George E. Billings
George E. Billings (#86665) (1903-1941), 224-foot 5-masted wood-hulled lumber schooner built in Port Blakeley, Washington by the Hall Brothers, with a home port of Los Angeles. She was named for New York-born George E. Billings (1850-1929) who came to San Francisco in 1868 and engaged in the stationery and publishing business. Billings became manager and chartering agent for the Halls’ shipping business. He married María Hall, niece of one of the brothers in 1877. Billings eventually took over the business in 1903, the year his namesake was launched. The vessel was the largest and last sailing vessel built by the Hall Brothers — the 108th vessel they built. She was one of only six five-masted schooners built on the Pacific Coast before 1905. For sixteen years the vessel was employed in the Pacific Ocean trade carrying lumber from the Northwest to ports as distant as Australia and Hawaii, and more locally to South America, Mexico and Southern California.
Converted to a fishing barge in 1926, George E. Billings later served for fourteen years as a landmark fisherman's Mecca in Del Mar, then Santa Monica and Ocean Park. Legislation adopted for the purpose of eliminating offshore gambling ships imposed such stringent regulations concerning the bulk heading of floating barges, that it was impossible to make older craft such as the Billings comply. February 11, 1941 she was “towed to a lonely island reef north of here [Santa Monica] and burned.” George E. Billings was towed to Santa Barbara Island and scuttled. The wreck scatter was identified in 2011 off Santa Barbara Island.
In the News~
February 27, 2020 [Independent]: “ The remains of the largest and last sailing vessel built by the revered Hall Brothers was discovered only recently, in 2011, more than 70 years after she was scuttled off Santa Barbara Island. The George E. Billings, built in 1903, first hauled lumber before she was converted into a sports-fishing barge. Then, strict regulations passed in the 1940s to eliminate offshore gambling made it impossible for many older vessels like the Billings to meet compliance. She was “towed to a lonely island reef and burned,” a news account states. Archeologists and historians had been actively searching for the wreck since the ’90s.”
