Table of Contents
Welcome to San Francisco Maritime NHP
Field Trip Reservations
What to Expect on the Day of Your Field Trip
Overview of Park Resources
Before Your Visit
Self-Guided Activities To Do At The Park
After Your Visit
Additional Resources for Teachers and Students
Park Map
Welcome to San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
Thank you for choosing San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park for your field trip! By touring the ships at Hyde Street Pier, your class will have an opportunity to experience first-hand what life was like during the Age of Sail and the Age of Steam, and to connect with our rich Pacific maritime heritage.
Field Trip Reservations
Park ranger-led tours are scheduled seven days a week in the mornings at 9:45am and 11:00am. Self-guided (teacher-led) tours are scheduled in the afternoons, beginning at 12:30pm. Please email or call to make a reservation at least two weeks before you would like to visit. We begin taking reservations for the school year the day after Labor Day. Calling or emailing earlier in the school year makes it more likely that you will get your first-choice date. You will be sent a confirmation letter after you make a reservation for a tour.
To make a reservation for your group’s trip to Hyde Street Pier, call 415- 561-6662 extension 30; or send an email. We look forward to your visit!
What to Expect the Day of Your Field Trip
On the day of your visit to :
1. Arrive 10-15 minutes early to utilize restroom facilities on Hyde Street Pier and to check in at the .
2. A park ranger will be waiting for your group at the Ticket Booth for your ranger-led tour, or a brief orientation talk before your self-guided tour. If you think you will be late, please call the Ticket Booth, 415-561-7151, or the Visitor Center, 415-447-5000.
3. Please present your confirmation letter at the ticket booth on Hyde Street Pier to confirm your reservation.
Teacher Role and Responsibilities:
During your visit we will be counting on the teacher and chaperones to help us provide a safe and rewarding experience for all concerned. While on the pier, ships, in the Visitor Center and Maritime Store, Groups should display museum behavior. It is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure that his/her class understands and follows park rules.
Chaperone Requirements:
In order to provide a safe experience for the children, we require at least one adult chaperone for every ten children.Chaperones must be actively involved, along with the teacher, in monitoring the children. Before the visit, please provide chaperones with a copy of park rules.
Park Rules:
1. An adult must supervise children at all times.
2. Absolutely no running on Hyde Street Pier or in the Visitor Center.
3. No climbing on ship rigging and rails along the pier.
4. Food and drink are not allowed in the Maritime Store, Visitor Center, or on the ships.
5. No more than ten students at a time, accompanied by an adult, may enter the Maritime Store.
Safety Concerns:
The park is located in a busy, urban setting. On the pier and ships there are many uneven surfaces, narrow passageways, open pier railings, and low overhangs. Please be alert to these hazards.
Lunch and Restroom Facilities:
Groups are encouraged to use the for lunch. Restrooms are available on the pier and in the Visitor Center across from the pier. There are no restrooms at Aquatic Park. Teachers are responsible for all lunches and other possessions. There are no storage facilities at the park.
Appropriate Dress and Footwear:
Weather at Hyde Street Pier is variable (and often cold). Tours will be conducted rain or shine. Dress in layers and include a warm jacket or rain gear, if appropriate. Comfortable walking shoes (sneakers) are appropriate for the ships.
A Universal Access Guide to the park is available upon request.
The Maritime Museum, located in the Aquatic Park Bathhouse building, is closed and undergoing renovation. It will reopen in 2010.
Overview of Park Resources
Periodically ships are closed or leave Hyde Street Pier for repair. For the latest information, please call the , 415-447-5000.
Historic Ships at Hyde Street Pier
You may visit these sailing ships:
●Balclutha, an 1886 full-rigged ship, carried cargo throughout the world until 1930.
●C. A. Thayer, built in 1895, delivered lumber and fish along the Pacific coast until 1950. (Only the main deck is open for visiting).
You may visit these steam ships:
●The Eureka ferryboat transported passengers and automobiles across the bay from 1890 to 1957.
●The Hercules ocean-going tugboat plied the Pacific waters from Central America to northern Canada towing logs and big ships from 1908 to 1962.
Other Resources
At the Small Craft Department on Hyde Street Pier you can see employees and volunteers restoring historic boats and view a collection of craft alongside the pier.
The Visitor Center/Museum is located across the street from Hyde Street Pier where stories are told of early California immigrants and the hazards they encountered on the Pacific Coast. A first-order Fresnel lighthouse lens and a wrecked fishing boat are highlights.
The 1939 Works Progress Administration’s Aquatic Park Bathhouse became a maritime museum in 1951. It is closed until 2010 for renovation.
The Aquatic Park Historic Landmark District provides a pleasant area of lawns and beach for eating lunch and playing.
At Lower Fort Mason, located in Building E, is the Maritime Library which has extensive research materials and a collection of over 250,000 images. Call 415-561-7030 Tuesday through Friday for an appointment.
Fee-based educational programs:
Fee-based overnight and extended daytime field trips are available through the Age of Sail Program at www.maritime.org, or by calling 415-561-6662, ext. 30.
Before Your Visit
Activity 1: Maritime Vocabulary
Goal: To learn where things are aboard ship ("learn the ropes") and to speak like a sailor.
Directions: Learn the language of the sea. Study the vocabulary words and see how many nautical terms you can master before you arrive. All ages should be familiar with the "Essential Words" below.
Glossary of Nautical Terms
Essential words:
The forward end of a ship or boat.
Hold The bottom, inside of a ship or boat.
A pole that holds up sails. The foremast is at the front, the mainmast is in the center, and the mizzenmast is at the back of the ship.
Port The left side of a ship or boat when facing forward.
Starboard The right side of a ship or boat when facing forward.
The back end of a ship or boat.
More words:
Aft Toward the stern.
Above the deck in the rigging.
Anchor An iron device to hold a ship in one place by digging into the ocean bottom.
Bilge pump Device used by sailing ships to draw up water from the lower portion of the hull for discharge into the sea.
Boat A small vessel for water travel. A boat is small enough to be put inside a ship!
A revolving cylinder with a ratchet turned by wooden bars, for the heaviest pulling, such as for bringing in the anchor using the windlass. It was operated by hand.
Cargo Things that a ship carries to sell.
Chantey Song sung on board ship to help sailors work together, for instance while pulling on lines or heaving at the capstan. Also, shantey.
Forecastle The seamens’ quarters in the forward part of a ship. Also called the fo’c’s’le.
Forward Toward the bow.
Galley The kitchen on board a ship or boat.
Head What the toilet is called on a ship or boat.
The part of a ship that sits in the water.
Line Rope.
Maritime Relating to commerce on the sea.
Mate An officer working for the captain.
Poop deck The deck at the stern end of a ship under which the captain’s and mate’s cabins are located.
A sailor.
Ship A large seagoing vessel.
Vessel An inclusive term for watercraft bigger than a rowboat, especially a ship.
A large, round machine that raises anchors by turning a capstan on the deck above.
A long, horizontal pole across a mast to hold sails.
Activity 2: Class Discussion "What do ships do?"
Goal: To understand the role that ships and boats play in getting things done on the water.
Directions: Working in small groups or as a whole, ask your students the following question: "What are some of the different jobs ships and boats do?" As you brainstorm possibilities your list might include jobs like; "carry cargo around the globe, bring gold seekers to California, go fishing, tow barges and rafts, dredge the bay, and sail for fun." Your list might also include types of ships like: "oil tankers, container ships, sailing ships, ferries, tugboats, aircraft carriers, fishing boats." At the end of the discussion prepare your students for the types of ships your students will see at Hyde Street Pier and write down a question or two your students would like to ask the park ranger about each of the ships.
Activity 3: Sea Journal or Diary of the 1800s
Before starting this project see, After Your Visit, Activity 3: Sea Journal or Diary of 1880s.
Goal: To personalize the child’s visit to the ships, the idea is to describe in narrative, poetry, and/or drawings before the field trip and again to do a new work after the visit. Then a comparison can be made between the two journals to find out how much the student learned that allowed her/him to be able to create a more accurate, and perhaps a more exciting and detailed depiction of maritime history.
Directions: Two kinds of writings are suggested here. (1) Write and/or illustrate a journal as a gold seeker in 1849 travelling from Boston or New York Harbor around Cape Horn to San Francisco. (2) Write a diary and/or poems and/or draw pictures from the perspective of a sailor, the captain, the cook, or one of the mates, describing their voyage on Balclutha in 1886. The students should choose a port of departure and a destination and then describe what jobs he does, what he eats, when and where he sleeps, who works with him, what he does for leisure, and what cargo the ship is carrying.
Self-Guided Activities to Do at the Park
Activity 1: The Crew of Balclutha
Goal: Students learn about shipboard life in order to compare it with their present-day lives.
Directions: Refer to Lesson Eight in the California and the Sea curriculum. This activity is designed for one class of approximately 30 students. At school, the teacher writes a job title on each student’s nametag in the appropriate color for their group. On Balclutha, the students divide into three groups and spend about ten minutes at each of the three areas: fo’c’s’le, galley, and captain’s quarters. They record the information gathered to find out what life was like in each area. Then the students convene in the shelter deck to discuss their findings. As a post-visit activity in class, students can either create a class project from their experiences, or each write or illustrate their own project. Extension Question: Do you think it is important to save old ships like the Balclutha? Why? Students can brainstorm this answer in class during the post-visit activity.
Activity 2: Voyage through the Visitor Center
Goal: We can understand trends in history and relate those trends to our own lives.
Directions: Introduce the activity. A scavenger hunt can be arranged with small groups investigating four things in the Visitor Center. Then gather either at the Visitor Center or in school to answer some questions, draw pictures, write poems, and/or read and report on a sea story. Students can go through stops in any order:
Stop A: and lighthouse life. Describe either what lighthouses do or family life at a lighthouse. What parts of living on the Farallon Islands would you like or not like?
Stop B: Wreck of fishing boat Little Rose. Name three to five things that cause ships and boats to wreck. Name some ways that wrecks can be avoided.
Stop C: Choose three ship models. What were their jobs, and what is one thing about each of them that was fun to find out? If you wish, draw a picture of one or two of the models.
Stop D: The Sailor’s Den is a reference library open to the public. Find three or more books that you think you would enjoy reading and write down their titles. Answer why you choose each book and why you think you would enjoy reading it.
Activity 3: Student Activity Booklet
Goal: Students will independently investigate a variety of treasures at Hyde Street Pier.
Student Activity Booklet
Page One (pdf file 380kb)
Page Two (pdf file 180kb)
Directions: Print enough copies for your students and remember to bring pencils. Instruct students to work in small groups with their chaperones and fill out their own booklets while touring Hyde Street Pier.
Activity 1: Thank-You Letter
Goal: Students recall a past experience and relate it to the ranger guide in the form of a letter.
Directions: Write a thank you letter to the park ranger who led your tour of Hyde Street Pier. Tell him or her what you learned and what you enjoyed the most during your visit. The park rangers would love hearing from you!
Activity 2: Maritime Paintings
Goal: Students will use their artistic skills to remember the ships on San Francisco Bay.
Directions: Paint pictures of ships and the sea using watercolors. For example, a very beautiful effect can be produced by painting a sunset on a sheet of white paper (covering the entire space), then cutting out silhouettes of ships, waves, birds, and islands in black construction paper and gluing them onto the sunset.
Activity 3: Sea Journal or Diary of 1800s
Goal: Students write and/or illustrate a journal after their field trip to compare with their pre-visit journal or diary.
Directions: It’s best to gather information as a class from the visit to Hyde Street Pier so students have ideas for their journals.
Journal of a …………
Pretend the year is 1849 and you have heard all about the gold that could be found in California. You have booked passage on a Gold Rush ship bound for San Francisco and are on your way. What would it be like to spend from five to eight months at sea sailing around Cape Horn and up the West Coast? What would you take with you? (You cannot take anything that wasn’t yet invented!) Think about the many days ahead of you. What would you do everyday to fill up your time? What would you eat? Who would be your friends? Would you make friends with the captain? The cook? Why?
Diary of a Sailor…………..
Pretend you are a sailor aboard the Balclutha sailing from Europe to San Francisco in 1886. Write a week’s worth (or longer) of entries in your diary. Describe what life is like aboard the sailing ship. Tell about how you feel aboard ship (lonely, tired, cold, sick, scared, excited . . .?), the storms (off of Cape Horn), the work (climbing aloft), the food ("weevily" ), the living conditions (cold, wet, crowded), the officers and other sailors (What are they like?) and what you would love about being on a sailing ship. Try to write as descriptively as possible, so that the reader can get a real picture of what life was like for a sailor aboard a sailing ship in the 1800s. When you’re all done writing your diary, illustrate it if you wish.
Additional Resources for Teachers and Students
Check your school or public library for these books. A few can be found at the Maritime Store (415-775-2665), located at the entrance to Hyde Street Pier.
Children’s Books
●Avi. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Avon Books (New York, 1990). A work of fiction, set in the 19th century, that tells the story of thirteen-year-old Charlotte, a passenger on a sinister sailing ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
●Cosgrave II, John O’Hara. Clipper Ships. The MacMillan Co. (New York, 1963). A very carefully written and illustrated short book on clipper ships.
●Fleischman, Sid. By the Great Horn Spoon! Little Brown and Co. (Boston, 1963). A rollicking adventure tale set in Gold Rush days about a boy who travels by ship from Boston to San Francisco and heads for the gold fields.
●Nolte, Carl. Gold Fever: California’s Gold Rush. W.W. Norton and Company (New York, 2000). The text of this 32-page book is beautifully complemented by many color images of paintings, photographs, artifacts, maps and posters from Gold Rush days.
●Rau, Margaret. The Wells Fargo Book of the Gold Rush. Simon and Schuster (New York, 2001). The Gold Rush played an important part in the development of San Francisco and the Bay as a port. Chapter four is entitled "Forty-niners by Sea."
●Wilbur, C. Keith. Tall Ships of the World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. The Globe Pequot Press *(Chester, CT, 1986). Written for adults and older children, this book chronicles the 150 year history of tall ships. Using many illustrations, it explains how ships were built and operated and what life was like aboard ship. This book is a wealth of information!
●Wilde, Evelyn. The Cat Who Escaped From Steerage. Charles Scribner and Sons (New York, 1990). This juvenile novel tells the story of a nine year old girl who immigrates to America with her family. It describes their two weeks aboard ship, crowded into the steerage section with the other immigrants.
●Young, Caroline and John C. Miles. Ships, Sailors, and the Sea. Osborne Publishing Ltd. (London, 1988). Filled with illustrations, this beginner’s encyclopedia explains the different types of ships and life aboard ships in the past.
Adult Books
●Belano, James W. The Log of the Skipper’s Wife. Down East Books (Camden, 1979). Dorothea Moulton Balano, spent a good part of her married life at sea as wife and partner of a Maine schooner captain in the early 1900s. This frank journal gives voice to a woman of irrepressible spirit.
●Delgado, James P. To California by Sea: A Maritime History of the California Gold Rush. University of South Carolina Press. (South Carolina, 1990). Vivid description of the adventures and hardships of sea-going gold seekers sailing to California by way of Cape Horn or the waterways of Panama. Good for reading some passages aloud to students.
●Eyewitness Books. Visual Dictionary of Ships and Sailing. Houghton Mifflin Co. (Boston, 1991). An excellent background on ships, with good illustrations.
●Grasso, Glenn, ed. Songs of the Sailor: Working Chanteys at Mystic Seaport. Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc. (Mystic, CT, 1998). This simple, concise handbook is all that is needed for a classroom to develop a small repertoire of popular and fun sea songs!
●Kemble, John Haskell. San Francisco Bay; A Pictorial Maritime History. Bonanza Books (New York, 1957). Through photographs, this book tells about San Francisco’s maritime past, from the discovery of San Francisco Bay by the Spaniards, to its present status as a great port.
●Villiers, Alan. Men, Ships and the Sea. National Geographic Book Service(Washington, D.C., 1962). This is a large book illustrated dramatically with many beautiful color and black and white photographs.
Mission of the National Park Service:
The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. The Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world.
Mission of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park:
San Francisco Maritime and its partners seek to forge emotional and intellectual connections through preservation and interpretation of the resources and stories of America's maritime gateways, history, and culture, especially the development of the Pacific Coast.
Field Trip Guide Revised 2008 by Carol Kiser, Elizabeth Evans and Christine Baird.
We would like your feedback on this field trip guide. Please
email us your comments. Thanks!
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