Annual Mare Island Heritage Trust Boat Cruise Aboard Dolphin Charters
“We want to thank our partners, Dolphin Charters, for graciously offering to replace our boat trip with not one, but two boat trips after dangerous winds forced us to cancel our Saturday outing on the Napa River. We are delighted that both our Historian, Allan Gandy and our musicians have agreed to join us on both boat trips!”, said Myrna Hayes, President of the Mare Island Heritage Trust and organizer of the annual fundraiser.
The Mare Island Heritage Trust hosts its final boat cruise of the year onboard Dolphin Charters’ River Dolphin. After hosting multiple May and June river cruises to view nesting osprey during the San Francisco Bay Osprey Days and earlier in the nesting cycle, this will be the final boat trip of the season hosted by the Trust and is it’s annual fundraiser. The two and half hour boat trip departs from the Vallejo Marina continuing north on the Napa River under both the Mare Island Causeway, a lift bridge and the Napa River Bridge into the wide open stretches of the Napa River adjacent to tens of thousands of acres of restored “living river” marshes and wetlands beginning to team with migratory shorebirds and waterfowl.
Turning back south, the cruise, guided by Mare Island Heritage Trust President, Myrna Hayes, will focus on the historical shoreline of the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard, closed in 1996 and envisioned for mixed use into the future. The former Navy dry-docks are actively refurbishing various private and government vessels. The perspective from the Napa River/Mare Island Strait, both brings the Island alive and gives passengers an intimate experience of the current bustling industrial operation.
As the River Dolphin continues downbound on the Napa, Mare Island's landscape transforms into a combination of open space, wetlands and an unusual collection of historic buildings of the former Mare Island Naval Ammunition Depot. The Ammunition Depot was established by founding Naval Shipyard Commander and the US Navy’s first Admiral, David Farragut in 1857 with the completion of a sandstone building of similar design and for the same use, the storage of black powder, completed the same year as Building 10 at the Benicia Arsenal. This month marks the 165th anniversary of the founding of the Mare Island Naval Ammunition Depot.
The boat trip will feature H. Allan Gandy, Research Historian and Docent at the Benicia Historical Museum who will give a presentation while underway, about Building A-1, visible from the river set back at the end of a corridor of later-built brick munitions storage magazines. In 2021, Mr. Gandy published a book entitled, “The Sandstone Powder Magazine at the Benicia Arsenal; Benicia’s Little-Known Gem” in which he presents details of the simultaneous construction of the Mare Island Building 1, also of sandstone. He will describe some new findings he has made about the stone carver responsible for the crafting of the stunning frontis stone on Mare Island’s first Ammunition storage building, Building 1, later renamed A-1(Annex-1). The “Annex” designation helped to distinguish buildings of the same number at Port Chicago from those at Mare Island. New building numbers at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine, built and managed by Mare Island Naval Ammunition Depot until it was dwarfed by the even larger Concord Naval Weapons Station were named by their number, while an A was added to all of the buildings in the Mare Island Depot.
Although the Concord Naval Weapons Station was closed at the same time as Mare Island Naval Shipyard, through the BRAC 1993 round of closures in 1996, the Mare Island Naval Ammunition Depot had actually been closed as an active component of the Weapons Station in 1975. Significant portions of the Mare Island complex will be added to the current Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve opened to the public for the first time in 150 years on the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Depot. “It seems like a century ago that we opened these beautiful and sacred wildlands to the public. For more than 20 years, starting with our San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival guided walks, we led people into the historic shoreline area with monthly guided walks by Sierra Club and our non-profit land trust, the Mare Island Heritage Trust. Our land trust went on to found, fund and operate the Mare Island Preserve until we were abruptly dismissed in Fall of 2019. Now, our boat trip will take the place of the robust public visitation to the former Ammunition Depot that we hosted with the Navy and its contractors and the City of Vallejo in 2007 when more than 1,100 people came through the gates for the first time.”, said Myrna Hayes, President of the Mare Island Heritage Trust, founding Preserve manager and River Guide and host for Saturday’s boat cruise.
Those aboard the River Dolphin for the exploration of the Napa River, Mare Island Strait and Carquinez Strait, will also enjoy live music interspersed with the history and nature talks, by local Vallejo vocals/songwriter Nikki Nash, accompanied on guitar by Tony Almeida, guitar and Frank Mireles, tambourine/harmonica. Http://www.nikkinashmusic.co
Light appetizers, wine and refreshments will be served.
The cost is $55 per person.
Reservations may be made at www.Dolphincharters.com or by calling 510-527-9622 or 1-800-472-9942.
For more information, contact Myrna Hayes, 707-249-9633.
Photo credits: Old Sperry Mill across the River from the Ammunition Depot, Myrna Hayes; Passengers aboard the River Dolphin, Bill George; all other 2007 150th anniversary photos, John Klycinski.