C. A. Thayer: The Last of the Lumber Schooners

The history and recent restoration of the park's historic lumber schooner C.A. Thayer. Most of the archival photographs and film footage are from the Park's museum archival collections. In particular, film footage was used from the following two archival collections:
The Harold Huycke motion picture film of C.A. Thayer (built 1895; schooner, 3m) restoration and voyage, 1955-1957 (P79-235, SAFR 15044). A guide to this collection is available on the Online Archives of California at www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:... and the film footage is available for viewing on the Internet Archives at archive.org/details/csfmm_00003.
The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Photo Lab records, 1963-2014 (P14-008, SAFR 24429). A guide to this collection is available on the Online Archives of California at www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:.... Extensive footage was used from Series 4.1 Digital Media, File unit 20, C.A. Thayer (built 1895; schooner, 3m) Restoration Work. This portion of the collection includes much of the documentation of the restoration work from 2003 to 2012. See the following link for more information: www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:....

Пікірлер: 93

  • @johnlina5029
    @johnlina50294 жыл бұрын

    I boarded the C.A.Thayer at dock in San Francisco. When I told the Ranger that I was a shipbuilder from Newport News Virginia, he took special pains to show me parts of the ship not normally seen. I got an appreciation for riveted construction, something that had ceased by the time I got involved, and the ample size of the below decks. A great experience for me and I appreciate the extra effort of the Ranger.

  • @perrysims3320
    @perrysims33204 жыл бұрын

    My first job out of high school in 1961 was as a laborer and night watchman at the California Maritime State Historical Monument when the ships were still in the Alemeda Canal and before any part of the park was in San Francisco. I lived in the Thayer's fishermen's fok'sle, and cooked my meals in the galley. Firing up the sea suction and hosing off the freshwater dew in the morning in the fog could fill a young man with dreams and poetry.

  • @f.puttstycker2784

    @f.puttstycker2784

    3 жыл бұрын

    The sound of her bell seemed to cut thru fog! I remember her smell and grateful for watch duty (bell ringer).

  • @patrickhill4682

    @patrickhill4682

    Жыл бұрын

    Amazing Mr Sims 🙌🏽

  • @klsc8510
    @klsc8510Ай бұрын

    I toured her in May 1979. I was a SSgt in the USAF stationed at Grissom AFB, IN. I got to by getting an incentive flight aboard a KC-135 from Grissom to Travis AFB, CA. I took buses from the base3 to downtown SF and stayed at the Holliday Inn at Van Nyes and Market. I had read about this museum in Sea Classics magazine. This was my chance to see her and the rest of the museum. As I remember there was a film story about her below decks. To fun the movie they had to turn off the bulge pumps. There was a small steady stream of water flowing through the theater area. We were told not to worry about it. I am glad I did the trip back then. Today SF is more deteriorated than the C.A. Thayer was at her worst.

  • @brunol-p_g8800
    @brunol-p_g88003 жыл бұрын

    I’m not an easily moved person, but I cried while watching the video. Thanks to all of you who worked on taking care of her and rebuilt her!

  • @user-ih5dn3lw3e
    @user-ih5dn3lw3e3 жыл бұрын

    Честь и хвала, глубокое восхищение людям, которые сохраняют свою историю и поддерживают такую красоту

  • @AyushPatel-tx2fn

    @AyushPatel-tx2fn

    Жыл бұрын

    6

  • @a.r.thayer9760
    @a.r.thayer97603 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for the hard work in restoration and preservation of our Maritime past. Beautiful job ! Can't wait to come visit the museum!

  • @user-xg8wx5xz2f
    @user-xg8wx5xz2f4 жыл бұрын

    Смотрю на такую огромную реставрацию и проделанные работы, плачу от того как мы отстали во всём. Низкий поклон всем участникам сего проекта.

  • @GermanGreetings
    @GermanGreetings3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you all that work... how beautiful she is...

  • @lesliechan31
    @lesliechan315 жыл бұрын

    We went on this ship and slept overnight on it in 1978ish. I was in 4th grade. I never forgot that trip. Thanks for sharing!

  • @sameyeham

    @sameyeham

    5 жыл бұрын

    I did the same thing in 4th grade in 1994! Talk about a bad night's sleep... yeesh.

  • @juancagampang4620

    @juancagampang4620

    4 жыл бұрын

    Me too, 1978. I still think about that trip- filled me with a love of sailing ships. Pretty magical for a poor city kid.

  • @nmnmnm35

    @nmnmnm35

    3 жыл бұрын

    Wow, i did the same in 1999. Never fell asleep though.....

  • @noneyourb2526

    @noneyourb2526

    Жыл бұрын

    I also did in the 90s 5th grade

  • @Hy-Brasil

    @Hy-Brasil

    2 ай бұрын

    @@sameyeham why? just uncomfortable bedding or the idea of falling asleep on a rotting ship?

  • @glynluff2595
    @glynluff25955 жыл бұрын

    Excellent to see a surviving schooner with a sharp entry. So much of more recent designs have yacht style stems and these have no bite upon the water. Traditional ships with long keels swing long and slow whatever their size. That is their joy.

  • @kevinmencer3782

    @kevinmencer3782

    3 жыл бұрын

    I know little about boats, but I've noticed the trend towards the slim little sterns. Doesn't that make the boat less stable?

  • @jhill4874
    @jhill48744 жыл бұрын

    Back a couple of decades a school program was available for kids to spend a night on the Thayer. Great program. Had the kids experience what it was like to be a sailor during that time.

  • @noneyourb2526

    @noneyourb2526

    Жыл бұрын

    My class did back in the 90s mr goltzers 5th grade class we also went to ft point

  • @Peeper1849
    @Peeper18494 жыл бұрын

    I am from Seattle.....and have mourned the loss of the Wawona...but I am so very happy that parts of her live on in the Thayer....

  • @rickfranklin5801
    @rickfranklin58014 жыл бұрын

    I spent the night on the ca Thayer back in 1984, I was in the 4th grade. this video brought back memories and I also learned a few things I didn't know:). I specifically rememeber doing longshoreman duties and eating cod cakes:0 lol

  • @eb-rp7ei
    @eb-rp7ei2 жыл бұрын

    My grandfather sailed on the C.A. Thayer out of San Francisco---probably sometime between 1895 and 1912, when she was converted for fishing. He often sailed the coastwise trade, much of the time after steam schooners came into use.. Wish i could have heard his stories.

  • @joepierce1672
    @joepierce1672 Жыл бұрын

    I worked on her in 1968 when sje was docked at the Hyde street pier with the last steam schooner the Wapama. In the evenings, the hippies would build fires on the beach and play their ever present drums as the sun would set behind the Golden Gate. Standing on her deck listening to the drumming was a truly serene experience. Then taking the cable cat home from work made it like living in the past. At that time the park was run by Harry Dring., who would usually answer most of my question. Damn, it's hard to believe that was more than half a century ago.

  • @harbourdogNL
    @harbourdogNL4 жыл бұрын

    Absolutely lovely. Gorgeous lines.

  • @CockatooDude
    @CockatooDude4 жыл бұрын

    When I saw the extent of the rot I was honestly surprised the damn thing still managed to float! That's crazy. Great work on the restoration and preserving history though.

  • @olivierbolton8683
    @olivierbolton86834 жыл бұрын

    Congratulations...i remember seeing Wawona being towed away without knowing there was another lady CA Thayer on the west coast undergoing a refit... great challenges lead to Great results...These ships are history

  • @luismiguelmonteiro4545
    @luismiguelmonteiro4545 Жыл бұрын

    Beatiful, beautiful work!

  • @nicholasmorrill4711
    @nicholasmorrill47113 жыл бұрын

    Really wonderful looking ship.The shear line is fabulous.

  • @laserbeam002
    @laserbeam0022 жыл бұрын

    Thankfully there are still people who respect our past and want to save old ships.

  • @thejameslealartco.7625
    @thejameslealartco.76254 жыл бұрын

    I spent the the night on her back in 1985? I think. I was in the fifth grade. I was a galley cook. Got sea sick. And I cried like a baby when it was over. It was so emotional for some reason.

  • @rimasmeleshyus9486
    @rimasmeleshyus94862 жыл бұрын

    Beautiful ship ,thanks for sharing. Great history I like it

  • @nickviner1225
    @nickviner12253 жыл бұрын

    Not only old but very beautiful too.

  • @simplyamazing880
    @simplyamazing8804 жыл бұрын

    You can also see the last of the whaling ships in Old Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut. I'd love to see Thayer. Nice video.

  • @thereminpitchknob4059
    @thereminpitchknob4059 Жыл бұрын

    Old sailors were carpenters as well. What incredible determination they had to explore the ends of the earth. They are celebrated by many strong, quiet people of action.

  • @granskare
    @granskare4 жыл бұрын

    In the U.P. of Michigan, schooners were on lake superior until they were replaced by steel ships. The schooners had masts cut down and they became barges towed by steamers.

  • @marvmeng1630
    @marvmeng16302 жыл бұрын

    There is another lumber schooner running regular cruises off Maine. The Victory Chimes. My wife and I spent a week on her in Aug of 2008. Very nice boat and good food,

  • @McHeisenburger
    @McHeisenburger4 жыл бұрын

    She looks amazing now!

  • @villageblunder4787
    @villageblunder4787 Жыл бұрын

    Gorgeous

  • @garystanley1605
    @garystanley16054 жыл бұрын

    Well Done!!

  • @austinclarke2514
    @austinclarke25143 жыл бұрын

    She's Beautiful...wish we would have kept and restored some of the fishing schooners that were here in Newfoundland years ago.

  • @paulgracey4697
    @paulgracey46973 жыл бұрын

    My mother's second husband Fred Robblee took me aboard the Thayer to show the sort of ship his Dad skippered before switching to steam. Fred would not have even been born in 1911 if his dad and mother had not survived the Lumber Barkentine Eviston being run aground on an uncharted reef north of Australia, part of a late 1907 voyage carrying lumber to Haiphong and intending to return with Australian coal. In your library is a copy I donated of a short account I wrote incorporating his Captain's log and and newspaper articles of the time. I titled it "Lloyds of London Rings their Great Bell Twice" a reference to the firm's practice of ringing the Lutine Bell to signify the loss of a ship, and that they would ring it again, should the ship be found again in reasonable repair. They were stranded on the reef for 75 days. Mrs. Robblee was pregnant and had to deliver a stillborn baby during the calamity probably aided the Captain and crew to find a way off, and to safety. I was struck by the fact that for steamships to be economic in commerce, far flung coal depots were maintained by ships that did not need to use the fuel. Never-the-less, the Eviston, a wooden product of a Coos Bay OR shipyard, could not have got to safety but for the Lumber industry 'donkey' steam engine they had aboard which kept the pumps going despite massive harm from the grounding to her keel. Thanks to those of you who took the time to preserve one of the few original large commercial wooden ships still on display in Maritime museums not a replica. Eviston, had 20 more years of service in the far east, a typical life for hard worked ships, but she would never have been sailed back across the Pacific in her poor condition upon being sold.

  • @luiseduardodealmeida4061
    @luiseduardodealmeida40614 жыл бұрын

    Hope She sails for another couple of centuries . Congratulations !

  • @noyfub
    @noyfub3 жыл бұрын

    The Stephen Tabor in Maine is a 70' timber schooner built in 1868, as I recall, it is still sailing. I sailed on her around 1990.

  • @46danz
    @46danz3 жыл бұрын

    Brilliant they saved this beauty.

  • @PAPOOSELAKESURFER
    @PAPOOSELAKESURFER4 жыл бұрын

    Humboldt Bay in front of Eureka lumber ships dumped rock ballast (forming today's Ballast Island) before loading redwood lumber. The entire bay used to be lined with ancient redwood giants, all gone now. The last local redwood "shade trees" in local's back yards were taxed for value of board feet of lumber to force the sale and recovery often over a million board feet from a single tree.

  • @bidlymovies987

    @bidlymovies987

    4 жыл бұрын

    Amazing, never heard of a tree tax before. I guess a form of property tax.

  • @thrawn8840
    @thrawn88404 жыл бұрын

    Amazing

  • @onceANexile
    @onceANexile4 жыл бұрын

    Its a very friendly ship...appealing.

  • @bradfordbarrett3681
    @bradfordbarrett36813 жыл бұрын

    Why any ppl choose a thumbs down baffles me

  • @vickie3008
    @vickie30083 жыл бұрын

    Thanks

  • @timothyortiz2222
    @timothyortiz2222 Жыл бұрын

    Gut it for cabins, a galley, births, a head, and a fine diesel drive.

  • @d.cypher2920
    @d.cypher29204 жыл бұрын

    *'...an unusual expression of great craft.* Indeed. Perhaps just behind sailing these vessels or any, building them has been the ultimate craft, in my opinion, for literally thousands of years. There have been people sailing, about as long ago as people making swords. That's pretty old.

  • @edenhunter9904
    @edenhunter99044 жыл бұрын

    good job folks

  • @penguincoldstorage3365
    @penguincoldstorage3365 Жыл бұрын

    Good 👍👍

  • @bliz78obrien1
    @bliz78obrien14 жыл бұрын

    Is there a historical connection between the New England Schooners and San Francisco Schooners other than replicating the architecture?

  • @pierrevillie7181
    @pierrevillie71813 жыл бұрын

    Merveilleux

  • @charlespak6784
    @charlespak67843 жыл бұрын

    Must of been in elementary school. when our class was lucky enough to spent a night. we were giving tasked mine was the night port side watch looking out for trouble. need to make it back to the city to meet up with her.

  • @peterbee162
    @peterbee1624 ай бұрын

    ❤❤❤

  • @yokehuatgoh
    @yokehuatgoh4 жыл бұрын

    wait.... 10:22 what's that behind her then? looks like a greater wooden relic of the past with huge cross-beam wooden masts for rigging sails.

  • @joeyk169

    @joeyk169

    Жыл бұрын

    pretty sure it's a ship called the balcutha. not a lumber schooner, but an old wooden sailing ship of some other kind

  • @the10thleper
    @the10thleper5 жыл бұрын

    I'm watching the History Channel right now. "Save our history." I'm a old school sailor, builder and restorations. I think the C A Thayer is done. Her rot is all consuming. With what I just saw of her, this hull and deck are done. Every piece of wood needs to be replaced. We all know it. It's time to build a new hull and deck. Salvage all her iron works, masts, hardware and anything else that can be saved/transfered to the new hull. Say good by to that old hull and be done with it. Quicker, easyer and soo much cheaper. You will have a seaworthy vessel that will last three times as long. What are you going to do, replace every bad board with a new board? Yeah right... build a new damn hull and go sailing.

  • @BillSikes.

    @BillSikes.

    4 жыл бұрын

    My thoughts to

  • @vickie3008
    @vickie30083 жыл бұрын

    Was there lumber schooners in Scotland ?

  • @f.puttstycker2784
    @f.puttstycker27843 жыл бұрын

    What became of her old masts?

  • @MichaelABarton-ek1vs
    @MichaelABarton-ek1vs2 ай бұрын

    I was just watching a bit on story TV. About this ship. Shouldn't it be considered a veteran because it served in the military?? I don't know just a thought.

  • @MrLawman82
    @MrLawman822 жыл бұрын

    I'd love to see it but not going anywhere near SF.

  • @ericlakota6512
    @ericlakota65124 жыл бұрын

    Gorgious ship glad to see her in this time even built as work horse they the tall ships are gorgious i like their lines beter then a race regata winner

  • @suzettebecker3581
    @suzettebecker35813 жыл бұрын

    Restore it‼️

  • @suzettebecker3581
    @suzettebecker35813 жыл бұрын

    Please restore it🇺🇸😊

  • @graemelliott3942
    @graemelliott39424 жыл бұрын

    Does it ever go out and sail?

  • @haraldoyen

    @haraldoyen

    3 жыл бұрын

    Not yet! However, her new sails and yards are waiting to get together once again. It's a love affair.

  • @josephinebennington7247
    @josephinebennington72474 жыл бұрын

    Totally rebuilt? But same ship? Like my grandfathers axe. New head, new handle, same axe!

  • @haraldoyen

    @haraldoyen

    3 жыл бұрын

    Well said. Just had a long discussion on preservation and restoration with our SFMMP boat shop ranger. He used the same axe analogy. Is there a thesaurus somewhere that can iron out the wrinkles on the subject?

  • @timerickson7056
    @timerickson70563 жыл бұрын

    sadly there is a 108 year old wooden sailboat being restored in washington state. it's name is tally ho . .the winner of the first fastnet race. it's owner and savior has been painstakingly restoring it for several years outside port angeles washington. unfortunately the county is attempting to stop the restoration. callum county washington . if you know someone who can help stop the mindless county morons from their mindless attempt to stop the work . the owner has a youtube channel and could use some help

  • @noneyourb2526
    @noneyourb2526 Жыл бұрын

    Anyone here remember mr goltzer from ponderosa?

  • @stevehyman9464
    @stevehyman94646 жыл бұрын

    Hey Courtney, thought you rigged movie ships, not starred in their videos?

  • @obiterdictum3021
    @obiterdictum30213 жыл бұрын

    ....the way is backwards... (and faster...) .../I*

  • @montblanchaircrew-salaoees8866
    @montblanchaircrew-salaoees88664 жыл бұрын

    MONTBLANC HAIR CREW © aurélioMACŪLIN

  • @shoresharp8349
    @shoresharp83493 жыл бұрын

    What a shame San Francisco has turned into. At least they had enough common sense to save this beautiful boat.

  • @timdumler5628
    @timdumler56283 жыл бұрын

    It is not the last of the lumber schooners. Misleading clickbait, fail and thumbs down.