PORT HUENEME : It’s Official: Tall Ship Calls This Port Home

More than a century after its predecessor swept the California coast for smugglers, the state’s official tall ship slipped into local waters Wednesday for a more diplomatic mission.

The Californian--a copy of a 19th-Century schooner--sailed, then motored, into the Port of Hueneme where it docked just long enough for a “First Call” ceremony welcoming the ship to its new home port.

As part of an $18,900 one-year contract with the Oxnard Harbor District, the 145-foot ship will return to the Port of Hueneme in March for a longer visit. During that two-week stay, schoolchildren and sailing buffs will have a chance to tour the majestic ship, hoist the sails and learn about the coastal environment.

Other cities serving as home ports next year are Long Beach, Chula Vista and Monterey.

The Californian has made annual appearances at Channel Islands and Ventura harbors since 1986, but Wednesday marked the first time it had docked at the Port of Hueneme.

“It’s a terrific way to highlight the maritime community in Ventura County,” said Kam Quarles, assistant to the harbor’s executive director.

The ceremony was attended by children from the Boys & Girls clubs in Oxnard and Port Hueneme, harbor officials and shipping company executives. Afterward, the ship pulled up anchor and continued its voyage to San Diego where it will spend the next week.

The Californian was built 10 years ago and is modeled after the C.W. Lawrence, which was launched in 1846. For three years, the Lawrence patrolled the waters off California, performing many of the duties of the Coast Guard: assisting vessels in distress, collecting customs duties and serving as the only law-and-order off the West Coast.

“The Lawrence was really, really busy when it got here,” said Eric Christman, a former crewman on the Californian who now works for the nonprofit Nautical Heritage Society, which owns the reproduction.

Frequently, the C.W. Lawrence was called to help captains whose crews had abandoned their ships in San Francisco to prospect for gold in the Sierra foothills. And on one occasion, the Lawrence’s crew was dispatched to arrest a crewman who had bitten the nose off one of his shipmates during a dispute, Christman said.

The Lawrence’s glory days ended in November, 1851, when it ran aground on a beach near San Francisco.

“It just got so stuck on the beach that they couldn’t pull it off,” Christman said. “So they salvaged it and stripped it down to the bare hull.”