Domingo Marcucci Jugo (

Maracaibo ) , motto = "''Muy noble y leal''"(English: "Very noble and loyal") , anthem = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_alt = ...

, 1827 -

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, 1905), was a

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n born 49er,

shipbuilder Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

and

shipowner A ship-owner is the owner of a merchant vessel (commercial ship) and is involved in the shipping industry. In the commercial sense of the term, a shipowner is someone who equips and exploits a ship, usually for delivering cargo at a certain frei ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. He owned or captained some of the many steamships, steamboats, ferries, and sailing ships he built at San Francisco and elsewhere on the Pacific coast. Scott, Erving M. and Others, ''Evolution of Shipping and Ship-Building in California, Part I'', Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, Volume 25, January 1895, pp.5-16
from quod.lib.umich.edu accessed March 10, 2015

Early life and education

Domingo Marcucci was born in

Maracaibo ) , motto = "''Muy noble y leal''"(English: "Very noble and loyal") , anthem = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_alt = ...

(

) on April 28, 1827, to Juan Bautista Marcucci, a native of

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the cap ...

(

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

), and Catalina Jugo, a native of Caracas (Venezuela). He came to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in the 1840s to study American shipbuilding techniques at the behest of the Venezuelan government. He worked as an apprentice in the shipyard of Mathew Van Duzen, the Byerly and Van Dusen Shipyard in Philadelphia.

Shipbuilding in California

At the age of 22, Domingo Marcucci came to start a shipyard in San Francisco from Philadelphia. He came from Panama in the

Pacific Mail Steamship Company The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants. Incorporators included William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett (American consul ...

steamship ''SS Oregon''. Arriving on September 18, 1849, within days they began assembling a knock-down steamboat, previously delivered, on the beach of

Yerba Buena Cove Yerba Buena Cove was a cove on San Francisco Bay where the Mexican pueblo of Yerba Buena was located. It lay between Clarks Point to the north (southeast of Telegraph Hill, near the corner of Broadway and Battery Streets) and Rincon Point to t ...

at Happy Valley, at the foot of Folsom Street, east of Beale Street. Marcucci's company assembled the ''Captain Sutter'' in six weeks. Built for George W. Aspinwall, brother of

William Henry Aspinwall William Henry Aspinwall (December 16, 1807 – January 18, 1875) was a prominent American businessman who was a partner in the merchant firm of Howland & Aspinwall and was a co-founder of both the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and Panama Can ...

, it was the first steamboat that ran between San Francisco and Stockton, in 1849. Nancy J. Olmsted, Vanished Waters: A History of San Francisco's Mission Bay", Mission Creek Conservancy, 1986, Chapter 7, Steamboat Point, 1851-1864
from foundsf.org accessed February 19, 2015 Also for the Pacific Mail, Marcucci next converted the 153 ton side-wheel steamboat ''El Dorado'' that had been rigged as a 3 masted schooner for the trip around

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...

, to be used for the

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

run. Subsequently, in March 1850, for the same company, he assembled the ''Georgiana'', a small 30 ton side-wheel steamboat made in Philadelphia, knocked down and sent by sea also for the Sacramento run. That April ''Georgiana'' pioneered the shortcut route between Sacramento and Stockton through a

slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...

in the

Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, or California Delta, is an expansive inland river delta and estuary in Northern California. The Delta is formed at the western edge of the Central Valley by the confluence of the Sacramento and San ...

that was between the

Sacramento River The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–S ...

and

Mokelumne River The Mokelumne River ( or ; ''Mokelumne'', Miwok for "People of the Fish Net") is a -long river in northern California in the United States. The river flows west from a rugged portion of the central Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada into the Ce ...

, which afterward became known as

Georgiana Slough Georgiana Slough, is a slough within Sacramento County, California. It is located in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, and links both the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River above their confluence in the Delta near Pittsburg, at the ...

. In the 1858, Marcucci moved to a shipyard at Steamboat Point, around Fourth and King Streets on Mission Bay. Here he built the side-wheel steamboat ''Flora Templeton'' in 1859, the

barkentine A barquentine or schooner barque (alternatively "barkentine" or "schooner bark") is a sailing vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts. Modern barquentine sailing r ...

''Monitor'' in 1861, the side-wheel steamer '' Cyrus Walker'' for the Puget Sound in 1864 and the propeller steamer ''Reliance'' for the Alviso Transportation Company in 1866. From 1866 to 1869, using Henry B. Tichenor’s Second Street

marine railway The patent slip or marine railway is an inclined plane extending from shoreline into water, featuring a "cradle" onto which a ship is first floated, and a mechanism to haul the ship, attached to the cradle, out of the water onto a slip. The ...

, Marcucci built the stern-wheeler ''Pioneer'', the twin screw propeller steamer ''Santa Cruz'' in 1868 and the large propeller steamer ''Vallej''o for the California Pacific Railroad Company in 1869.

Later life

Marcucci was appointed assistant inspector of steam vessels for the port of San Francisco, by the Treasury Department, in December, 1890. On September 2, 1893, he was struck on the head by a falling timber while inspecting the railroad ferry ''Thoroughfare'' in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. He survived a fractured skull, recovered and continued to work. He resigned the position in January 1900 and retired. Domingo Marcucci died in 1905, and was buried in the San Francisco Columbarium.

References

External links

Photograph of Captain Marcucci, from EVOLUTION OF SHIPPING AND SHIP—BUILDING IN CALIFORNIA. II, Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, Volume 25, 1895, January 1895, p. 12
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcucci, Domingo American shipbuilders American businesspeople in shipping Businesspeople from San Francisco 1827 births 1905 deaths People of the California Gold Rush People from San Francisco Venezuelan emigrants to the United States Venezuelan people of Dominican Republic descent Venezuelan people of Italian descent People in 19th-century California 19th-century American businesspeople

Early life and education

Shipbuilding in California

Later life

See also

References

External links