An Incredible Hulk: The Storeship Globe by Christine Parker Smith Gold seekers arriving at San Francisco in the 1850s found the anchorage cluttered with hundreds of abandoned ships, their spars a "forest of masts ." It is less well-known that the levee at Sacramento City had its share of hulks as well. In 1850 Samuel C. Upham described the scene: "The Levee for a mile along Front Street is lined with vessels, and in some places they are two deep. They number upwards of twenty ships and barks , and thirty brigs . There are also a large number of schooners and other small craft." The distance from San Francisco was 104 miles, the passage upriver taking from one to four days. Sacramento stood at the head of navigation and was "the natural metropolis for the rich and extensive mines of the north , south and middle forks, Yuba , Feather and Bear Rivers, Deer Creek , Cosumnes, Dry Creek and the Upper Sacramento, together with all the dry-diggings contiguous." Not every writer was as charmed as Upham; another journalist commented, " there is a superabundance of mud . . . . " The proximity to the diggings and ease of navigation on the river in the early 1850s led many mining companies to sail upri ver without disembarking at San Francisco. Indeed , the cost of freight from 'Frisco to Sacramento could easily be double what it cost to bring the same goods around the Hom. By May of 1850 there were thirty-three hulks along the levee in use as storeships. The "city" of canvas shacks had already been washed away twice over the winter of 1849-50. These abandoned vessels were more secure from flood or fire than the buildings ashore. They were used as stores , landing platforms from steamboats, warehouses and offices. One hulk served as the prison for the entire region . Some were bi.tilt up with large houses on deck, and others were stripped and used as wharf-ships . This was the only practical solution to the ever-changing river level , and the hulks were to be an essential part of the riverfront from 1849 to 1866. Today Old Sacramento lives anew, restored to look like it did in the period 1855-70. Streets have been cobbled, signs repainted, boardwalks replaced. Brick , stone and clapboard buildings of the Gold Rush Era stand here perfect and as if new. Yet the riverfront, just feet away, was until recently blocked from view by a massive concrete floodwall. The memory of a levee crowded with ships and steamboats seemed remote if not impossible . Now the City has embarked upon a restoration of the historic riverfront, which will include construction of ramps and sailing hulks to be used as landing platforms. Warehouses and depots for the California Steam Navigation Company and the Central Pacific Railroad are also being rebuilt. The first of the hulks , the floating storeship Globe, was launched thi s past October and has taken her place at the riverfront. When ramps and fixed moorage are completed she will serve as a landing platform for the many cruise boats arriving at Old Sacramento. The brig Globe was originally built at Westbrook , Maine in 1833. She measured 92ft 6in in length, 24ft l 3/4in in breadth , with a depth of 12ft 7/sin , and her register tonnage was 239 36/95. The recreation of Globe is of the same dimensions , with the exception that her tonnage has been reduced to save on stone ballast. The brig Globe brought the eleventh company of missionaries from Boston to the Sandwich Islands in 1844 . One of the Gold Rush fleet in 1849 , her enrollment was transferred to the port of San Francisco in February of 1850. By March of 1851 Globe was in use as a storeship between J and K Streets at Sacramento. A large house enclosed her deck aft, and a shed roof provided shelter forward . For many years she served as the office of the California Steam Navigation Com20
The floating storeship Globe, designed by Melbourne Smith, arriving at her berth on the Old Sacramento riverfront . Below, master shipwright Bill Elliott (center) looks on as the Globe leaves the shipyard on her one and only voyage-to have her masts stepped and to move to her permanent berth. She' Ii never go far , but a lot of water will pass under her keel! Photos by Shirley Burman .
pany , and at one time even had gas lighting aboard. By the time she was broken up in 1875 , the heydey of the steamboat trade on the river was also over. The new hulk Globe was built next to the new railroad depot at the foot of J Street by a team of builders under the direction of Melbourne Smith of the International Historical Watercraft Society and master shipwright William C . Elliott. Photo _documentation provided by the Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency and the city's History Department ensured that the recreated storeship could be as historically accurate as possible . She is roofed with hand-split cedar shakes, and her hull is painted to resemble the whitewashed sides of the original. Eventually canvas drop-curtains will enclose the deck for the rainy winter season. Like her predecessor, Globe will provide an ideal landing for Old Sacramento for years to come . u, SEA HISTORY , WINTER 1985-86