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Sugar Ships of San Francisco c.1895-1920
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In 1900 James Rolph Jr. (Born S.F. 1869) formed a partnership
with George Hind and engaged in the shipping and commission business. These gentlemen would be one of the first to field a
fleet of west coast built ships designed to bring sugar cane from the Kingdom of Hawaii to the newly established California
and Hawaii Sugar Company (C&H Sugar today), at the town of Crockett near San Francisco. In addition to operating a large fleet
of San Francisco based tall ships in the early 1900’s, James Rolph Jr. would go on to be Mayor of San Francisco for 19 years
(elected 1911) and in 1930 he would be elected Governor of California. Governor Rolph sufferd a fatal heart attack on June
2, 1934.
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The Hind,Rolph & Company was officially formed in 1900. George
Hind and James Rolph Jr. would opeate a large fleet of exquisite looking tall ships, all built at various west coast shipyards
and all registered at San Francisco. The major trade barrier to Hawaii's closest and major market - San Francisco - for its
raw sugar was eliminated by the 1876 Treaty of Reciprocity between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawaii. Through the
treaty, the U.S. received a coaling station at Pearl Harbor and Hawaii's sugar planters, duty-free entry into U.S. markets
for their sugar. This market was solidified with the U.S. annexation of Hawaii in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. Starting
with the twin schooners, Muriel c.1895 and Honoipu c.1898, Hind, Rolph & Co. would be one of the first shippers to regularly
supply coal to Hawaii in exchange for caroges of sugar, which were brought to California.
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Puako c.1925. This photo was taken by Cyril R. Littlebury
on June 26, 1925 from Prospect Point. This is on the Stanley Park side of Vancouver's 1st Narrows that you pass through entering
the harbour. The barquentine Puako had just been bought at an auction sale in Victoria'...for a song.'by Hecate Straits Towing
Co. In 1926 she would be renamed Drumwall and in 1952 she was scuttled at Oyster Bay, Vancouver Island, joining some 14 or
so old vessels grounded there for use as a breakwater. Photo provided by Dudley Booth - History by Rick James - B.C. Underwater
Archeological Society.
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In researching the history of the Hind, Rolph & Company Sugar
Ships, I came across a most amazing account of a very young sea Captain, Captain William Olson. Turns out William, at 19
suddenly became ‘the youngest Captain’ on the Pacific (possibly in the world) when he was forced to take command of his fathers
ship, who was accidentally killed trying to cross the deadly Coos Bay Bar in 1883. While in Command of the Sugar Ship, Honoipu,
Captain William Olson would be part of the ‘longest tall ship race’ on the Pacific!
See the link below for a MUST READ
account of the life of this intrepid ‘Boy Captain‘ and his harrowing sailing escapades.
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The Georgette was one of the last of a large fleet of tall
ships built for Hind, Rolph & Company of San Francisco. She was launched in 1918 as a lumber hauler at Columbia Yard in
Portland, Oregon. The Georgette was a four masted schooner, 188 feet long, weighed 867 tons and was painted white like all
her siblings. In 1920 the ship worked the route from Alexandria, Egypt, to Seattle. Then she was placed in Atlantic service
until 1932. The schooner was purchased the next year by radio personality Phillips Lord, whose character was known as Seth
Parker. After the installation of a Diesel engine, the ship was rechristened Seth Parker after Lord's character. He then put
the ship into service in the South Pacific intended for use as a floating radio/research station. The Georgette/Seth Parker
was eventually used as a ‘beached movie theater’ off Kane`ohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii, until she burned in 1945. There
are notable striking similarities in all the ships of the Hind, Rolph & Company fleet. Note the ‘third’ layer
of planking along the ‘waist’ of the Seth Parker, just as is found on the other ships (such as Puako) in the fleet,
built 20 years earlier.
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