Hi! I am Sabrina Oliveros. I am a park guide here at San Francisco Maritime National Historical
Park.
You may already know our park for its fleet of historic ships on Hyde Street Pier, which
is right behind me. There is a square-rigger, a ferryboat, two schooners, and two tugboats.
Each is at least a hundred years old, and each is among the last of their kind.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many vessels like these filled the Bay, and
there were many other vessels besides. But today, I want to talk to you about one kind
of ship that is not like any of the ships on Hyde Street Pier. In fact, it does not
even represent the eras that our parks ships represent.
The ship I am talking about is the Spanish galleon San Carlos - the one commemorated
by this historical marker over here. It is the first known European ship to ever sail
into San Francisco Bay. Without this ship, it is possible that there
would not be a city called San Francisco. And because it helped usher an era of colonization,
it is possible that, without it, a very different kind of city and culture would be flourishing
here now.
The eight short lines here are not enough. To begin telling a larger story about the San
Carlos, we will need to explore other resources around the park. And that is the great thing
about San Francisco Maritime, there are different jumping points for piecing together
the past.
One way to start piecing together the past is to visit the parks research facility.
We are here now to look at a few pieces from San Francisco Maritimes art collection.
This painting right here was made by the renowned marine artist William Coulter, and it imagines
the moment that the San Carlos first enters San Francisco Bay in 1775. Here, the San Carlos seems to be
approaching present-day Fort Point. That is the piece of land jutting out there, and
you might recognize it now as the side of the Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco is on.
The islands in the distance seem to be Angel Island, Alcatraz, and Yerba Buena.
Now, notice how William Coulter renders this scene a fairly clear day. Clouds frame the
ship, but they do not fill the sky, which, you might think is a little strange if you are
familiar with the San Francisco fog. But maybe it is more a compositional choice than anything.
Or, it could also be a nod to the symbolic parting of the clouds as the San Carlos finally
found the entrance to the Bay.
See, Spanish ships, especially those on the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade, had
been traveling along the California coast since the late 1500s. They knew of present-day
Point Reyes and the Farallon Islands, which are about 30 miles from the Golden Gate. And
yet, the Bay and its entrance were still virtually unknown to them. One reason is something we
can picture thanks to this painting.
Look at that narrow strait the ship is entering; at its widest, it is only three miles wide.
Now, pay attention to the islands and the mountains in the distance. Then, imagine all
the famous fog coming into the picture. Would you even imagine there was a narrow strait?
Especially if you had no idea that there was a bay nearby?
Spanish explorers, in fact, only saw the Bay in 1769, that is 200 years after the galleon
trade began. And when they did so, they only did so from land. But once they saw it, it
became a special mission to find its entrance. And San Carlos turned out to be the ship for the
job.
There is a lot of twisty backstory, and after-story, to the San Carlos. But for today,
we will just look at its most famous moment. The San Carlos was a small supply ship built
in 1767 at the naval base in San Blas, Mexico. In March 1775, it received two assignments:
deliver supplies to Monterey, California and, from there, find the elusive strait. On
August 5, 1775, San Carlos finally did.
What happened next is the moment likely depicted in this other painting, a more recent one
by the artist William Gilkerson. After dropping anchor at the mouth of the Bay, the captain,
Juan Manuel de Ayala, ordered a reconnaissance mission. This was to make sure that the ship would
sail safely into the strait. The sailing master, Juan de Canizares, took on that mission, and
led out a longboat.
By sundown, when the longboat had not returned, Ayala decided to follow it in. So, the San
Carlos sailed into the Bay not on a clear day, but under the light of the moon! So,
there is a little lesson in using paintings to visualize a historical moment: they can
be helpful in getting a sense of the past, but, at the same time, we have to question
their depiction of it. And, we must also consider where the moment they depict falls within
a much larger picture.
This mural, at the parks Visitor Center, reminds us why. For hundreds, if not thousands
of years, before any ship like the San Carlos came anywhere near San Francisco, native peoples
around the Bay and California, like the Ohlone or the Miwok for example, had been
making boats for rivers, the Bay, or the coast. The ones you see in the mural are Ohlone canoes
made of Tule reed. One has been recreated for an exhibit nearby.
So, do you remember Juan de Canizares, who first led a longboat into the Bay? He came
back to the San Carlos a day later and had this to say about the Ohlone canoes - the
quote in fact is right here on this panel beside me - He said that they were so well-constructed
and woven that they caused him great admiration. And in fact, canoes like these are still built
today.
The San Carlos stayed in the Bay from August 5 to September 7, 1775. During that time,
Jose de Canizares continued to survey its waters. And, he went on to produce the first
known map of San Francisco Bay, part of which you can see over here.
During that time, the ship stayed anchored mostly off of a large island that the captain,
Juan Manuel de Ayala, called Santa Maria de los Angeles - or what we now know as Angel
Island. He also named one of the smaller islands the Island of the Pelicans, or La Isla
de los Alcatraces. It really could have been any of the two small islands in the Bay, but,
either way, the name has lived on. And, I am pretty sure you have heard about it, because
there is one island that we now know as Alcatraz.
Some two-hundred and forty-five years later, many vessels of all kinds still sail in and
out of San Francisco Bay. Many of these modern vessels, and the historic ships on Hyde Street
Pier, easily dwarf the San Carlos. But while that galleon is small, its legacy looms
large, and it looms long.
One year after that expedition found the entrance to San Francisco Bay, Spanish colonists came back and
founded a settlement that we now know as the Presidio. Nearby, they also founded the Mision
San Francisco de Asis. The history since then has been long and complicated, but it
still remains the cornerstone of what we now know as San Francisco today.
That is it for today. Thank you for joining me for this short video. There is so much
more to learn about history, and I hope we can all do it together through San Francisco
Maritime National Historical Park. Keep an eye out for our next videos, and I hope to
see you soon.