Last updated: August 23, 2026
Place
Balclutha's Stern
NPS/J.Woerner
Quick Facts
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
From the mizzenmast before you, to the counter at the ship’s very end, this is the command center of the ship.
Look for the white structure immediately aft of the mizzenmast. That’s the charthouse. It's where captains and navigators laid out their maps and sextants to determine the course of a voyage. Directly below it are the officers’ cabins. Do you see the curved roof peeking out beside the charthouse? That’s the barrel-top skylight for the captain’s saloon. And, beside the skylight, is the ship’s wheel. From there, the captain commanded this vessel, directing helmsmen to steer the 25-foot-tall rudder curving into the water below.
In this ship’s half-century under sail, 15 different captains commanded this ship. Try to imagine some of them pacing the stern:
At 41 years old, Joe Frederick Constable led Balclutha on its very first voyage in 1887. After 140 days across the Atlantic and around Cape Horn, he and his crew of 25 sailed Balclutha through the Golden Gate for the first time.
There, too, was Alfred Durkee, Balclutha’s captain for five years. He sailed with his wife, Alice, who gave birth to their daughter, Inda Frances, aboard Balclutha in the Indian Ocean. We owe a lot of what we know about shipboard life to Inda, who decades later shared family keepsakes and recollections with the San Francisco Maritime Museum.
Then, there was Nicholas Wagner. After Balclutha wrecked off Alaska in 1905, Wagner went north to oversee its salvage and averted its total loss. Wagner then sailed the damaged ship back to San Francisco for full repairs – and took the helm when it first voyaged again as the Star of Alaska.
And, though they weren’t sailors, there were also Rose and Henry Kissinger. After Star of Alaska retired from merchant service in 1930, they turned it into the attraction Pacific Queen. Working with different captains, preserving this vessel, then selling it to the Maritime Museum in 1954, Rose Kissinger steered this ship’s fate in its final days under sail.
Can you imagine yourself standing at the helm, facing forward to the bow, responsible for this whole vessel, its cargo, and crew? How would you act as a captain of a ship?