28 July 2010

California Quotes: Cast off the Bow, Fast

"SALEM, MASS, March 17th, '49--Saturday, 3:30PM, we cast off from the wharf, and in the good barque "La Grange", Captain Joseph Dewing, made sail and started for San Francisco. Since noon, the crowd on the wharf had been continually increasing, until it numbered thousands, who had assembled to take leave of friends who were about to embark on a long and somewhat novel and perilous enterprise. Many now leave their homes for the first time, and none can say it may not be the last.

"Cast off the bow fast; leave the ship, all who are not going to California", sings out the pilot, and spreading the canvas to the northwestern breeze, her bow recedes from the wharf, the last grasp of the hand is given, friends hurry ashore, and excepting the pilot, none remain on board but those who are to be in intimate companionship for many long months."


From: The Overland Monthly, Volume VIII. San Francisco, 1886. Page 93

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