USS Gridley (DD-92)-- Part 2: Aided the First Transatlantic Seaplane Flight

The Gridley was launched by Union Ironworks of San Francisco, California , om 4 July 1918, sponsored by Mrs. Francis P. Thomas, daughter of Captain  Charles Vernon Gridley, for whom the vessel was named.  (Find-a-Grave lists just one daughter, Katherine V. Gridley Buddy (1873-1957).

After fitting out at Mare Island Navy Yard, she departed San Diego on  14 March 1919, and transited the Panama Canal for maneuvers in Cuban waters then to Norfolk, Virginia, for repairs and then to New York City on 22 April 1919.

Its first assignment was with a group of destroyers posted along the route of the Navy's first transatlantic seaplane flight.  The Gridley and other destroyers used smoke and flares to guide the intrepid flyers and with the help of other surface ships, the N4 was successfully able to fly across the Atlantic and land in the Azores on 17 March  1919.

--Cooter

Ten World Engineering Marvels-- Part 1: Panama Canal and Golden Gate Bridge

From the History.com site by Christopher Klein.

These remarkable feats of design and construction transformed the ways that people travel, communicate and live.

For thousands of years, mankind has engineered some remarkable structures such as the pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China.  More recently, engineers have undertaken massive  transportation and communications projects  that have pushed the boundaries of human ingenuity.

I am just listing them and giving one or two facts about each.  The site has pictures and a lot more.

Here is a list of ten of them:

1.  PANAMA CANAL

52 miles long and opened in 1914

2.  GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

1,7 miles long (was the longest suspension bridge for  27 years)  Opened in 1937.  It's been wiped out in more than a few disaster movies so don't drive on it when they are shooting a movie about San Francisco.

--Cooter

USS Manchester (LCS-14)-- Part 2

The Independence -class variant littoral combat ship USS Manchester (LCS-14) is shown transiting the San Francisco Bay during the annual parade of ships event during the San Francisco Fleet Week 2018.

During Fleet Week, service members participate in various community service events, showcase capabilities and equipment to the community, and enjoy the hospitality of San Francisco and its surrounding areas.

--CooterAway

Ten April Days of Tragedy (April 11 to 20)-- Part 2: School Shootings and Industrial Accidents

**  APRIL 15, 2019:  Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris.

**  APRIL 16, 2007:  Mass shooting at Virginia Tech  (32 killed)

**  APRIL 17, 2013:  West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion  (15 killed)

**  APRIL 18, 1906:  San Francisco earthquake.  (Est. 3,000 to 6,000 killed)

**  APRIL 19, 1993:  Branch Dravidian Siege, Waco, Texas  (About 80 killed)

**  APRIL 19, 1995:  Oklahoma City Bombing  (168 killed)

**  APRIL 20, 1999:  Columbine High School in Colorado murders.  (13 students and one teacher killed)

**  APRIL 20, 2010:  Deepwater Horizon explosion in Gulf of Mexico (11 workers killed)

--DaCoot

The San Francisco School 'Hit List'-- Part 1: Hey, Baby, Let's Cancel Culture and Woke Up

Here is the list of schools targeted for name changes:

 Balboa

Lincoln

Mission

Washington

Lowell

Denman

Everett

Hoover

Lick

Presidio

Roosevelt

 Lawton

Claire Lilienthal (both campuses)

Revere

Alamo

Alvarado

Bryant

Clarendon (elementary and JBBP

More.  --DaCoot

About That Woke San Francisco School District

Some of the proposed school name might surprise you.

Abraham Lincoln High School

George Washington High School

Dianne Feinstein Elementary

Roosevelt Middle School

Jefferson Elementary

Alamo Elementary

Lincoln was "listed" because of his treatment of Indians.  Washington and Jefferson because they were slaveowners. Feinstein because, as mayor, she ordered a Confederate flag replaced after an early form of BLM destroyed one in a public display of flags of the United States.

One organization says that  there are more than 240 schools across the U.S. named for a Confederate leader.

--CootAlamo

San Francisco Goes Whole Hog Woke and Cancel Culture

From the November 30, 2020, Los Angeles Times "San Francisco may rename  42 schools, including  Lincoln Highand  Dianne Feinstein Elementary" by Faith E. Pinho.

There were 42 schools recommended for renaming.  For those of you counting, that's one third of their schools.

Some of the school's namesakes have already come under fire, including  California  missionary Father  Junipero  Serra and "Star-Spangled Banner" author Francis Scott Key.

Others, like  Abraham Lincoln and Senator  Dianne Feinstein, well, maybe the reasons are not so obvious.

Even the storied  magnet school Lowell High is on the last.  Its namesake  James Russell  Lowell was an abolitionist (Okay) but his writings.

--CootRidiculous

United States Warships: USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6)

From the Paralyzed Veterans of America 2021 calendar.   November 2020.  I wish I had known they had 2020 months on this as I would have opened it sooner than this month.

A photograph accompanies these ships each month.

USS BONHOMME RICHARD  (LHD-6)

The Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) transits underneath the Golden Gate Bridge during the Parade of Ships as part of San Francisco Fleet Week (SFFW) 2018

SFFW is an opportunity for the American public to meet their Navy, Marine and Coast Guard teams and experience America's sea services.

During fleet week, service members participate in various community service events, showcase capabilities and equipment to the community, and enjoy the hospitality of San Francisco and surrounding areas.

--CooterAway

The Peshtigo Firestorm-- Part 2: Deadliest Fire Ever in the U.S.

This list is compiled by the United States Geological Survey.

2.  Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood of 1889 which killed 2,200 people.

3.  Peshtigo, Wisconsin, forest fire which killed 1,200 people.

4.  San Francisco earthquake of 1906 which killed 700 people.

5.  The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 which went through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana and killed 695 people.

The authors of the book believe that the real Peshtigo death toll was over 2,500.  regardless, it still remains the deadliest fire in U.S. history.

--DaCoot

50th Anniversary "Summer Of Love"-- Part 5: "Turn On. Tune In. Drop Out"

Said Dennis McNally, longtime publicist of the Grateful Dead:  "Every fantasy about the summer of '67 that was ever created -- peace, joy, love, nonviolence, wear some flowers in your hair and fantastic music -- was real at Monterrey."  he has curated an exhibit at the California Historical Society on it which will run through September 10.

The exhibit, "On the Road to the Summer of Love" explains how the epic summer came about and why San Francisco became its home..

The national press paid little attention to what was going on in San Francisco until January 1967, when poets and bands joined together for the "Human-Be-In," a Golden Gate Park gathering that unexpectedly drew about 50,000 people.  It was there that LSD-advocate Timothy Leary said "Turn On.  Tune In. Drop Out."

But, that Summer of Love had its drawbacks.  Tens of thousands of youths looking for free love and drugs flooded to San Francisco, living in the streets and begging for food.  Parents journey to the city looking for their young runaways.  There was an epidemic of toxic psychedelics and harder drugs hit the streets.

Oh yes, And Peace Signs Too.  --FlowerCoot

50th Anniversary "Summer of Love"-- Part 4: All Those Great Bands

Jefferson Airplane eventually bought a house a few blocks away on Fulton Street, where they hosted legendary wild parties.

"The music is what everyone seems to remember, but it was a lot more than that," said David Freiberg, 75, bassist for the Quicksilver Messenger Service who later joined the Jefferson Airplane.  "It was artists, poets, musicians, all those beautiful shops of clothes and hippie food stores.  It was a whole community."  Counter-culture all the way.

The bands dropped by each other's houses and played music nearby, often in free outdoor concerts at Golden Gate Park and its eastward extension known as the Panhandle.

They developed an exciting new breed of folk jazz and blues-inspired electrical music which became known as the San Francisco Sound.  Several of its most influential local acts -- the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company (which launched Janis Joplin's career) became famous during the summer of 1967's Monterrey Pop Festival.

--CootFarOut

50th Anniversary "Summer of Love"-- Part 3: Too Expensive Today

One thing for sure, that "Summer of Love" could not happen in San Francisco today, simply because the struggling artists and hippies could not afford the city anymore.  In the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, ground zero for the counterculture 50 years ago, a two-bedroom apartment now rents for $5,000 a month.

San Francisco does still remain a magnet for young people, but even those with six-figure salaries in Silicon Valley complain about costs.

In the mid-1960s, rent in the Haight-Ashbury was extremely cheap.

Bob Weir remembers that the Grateful Dead shared a spacious Victorian on Ashbury Street.  Janis HJoplin lived down the street.  Across from her was Joe McDonald, of the Country Joe and the Fish band.

--Psychedelic, Man.  --Coothip

50th Anniversary of "The Summer of Love"-- Part 2: I Was There For About An Hour

San Francisco is hoping to capitalize on its connection to that summer and get a new influx of tourism, both from those originals, those of us who might have wanted to be there as well as those too young or not born yet.

My parents took the family on a trip out to California that year and we drove through the Haight-Asbury area and it sure was all flower power.  But, since I was with my parents and only 16, there obviously wasn't much I did other than to observe.

The city is celebrating with museum exhibits, music and film festivals, Summer of Love-inspired dance parties and lecture panels.  Hotels are offering discount packages that include "psychedelic cocktails," "Love Bus" tours, tie-dyed tote bags and bubble wands.

Getting Psychedelicized.  --Tie-DyeCoot

50th Anniversary of the "Summer of Love" 1967-- Part 1

From the June 14, 2017, Chicago Tribune "Can 'Summer of Love' get its spring back?" by Jocelyn Gecker.

"They came for the music, the mind-bending drugs, to resist the Vietnam War and  1960s American orthodoxy, or simply to escape summer boredom.  And they left an enduring legacy.

"This season marks the 50th anniversary of that legendary 'Summer of Love,' when throngs of American youth descended on San Francisco to join a cultural revolution."

Said Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, who had dropped out of high school and helped form the group in 1965:  "There was a spirit in the air.  We figured that if enough of us got together and put our hearts and minds to it, we could make it happen."

--DaHippy

Secret Alcatraz Tunnel Found in 2014

From the Feb. 28, 2014, Yahoo! News "Under the Rock: Alcatraz's secret tunnel discovered" by Mike Krumboltz.

Researchers from Texas A&M, using ground penetrating radar discovered a network of tunnels under the island in San Francisco Bay.

These tunnels date from the 1800s when there was a fort on the island (before it became a prison). They also found a building that was used for a magazine for the powder and shells.

Alcatraz became an infamous federal prison and shut down in 1963 over fears of the Bay Area weather impacting on the walls and the escape of three prisoners.

Wouldn't It have Been Something Had Those Tunnels Been Made By Escaping Prisoners.  --Cooter

The San Francisco 1906 Earthquake in True Color

From the March 10, 2011, Yahoo! News.

Museum volunteers have found perhaps the only color photographs to be taken of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire.  Six never-before-published images taken by photo-innovator Frederick Eugene Ives several months after the April earthquake have been found.  Most were taken from the roof of a hotel where he was staying in October.

They had been stored all these years with a collection of items donated by his son, Herbert Ives.

They were discovered in 2009by National Museum of American History volunteer Anthony brooks when cataloguing the collection.  Hand-colored photos of the even have surfaced before, but this is probably the only ones still in color.

Ives was one of the few photographers back then with expertise with color and these pictures were to be 3-D in a device he invented that never caught on.  It is known for sure that he visited San Francisco in October, but it is also possible that he might have been there earlier.

Of interest, Ives is also known for inventing the halftone reproduction process still used to print photos in newspapers.

Check them Out.  --Cooter

The Russians Are Coming! Showing the Flag and Fighting Fires-- Part 3

While the Russian Pacific Fleet was in San Francisco, a major fire broke out October 23, 1863 in the city's Financial District. City firemen were losing the battle until a boat load of Russian sailors arrived and took the places of the worn out firemen and conquered the fire.

Unfortunately, six of the sailors gave their lives and are believed to have been buried on Mare Island. Three of the sailors are buried in a grave marked "Unknown Russian Sailors. The names of three are known: Artemy Trapeznekov, Yakov Butorin and Karl Koit.

Their graves have long since been damaged and disappeared.

OTHER RUSSIAN VISITS

On September 11, 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian cruiser Lena sailed into San Francisco Bay seeking repairs. It had to leave in 48 hours or remain for the duration of the war due to US neutrality.

The ship's captain claimed the boilers were in bad shape and a US delegation inspected the ship and decided he was correct. The Lena was escorted to Mare Island in Vallejo, California where it remained for the rest of the war.


DEPARTURE OF CURRENT RUSSIAN VISIT

The flotilla of Russian ships, led by the Varyag, departed from San Francisco June 25th.

US-Russian Relations in the Pacific. --Cooter

The Russian Are Coming! The Varyag and the Civil War Visit-- Part 2

Two days ago, I wrote about this vessel, the flagship of Russia's Pacific Fleet becoming the first Russian surface vessel to visit San Francisco since the Civil War.

Thanks to Wikipedia.

It was commissioned in 1989, is 611.5 feet long, has a 68.2 foot beam, has 480 crew and can cruise at 32 knots.

It mounts quite a few guided missiles.

Two Russian squadrons visited the US between 1863 and 1864 in support of the Union war effort and to thwart England and France in their support for the Confederacy. The Russian Atlantic fleet went to New York City, Baltimore, Annapolis, Hampton and also the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

The Russian Pacific fleet visited San Francisco under Rear Admiral A.A. Popov and consisted of the corvettes Bagatyr, Kalevala, Rynda, Norvik and the clippers Abrek and Gaidamak. These ships sailed from Far Eastern ports.

More to Come. --Cooter

The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming!!-- Part 1

From the June 22nd San Francisco Chronicle.

Well, actually, they've come and gone by now, but still an interesting story.

The first Russian surface ship in 147 years, the Cruiser Varyag, the flagship of Russia's Pacific fleet, made an appearance in the harbor. This is the first Russian ship since 1863 when Czar Alexander II sent his fleet to San Francisco and New York City to show Russia's support for the Union during the Civil War.

A Russian/Soviet submarine did come into San Francisco Bay back during World War II.

Six Russian ships led by a rear admiral entered the bay. Britain was considering recognizing the Confederacy and the French were about to send troops into Mexico. Confederate raiders were sailing in the Pacific.

While in San Francisco, Russian sailors helped fight a huge fire and six lost their lives.

Russians in SF!!! --DaCoot

World War Submarine Veterans Memorial

From the March 25th San Diego Tribune Union.

At Liberty Station in Point Lomo there is a memorial honoring World War II submariners and the submarines that never made it home. You can go on a walking tour past 52 granite slabs with etchings, one for each of the US submarines and their crews lost during the war.

This memorial comes after a ten year effort of the San Diego chapter of United States Submarine veterans. You will also find 52 Liberty American elm tress planted on the grounds.

The fairwater part of the conning tower of the USS Roncudar is also there.

The memorial is located at Sub Base Point Lomo, San Diego, California.

Something Else to See the Next Time I'm in San Diego. --Cooter