The ''James Rolph'' was a

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

that transported cargo around the United States West Coast and Hawaii. Built near Eureka, California in 1899, the ship was based in San Francisco and owned by its namesake, shipping executive and future

Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, the g ...

, James Rolph. On the evening of August 2, 1910, the ''Rolph'' embarked from San Francisco with a cargo of general freight, lime, hay, and of lumber for

sugar plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

in Hana, Hawaii on the island of

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

when the ship was swept by currents in

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

in heavy

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...

. At 10 in the evening, the ship, blinded by the fog, sailed close to the shore, crashing into rocks at Point San Pedro in Pacifica, grounding 50 feet from the shoreline. The ''Rolph'' was grounded at the same spot where the four-masted bark ''Drumburton'' had been lost previously in 1904. The ''Rolph's'' crew managed to reach shore safely without any injuries or loss of life, yet the vessel could not be pulled off the rocks. Tugboats attempted to haul the ''Rolph'' free but to no avail. The ''Rolph'' was later stripped of usable fittings by salvage crews and abandoned.

References

1899 ships Ships built in California Shipwrecks of the California coast Maritime incidents in 1910 Schooners of the United States {{ship-stub