Danapoint

I wanted to see sailing ships again so I went to Dana Point last week to revisit the Brig Pilgrim, gift from Denmark to the United States honoring Henry Richard Dana’s voyage around Cape Horn in 1835. A brig is a ship with two masts, square rigged, or rigged nearly like a full-rigged ship’s sail mast and foremast. Vessel is exact replica of the original Pilgrim, a common sight in the 1850’s picking up lodes, at the various mission ports between San Francisco and san Diego. Here in El Embarcadero Cove , the ship took on board hides from Mission San Juan Capistrano. These “Leather dollars”,as they were called, were carried to the east coast and made into shoes, wallets, and women purses. Ship owners made good profit for a relatively small investment.