SAN CARLOS approaching the Golden Gate
1775

Watercolor 14" x 21"


On the evening of August 5th. 1775, the small 79 foot Spanish paquebot SAN CARLOS became the first recorded European vessel to enter San Francisco Bay. She had been dispatched from San Blas to enter and chart the bay which had been seen five years earlier by Gaspar de Portola on an overland expedition, but its seaward entrance had never been discovered. In command of the expedition was twenty-nine year old Juan Manuel de Ayala. They met very poor conditions on the passage, taking three months to reach Monterey. After a month discharging cargo and making repairs, they made sail for the north on July 26th. Winds favored them for a few days, but off Point Año Nuevo they met the familiar northwesterlies, and it wasn’t until August 4th. that they were able to make the Farallon Islands. On August 5th, a half hour before sunset, the SAN CARLOS was about two miles south of Bonita Point, with a good southwest breeze and fair tide, and the entrance to the bay in sight. The launch, which had been sent ahead to sound the narrows, had disappeared behind Point San Jose, and as darkness fell the tide turned against them. The decision was made to continue, and with a moon rising ahead in a clear sky, at about 8:30 the SAN CARLOS passed through the narrows,. They held close to the north shore until the wind died and the tide began to take them backwards. Ayala ordered the anchor dropped and they lay the rest of the night in 22 fathoms of water to the west of what is now called Presideo Shoal. At six in the morning they were joined by the launch which had found a safe anchorage for the night inside the south side of the narrows.