Gipsy

The steam schooner Gipsy hauled freight and people along the California coast between San Francisco and San Diego for 36 years; and was otherwise known as “Old Perpetual Motion”. On a dark and foggy night (27 September 1905), bound for Monterey from San Francisco, the Pacific Coast Steamship Company’s inexperienced relief captain encountered fog and mistook a red light (sewer construction light at the end of Hoffman Street) for the marker at the end of the Monterey wharf. Soon after, the vessel wrecked amid the breakers and rocks of McAbee Beach. The uninsured vessel was a complete loss, costing the owners approximately $22,500 (Reinstedt 1975, Anonymous 1994). Remnants from the wreck continue to be of interest to scuba divers.

Ship Stats:

Vessel Type: Steam Schooner
Casualty Location: McAbee Beach, Monterey, Monterey County, California, USA
Location Status: Located (see Important Note)
Casualty Date: 1905 (Sept 27)
Owner: Pacific Coast Steamship Company
Home Port: San Francisco, California, USA
Length: 102.0 feetBeam: 28.3 feet
Gross Tonnage: 293 Cargo: general, grain, beer
Builder: Middlemas & Boole for David Stoddard
Launched: 1868 (San Francisco, California, USA)
Official Number: 10982

Nature of Casualty:

Click each newspaper clipping image to view the full transcription text.

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  Transcription: STEAMSHIP WRECKED AT MONTEREY
  The Gipsy Torn to Pieces on the Rocks.
  Breaks Up Half an Hour After Striking on a Ledge.
  Old Coast Vessel With Cargo a Total Loss — Members of Crew Saved.
  Special Dispatch to The Call.
  
  PACIFIC GROVE, Sept. 27.— Shortly be-fore 8 o'clock to-night the Pacific Coast Steamship Company's freight steamship Gipsy went on the2 rocks off McAbees Beach, a mile and a half from this city, and is a total wreck. The Gipsy was on its regular, weekly trip between San Francisco and Port Harford and was heavily laden with grain and other freight. Captain Boyd was in charge. The boat was due at 6 o'clock, but it was 7:30 when Chief Wharfinger Norton, in charge of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company's wharf at Monterey, sighted the boat, coming in. When the Gipsy, came within a quarter of a mile of the wharf she appeared to turn and go beach- ward. She drifted outward and shore- ward, finally landing on the ledge of rocks immediately in front of McAbees Beach at a point half-way between Pa-cific Grove and Monterey. The distress whistles were immediately sounded. The life-saving crew from McAbees Beach, headed by J. B. McAbee, immediately launched a boat and rescued the crew of the freighter. Five minutes after striking the engine room was flooded with water and the boat began beating on the rocks and tearing to pieces. In thirty minutes' time the beach was strewn with broken tim-bers and sacks of grain. Captain Boyd could give no clear ex- planation as to the cause of the disaster. He was promoted about two weeks ago and this was his maiden voyage. He claims the red lights displayed as danger signals off the beach of New Monterey, where a sewer is being constructed, con-fused him, and he thought he was enter-ing port when he went aground. The Gipsy was the oldest boat in use by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company and has been in a frightful condition for years. The loss is estimated at $22,500, cargo $10,000 and ship $12,500.

  Source: The San Francisco Call (San Francisco, CA), 28 September 1905, p. 1, col. 2.
  Courtesy of The Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Additional Information: Vessel

Click each newspaper clipping image to view the full transcription text.

• 

  Transcription: ENGINEERS’ TRIAL TRIP OF THE STEAMER “GIPSEY”—
  The light-draft steamer, built by Middleman & Boole, for David Stoddart, and noticed by us at length about a month since, started on her Engineers’ trial trip yesterday noon. It will be remembered that this boat was constructed to run with twin-propellers on a light draft, a feat never before attempted on this coast, the light-draft steamers being either side-wheel or stern-wheel boats.
  
  This boat is built to run on from 2½ to 4½ feet draft, with a propeller under each quarter, 6 feet diameter, running one half out of water and turning about 80 to 100 revolutions per minute. She is run by Wheeler’s patent “tumbling beam” engines, fully described by us at the time mentioned. On a preliminary trip over to Hunter’s Point and back, she is made at the rate of nine miles an hour. On her trip yesterday she started out and has run up to Anti-och, running at about the same rate of speed. The engines–equal to 4 of 9 inches diameter, and 12 inches stroke–are much too small to expect high speed from so large a boat; but as she is intended for freight, speed was not expected. The engines work smoothly and answer all expectations. The external appearance of the boat will not please the nautical critics, as from the peculiarity of her con-struction she has the appearance of being “hogged,” or higher in the middle than at the ends. This pecu-larity is to impart extra strength. She has a freight deck as far forward as the pilot-house, and must be a very handy, serviceable boat, capable of withstanding the weather in the bay and of light draft on the rivers.

  Source: Daily Evening Bulletin (San Francisco, CA), 5 January 1869, p. x, col. G.
  Courtesy of Robert Schwemmer.

• 

  Transcription: VALLEJO ITEMS. —We find the annexed local items in the Chronicle of June 24th:
  
  The California Pacific Railroad Company have perfected arrangements to accommodate travel without the delay that has transpired in making the connection with the New World, in transferring freight. The double-screw pro-peller Gipsey, chartered by the company for a freight boat, arrived last night at South Val-lejo, and will hereafter run between the rail-road terminus and San Francisco, departing at 6:30 P.M. from the former point, and from San Francisco at twelve, noon, making a round trip each day.

  Source: Sacramento Daily Union, Vol 37, No 5693, 25 June 1869, p. 2, col. 5.
  Courtesy of UCR Center for Biological Studies and Research.

Referenced and Additional Resources

American Bureau of Shipping. 1906. Record of American and Foreign Shipping, “American Lloyds.” New York. p. 602.

Olesen, W. 1994. S.S. Gipsy. The Compass Rose Newsletter, Friends of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum 13(1):1-2.

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

United States Department of Commerce and Labor. 1906. Report of the Supervising Inspector-General, Steamboat-Inspection Service: Summary of Casualties, Violations of Law, and Investigations for the year ended December 31, 1905. In: Reports of the Department of Commerce and Labor 1906: Report of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor and Reports of Bureaus, Washington Government Printing Office. p. 322.