J Porter Shaw Library

This is the coolest library in the USA… they had a picture of my G-​G-​Grandfathers clipper ship the Frank N Thayer… it is the only original I have found in all my years of research. Thanks to Gina and Ted for all your help… I’m so jealous. Y’all have the niftiest jobs in the world

WARNING!
Many errors of names, dates and of fact have been found in this book. Accept no information here without further verification.
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So reads the stamp on the first leaf that I find in a book that I’ve been searching for (California Shipwrecks by Don B. Marshall) in used book stores along the coast for a number of years. So much for what I’ve been told was the «Holy Grail» of California shipwreck information.
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I attended a meeting of the Pacifica Historical Society that had a presentation by Maritime Historian and Reenactor David Herzel about maritime history along the San Mateo County coast.
I have a big interest in local history and I’ve heard about a wreck off Pedro Point and wanted to find out the name and history of the ship.
It turns out that the she was the James Rolph, a four masted schooner of 586 tons that was wrecked on 8−3−10.
I found the information I was looking for but even more importantly I found other avenues of information that I want to follow. The thing about history is that when you find an answer to one question it opens doors to other questions that are equally if not more compelling than the origional.
While I was doing my initial research I compiled an even longer list of subjects that piqued my curiousity.
I will be back many times in the future.
The library is available by appointment only and FYI it’s not the kind that you check books out of, you have to make notes and while they do have a copy machine that you can use with a suggested donation not all materials are able to be copied.

The history of San Francisco is inextricably bound to the sea, and there could be no better academic resource for those interested in seafaring than the J. Porter Shaw Library. Under the aegis of the National Maritime Museum, the Library is open to the public at Fort Mason Center, although I hesitate to mention it, given the place has the ambiance of a private library, and a peace that I’d hate to disturb.
I’ve long had an interest in nautical history. Not so much the steam or working sail era, but the WWII-​era through the mid-‘60s. (I used to work for the Maritime Museum on-​board their WWII submarine, the «Pampanito», and I owned a 1950s BB-​11 class wooden sailboat at Napa St. Pier in Sausalito, if that helps establish my bona fides.)
The Shaw has a fascinating and extensive collection of books, periodicals, artifacts and so forth about every aspect of maritime history, especially as it relates to the Bay Area. Comfortable chairs and historic exhibits make it a very welcome setting for anyone with an interest in such matters.