Ventura

Ventura Signal June 28, 1873

Ventura (#) (1865-1875), 213-foot U.S. navy third-class screw steamer, Resaca, built at a cost of $201,230 and purchased by Goodall, Nelson & Perkins for $41,000. The boat was converted into a coastwise steamer in 1873 by Dickie Bros. at San Francisco for service as a steamer capable of carrying 145 passengers.

While serving in this capacity, Ventura was wrecked off Point Sur on April 20, 1875 and lost. Reports accused the captain of being drunk. The ship hit a cluster of rocks just north of Point Sur. Everyone aboard reached shore safely, leaving the ship to break up on the rocks and slowly sink.

In the News~

March 15, 1873 [Ventura Signal]: “Another Steamer. The enterprise of Messrs. Goodall, Nelson & Perkins knows no limits. Three years ago this port was visited by a little steamer, Occasionally; then came the Kalorama, once in ten days. Then in quick succession, the Constantine, making, in connection with the former, a weekly line; and now, it seems, we are to have a third and still better one, within a few weeks. Captain Johnson, the Company's resident agent here, informs us that the Resaca, known as one of the swiftest steamers in the U.S. navy, has been purchased by his company and is being refitted and will be in readiness to take her place in the line in a few weeks. Hew owners, in compliment to the people of Ventura county, and with excellent taste, have, have adopted the name, Ventura, for their new boat. Gentlemen, your enterprise is appreciated here, and then the Ventura makes her first appearance at our dock, we propose, with your permission, to press her into our service for a three days pleasure excursion to neighboring ports and islands.”

May 29, 1873 [SBMP]: “San Francisco, May 28.—Goodall, Nelson & Perkins' new steamer Ventura, has received all necessary caulking, etc., at the dry dock and been towed to the company's wharf, where she is being and put in order to take her place in the Santa Barbara and San Buenaventura line, in place of the Kalorama. She will sail on the 14th of June.”

June 19, 1873 [SB Index]: “The steamer Ventura. The new steamer Ventura, of Goodall, Nelson & Perkins' line, arrived here last Sunday evening, twenty-eight hours from San Francisco. She brought a large number of passengers and seventy tons of freight for Santa Barbara; also considerable freight and a number of passengers for San Buenaventura and Hueneme. The Ventura, originally the United States gun boat Resaca, was purchased by her present owners at a cost of $41,000. The alterations and repairs have cost $55,000, and she has been transformed into a very comfortable, safe and swift passenger and freight steamer. Following are her dimensions: length of deck, 230 feet; length of keel, 217 feet; breadth of beam, 31 feet; depth of hold, 20-½ feet. Her engine, 370 horse power, is of the double horizontal pattern; there is also a donkey engine on board for loading and unloading freight. Her cabins are tastefully filled up, and the staterooms will accommodate seventy-eight passengers. We congratulate the enterprising owners upon the excellence of their line of coast steamers, and hope our citizens will patronize them commensurate with their merits. The Ventura sailed on Tuesday for Ventura and Hueneme; returning she will leave here for San Francisco on the 21st inst.”

June 19, 1873 [SB Index]: “We hear that a Fourth of July excursion is projected to Santa Cruz Island and that the steamer Ventura will be chartered for the purpose. If this plan should be carried out, it will interfere greatly with the town celebration, as very many people will doubtless prefer a trip to the island to the heat and turmoil to be encountered here.”

July 5, 1873 [SBDP]: “The Island Celebration. At a quarter to 9 o'clock the trim and elegant Ventura bore away from Stearns' Wharf to the Santa Cruz Island something over two hundred patriotic people, who went to celebrate the Fourth on the beautiful island of Santa Cruz, across the Santa Barbara Channel, a trip of twenty-six miles or more. To many of the excursionists it was a pleasant thought, the celebration of our nation's birthday on this fine Island of the Pacific, which not many years since was one of the possessions of Spain. In just three hours the steamer was alongside the fine wharf of Messrs' Ohlmeyer and partners. at a distance of a few hundred yards from the landing, under a giant evergreen oak, the people met and enjoyed a quiet little celebration of their own. "America? was sung, prayer offered by REv. Mr. Bentley, the "Declaration" impressively read by Eugene Fawcett, Esq., and the following lines, written for the excursion, by Miss N. L. of the Press, were read by Mr. Bentley...”

July 10, 1873 [SBDMT]: “The steamer Ventura, with something over two hundred persons on board, left Stearn’s Wharf at nine o’clock on the morning of the 4th, bound for Santa Cruz Island. The vessel reached her destination at 12 o’clock, and the excursionists at once debarked and repaired to the magnificent grove near the seashore. The exercises were of an informal character, and consisted of a prayer by Rev. Dr. Bentley, reading of the Declaration of Independence by Mr. Fawcett, a short speech by Mr. Johnson in reply to a sentiment offered by Mr. Bentley, and a very handsome little speech by Captain Goodall, in reply to ‘The Commerce of the United States’…”