PUBLISHER: Published by A. Rosenfield. San Francisco.
MEDIUM: Lithograph,
DATE: 1862.
EDITION SIZE: Image 4 5/8" x 7 1/16" (11.6 x 17.9 cm).
DESCRIPTION: Sketched by an eye witness. Published by A. Rosenfield.<br><br> A rare small separately issued brodside by one of San Francisco's earliest publishers.<br><br> Steam Ship Golden Gate (1851–1862): Built and launched for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company on January 21, 1851, she entered the San Francisco to Panama City service in November 1851. She stayed in this service until she was beached and was burned at sea near Manzanillo, Mexico on July 27, 1862 with the loss of 223 lives.<br><br> Anthony Rosenfeld 1827-1895. California “Forty-Niner”. Not much was known about his life until recent scholarship by Dennis Kruska in James Mason Hutchings of Yosemite (Book Club of California, 2009, pp. 53-65). Rosenfeld travelled to California in search of gold during the gold rush. Unfortunately he was not all that successful and soon partnered with James M. Hutchings, also a miner, who early in his California experience realized it might be more profitable as a publisher, making prints and letter sheets. The two men met when Hutchings advertised in the San Francisco Alta California newspaper for a business partner in 1856. Hutchings and Rosenfeld specialized in larger images of California (notably Yosemite and a large five panel view of San Francisco), and their activities included a bookstore to sell letter sheets, bill heads, prints and related goods. Hutchings & Rosenfeld dissolved their partnership in 1861. He continued to publish other California material, engaged in various financial ventures, and later went back to the east coast. <br><br> <b>A description of the disaster:</b><br> <i>Capt. Hudson's Statement to the Agents of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. From the San Francisco Daily Alta California, Aug. 7.<br> <br> MANZANILLA, Wednesday, July 30, 1862.<br> <br> GENTLEMEN: I have to report to you the total loss of the Golden Gate, by fire, which occurred on the afternoon of the 27th inst., fifteen miles to the westward of Mazanilla. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, when at dinner, the ship was reported to be on fire. I immediately arose from the table, requesting the passengers to remain quiet, and proceeded to the spar deck, when I found a dense volume of smoke coming up from the engine-room hatchway. All the fire hose of the ship were immediately put in requisition and worked with all possible energy. <br><br> The ship was now about three or four miles from the land. I saw at a glance the impossibility of subduing the flames, and immediately put the helm up to run the ship ashore. Men, women and children were now ordered forward, and probably one hundred had reached the forecastle, when the flames spread with such rapidity as to cut off all communication with the after part of the ship. I ordered Mr. WADDELL, the Chief Engineer, to keep the engine moving as long as possible. All regular communication with the engine-room was cut off in a few minutes by the flames. Several of the firemen and engineers were still below. The feed valves of the boilers and furnace doors were opened wide, and all precautions used to prevent explosion. <br><br> So rapid was the spread of the flames, however, that the engineers and their men barely escaped with their lives, by forcing a passage through the after freight-room bulkhead. At 5 1/2 o'clock we grounded, about 300 yards from the beach, where there was a heavy surf breaking. Before reaching the shore, the after boats were lowered away and filled with passengers, under charge of my chief officer, Mr. NOLAN, who remained by the ship, rendering all possible aid in saving life. In the meantime, life-preservers, spars, and everything of a buoyant nature, were furnished to the passengers -- thrown overboard after she struck. <br><br> The flames spread with such rapidity that the hurricane deck, from the formast aft, fell with a tremendous crash before reaching the shore, and soon afterward the foremast went by the board. The heat had now become so intense as to compel all who remained to leave the burning wreck, by lowering themselves in the water with lines furnished for that purpose; and many had thrown themselves into the water from various parts of the ship. After all had left, Capt. PEARSON and myself dropped from the bowsprit, and succeeded, with great difficulty, in reaching the beach. I found about eighty had reached the shore with life. <br><br> All that remained visible of the ship at 8 P.M. was her engines, boilers and wheel frames… </i>
ADDITIONAL INFO:
CONDITION: Fair to good condition some damp staining and overall toning of the paper. several vertical creases seen on the verso but not seen of the face.
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