Ship Retraces Legacy of Once-Mighty Bay Shrimp

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Before docking at Hyde Street Pier, passengers get a close glimpse of Alcatraz Island. Photo by Ethan Bien/Bay Nature

By Jimmy Tobias, Bay Nature

Captain John Muir sails the Grace Quan into a small basin in South San Francisco, as spectators gather on shore to watch the wooden boat slice through the choppy waters. Muir, who is not directly related to the famous naturalist with whom he shares a name, smiles as he tacks back and forth in a tight zigzag pattern. “Showtime!” he says.
The boat’s single sail is taut against the wind and its wide rudder strains against the muddy waves. The onlookers cheer and clap on this cool September afternoon.
The Grace Quan, owned and operated by the National Park Service, is a replica of the Chinese ships that sailed these waters during the heyday of San Francisco’s commercial shrimp fishery in the late 1800s. It is on a weeklong voyage around the San Francisco Bay, sailing from Richmond to Redwood City to San Francisco and then San Rafael to visit the old Chinese fishing camps that once hugged the estuary’s shore.

Read the complete story at Bay Nature. 

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