Around the Horn Blog

An aerial view of all of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park showing Hyde Street Pier and historic ships, scow schooner Alma, the Small Boat Dock, tugboat Hercules, ferryboat Eureka, tall ship Balclutha, paddle wheel tugboat Eppleton Hall, and schooner C. A. Thayer. The aerial photo also shows other areas of the park including the Visitor Center and Argonaut Hotel in the old Delmonte Cannery, Victorian Park, and the Aquatic Park Bathhouse and Cove.

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About This Blog

Through Around the Horn, the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park hopes to keep visitors informed on projects that might impact their voyage and enlightened by stories from our past. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the journey!

Did The Age Of Sail End Part 5: Birth Of A New Tradition

June 10, 2021 Posted by: Erin Conner

Without cargo, a sailing ship becomes a white elephant, beautiful, inspiring, but ultimately a hole in the water into which one throws money. The idea that a ship could carry, in essence, a cargo of memory and become a reservoir of skill, was a new one. It was not expressed in those terms, but these remaining vessels, representatives of the past were the means by which the knowledge and culture of the sea that remained were preserved

MaritimeHistory, AgeofSail, SanFranciscoMaritime NHP, KarlKortum

 

Did The Age of Sail End?: The Last Grain Race: The Intertwined Stories of Pamir and Passat

May 26, 2021 Posted by: Erin Conner

Have you ever known you would miss an experience that would change your life if you didn’t find a way to get to that place in that moment in time? William Stark felt that way in 1948.  His summers for the last five years had been spent working in steamships and he thought the grain races and tall ships that he had read about in his teens had all sailed into the pages of history.

MaritimeHistory, AgeofSail, Pamir, Passat, GrainRaces

 

The Age of Sail Training: The Thirties and the End of Commercial Sail

May 26, 2021 Posted by: Erin Conner

     By the 1930s, sail training was considered one of the last great adventures. Thanks to the articles and memoirs of Alan Villiers and others, the Erickson Line could continue to carry not only aspiring officers but also those who wanted to test themselves against the Horn for the sake of the adventure. Most were men, but a few women managed to get past the gangway and into the fo'cs'le.

MaritimeHistory, AgeofSail, ships

 

Did The Age Of Sail End? Part 2: Forerunners of Sail Training: Grain Races and Brassbounders

April 21, 2021 Posted by: Erin Conner

The age of sail training was built on the age of sail that preceded it. In this post we’ll explore two of the traditions that allowed commercial sail to survive and evolve into the vibrant world of ships and sailors that are still carrying cargoes of skill, memory and adventure today.

AgeofSail, MaritimeHistory, MaritimeCulture, GrainTrade, GrainRaces, Brassbounders, SailTraining

 

Did The Age Of Sail End? Part 1: Sail Gives Way To Steam

March 18, 2021 Posted by: Erin Conner

This is the first post in a series called “Did the Age of Sail End? We’ll begin with a bit of background about the beginning of steam power and how it changed the way people and cargo moved around the world. By the end of it, you will have seen sailing ships go from workaday waterfront carriers to the bringers of dreams

MaritimeHistory, steam, sail, ships, vessels, cargo, AgeofSail