construction; her plates are 15/16ths of an inch at the keel to above the turn of the bilge, 3/4" to the deck, with 5/8" bulwarks. All other parts are proportionately heavy. She is no clipper! Her bows are full with only moderate flare, she has a noticeable tumble-home, and she is fat and plump in the rear; a dowager, stately, unruffled, and slow. The Star roamed the world carrying passengers, mostly emigrants, and cargo out from England to India, Australia, and New Zealand via Cape Hope, and homeward via Cape Horn, twenty-one circumnavigations in all until late in 1897 when she took her final farewell of the British Isles. Shaw Savill sold her to J. J. Moore of San Francisco in 1898 who put her under Hawaiian registry to circumvent United States law about foreign built ships. But Hawaii was about to disappear as a nation due to annexation to the United States. There followed ahout a year of snarled up red-tape in which she, along with some other vessels such as Star of Italy and Falls of Clyde, wallowed around bereft of any real nationality: certainly she was no longer British, she was not yet American by any means, and Hawaii as a sovereign nation had disappeared. All was solved by an Act of Congress specifically naming her and several others to American Registry on 14 June 1900. In January of 1901 she was sold to the Alaska Packers Association of San Francisco and wore that hailing port on her stern until 1927 when she was towed to San Diego. In 1906 she towed out the Golden Gate as Euterpe, just four days before the earthquake. In accordance with her owner's wish to have their ships' names commence with Star, she was given the name Star of India and returned to San Francisco under her new name. She made the annual run to Alaska for the salmon fishery there, carrying the men and supplies north, and the salmon pack south until one day, 30
August 1923, she arrived with over 20,000 cases of salmon; they and the crew were discharged. Thus ended the last of her sailing days as a cargo ship covering over 62 years of the hardest kind of sailing in all the world's climes. The Alaska Packers were converting to steam and one by one their sailers were being laid up. In 1927 the San Diego Zoological Society decided to establish an aquarium and felt that it would be a prime idea to have it in one of the many available square-rigged ships. Star of India was purchased and towed to San Diego in July 1927 and there to languish in that quiet sunny port, slowly to deteriorate in the sun, that most destructive of all natural forces on man's fabrications. By 1959 it became apparent that this could go on no longer, and she must be either scrapped or sunk. She was drydocked in November that year and the hull was found to be in very fine shape in contrast to decks, rigging, etc., which were not. I had always had a deep interest in the Star, but as Master of the refrigerated ship Westgate I was away too much to be of real help. But late in 1961 my ship was sold and I was free to take charge of the restoration, the story of which is a long and colorful one, a book in itself. We had more rust, dirt, and decay, and even skepticism, than anything else; but slowly the work progressed (and her debts as well) until by 30 May 1963 with all but her royals crossed, we opened to the public. We had received nothing of anyone's tax dollar nor did we want any. Star of India retired her debts in four and one-half years, and they were over $70,000.00. 14 November 1963 dawned gray and looked like rain in her 1OOth anniversary but the sky cleared and a grand party was held, with Captain Alan Villiers as honored guest. I had made a fore lower topsail for her, determined that on this occasion at least one sail would be set. The Star has done well over the years and is about as fully
restored as is possible, save only a few details. By 1973 we felt the need for more space; and a building ashore being out of the question, we acquired the veneralble old San Francisco Bay ferryboat Berkeley of 1898, the first successful propeller driven craft of that type on the West Coast. She is complete with boilers, engines (three cylinder triple) and stained glass clerestory-all of which were very run down; and to use understatement, in need of a bit of work. At about this time we also acquired the classic, graceful steam yacht Medea, restored and presented to us by the graciousness of Paul and the late Olive Whittier of Los Angeles. This little fleet of vessels is the Maritime Museum Association of San Diego which has no real problem that cannot be cu.red with money and which has a potential for the future of an excellent repository of marine lore. Having made our own sails about five years ago for the Star, often setting them at the pier ori balmy days, it is only natural that we should develop the desire to do this on open water. This was finally accomplished on the Fourth of July, 1976, accompanied by some 2,000 spectator boats and viewed by almost 300,000 people lining all possible vantage points of the entire San Diego Bay area. The problems involved in bringing about this event are almost unbelievable and will be the subject of some future volume or two. Even the drydocking became a sort of "Hairbreadth Harry" affair that ended far better than it began. The old ship is tighter than Scrooge's purse and has never leaked a drop during my fifteen years with her. Mute testimonial as to her condition was found after sandblasting: stamped into the surface of those massive one-inch thick plates, and in many areas below and above the water, one can easily read the plate maker's mark BRUNSWICK'S BEST . .t
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