Story

The three-masted, riveted steel ship Balclutha was built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1886 “to the highest class in Lloyd’s Registry.” As a deepwaterman, Balclutha and a 26-man crew rounded Cape Horn with grain for Great Britain, and later ran Pacific Coast lumber to Australia. Each year as a salmon packet, the vessel carried hundreds of men (with boats and supplies) to the salmon fishing grounds of Alaska. She was rescued from decay by the San Francisco Bay Area community in 1954, and has been restored as a memorial to the men and times of the grand days of sail. Today the vessel hosts a slate of unique school education programs presented by the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association and is open to the public as part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.