Between 1853 and 1953, ships of all types – clipper ships, barks, schooners, steamers — sailing the central California Coast fell victim to Pigeon Point’s unpredictable weather and rocky shoreline.

Each shipwreck is an important portal to our past, a significant part of our maritime heritage, linking us to unforgettable times. If it is true that every ship has her own soul, then every shipwreck has a spirit waiting to be rediscovered. It is a voyage worth taking.

Second Printing!

SHIPWRECKS, SCALAWAGS AND SCAVENGERS, The Storied Waters of Pigeon Point

by JoAnn Semones.

• Hard cover
• 55 photos & Illus., biblio, index.
• ISBN 978-1-889901-42-8
• Price: $24.95

Author JoAnn Semones made her mark as a maritime historian with her fascinating book, Shipwrecks, Scalawags and Scavengers, the Storied Waters of Pigeon Point. In this, her most recent work, she has focused her attention farther north, to the shipwrecks of Point Montara, just a few miles south of San Francisco.

California Writer John Steinbeck referred to this treacherous strip of shore between Montara and Half Moon Bay as “the hard luck coast.” Along this foggy, final approach to San Francisco, vessels were forced to hug the perilous shoreline, putting them in danger of its rocky outcroppings and unruly seas.

From 1851 to 1946, dozens of ships sank in the notorious corridor between Montara and Half Moon Bay. Each shipwreck represents a separate, yet integrated piece of history, linking us to the past. JoAnn Semones tells the stories of these disasters and near disasters in a scholarly, yet affectionate style that is both easy to read and informative. Here we learn the history of each of these shipwrecks and the lives of the people involved with them — from captain and crew to shipowner to those in the salvage trade to lighthouse keepers to life savers — it is all there.

HARD LUCK COAST, The Perilous Reefs of Point Montara

by JoAnn Semones.

• Hard cover
• 208 pages, 7 x 10, 70 photos & illus., biblio., index
• ISBN 978-1-889901-51-0
• Price: $26.95

A marvelously detailed and illustrated book about the Glory of the Seas, built in 1869— the exciting grain runs between Sydney and San Francisco, bucking dirty weather off Cape Horn, plying the Atlantic to England; the men who sailed her, owners, brokers, charterers. Good human interest stories.

GLORY OF THE SEAS

by Michael Jay Mjelde.

• Hard cover, 320 pp, 40+ photos & illustrations
• ISBN 1-889901-18-0
• Price: $30

The wonderfully-named Glory of the Seas was the last clipper built by Donald McKay, builder of Flying Cloud, Stag Hound and other legendary ships.

This is a fascinating look at ships in the Cape Horn trade, racing from San Francisco to Europe, and at the life of a master of a crack clipper ship in the last days of the Age of Sail.

CLIPPER SHIP CAPTAIN

Daniel McLaughlin and the GLORY OF THE SEAS

by Michael Jay Mjelde.

• Hard cover, 256 pp, 60 photos & illustrations
• ISBN 1-889901-04-9
• Price: $30

Opens a window on the 19th century when sailing ships traversed the globe in search of cargo. And what cargoes they were! Coal, brooms, ice, laths, skins, staves, hay, bacon, nails, oil, peas, guano, grain, rum...

Revere’s 123 voyages provide a unique look back at merchant shipping in the Age of Sail.

THE VOYAGES OF THE SHIP REVERE, 1849-1883

by M. R. Gleason.

• Soft cover, 192 pp, 43 charts, tables, photos
• ISBN 0-9637586-2-4
• Price: $15.95