Travels through History
mail steamship, the Colorado, carrying hundreds of passengers,
wrecked along a rocky edge, and an outcry grew to install a fog
signal.
There are long, detailed lists and stories of shipwrecks
along the coast that depict various reasons for their demise,
including stormy weather, fog, and groundings.
Even today
several beaches have remnants of rusting iron, or eroding wooden
ships accessible to visitors; divers, too, are able to seek out the last
resting places of many of these vessels.
According to the Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks,
California was vital to the Union effort in the war, supplying gold
to help fuel the Union economy.
This is an important detail to
consider, specifically because it denotes the growing influence of
California as a state. Safe passage was critical to California as well
as to the entirety of the United States, which ensured that the
economy and lighthouse infrastructure found themselves on equal
footing.
Lists of the wrecks of these vessels, including passenger
indexes and details of cargo attest to how important the efforts
were to light the coastline. There cannot be a blanket statement that
indicates lighthouses ensured there were no more shipwrecks. It
can, however, be concluded that lighthouses were a definite factor
in guiding many more ships safely to harbor.
In 1848 the establishment of eight lighthouses along the
West Coast was authorized by the Department of Commerce, and
after the California coastline was surveyed, eventual placement of
the first group of lights was approved.
Secretary of the Treasury
Betty S. Veronico, Lighthouses of the Bay Area, Images of America (San
Francisco: Arcadia Pub, 2008).
California State Lands Commission, California Shipwrecks, accessed April
30, 2021, https://www.slc.ca.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2018/12/AnnieESmale.pdf.
W. Craig Gaines, Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks (Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 2008).
Dennis Noble, “California Naval History: A Brief History of U.S. Coast
Guard Operations in California,” accessed December 16, 2020,
http://www.militarymuseum.org/USCGinCA.html.