Carrier Pigeon

On the morning of June 6, 1853 Carrier Pigeon was sighted off Santa Cruz. The ship then continued northward as a thick fog blanketed the water, concealing the shoreline. By nightfall Captain Azariah Doane, believing he had veered far from shore, steered the vessel towards the coastline, hoping to catch sight of land. Suddenly, there was the sound of splintering timbers as the ship's hull drifted into the grasp of the jagged sea bottom. Within 15 minutes, 7 feet of water was sloshing through the ship's hold. Fortunately, the captain and crew made it to shore safely, and the next morning they sent word of the disaster to San Francisco. The news reached San Francisco the evening of June 7, and the U.S. Coast Survey steamer Active went to the scene to offer assistance.

Soon, the sidewheel steamer Sea Bird also arrived, having been sent by the underwriters to salvage as much of the cargo as possible. The magnificent clipper was a sorry sight. The hull was wedged firmly on a ledge of rocks just 500 feet from shore, the tide ebbing and flowing through the ship nearly up to its between decks. The Sea Bird had been engaged in salvage work for only a day when it, too, ran into trouble. After breaking free from anchorage in heavy swells, the ship began to drift toward the same rocks that claimed the Carrier Pigeon. The captain, however, was able to get up steam and run the ship upon the beach of Point Año Nuevo. A fourth ship, the Goliah, then came to the rescue. The Carrier Pigeon's crew and 1,200 packages of merchandise were taken to San Francisco by the Goliah. Although more cargo was taken from the Carrier Pigeon, by July the ship was breaking up. The Sea Bird was eventually refloated in October.” (excerpt from Perry 1999)

Carrier Pigeon was valued at $54,000 and started out on its maiden voyage on January 28, 1853. After leaving Boston, the vessel rounded Cape Horn, bound for San Francisco under the command of Captain Azariah Doane. The ship and its cargo were insured for about $195,000.

The area where Carrier Pigeon ran aground is now called Pigeon Point in honor of the wrecked vessel. Other ships followed suit, and met their demise along this stretch of coast. After much deliberation on where a new lighthouse should be built along the coast (see Perry 1999), construction at Pigeon Point began in 1871.

Ship Stats:

Vessel Type: Medium Clipper Ship
Casualty Location: near Pigeon Point, San Mateo County, California, USA
Location Status: Located (see Important Note)
Casualty Date: 1853 (Jun 6)
Owner: Reed, Wade & Company
Home Port: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Length: 162 feet Beam: 33 feet 7 ½ inches
Gross Tonnage: 843 Cargo: General Merchandise
Builder: Trufant, Drummond & Company
Launched: 1852 (Bath, Maine, USA)
Official Number: n/a

Nature of Casualty:

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  Transcription: POSTSCRIPT
  Thursday, 2 o’clock, A.M.
  PER ADAMS & CO.’S EXPRESS.
  
  Loss of the Clipper Ship Carrier Pigeon. —Tuesday afternoon a dispatch reached town announcing the stranding on the night of June 6th, of the clipper ship Carrier Pigeon, from Boston Jan. 28th. Capt. Doane dispatched three Spaniards on horseback with a note to the consignee, Mr. S. C. Shaw, the purport of which is that the ship had bilged and would be a total loss. The Carrier Pigeon drifted ashore about twenty five miles below the Heads. The Carrier Pigeon belongs to a line of clipper ships owned by Messrs. Reed & Wade of Boston. —Times and Transcript.

  Source: Sacramento Daily Union (Sacramento, CA), 9 June 1853, p. 2, col. 5.
  Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

Additional Information: Wreck Event

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  Transcription: The Wreck of the Carrier Pigeon. The U.S. surveying steamer Active, Lieut. Alden, sailed on the 8th inst. from port, and after stopping at the Farallones, proceeded to the wreck of the Carrier Pigeon, which lies about 7 miles north of Point Anno Nuevo, bow on shore. Her bows lay about 500 feet from the beach, and she rests amidships on a ledge of rocks, which have broken the ship's back. The tide ebbs and flows in her, and is up to her between decks. A portion if not all of her cargo between decks may be saved if the weather hold good, which is doubtful, as there was a heavy surf when the Active left. Her mizzenmast was cut away on the 8th at 3 P. M, and they intended to cut away the other masts to save the ship. We learn that if the parties interested had allowed the Active to go to work, without bartering and bantering on salvage, a considerable amount of property might have been saved for the underwriters. Too much praise cannot be awarded to the officers of the Active for their exertions to save the goods from the ship, until parties in charge began to talk about salvage, wages, and so forth. Lieut. Cuyler deserves great credit for boarding the ship, taking the captain ashore, and securing a line on shore so as to allow their boats to go back and forward. The insurance agents in California should have liberal views as regards wrecks on our coasts, more so than in the Atlantic States. Soon after the arrival of the Active, the Sea Bird arrived with Mr. Bacon on board, who took charge of the wreck.

  Source: Daily Alta California (San Francisco, CA), June 10, 1853, p. 2, col. 2.
  Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

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  Transcription: Steamer Sea Bird Ashore — The Carrier Pigeon.
  
  We have intelligence of the steamer Sea Bird having gone ashore, furnished by Purser Wright of the steamer Goliah, Capt. R. Haley, which arrived yesterday afternoon from the wreck of the Carrier Pigeon. That vessel was lying head on shore, with the water ebbing and flowing in her.
  
  The steamer Sea Bird, laying at anchor astern of the Carrier Pigeon, at 3 A. M. on Friday, parted her best bower chain; she immediately let go her second anchor which brought her up head to the sea. In a few minutes she parted her second chain, when the captain made sail on her, and veered her clear of a reef of rocks lying off her lee side. There being a heavy ground swell when the second anchor brought the steamer's head to the sea, the chain veered across the forefoot, which caused her to start the scurf at the bottom of the forefoot, and in a few minutes the steamer was reported to be filling. Capt. Wright immediately kept her off under steam, and succeeded in reaching the beach under Point Añno Nuevo, where he beached her, all hands being engaged in pumping and bailing in the meantime. Capt. Waterman and the crew of the Carrier Pigeon were on board at the time. The Goliah took out the cargo that the Sea Bird had received from the Carrier Pigeon, some 1,200 packages of merchandise.
  
  When the Goliah left the Sea Bird, Capt Wright thought he would be able to get the steamer afloat the next high water. She was not leaking as bad as when she went ashore. The Goliah left the wreck of the Carrier Pigeon yesterday morning at 9 A. M.
  
  Immediately after beaching the Sea Bird Captain Wright sent an Express to San Francisco for the steamer Goliah to come to his relief. Capt. Waterman and a gang of men remained at the wreck of the Carrier Pigeon, and if the weather continues good, there will be more goods saved. Capt. Doane, officers and crew of the Carrier Pigeon were passengers in the Goliah. The Goliah returned to the wreck last evening.

  Source: Daily Alta California (San Francisco, CA), June 13, 1853, p. 2, col. 5.
  Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

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  Transcription: Disasters.
  SHIP CARRIER PIGEON, Doane, from Boston for San Francisco, went ashore on the 6th ult. in a thick fog, on Point New Year, about thirty miles south of San Francisco. At the time of the accident it was blowing strongly from the north-west. Fifteen minutes after the ship struck there were seven feet of water in the hold, and in half an hour the water was above the lower deck. Two steamers were sent to the wreck from San Francisco, and some light articles of merchandise only saved from between decks. The ship will be a total loss, as will much of the cargo. The Sea Bird, one of the steamers sent to her assistance, while lying at anchor astern of the Carrier Pigeon, at 3 A.M. on the 10th, parted her best bower chain; she immediately let go her second anchor, which brought her up head to the sea. In a few minutes she parted her second chain, when the captain made sail on her, and veered her clear of a reef of rocks lying off her lee side. There being a heavy ground swell when the second anchor brought the steamer's head to the sea, the chain veered across the forefoot, which caused her to start the scurf at the bottom of the forefoot, and a few minutes later the steamer was reported to be filling. Captain Wright immediately kept her off under steam, and succeeded in reaching the beach under Point Año Nuevo, where he beached her, all heads being engaged in pumping and bailing in the meantime. Captain Waterman and the crew of the Carrier Pigeon were on board at the time. The Goliah took out the cargo that the Sea Bird had received from the Carrier Pigeon - some 1,200 packages of merchandise. When the Goliah left the Sea Bird, Capt Wright thought he would be able to get the steamer afloat the next high water. She was not leaking as bad as when she went ashore. The Goliah left the wreck of the Carrier Pigeon morning of the 12th, at 9 AM. Capt Waterman and a gang of men remained at the wreck of the Carrier Pigeon, and if the weather continued good, there will be more goods saved. Capt Doane, officers and crew of the Carrier Pigeon, were passengers in the Goliah. The Goliah returned to the wreck evening of the 12th.
  
  A telegraphic dispatch from Boston says there is insurance there on the Carrier Pigeon for $190,000.

  Source: The New York Herald (New York, NY), 12 July 1853, p. 8, cols. 4 and 5.
  Courtesy of The Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Additional Information: Vessel

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  Transcription: Insurance on the Lost Ship Carrier Pigeon.
  Boston, July 11, 1853.
  The clipper ship Carrier Pigeon, mentioned in the last California news as having been lost near San Francisco, was a new vessel, built at Bath, Me., in December, 1852. She was valued at $54,000. The vessel, cargo and freight money, were insured in this city as follows:

  Neptune office $22,915
  Boyleston 1,750
  Suffolk 4,800
  United States 1,848
  Equitable Safety 13,000
  Hope 10,000
  Manufact's Mutual 17,090
  New Eng. Mutual 80,000

  American $1,070
  Merchants' 5,500
  Boston 17,000
  National 700
  Commercial 15,000
  City Mutual 28,000
  Alliance Mutual 26,000
  Total $195,283

  Source: The New York Herald (New York, NY), 12 July 1853, p. 8, col. 3.
  Courtesy of The Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

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  Transcription: LOCAL MATTERS.
  THE PEARL SHELL.— We fancy that one of our contemporaries was slightly sold yesterday morning in the matter of some shells, which Dr. Worcester brought here from near the wreck of the Carrier Pigeon, and which are stated to be genuine “mother of Pearl Shells, taken from the rocks at low water mark, by Dr. Worcester’s own hands." Surprise is also expressed at this recent discovery, and were it a genuine one, it would certainly be very important. A pearl fishery on our coast would certainly be a decided acquisition to the wealth of our territory. Besides there is a good deal of romance and beauty about pearls. They look well on pretty ladies’ necks and about their wrists, and it seems a strange thing in nature that such gems of purity should come from the body of such a villainous, slimy looking article with such “an ancient and fish-like smell” about it as a pearl oyster. If a pearl placer could be discovered on our coast, it would open a new field of industry for enterprising men who have a fancy for diving, or exploring the ocean bottom in an India rubber armor. Pearl oysters lie embedded in the bottom of the Gulf of California in great quantities, but we very much doubt their discovery on our coast. Dr. Worcester brought some of the same shell, we presume, to our office, taken from the same place, and they are no more “like a pearl oyster, than a stick of candy man’s “variegated,” is like a bar of soap. The pearl oyster is a vivalve found on the bottom, which the shell in question is univalve, which attaches itself to rocks along the coast, and is very plentiful in the vicinity of Monterey, known there as the concha de la mar.

  Source: Daily Alta California (San Francisco, CA), September 30, 1853; p.2, col.2.
  Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

Referenced and Additional Resources

Bache, A.D. 1855. Appendix No. 61. Letter from Lieut. Comg. James Alden, U.S. Navy, assistant in the Coast Survey, detailing the search made, at the request of the owner, for the steamer Sea Bird, disabled near Point Año Nuevo, by an accident to her machinery. Report of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, Showing the Progress of the Survey During the Year 1854. Washington. p. 214.

Bacon, J.S. 1871. The Shipwreck of the Carrier Pigeon. A California Sketch. Ballou’s Monthly Magazine 33:444-448.

Baker, W.A. 1973. A Maritime History of Bath, Maine and the Kennebec River Region. Volume 1. Marine Research Society of Bath, Anthoensen Press, Portland, Maine. 564pp.

Perry, F. 1999. Legacy of the Carrier Pigeon: A History of the Pigeon Point Light Station. The Keeper's Log, United States Lighthouse Society 15(3):2-15.

Reinstedt, R.A. 1975. Shipwrecks and Sea Monsters of California’s Central Coast. Ghost Town Publications, Carmel, CA. 168pp.

Semones, J. 2007. Shipwrecks, scalawags, and scavengers: the storied waters of Pigeon Point. Glencannon Press, Palo Alto, CA. 138pp.

Wells, F., and Company. 1915. When Fargo was a Youngster. Wells Fargo Messenger 3(6):94.