Hi folks! Welcome to the hold of the C.A. Thayer. Built originally in Fairhaven,
California, and made almost entirely of Douglas-fir, Thayer sailed from the shipyards of H.D. Bendixsen in July of
1895, joining the Pacific Coast maritime trade as a sailing schooner for the lumber industry. Today, I want to share
with you something that you can't see every day - Thayer's knees. Knees are a
common form of bracing used in shipbuilding, so why I think Thayer's
knees are noteworthy is because they aren't sawn or bent to shape but grown.
Wood as a building material is not uniformly strong - it's strongest when the
load is compressed along with the grain. So finding that natural long grain made
for a stronger, sturdier knee. Now knees - grown knees - would have been taken from where
that angulature is exhibited in trees, such as near the root systems of larger,
mature trees or along larger, lower branches and their intersection with the
trunk. What we have in the fore of the ship are white, painted knees. By the time Thayer was
converted to a cod fishermen they would have put a temporary bulkhead to divide
the hold, and the floor of the hold would have been used as sleeping quarters for
the fishermen while the rest of the hold would have held up to 700,000 pounds of
salted fish. It's quite the smell. The crew of the ship would have slept in a
deckhouse in the forward part of the main deck, and the captain and his mates
in a cabin in the stern of the ship. Every day we learn more about C.A. Thayer
and our other historic vessels. I hope you'll come explore them with us
at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Thanks for watching.