C.A. Thayer

C.A. Thayer

Public Domain.

Quick Facts

Location:

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, San Francisco.

Designation:

National Historic Landmark

Built in 1895, C.A. Thayer is one of only two surviving examples of the sailing schooners designed specifically for use in the 19th-century Pacific Coast lumber trade. This 19th-century vessel was destined to perform military service during World War II. Between 1895 and 1912, C.A. Thayer usually sailed from E. K. Wood's mill in Grays Harbor, Washington, to San Francisco. The vessel also carried lumber as far south as Mexico, and occasionally even ventured offshore to Hawaii and Fiji. After sustaining serious damage during a heavy, southeasterly gale, C.A. Thayer's lumber trade days ended in an Oakland shipyard, in 1912. But it was really the rise of steam power, and not the wind, that pushed Thayer into a new career. Early each April from 1912 to 1924, C.A. Thayer hauled 28-foot gill-net boats, bundles of barrel staves, and tons of salt from San Francisco to Western Alaska. Vessels in the salt-salmon trade usually laid up during the winter months, but when World War I inflated freight rates (1915 to 1919), C.A. Thayer carried Northwest fir and Mendocino redwood to Australia. From 1925 to 1930, C.A. Thayer made yearly voyages from Poulsbo, Washington, to the Bering Sea codfishing waters off the Alaskan coast.

After a decade-long, Depression-era lay-up in Lake Union, Seattle, the U.S. Army purchased C.A. Thayer from prominent Seattle codfisherman J. E. Shields for use in the war effort. In 1942, the army removed Thayer's masts and used it as an ammunition barge in British Columbia. After World War II, Shields bought his ship back from the Army, fitted it with masts once again, and returned it to codfishing. With its final voyage, in 1950, C.A. Thayer entered the history books as the last commercial sailing vessel to operate on the West Coast.

The State of California purchased C.A. Thayer in 1957. After preliminary restoration in Seattle, Washington, an intrepid volunteer crew sailed it down the coast to San Francisco. The San Francisco Maritime Museum performed more extensive repairs and refitting, and opened C.A. Thayer to the public in 1963. The vessel was transferred to the National Park Service in 1978, and has been docked at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Thousands of school children spend the night aboard the 1895 schooner each year as part of an innovative educational program. In 2004, the C.A. Thayer was transported to a seaplane hangar at the former Alameda Naval Air Station for a restoration expected to take two years, during which time the project's progress will be tracked in the Park (with exhibits and panels) and on the park's website.

The C.A. Thayer is a National Historic Landmark and is located at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

Discover more history and culture by visiting the World War II in San Francisco Bay Area travel itinerary.