoes did it. Another trip, a stormy trip in January of 55 leaving New York on a ship called the Central America which you may have read in the past 20 years when they hauled up all these gold bars from Aspen it sank going to New York. Many passengers were on deck and every once in a while a sudden lurch would bring down a dozen or so to there to discomfort and of course to the great amusement of the rats. I fell once but then I made a strike. It's obviously a bowler. I brought down a man and a boy and came near to upsetting the captain. But tonight was the worst. It required a skillful balance to keep in bed at all. We arrived in Aspenwall and found it beyond my worst imagination. The most dirty, swampy, sickly hole I ever dreamed of. Of course any boarded the first Transcontinental Railroad You guys are probably in a lot of county. You think about those Stanford and Crocker and those characters. They were late comers. They were in the 60s. The first Transcontinental Railroad was called Siasmus. Of course it was only 47 miles. It cost about 6,000 lives though because of the poor working conditions. Anyway, so you boarded that for about four hours to get to Panama and of course made the traveling theist much more healthy. Because you didn't have time to get the disease. At least you were in the railroad cars. I wish I could give you a faint idea that is the luxuriance and duty of tropical scenery. Many writers wrote that. I might add that I stole this quote by Addison Niles from David Comstock's Brides of the Gold Rush. So see, I expect you all to read it. In 1860, what you mean Chamberlain was in Sacramento and was going to Harvard. So he kept a diary. And of course, like all diaries, he begins with an excuse. I will ask that you will excuse this very poor writing. It is almost impossible for anyone to write as long as the steamer is in motion. Now she pitches this way. Now that. Now plows her way through the sea. Now Nick sunwaves. Now rowing on this side and now on that. But he still managed to keep a journal. The ship sailed at 10 a. m. on May 5th, 1860 with a little over almost 1. 2 million of treasure on board. Which would be about 66 million today. We're slowly moving towards the heads. We passed the fort and soon lost sight of San Francisco. The sea beams begins to grow rougher. The vessel rolls and pitches. And we are on the ocean. Determinative possible to avoid seasickness. I begin to walk the deck with rapid strokes. Scarcely stopping until night brought her welcome messenger. Sunday, May 6th. After night's rest, I rose feeling somewhat refreshed. Go far to Disney to eat my breakfast. Then I saw the deck and worried with walking sat down and watched the waves of the snow white caps. May 7th. I woke at 6. And I took my morning walk. Built much better. Had some little appetite for breakfast. We saw about 30 California gray whales and a few porpoises, gulls, and boobies. Friday, May 11th, 1860. Going into the cooling station in Acapulco, Mexico. Today at 4 o'clock, we slowly made our way to Acapulco. It was really amusing to witness the endeavors of the natives to sell their fruits and such. No sooner had the steamer come to her stopping place than she was surrounded by small boats. Maintaining natives, oranges, limes, bananas, apples, pineapples, watermelons, coconuts, eggs, chickens, and shells. It was in vain that the officers of the steamer endeavored by pouring water from a force pump to drive the natives away. When the water was on one side, the natives were on the other side. So finally they were allowed to sell their fruits and shells and died for money. May 12th, in the evening, we had singing. Among the songs were those that we so dearly cherished, but which now recall with sad feelings. Home sweet home, good news from home, often the still of night, remember thy mother. Those showing wet thoughts were uppermost in their minds. In 1864, another passenger, as the specific male ships carried live beef, sheep, pigs, poultry, and everything else. The cuisine is French. French. Is that okay, Claudine? Yes. We have a chevalet, sir Claudine Chalmers here. The cuisine is French, various, abundant, and luxurious, which reminded me of New York's Fifth Avenue Hotel, as far as the freshness of the visions, variety, and the excellence of the cookery on board, and the nicety of the service, the first-class restaurant on these ships. We're somewhat too happy, like the cooks. The rice a day, the captain inspected the kitchen. This gentleman went along with the captain. The cook complains that the common orb rubs his white handkerchief upon all his saucepans, and punishes him if any smuck comes off. Gonna have healthy here. To finish up sailing, a society matron was in San Francisco, and she was writing to her three daughters in New York City who were going to come west. She wrote, after two days out, you were in a warm climate, and on the isthmus in the tropics, and of course will require fans and lighter clothes. But do not take off your flannels. But fan yourselves cool, as you will have nothing else to do. As Aunt Mary used to say, lay back and fan. Arrival, one man wrote in 1855 when he had not seen his wife for two years. When the ship comes in, he wrote her, he would be standing at the head of the pier, wearing a white sombrero. And her party was to wave three white handkerchiefs from the upper deck at the stern. Upon recognition, I shall remove the sombrero from a force head head, and swing it around as never mortal man swung it before. We'll now move on to Cormador Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the Nicaragua route. 1851 until the revolutions broke out in 1856. It was 700 miles shorter by crossing Nicaragua at San Juan del Norte, or Graytown, and going up the river to Lake Nicaragua, crossing Lake Nicaragua, and then boarding at San Juan del Sur, and going up to San Francisco. This is the same area now where they're thinking of building a canal across Nicaragua to replace the Panama Canal, or at least to compete with it. First people have been thinking about this canal for about 200 years. The Nicaragua route took about 40% of the passengers in its era, and about 25% of the treasure, leaving California, to a very viable route. So here's an account by a 17-year-old boy. Think if you can think of 17-year-old boys riding like this now. This guy's got a good hand. Our steamer, the star of the west, was a fine boat, and bore us safely to the isthmus of Nicaragua in nine days. For the first two days after living New York, till we passed Florida, we had rough weather. All were seasick except mother. She stood at Noveli. Some feels she was the only lady at the tables. Upon arriving at Graytown, we left our steamer and embarked on a very small, flat-bottomed, stern-wheeled steamboat to ascend the San Juan River. It was the rainy season, and the water was deep and turgid, sort of like Deer Creek now. The first night we were on the boat, in the river, all the passengers, 80 in number, were confined in a little cabin about 20 feet square. The baggage was also in this room and also the sailors. So there was not a great deal of space and spare rooms. Enough, however, to allow the ingress of about 50 million mosquitoes who had a jovial feast that night. I'll wager there was more than one quart of blood drawn. We expected it, or were we not, in the territory of the mosquito king, who thus exacted his tribute. The next morning we were underway again and soon reached the Spanish town of Castillo Valle and ravaged. Here we got our first meal since leaving the steamship. Payed $1 for eating almost nothing. Remember not even beans. At Lake Dicaragua we changed to another large boat, on which we passed the second night crossing the lake. The next morning we arrived at the town of Virgin Bay. Mounted into a large lumber wagon drawn by four little ugly mules and driven by a savage-looking nadir, we were jostled over a road of 12 miles, up and down mountains, on the brink of dizzy precipices, at a speed that threatened our destruction at any moment. We were thankful after a ride of two hours, we were safely landed at the Pacific Hotel San Juan del Sur, the terminus of our Isobus transit. In the evening we went aboard to Sierra Nevada, our Pacific steamer. In the morning when we arose we found ourselves on the broad Pacific, and for 12 days we were gliding over its peaceful surface. We had beautiful moonlit evenings, and the passengers would assemble on the upper deck and pass the evenings in dancing. An Italian on board had a hand organ, which furnished the music. So they're going to have fun regardless. The weather till we were within two or three days sail of San Francisco was very warm, but a gentle breeze made it pleasant. The thin clothing was in great demand, and those who had none were very uncomfortable. We arrived here 28th from New York, while they were waiting to receive us and took us immediately to a house which he had furnished and was ready. This is for the ocean, but now we're in San Francisco. Part of my display there I have on your good Captain George Kidd, who tried to outfit an opposition boat to the Monopoly California Steam Navigation Company. The story over there is the story of his Nevada, which hit a snag, sank, and the California Steam Navigation Boys recovered the engine, so he was out of that boat. 1864 he built a new one, a new ship called the Washoe, which was the fastest boat in California, and when he came down from Sacramento, they were firing anvils. You don't have to fire anvils with gunpowder. You take one anvil, pull powder, and then put the other anvil on it, and it might have fused. You can hear them for miles. They were saluting his boat as it was the opposition, but the California Steam Navigation Company had that Captain Edward Poole of the Yosemite who had a habit of running down opposition steamers and sinking them. He sank the Commodore a couple of months before the Washoe went off. Second trip, July 1st, 1864, the Washoe tied up in Venetia on the typical up steamer dock. The Yosemite was coming down and ramming it. And of course, oh no, we never do anything. They weren't where they were supposed to be. The newspaper headlined correctly. Breakfast conduct in disregard of life by officers of the Yosemite. When the ship, the Washoe sailed after temporary repairs, everyone in Venetia cheered them. August 30, 1864, Washoe had to lead out of Rio Vista. The Yosemite came up, rammed them again just past the paddle box. Again, they repaired them. Well, that is what killed the Washoe. Unfortunately, her boilers were bad. On September 5, 1864, she exploded, killing 75 people. On these ships, the boilers would go up. A lot of people, but the hulls were okay, so they'd sell this ship. Captain George Kidd went back to becoming a Nevada city banker. Of course, in October of 65, the Yosemite was at Rio Vista, and people were standing on the wrong side of the deck and filled to the ship from the cold water at the hot water, and it blew up. But then in 68, Poole again ran that and other opposition steamer, killing two people. They did admit ships that sank it. I'm getting here somewhere. So much for that. As you notice from my display, and I still have to get you to Nevada City, it's still hard. I'm still trying to get the Golden City up here at Cree, but I'm afraid we're going to have to go stagecoaching. As you noticed, I have the display on stagecoaching up there, so I'm not going to say anything about stagecoaching. Say anything about stagecoaching. You got that? Okay. There's no respect for youth or age aboard a California stage, but pole and hall about four seats as benchbumps do among the sheets. They started as a thieving line in 1849, opposition they defy, so the people must root hog or die. And to the ladies, the ladies are compelled to sit with dresses in tobacco spit. The gentlemen don't seem to care, but talk on politics and swear. The dust is deep in summertime, the mountains very hard to climb, and drivers often stop and yell, get out all hands and push up hills. Your friend Alonzo Delano drew drawings of this. So we've come to the end of our voyage. We're now in prosperous Nevada County, the Gold County of California, and I've tied up the Golden City at the foot of Broad Street, and I will answer questions. Thank you. Is there still time for raffle tickets? Buy early and often. Any questions? So one steamship came to the isthmus. Yes. Another steamship was waiting on the other side. Correct. And it was the same company steamships? Well, there was the Atlantic Company and the Pacific Mail, so they cooperated, but in the 1860s, the Pacific Mail on both sides. But before that, it was two different companies? Yes, and sometimes you'd have three or four different companies, but they would all make arrangements so that they had a steamer waiting on the other side. And the better organized the company was, the more chance you had of that steamer actually being there. A question way there in the back. Mark, we have one ship go through the isthmus, and one ship go around the horn, and the isthmus was way faster. Oh, the isthmus was way faster because there were no steamships going around Cape Horn, unless you were bringing one out here. And that's why they had the Panama Canal. The canal follows the isthmus route. How did they get away with ramming a phone and ships? They were a monopoly, and they had all the big guns on their side. Let's go. I went a steam ship, and he came around the horn with sail. What did they do with the propellers? Oh, battle-wills? Actually, when the Pacific Mail or the other steamship would send a steamship around the horn, they steamed. The California. . . Well, they had sails. They were rigged as. . . They were usually rigged square sails on the two masts. So, yes, they would mostly use the steam, and they would stop and pick up coal on the way. That's how they got them out here, because they were much faster than the sail, because no wind, you're stuck. When they were building the canal, did that mean nobody could shovel across the isthmus because they couldn't use the train while they were building the canal? Oh, no, but Panama Railroad was still working. So the canal was near the canal? Yes, yes, and the railroad is still there. And, of course, rebuilt. The rail I have there is one of the first ones. You can see how sort of flimsy it is. I had a couple of great grates that came across the isthmus before they had the railroad. What sort of fee-hittles would they have gone in, or would they walk with? Four-legged. Well, actually, you're no-legged. They would go by canoe up the river, chagras up there, then get off, and he would either walk or someone would have hired mules for them, and through the jungle. It was very rough, very sickly, very muddy, and very uncomfortable. Frederick Marriott, mountains and molehills, has. . . Yes, I made a few more additions to mountains and molehills to make my wife happy. She was groaning over there. He came over in 51, a very humorous British writer, and also a cartoonist. Other questions? So if you had to make those, by mule or horse, how many days. . . Oh, in Panama? I'm not sure, four or five, because we're talking about 50 miles, but it was slow, slogging. You know, we were in rain forest, and they pulled the westernmost ship at the dock for the church. Yes, they had their agreements, because also these were mail steamers, and the U. S. mail suit had to get across. I was wondering about where you sourced those letters that you pulled. Well, of course, I stole a couple from David Comstock, and some of the others, eBay, or my friendly paper dealers, they pulled me out. Are they easy to find? Well, no, I mean, it's taken me several years to accumulate it, some of these. I just keep my eyes on it, because I'm interested in the subject, so if a letter pops up with the transit, I try and get it. Or if not, at least a copy of it, which I did describe. I'm just really curious about where they come from originally. Are they things that people have in their families? Oh, yeah, well, sure. I mean, they were saved, and then somewhere along the line, someone in the family no longer wanted them. So some of them have come through dealers. A lot of them went into the phyllitellic world to stay in the collective history, the markings, which I had back on the display. In other words, for many years, some now, the people will buy the cover, which is either a folded letter or the envelope, and throw the letter out. I've had some friends who've gotten some very good letters that way. They were just trash. When they were going to have a boat meet them at the other side of the business, how did they get the news to the boat when they needed to be there? Oh, well, they had a schedule, and the ships were. . . You know, it took about, as I say, about 10 days from New York to Aspenwall and 13 days from San Francisco to Panama. So they would calculate, okay, this ship is. . . They knew what the ship was saying. Oh, they had set schedules with their sail. Well, sometimes, if the ship broke down or something like that, then they would wait or send another steamer to do something. Because there's a lot of things in the San Francisco newspapers where steamers, so-and-so, is overdue. So they'll send somebody down to look for it or something like that. In other words, they'd cope. Other questions? How do we get cold and cold? In coal stations. How do we get cold in coal stations? From either Europe or the East, they would send colliers around Cape Horn and stock them up. In Acapulco, they had two hulls, ship hulls, full of coal, and the steamer would go in between, and they would coal it. And then they kept replenishing it. So they had these coal station, Panama, Acapulco, and Venetia. And they would just keep them stocked. When the California first came in, of course, there was no coal. In fact, about the time they reached Monterey, they'd run out of everything, so they were breaking up the ship to throw in the boilers. So they found 100 bags of coal that someone had stashed in ballast somewhere. That was the only thing. I guess if they hadn't, you wouldn't have had a much ship sailing in San Francisco. The coal had been burned out. Other questions? How does the timing of the levee construction in the Delta go along with all of this seems exactly the same? Not much, because the. . . Well, like the Sacramento levees were because of the great flood of 1862, when they raised everything 15 feet. So you still had your docking, and as far as the farmland, there are still the ship channels now. So they always kept ship channels. The river would make sure of that. I'm sure they did. I mean, they would have had one along the railroad. But, of course, the transcontinental didn't go through until October of 1861 from San Francisco to New York. Other questions? Over here. When was the railroad first completed going across the business, and did that coincide with the ships around the horn stopping? Oh, no. You never had steamer travel around the horn. No, I don't mean that. I mean, once the railroad was completed, people using the business, did that kind of stop the large ship traffic that was going around the horn, not the steam ships, but the other ships? No, because it's entirely different travel. If you went around the horn, say like in 49 in San Francisco, going around the horn was cheap. So you had very cheap passage if you went around the horn. Time didn't matter. And if you were shipping freight, if you didn't matter when it got there, well, okay, if it mattered when it. . . Okay, let me back on. On the steamers, if you wanted to pay for it, you had fast freight and slow freight. Fast freight meant you landed an Aspen ball, the freight went with you across the S-Vest, we'll put it by the train, and it would board the same steamer and took you to San Francisco. With slow freight, it would lay over one steamer. Then you had clipper freight going around Cape Horn, which was, of course, much more bulky, because the steamers couldn't carry that much freight. It had to be something you really wanted, and you really wanted to pay for it. So it had to be small, compact, probably not too heavy. Clipper freight is like perishables and things like that and you thought that the market would gobble up as soon as they arrived, most of the time they didn't, because everyone else was doing the same thing. Then you could also send by normal ship, these ships that might take six months to get here, general freight, like hardware or something, that you didn't really care when it got there. And that was your cheapest freight that went around Cape Horn. Of course, you had no. . . because you had no energy costs, you had to pay the men to work with sales. Does that answer your question? Yes. Other questions? My big, big, young friends' house was shipped from the East Coast to San Francisco. They did that. How would that have been done? Oh, they would have knocked at that, like they do prefab sets. They would have been shipped around the Horn, sure, because it was. . . that's heavy, that's freight. Oh, yes, they would have compacted it. Because lumber was expensive here until they started getting into the Redwood Forest. I believe the raffle-meisters are here. So I think I've been kicked out. And a round of applause.