PBA Galleries

One page, on single sheet of lined paper 15.5x20 cm. (10x8").

Letter mentioning the presence of Russian ships in San Francisco Bay, which helped deter the Confederate Navy from attacking. Charles James writes: "On receipt of this order, you will proceed at once with the Shubrick to Mare Island to have a rifled Cannon put on board of her. And remain until the work is finished. taking with you any carpenters you may require who are qualified for the work. You will also take as guests any officers in the Russian Service who may desire to accompany you on the expedition." The letter reflects an uncomfortable time for the citizenry of San Francisco, and support from our Russian friends. The city's residents were living in daily fear of bombardment by Confederate cruisers, and in October 1863, the week that this letter was written, heavily-armed warships of the Czarist Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet anchored in San Francisco Bay, offering some modicum of protection. Prior to their arrival, the only armed US vessel in the harbor was the U.S. Revenue Cutter Shubrick, a small steamer had no heavy armament. Her commander was Lt. Charles Melville Scammon, the recipient of this letter, a former whaling Captain from Maine who became so fascinated by the grey whales he had hunted off Baja California that he later turned naturalist, publishing the 1874 scientific classic, The Marine Mammals of the North-western Coast of North America. When he received this order from the Collector of Customs, Scammon had already endeared himself to the Russians by helping rescue 160 men of a Czarist warship which had been wrecked off Point Reyes.