ISLA GUADALUPE GRAFFITI
Isla Guadalupe Grafitti
1807: “The discovery was made of a huge rock bearing the names of Samuel Chapman and others; below these was an American flag and the statement that Chapman had visited the island in 1807 and left the following year.” [Gordon, P. R. Filming the Sea Elephant in The Wide World Magazine 43:258 (485-491), October 1919]
On Sept. 9, 1807 the David Christy wrecked at Isla Guadalupe. Samuel Chapman was with the party and inscribed the year with his name and others on a rock building that was constructed for shelter. Although there were likely earlier visits by sealers, this inscription may be the earliest written record of someone ashore at the island. They spent nearly a year on the island before they were rescued.
August 23, 1874 [SD Union & Daily Bee]: “...Relics of the Past. Guadalupe Island has been visited by whaling vessels for many years. The stones on the beach at Esparza Bay bear inscriptions carved by the sailors who have landed there years ago; and some of the dates go back nearly to the beginning of the century. A few of them have been transcribed and we give them here:
- Ship Samuel Chapman, Sam Chapman, Master. Landed Sept. 9thy, 1807. Left the 9th of August, 1808. L.A. David Christy.
- Thaddeus Beecher of Ship Trumouth, stopped 1807. Theophilus Gale, Ebenezeer Lamb, David Bates, Wm. Maples, Nathan Rodgers, Ship Trumouth.
- Thaddeus Beecher of Ship Zephyr, July 14, 1816. Clark Davis (with a Master Mason's emblem), W. T. Beecher, Henry Mix, David Norie, David Dorman.”
1824:
- W. Chandler, 1824 inscribed on a boulder.
In the 1950s, Scripps Institution of Oceanography ichthyologist Carl L. Hubbs found a hut with ten inscriptions from 1834 through 1881.
