William Bernard
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William Bernard was a 19th-century sailor, miner and resident of San Francisco, better known as the notorious "Barnacle Bill" of popular yore -- a rough-and-tumble, hard-drinking dock-swaggerer whose exploits are chronicled in the ribald drinking song "Barnacle Bill the Sailor."
Bernard first sailed into the San Francisco Bay aboard the ship Edward Everett, on July 6, 1849, just as the California Gold Rush was heating up. Intent on striking it rich, he set out the next morning across the bay, accompanied by a shipmate named Phelps. They stopped first at present-day Yerba Buena Island, where the treasure of a lost Spanish galleon was rumored by local sailors and dockworkers to be buried; but they found it deserted except for a small colony of domesticated goats. They did, however, discover the remains of a large Tuchayune fishing village on the island's eastern shore, and reported seeing cremation pits strewn with human bones, where Native Americans of the Bay Area ritually burned their dead. After camping for a few days on the small island, the two men moved on, exploring what is now Oakland, California before heading to the gold mines to seek their fortunes.
The degree to which any of the adventures of William Bernard are factual can only be imagined at. Following are a few opening verses of the bawdy drinking song which immortalized the fictional "Barnacle Bill". Each verse opens with the innocent inquiries of his intended paramour, the archetypal "Lovely Young Maiden" -- this part sung by one or more men in falsetto -- while Bill's profane responses are generally roared by the full chorus of participating merry-makers:
"Who's that knocking at my door? Who's that knocking at my door?
Who's that knocking at my door?" said the Lovely Young Maiden....
"Down with the door and onto the floor!" said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
"What is your intention, sir? What is your intention, sir?
What is your intention, sir?" said the Lovely Young Maiden....
"Just take off your shirt and you won't get hurt!" said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
"Will you take me to the dance? Will you take me to the dance?
Will you take me to the dance?" said the Lovely Young Maiden....
"To Hell with the dance and off with your pants!" said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
(This exchange goes on at length in myriad verses too crude to print. The number of additional verses devised over time by debouched sailors and others the world over is essentially limitless; "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" remains, to this day, an epic -- if tasteless -- work in progress.)
As to the fate of the real William Bernard, very little is known. However, he doesn't appear to have struck the Mother Lode in the gold mines. He returned to Goat Island at a later date, if only to dry out, living there for a time before once again moving on in search of fame and fortune.
