West coast lumber trade

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The West coast lumber trade was a maritime trade route on the west coast of the United States. It carried lumber from the coast of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California to the port of San Francisco.

As late as the California Gold Rush, New England lumber was still carried 13,000 miles around Cape Horn to San Francisco. But that started to change when Captain Stephen Smith (of the bark George Henry) established the first west coast lumber mill in a redwood forest near Bodega, California, in 1843. By the mid-1880s, more than 400 such mills operated in California's Humboldt Forest region alone.^[1]

At first, the lumber was shipped in old square-riggers, but these ageing ships were inefficient as they required a large crew to operate and were hard to load. Soon local shipyards opened to supply specialist vessels. One such yard was opened in 1865 by Hans Bendixsen at Fairhaven, California. Bendixsen built many vessels for the lumber trade, including the C.A. Thayer, now preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. He constructed ninety-two sailing vessels between 1869 and 1901 including thirty-five three-masters.^[1]

The lumber schooners were built of the same Douglas fir as the planks they carried. They had shallow drafts for crossing coastal bars, uncluttered deck arrangements for ease of loading, and were especially handy for maneuvering into the tiny, Northern California ports. Many West Coast lumber schooners were also rigged without a topmast, a configuration referred to as being baldheaded. This rig simplified tacking into the strong westerlies when bound north. Crews liked baldheaders because no topmast meant no climbing aloft to shift or furl the sails. If more sheet was desired then it could be set flying by being hoisted from the deck.^[1]

Eventually, however, steam-powered vessels proved more dependable than sail, and railroads gained greater penetration of the coastal regions. Sailing vessels continued to compete with steam ships and railroads well into the 20th-century, but the last purpose-built lumber schooner was launched in 1905.^[1]