More Coal to California
Returning to our earlier conversation about coal in California, check out
the web site on the Balclutha. Built in 1887 in Wales, her
maiden trip was to California with a load of coal, returning with a load of
California wheat. wheat was the valuable cargo, and British ships were know to
have sailed to California with loads of cobble stones as ballast. So the
British coal likely was not all that expensive. (Note even today, if you can
get a back-haul from a trucker you can get a significantly cheaper rate. I've
also heard of fairly inexpensive shipping rates in containers from Hawaii to
the mainland, as most freight is going TO Hawaii.)
Kyle K. Wyatt
Curator of History & Technology
California State Railroad Museum
Note my work address has changed to: kwyatt@parks.ca.gov
My personal address remains: kylewyatt@aol.com
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 8:31 PM
7 Comments:
From: "Don Ball" dlball@jps.net
> Wendell Huffman wrote:
> These bulk loads were generally loaded and unloaded by hand. At least the wheat was sacked.
I don't think that's quite true. As I recall the first grain elevator was built in Vallejo in the late 1860s so that it could load grain directly into the ships in bulk. Later elevators came shortly.
Don Ball
From: "Wendell Huffman" wendellhuffman@hotmail.com
A fairly recent book – "The way of a ship" (not the classic of the same name by Alan Villers) – points out that the development of steamships in the late 19th century resulted in a surge of sailing ship construction and activity due to the fact that the steamships couldn't carry enough coal, and sailing vessels were needed to stock coaling stations at strategic points. Now, if this was indeed true, then the coal may not have been truly a backhaul.
But what a miserable cargo! This same book recounts shifting loads (which had to be shoveled back into trim by the undermanned crews in unvented holds) and cargo ignited by spontaneous combustion (with iron ships sailing into port with their plates glowing red from the smoldering fires – and others simply lost without a trace). These bulk loads were generally loaded and unloaded by hand. At least the wheat was sacked.
From: "Bob Pecotich" bobpec@earthlink.net
Last time I was aboard Balclutha, she was still carrying a relatively large volume of ballast stones on her keel. They are especialy necessary to keep a tall ship upright.
Bob Pecotich
The Vallejo elevator notwithstanding, West Coast wheat (including Oregon and Washington) was generally sacked in the fields and shipped that way. The major transition to elevators began, I believe in the late 1890s and continued into the early 20th century. Hard West Coast wheat commanded a premium price on the European market, supporting the extra shipping costs handling the bagged product. In the 19th century the facilities handling wheat were generally referred to as "grain warehouses," not "grain elevators," reflecting what most of them were – notably the examples along the shore at Port Costa. There may also have been a few elevators here and there – of that I'm not so familiar.
Kyle K. Wyatt
Curator of History & Technology
California State Railroad Museum
Note my work address has changed to: kwyatt@parks.ca.gov
My personal address remains: kylewyatt@aol.com
From: "Larry Mullaly" lmullaly@jeffnet.org
Some local color on the issue of grain sacks. The Watsonville Pajaronian (August 17, 1871) reports the argument given by SP advance man, William B. Hyde. The railroad was behind schedule in building to Pajaro (later Watsonville Junction) and he was urging farmers to be patient and not to ship their grain to San Francisco by coastal schooner. The paper paraphrased him as follows:
"The advantages of the railroad over the old style of transportation are many. Freight can reach market at any day designated; there is less loss from leakage, for the reason that when grain is put on the cars here, the sacks are not handled until they reach the storehouse at Oakland or San Francisco, where each lot of grain is carefully examined by a man whose particular business it is to see that no sack is ripped or damaged, if so, repairs and sews up all rents. If farmers desire their grain transported to San Francisco a large ship is ready at Oakland wharf, which runs night and day, provided with tracks and without rehandling sacks the cars are run on to this ship, and loaded as they started, are bodily transported to Second Street wharf."
Larry Mullaly
From: "Wendell Huffman" wendellhuffman@hotmail.com
" ... The coal used was from Corral Hollow, and is pronounced superior to that produced from Mount Diablo ... ".
While it may not actually require a previous locomotive test of Mt Diablo coal, this passage conveys the strong implication of some kind of familiarity with the characteristics of Mt Diablo coal.
W.
After all, Mt Diablo coal has been in use in the Bay Area for at least
several years - both Vulcan and Union Iron works built locos for the mining
railroads in 1867 - and I'd expect these burned coal from the start.
Kyle K. Wyatt
Curator of History & Technology
California State Railroad Museum
111 "I" Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
My work address is: kwyatt@parks.ca.gov
My personal address is: kylewyatt@aol.com
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