John Gunder North (December 15, 1826 – September 19, 1872) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

born ship builder in

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 ...

. During his career, he built 273 hulls of all kinds with 53 bay and river steamers, including the famed

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...

s ''Chrysopolis'', ''Yosemite'' and ''Capital''.Narratives of Domingo Marcucci, John G. North, Peter Owens, Patrick Tiernan, George Middlemass, James Dickie, Irving M. Scott, and Others, ''Evolution of Shipping and Ship-Building in California, Part II'', Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, Volume 25, February 1895
/ref>

Early life

John G. North was born Johan Gurenius Nordtvedt in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Becoming a shipbuilder for the Norwegian government, he built twenty gunboats for the

Royal Norwegian Navy The Royal Norwegian Navy ( no, Sjøforsvaret, , Sea defence) is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for naval operations of Norway. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 in mobilized state, 3 ...

. He was then given a subsidy to study American shipbuilding techniques and 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 July 1848. After visiting and working in shipyards in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

and

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, North decided to stay in the United States, and came by sea as a ships officer to

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 ...

on July 28, 1850. He visited the mines for a short time, then returned to San Francisco to partner with Captain William H. Moore in a small steamboat beginning a firm that later became part of the

California Steam Navigation Company The California Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1854 to consolidate competing steamship companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. It was successful in this effort and established a profitable near-m ...

. After acquiring enough money from the steamboat business by 1853 North returned to being a

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 ...

.Guide to the John G. North Papers, 1857-1869, The Online Archive of California is an initiative of the California Digital Library, California State Library
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Shipbuilding in California

In 1854, North opened his first boatyard at

Steamboat Point Steamboat Point a headland marking the northeastern limit of Mission Bay, on San Francisco Bay. It was named for the shipyards that built and repaired steamboats there during the 1850s to the mid 1860s.lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

called Mission Bay on the south side of what is now Townsend Street, between Third and Fourth Streets, in what is now the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco. In 1855, North built the ''Colorado'', a 120 food long, stern-wheel steamboat, for the George A. Johnson & Company in San Francisco. It was equipped with an 80-horsepower steam engine capable of carrying up to 70 tons of cargo while drawing only 2 feet of water. North subsequently disassembled and shipped in sections by sea to the estuary of the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

. There North unloaded, reassembled and launched in it in December, 1855. It was the first stern-wheel steamboat put on that river. In 1857, North built the 449 ton, 170 foot long, single end, side-wheel, ferry steamer ''Contra Costa'' for Charles Minturn, owner of the

Contra Costa Steam Navigation Company Contra may refer to: Places * Contra, Virginia * Contra Costa Canal, an aqueduct in the U.S. state of California * Contra Costa County, California * Tenero-Contra, a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland ...

, largest ferry company 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 ...

at that time.MacMullen, Jerry, Paddle-Wheel Days in California, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1970. In 1860, North left his old boatyard and opened North's Shipyard in San Francisco's Potrero District to the south on the Bay. One of the first ships built there was the ''Chrysopolis'' for

, which would set the fastest time for a steamboat between Sacramento and San Francisco. In 1862 he built the ''Yosemite'' to run with ''Chrysopolis'' on the Sacramento River for the same company. That same year he also built the ''Colorado II'' to replace the ''Colorado'' for the George A. Johnson & Company. Again bringing it by sea to the river mouth but reassembling it up river at Arizona City under the guns of

Fort Yuma Fort Yuma was a fort in California located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861 and was abandoned May 16, 1883, and transferred to the Department of ...

, for fear of Confederate raiders. In 1864 he built the ''Mohave'' for the same company, assembling it again in the estuary. In 1866, North built the 1,989 ton, 277 foot long ''Capital'', the last side-wheel steamer built for the California Steam Navigation Company. ''Capital'', largest of the steamboats on the rivers in California, remained on the water under various owners until 1896. In 1869, he built the 294 ton, 154 foot long, side-wheel steamer, ''Parthenius'', that provided passenger and mail service to the major landings of

Contra Costa County ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

for many years. Carol A. Jensen and East Contra Costa Historical Society, ''Maritime Contra Costa County'', Arcadia Publishing, Jan 6, 2014
/ref>

Later career and death

North subsequently sold North's Shipyard and left to visit Norway. In Norway, he built a steamship for its government. Subsequently, he visited shipyards and iron works in Great Britain, Germany, Italy and other places in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and was at the opening of the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

before returning to San Francisco after a three-year absence. Following a trip to

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

where he built two steamboats for the Honduras Railroad Company, he contracted a tropical disease. North returned to San Francisco where he died a week later on September 19, 1872. He was buried in the

Cypress Lawn Memorial Park Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, established by Hamden Holmes Noble in 1892, is a rural cemetery located in Colma, California, a place known as the "City of the Silent". History Cypress Lawn Memorial Park is the final resting site for several membe ...

at Colma in

San Mateo County, California San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City, California, Redwoo ...

References

External links

Portrait of Captain John G. North, from EVOLUTION OF SHIPPING AND SHIP—BUILDING IN CALIFORNIA. II, Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, Volume 25, 1895, Feb. 1895, p. 123
{{DEFAULTSORT:North, John Gunder 1826 births 1872 deaths People from Trondheim Norwegian shipbuilders American shipbuilders Norwegian emigrants to the United States Businesspeople from San Francisco California Steam Navigation Company 19th-century American businesspeople Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park

Early life

Shipbuilding in California

Later career and death

See also

References

External links