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Photo taken by Sidney Emison 1975. Provided by his daughter, Lori Deibel | |
On Saturday, March 8, 1975, the Golden Hinde II sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge after a 5-1/2 month, 13,000 nautical mile voyage from Plymouth, England. This replica of Sir Francis Drake’s square-masted ship was built to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Drake’s landing, and to make money for the three San Francisco businessmen that spent $500,000 to build it in a shipyard in Devon, England. It arrived in San Francisco Bay to much fanfare, and hundreds of small boats joined the ship to welcome it to the bay. Among those boats was the El Sid, a 32-foot single-masted sailboat skippered by Sidney Emison, who took this magnificent shot of the Golden Hinde. According to the New York Times, “following a 21‐gun salute from the Army Presidio and with a Coast Guard escort, helicopters flying overhead and hundreds of private boats clustering around her, the vessel pulled in at Pier 41 near Fisherman's Wharf.” The Golden Hinde remained in the Bay Area as a tourist attraction until 1979, when she sailed to Japan for the filming of the movie Shogun. She returned to England in 1980 via the Indian Ocean, and then spent the next 17 years traveling the globe. In 1996, she was permanently docked in London, where she has become a history museum. |
