SAUSALITO CMS MEETING, MAY 30, 2008

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SCHEDULE

MEETING NOTES

President Susan Caughey called the meeting to order in Sausalito at 9:45 AM. VP Phil Simon thanked the Corps of Engineers for allowing us to meet in the assembly room of the Bay Model that they administer. Colonel Bill Cope of the Corps of  Engineers welcomed us to the facility.

The first speaker was Charles Veley, the world's most traveled person and founder of the www.mosttraveledpeople.com website. He has visited 630 countries or specific entities. There are several systems for counting how many such places exist, and they keep expanding with time. One group said there were 314, Guinness 265, and ham operators say 335, John Todd 379, but the most traveled people website says between 573 and 673, again depending on your definition. Veley then illustrated several difficult places to reach: Bouvet Island in the south Atlantic, Peter I Island off Antarctica, Rockall off Scotland, and finally a motor trip from Moscow to Vladivostok in a rental car (returned to Moscow by a companion along with $700, the maximum deductible on the car insurance.) Charles Veley is a young man with wife and three small children living in San Francisco. It takes a young man to endure the rigors of challenging travel (and a LOT of money).

The next speaker was Ed Von der Porten, Nautical Archaeologist, and enthusiastic supporter of the Drake Navigators Guild, and co-author with Raymond Aker of Discovering Francis Drake's California Harbor. Drake's Golden Hind was 85 feet long and carried a crew of 60 and a lot of armament used to capture Spanish ships and ports. He did rather well, returning to England with a ballast of silver bars and gold coins with a total value of more than the Queen collected in taxes in a year. Drake's navigation was pretty good, within 10 miles of latitude on land, 30 miles at sea. Drake's landing was recorded at 38 degrees North latitude, the exact latitude of Point Reyes. Von der Porten then ticked off point after point of agreement with his conclusion that Drake's Bay is the proper location for the landing and careening of the Golden Hind. The description of the Coast Miwok Indians, the configuration of inner and outer harbors, the white cliffs, 14 days of continuous fog, the ability to sight the Farallon Islands, are all important hints. New evidence includes shards of porcelain pieces intermixed with pieces from a later 1595 wreck. Experts claim to be able to identify some of these as from 1579. The speaker presented a compelling study, probably able to convince anyone except Robert Power that Drake landed in fact at today's Drakes Bay behind Point Reyes.

Our next speaker was Sally Woodbridge, author of San Francisco in Maps and Views in cooperation with David Rumsey. Sally has written over 20 books on the buildings of the Bay Area and is a well-known architectural historian. Rizzoli Publishing approached her about putting together this work and it was published in 2006. It is a beautifully illustrated work including many of the best-known and important maps of the Bay Area. San Francisco was built on sand, a fact brought home by one of the later maps showing areas subject to liquefaction in the event of another major earthquake.
Those areas cover most of the flat parts of the city. San Francisco is without a doubt the most mapped and most sketched city in California if not the United States. Looking at maps and bird's-eye views gives us an easily followed history of the development of the city. The 1905 Burnham design for city adornment was stymied (perhaps fortunately) by the 1906 earthquake; otherwise the city might be crisscrossed with Paris type radial boulevards. San Francisco is already blessed with more than its share of difficult angled intersections. It was an enjoyable historical review of California's  wonderfully unique city.

Box lunches were distributed and enjoyed on tables outside the Corp's complex. The fog lifted and bright sunshine sparkled off the bay in front of our eyes as we ate. Members and guests enjoyed the chance to catch up on each other's lives.

We were next led on a tour of the San Francisco Bay/Delta Model by Colonel Cope,  who explained at length the history and use of this large covered facility. Originally built to house parts for Marinship, the shipyard built during World War II, it now houses the enormous water filled model at a scale of 1:1,000 horizontally, and 1:100 vertically. Copper tabs help simulate the natural water flow through the bay. Tides change and rivers flow into the model to replicate actual conditions. It was originally built to test an idea of turning the Bay into fresh and salt-water sections; that proved impractical, so the model was used for various studies till several years ago when computers took over this complex process. Now it is a teaching tool for the many children who visit the facility, and the occasional map person interested in small-scale three-dimensional maps. It is an impressive facility open to the public every day.

On reconvening we heard from Wood Lockhart, PhD, lecturer at Dominion University and former 747 pilot. He has been involved in the local history of Marin County and particularly Sausalito where he resides. This area was first mapped in 1775 from the Spanish ship San Carlos. William Richardson arrived in 1822; married into a Spanish family, became a citizen, and in 1838 was awarded a land grant of 19,570 acres, El Rancho del Sausalito. That was most of southern Marin County, including Sausalito where he built his home. Dr Lockhart described the development of the area, greatly enhanced in 1875 when the railroad arrived. Ferry service to San Francisco was quickly established and the area boomed. The ferry era ended in 1937 with the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. 1941 brought World War II and the Marinship shipyard to northern Sausalito. The first ship launched was the William A. Richardson, followed by 91 other ships, many of them T-2 tankers. Fortunately Sausalito has survived as a small town with great views and friendly people.
 

Dr. Norman Thrower next told us about the trials and tribulations of publishing the Third Edition of his universally admired work, Maps and Civilization, published by the esteemed University of Chicago Press, and issued in psperback. When Norman received the first copies several months ago he immediately called the book's editor. Was she sitting down? Look at the front cover - Civilization is misspelled "Civilizaton."  Authors have nothing to do with the cover, which is the publisher's responsibility. Three hundred of the edition of 1000 copies had been sent to book stores. They had to be  recalled. All 1000 copies (or as many as they can get back) must be destroyed. Paperback books cannot simply have the cover replaced; they must be reprinted in their entirety. If you ordered it and haven't seen the book yet, you now know why. If you have a copy with the misspelled cover, your editor will gladly pay you 1-1/2 times the book's cost plus shipping cost to get it. This is an instant classic. Want to see what it looks like? Go to Amazon.com and there in glorious color you can see the cover with its misspelling.

The CMS business meeting followed. President Caughey and other officers assured the audience the Society is solvent, growing, and will have an updated website shortly. Results of the officer elections were announced with all current office holders returned for another year's service.

The meeting adjourned at 4:15 PM, the room was returned to the order in which it was found, and a very tasty wine and cheese social hour commenced under the trees in front of the Bay Model where attendees admired the view of the Bay. The morning had started under high fog but the late afternoon was warm and sunny with little wind, a tribute to Phil Simon and all of those who helped make this meeting a very memorable one.