Ghost Ships of the San Francisco Bay
After a long pandemic pause, the Corinthian Speaker Series will return in 2022. At the first event on Thursday, February 3, Pat Broderick and Garland Sloan will present Ghost Ships of the San Francisco Bay.
The program will start at 7 p.m. in the grand ballroom at Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon. Masks are required, but reservations are not, and admission is free.
The first ship to enter San Francisco Bay was the Spanish packet San Carlos, commanded by Lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala, on August 5, 1775. The San Carlos departed September 18, 1775. Since that day, not all ships have departed the Bay — or arrived — successfully.
How many shipwrecks lie scattered on the floor of the Bay, or in nearby waters or in landfill? Few of us are aware of these relics from San Francisco’s maritime past, many of them forgotten for a century or more. Yet every day Bay Area residents pass over long-buried ships. Some Muni riders even tunnel through a ship on their daily commute. This program will bring to mind again some of the steam schooners, Gold Rush ships, Golden Gate wrecks and US Navy ships that forever remain ‘ghosts’ in our waters, if not in our memories.
Pat Broderick has sailed on San Francisco Bay since 1971. He became interested in San Francisco Bay nautical archeology when a tugboat engineer neighbor came home with wine bottles from a Gold Rush-era ship uncovered by construction along the old Embarcadero. Pat is well known to Bay Area racers, as both a race organizer and competitor, currently sailing his Wyliecat 30 Nancy.
A young US Navy Corpsman, Garland Sloan was aboard the USS Benevolence on the day it sank in 1950. Garland can, and will, recount his experience after the sinking with stunning recall and detail.
