San Francisco 1800s

Books relating to immigrations, sea history, etc., are located throughout the site. As new works are located, they are also added to appropriate pages.

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Right: This guide teaches the basics of sound genealogical research, then provides time-saving strategies for researching a particular ethnic group. Included are tips on locating records both here and abroad, deciphering original documents, planning a research trip, and putting an ancestor’s records in historical context.

Forty Niners Round the Horn by Charles Schultz.Forty-Niners Round the Horn
(Studies in Maritime History)

Charles R. Schultz, University of South Carolina Press

Forty-Niners ’round the Horn recounts the thrilling—and at times harrowing—adventure of fortune hunters who sailed from the east coast around Cape Horn to California during the gold rush of 1849. Charles R. Schultz paints a vivid picture of the eighteen-thousand-mile odyssey through several climatic zones. Drawing upon more than one hundred unpublished diaries, Schultz profiles the individuals who embarked on such journeys and demonstrates how markedly the gold rush voyages differed from general commercial trading and whaling ventures.

Incorporating excerpts from logbooks and journals, Schultz allows seamen and passengers to recount much of the experience in their own words. Of particular interest, he includes passages about their hopes upon embarkment, perceptions of such ports as Rio de Janeiro and Lima, and impressions of California.

The gold seekers, most of whom were men in their twenties, had never been away from home, much less on a lengthy voyage. They traveled in vessels of all sizes, with the number of passengers ranging from as few as ten to as many as two hundred. The voyages lasted between four and eight months, with most vessels making one or two stops for fresh provisions but a handful making no stops.

The author describes the preparations made for the trip, onboard provisions, and activities for the passengers such as types, quantity, and quality of food and drink; forms of entertainment; religious observances and the marking of national and state holidays and special occasions. He also records the challenges and discomforts inflicted by alternating hot and cold temperatures and frequent storms; disputes among passengers, crew members, and members of joint stock companies; and problems with vermin, theft, drunkenness, sickness, and death.

The book is very successful. No book rivals its descriptive depth about the experiences of the forty-niners at sea.” ~ Mariner’s Museum

Cruise of the Dashing Wave: Rounding Cape Horn in 1860
(New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology)

Philip Hichborn, William H. Thiesen (Editor), James C. Bradford (Foreword)


Voyage to the edge of mutiny and murder. “Cruise of the Dashing Wave” recounts a harrowing 1860 clipper ship passage from Boston to San Francisco by way of Cape Horn, as recorded by Philip Hichborn, ship’s carpenter, in his journal.

On board the Dashing Wave, even the disagreeable food was a blessing as it distracted the crew from the oppressive cruelty of the elements. The weather and heavy seas of Cape Horn pushed the sailors to their physical limits.