Dancing Feather
{{short description|Boston Pilot boat}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship owner=Boston and San Francisco Pilots |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1851}} |Ship name= Dancing Feather |Ship namesake= |Ship christened= |Ship builder=Dennison J. Lawlor |Ship operator= James L. Fowler |Ship original cost=$10,000 |Ship laid down= |Ship launched= 1853 |Ship out of service= May 1857 |Ship captured= |Ship renamed= |Ship reinstated= |Ship honors= |Ship fate=Sank |Ship struck= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Header caption= |Ship class=schooner |Ship tonnage= |Ship length={{convert|68|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|20|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship depth={{convert|8|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship sail plan= |Ship propulsion=Sail |Ship complement= |Ship armament= |Ship notes= }} |
The Dancing Feather was a 19th-century pilot boat, built in 1853 at the Dennison J. Lawlor shipyard in East Boston, Massachusetts. She went to San Francisco in 1853. The Dancing Feather met up with the wreck SS Yankee Blade in 1854 and was able to raise four boxes of treasure from the sunken vessel. In 1857, she went ashore on the beach north of Point Bonita in San Francisco Bay.
Construction and service
The wooden pilot-boat Dancing Feather was built in 1853, from a model by the noted Boston builder and designer, Dennison J. Lawlor, at the Lawlor shipyard of East Boston, Massachusetts. She was a schooner-rigged vessel with a clipper sharp bow and round stern. Her dimensions were 68 ft. in length; 20 ft. breadth of beam; and 8 ft. depth of hold. The half-model of the Dancing Feather (TR.076032) was a gift by D. J. Lawlor to the Watercraft collection in the "United States National Museum" now the Smithsonian Institution.{{cite book |last=Chapelle |first=Howard I. |date= 1960|title=United States National Museum, Bulletin 219|chapter=The National Watercraft Collection|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XcsNkih8o8gC&dq=%22pilot+boat+Dancing+Feather%22&pg=PA104|location= Washington, D.C.| publisher= Smithsonian Institution |page=90}} She was painted black, green below the water, with gold leaf trim for her trailboards.{{cite book |last=Cunliffe |first=Tom |date=2001|title= Pilots, The World Of Pilotage Under Sail and Oar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VNsGi3nmuaQC&q=Daniel%20Webster|location=Brooklin, Maine |publisher=Wooden Boat Publications |isbn=9780937822692|pages=210–211}}{{cite journal |last=Chapelle |first=H. I. |date=1936|title= American Pilot Boats Part III, The Boston Model|url=https://catalogs.marinersmuseum.org/media/Media/00002/prt%20300637426695673332372.pdf|location=Concord, N. H. |volume=LIX| issue = III |publisher=Yachting |page=53}}
The Dancing Feather sailed in April 1853 from Boston to Cape Horn to get to San Francisco, with Captain James L. Fowler, his son pilot Franklin Fowler, and pilot Warren Simpson.{{cite book |last=Eastman |first=Ralph M. |date=1956|title=Pilots and pilot boats of Boston Harbor |url=https://archive.org/details/pilotspilotboats00east/page/34/mode/2up?q=Dancing+Feather|location=Boston, Massachusetts |publisher=Second Bank-State Street Trust Company |pages=56–57}}{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72710316/dancing-feather/ |title=Letter from Buenos Ayres. |work=The New York Times |place=New York, New York |date=27 Apr 1853|page=1|access-date=22 Feb 2021}}
After losing the Dancing Feather in 1853 to the newly established San Francisco Merchant Line, the Daniel Webster, was purchased by the San Francisco Pilots' Old Line in October 1853.
In December 1854, Captain Fowler was in command of the pilot boat Dancing Feather when he went to Point Arguello near Santa Barbara to locate the wreck of the three-masted steamship SS Yankee Blade looking for gold. He was able to raise four boxes of treasure from the sunken vessel, which amounted to $70,000.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74124189/yankee-blade/|title=Interesting News From California |work=The Washington Sentinel |place= Washington, District of Columbia |date=28 Dec 1854|page=2|access-date=2020-12-18}}
End of service
On May 7, 1857, the Dancing Feather went ashore in thick fog, on the beach north of Point Bonita in San Francisco Bay, California. The pilots and crew were able to escape to the shore. The tugboat Martin White tried to save the pilot boat but she was a total loss.{{rp|p210}} She was insured and worth about 10,000.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74109876/ashore/ |title=San Francisco News Items |work=The Sacramento Bee |place= Sacramento, California |date=14 May 1857|page=4|access-date=2020-12-21}}{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74110115/point-bonita/ |title=San Francisco News Items |work=The Sacramento Bee |place= Sacramento, California |date=9 May 1857|page=4|access-date=2020-12-21}}
See also
External links
- [https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_42259 The national watercraft collection]
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
{{List of Northeastern U. S. Pilot Boats}}
{{1857 shipwrecks}}
Category:Individual sailing vessels
Category:Schooners of the United States