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Historical Overview of the Journey to California by Sea
A Ripping Trip by Harriette Shakes
A visual literacy and primary source-based curriculum
Grade 4, Volume 1
Oakland Museum of California Education Department
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The World, 1849 "You go aboard a leaky boat, bound for San Francsico..." begins the verse to a popular song of the Gold Rush period, "A Ripping Trip." The song gives a tongue-in-cheek description of a steamship passage to San Francisco. About half the argonauts walked or rode overland on foot, horse, mule or in ox-drawn wagons, but the other half came by sea. While both land and sea journeys brought a diverse group of people to Caliofnria, it was the maritime voyage that made Calfiornia an interantional crossroad. Aboard ship, some called it "going to see the elephant," after a popular phrase of the day. Others wanted to reach Gam Saam, or the land of Golden Mountains, and many called it Eldorado (from the Spanish dorar: to gild). Seemingly overnight, the word California became a global term signifying a magical place of unbelievable riches. Although the marjority of the sea-travelers were from within the United States, a significant number came from other lands. Many sailed from Australia, Hawaii, Chile, Peru and China countries of the Pacific Rim and others came from Europe. why and how did they come? From 1769 to 1848, what is now California was home to a cattle-ranching community of Californios, a few missionary priests and California Indians. By 1832, Caliofrnia was known to Mexican settlers of the Southwest as a frontier province of newly independent Mexico. However, it was exceedingly difficult to reach due to its geographical barriers an ocean to its west and the steep, forbidding Sierra, flanked by a seemingly endless desert, on its eastern border.
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From the beginning of the Spanish colonization of California, ships connected this frontier outpost to glaobal trade. Sailors and adventurers called from time to time at California's main ports of San Diego, Monterey and Yerba Buena (later named San Francisco). The annual Manila galleon, fllowing the California Current, sailed downt he coast on its way to Acapulco, but rarely stopped. Once English navigator James Cook made the first European contact with the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) in 1778 thereby locating a much-needed stopping point for water and fresh food ship traffic in the northern Pacific became more frequent. Over time, as sailing technology, port facilities and knowledge of currents and weather patterns improved, the Pacific Ocean became less of a barrier and more of a watery highway to North American's western coast. In addition, since Mexico's independence from Spain, California's ports were now open to ships of other nations. As ship traffic grew, trade between Pacific and Atlantic ports increased. Looking for new markets in the Pacific, American ships joined those from other lands and began to call at California ports. California played a role in the fur trade with China. Later, the hide and tallow trade linked it to eastern American and European ports. Whaling ships cruising the north Pacific stopped for water and fresh food along California's coasts. Ranchero accounts tell lively stories of trading hides and tallow for goods from these floating "stores." The ships brought silks, teas and herbs, china plates and dishes, shoes, books and most of all news of the world beyond. China During the 1840's, world news was troubled. South China, particularly the region of the Guandong province, was a center of social unrest. Poverty was widespread. he government's capitulation to British mercantile interests in the Opium Wars of the 1840's led to a continuing flow of money out of the country, and a loss of prestige within it. From 1846 to 1848, flood and famine spread throughout southern China, and poverty deepened as the population grew. Uprsings agains the government eventually led to the Taiping Rebellion of the 1850's. |
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