Stern of the Galilee

The Galilee was a brigantine, built in 1891, designed by Matthew Turner. She started on the packet line between San Francisco and Tahiti and was reckoned a very fast ship. In 1905 she was chartered by the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and converted into a magnetic observatory. She was used to make observations of Earth's magnetic field on three cruises over a period of three years from 1905 to 1908 in the Pacific Ocean.

In 1911 the Galilee was sold to the Union Fish Company of San Francisco, where she was converted to a three-masted schooner and had a diesel engine fitted. For the next 16 years she was used in the codfish trade. She lost two of her masts in March, 1924, but was towed back to port for repairs. In 1929 she was used in the tuna industry, operating off Cape San Lucas.

She returned to San Francisco and was finally beached in 1933 in Sausalito in an area now known as 'Galilee harbor'. As a houseboat she had a variety of occupants over the next 42 years, but her condition continued to deteriorate. The stern was removed in 1975 and is now mounted on one of the walls of Fort Mason that forms part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Part of the bow was removed in 1987 and is now preserved at the Benicia Historical Museum.