{"nrhp_refnum":"76000178","name":"BALCLUTHA","other_names":["Star of Alaska","Pacific Queen","Sailing Ship BALCLUTHA"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Pier 41 East","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Francisco","county":"San Francisco","state":"CA","lat":37.80981519100004,"lon":-122.42248099699998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-11-07","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1985-02-04","areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["national","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A steel-hulled, full-rigged British sailing ship launched in 1886 by builder Charles Connell, now berthed alongside Pier 41 East in San Francisco and used as a museum ship.","why_significant":"The nomination presents her as a typical British Cape Horn cargo carrier of the 1880s, with a long commercial career carrying cargo and grain to San Francisco, working in the lumber trade under the Hawaiian flag, and serving in the Alaska salmon trade. Her community-led restoration and role as a reminder of nineteenth-century sea transportation add to her importance.","narrative":"Balclutha is a steel-hulled, full-rigged British sailing ship launched in 1886, built by Charles Connell. She measures 301 feet overall with a 38.6-foot beam, and her masts are steel except for wooden topgallant masts. Her maiden voyage brought general cargo to San Francisco, and she returned to Europe with California grain, as hundreds of similar ships did each year in the 1880s and 1890s. In 1899 she entered the lumber trade under the Hawaiian flag, and Congress granted her United States registry in 1901. From 1902 she carried cannery workers north and canned salmon south for the Alaska Packers Association, and she was renamed Star of Alaska. Later she toured as the exhibition ship Pacific Queen and appeared in films. Deteriorated by 1952, she was bought by the San Francisco Maritime Museum Association and restored by volunteers, labor unions and local firms. She opened to the public as a museum in 1955 and recalls the hardships of Cape Horn seamen.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Charles Connell, Builder","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Restored to a close approximation of her original appearance and operated as a museum ship open to the public.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.613926-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/76000178.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000178/1ec09b7f58-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000178/1ec09b7f58-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Stan Shebs","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Balclutha_ship.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Stan Shebs</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Balclutha_ship.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861041","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balclutha_(1886)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q804713"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-francisco/balclutha-76000178/"}