Monterey Bay History

This is a list of some of the significant events to have happened in Monetery Harbour, as displayed on a sign at the head of the harbour.

• Recorded history began when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sighted the "Bay of Pines" on November 17th, 1542
• Sebastian Viscaino was first to touch land on December 16th, 1602. He claimed it for Spain and named the harbour for the Viceroy of Mexico, the Count of Monterey.
• June 3rd, 1770 is Monterey's birthday. On that day, Gaspar de Portola, the soldier, and Padre Junipero Serra, Father of the California Missions, joined from land and sea to establish the first settlement.
• For 76 years, this was the capital of Spanish and Mexican California. Here was the Royal Chapel, the Presidio and the only Customs House. They still stand nearby.
• In 1818, Bouchard, the Argentine privateer, sailed into the bay and sacked the town. In 1842, Commodore T. Ap Catesby Jones, U.S. Navy, under the mistaken belief that war had been declared against Mexico, seized the port but withdrew after three days.
• On July 7th, 1846, war actually having been declared, Commodore John Drake Sloat, commanding a squadron of three ships, raised the 28 star flag of the United States over the Customs House, taking possession of a great western territory now forming all or part of seven states.
• Three years later, in 1849, many delegates to the state's Constitutional Convention arrived by ship.
• On these sands in 1879 walked Robert Louis Stevenson, dreaming the plot for Treasure Island.
• From 1854 until the early 1900s, Monterey was a whaling port, and the beaches were white with whale-bone. Sails came to dot the bay. Later, in the 1930s, here was the greatest sardine fishery in the world.