"Pacific Coast Ship China identifies and dates more than 280 china patterns once used along the Pacific coast of North America in coastal, intercoastal and transPacific services. It covers china used on vessels and in-shore establishments of shipping organizations registered in Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Hawaii." "In addition to passenger vessels, it documents the china used by freighter operations, oil companies, government services and yacht clubs. An important feature of this book is a chapter containing brief histories of 73 companies and government agencies that operated ships on the Pacific coast." "This easy-to-use guide is an important resource for collectors, divers and anyone interested in the history of Pacific-coast transportation or commerce." --Book Jacket.
The wooden, sidewheel-paddle steamship China boldly carried transpacific ocean passengers and freight 6,500 hazardous nautical miles from San Francisco, California, to Yokohama, Japan, and Hong Kong, China, between October, 1867 and June, 1879. She helped unite the East and West coasts of the United States, and developed trade between the youngest and one of the oldest civilizations in the world. China was the final and greatest steamship designed and constructed by one of the United States? preeminent wooden shipbuilders, William Henry Webb. She voyaged alone around South America from New York to San Francisco to begin her transpacific service. However, China?s longevity in trans-ocean trade was threatened from the outset. Sure enough, in 1879 the United States Congress mandated that future ships under its contracts must be constructed of iron with screw propellers. After 12 years of sterling performance, China was retired from the transpacific ocean trade, and served on west coast routes before being used as an quarantine ship. China was dismantled and burned in Tiburon, California in 1889. This book includes adventures of China?s famous cabin passengers on the transpacific route, including William Seward, who embarked three years and five months after he completed the purchase of Alaska by the United States Congress from Russia, and Anson Burlingame representing the Emperor of China in negotiations to improve relationships between the two great countries. This book describes the large number of steerage passengers, sometimes 1,200 on a single voyage from Hong Kong to San Francisco, creating violent opposition from the labor unions to this flood of cheap labor into America. During the dismantling of China her aft deckhouse was saved as a dwelling. Surviving as a residence for 90 years, the aft deckhouse was restored in 1979 by the Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society. Named China Cabin, and used as a museum and meeting-place, it is the only structural survivor in the world of a ship built by William Henry Webb. Hillary Don February 20, 2013
Oceans and Seas is an authoritative and comprehensive guide to Earth's great bodies of water. Each volume contains a wealth of information, including physical features--"surface area and depth, how the ocean was formed, plate movements, coastlines, islands, and more; climate--"including tides, currents, trade winds, hurricanes, and tsunamis; marine life; the history of human settlement along the shores; transportation and navigation; natural resources; and current threats--"including the effects of pollution, overfishing, and mining. Numerous maps, charts, fact boxes, and primary source quotations supplement the text. Supporting both the science and social studies curriculum, this series is truly an indispensable resource.
The first detailed account of the rise and fall of the maritime branches of two of Canada’s great transcontinental railways of the early twentieth century: the Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian Northern.
