Domingo Marcucci

Domingo Marcucci (Maracaibo, 1827 - San Francisco, 1905), was a Venezuelan born 49er, shipbuilder and shipowner in San Francisco, California. He owned or captained some of the many steamships, steamboats, ferries, and sailing ships he built at San Francisco and elsewhere on the Pacific coast.[1]

Early life and education

Domingo Marcucci was born in Maracaibo (Venezuela) on April 28, 1827, to Juan Bautista Marcucci, a native of Santiago de los Caballeros (Dominican Republic), and Catalina Jugo, a native of Caracas (Venezuela).[2] He came to Philadelphia in the 1840s to study American shipbuilding techniques at the behest of the Venezuelan government.[3]:44 [4] He worked as an apprentice in the shipyard of Mathew Van Duzen, the Byerly and Van Dusen Shipyard in Philadelphia.[5]

Shipbuilding in California

At the age of 22, Domingo Marcucci came to start a shipyard in San Francisco from Philadelphia. He came from Panama in the Pacific Mail Steamship Company steamship SS Oregon. Arriving on September 18, 1849, within days they began assembling a knock-down steamboat, previously delivered, on the beach of Yerba Buena Cove at Happy Valley, at the foot of Folsom Street, east of Beale Street. Marcucci's company assembled the Captain Sutter in six weeks. Built for George W. Aspinwall, brother of William Henry Aspinwall, it was the first steamboat that ran between San Francisco and Stockton, in 1849.[1]:13[6] Also for the Pacific Mail, Marcucci next converted the 153 ton side-wheel steamboat El Dorado that had been rigged as a 3 masted schooner for the trip around Cape Horn, to be used for the Sacramento run. Subsequently, in March 1850, for the same company, he assembled the Georgiana, a small 30 ton side-wheel steamboat made in Philadelphia, knocked down and sent by sea also for the Sacramento run. That April Georgiana pioneered the shortcut route between Sacramento and Stockton through a slough in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta that was between the Sacramento River and Mokelumne River, which afterward became known as Georgiana Slough.[1]:14

In the 1858, Marcucci moved to a shipyard at Steamboat Point, around Fourth and King Streets on Mission Bay. Here he built the side-wheel steamboat Flora Templeton in 1859, the barkentine Monitor in 1861, the side-wheel steamer Cyrus Walker for the Puget Sound in 1864 and the propeller steamer Reliance for the Alviso Transportation Company in 1866.[1][6]

From 1866 to 1869, using Henry B. Tichenor’s Second Street marine railway, Marcucci built the stern-wheeler Pioneer, the twin screw propeller steamer Santa Cruz in 1868 and the large propeller steamer Vallejo for the California Pacific Railroad Company in 1869.[1][6]

Later life

Marcucci was appointed assistant inspector of steam vessels for the port of San Francisco, by the Treasury Department, in December, 1890. On September 2, 1893, he was struck on the head by a falling timber while inspecting the railroad ferry Thoroughfare in Oakland, California.[7] He survived a fractured skull, recovered and continued to work. He resigned the position in January 1900 and retired.[5] Domingo Marcucci died in 1905, and was buried in the San Francisco Columbarium.[8]

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See also

References
  1. Scott, Erving M. and Others, Evolution of Shipping and Ship-Building in California, Part I, Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, Volume 25, January 1895, pp.5-16; from quod.lib.umich.edu accessed March 10, 2015
  2. Domingo Marcucci, San-Francisco, California, 1900 United States Census from mocavo.com accessed March 12, 2015
  3. Ewell, Judith (23 April 1996). "Venezuela and the United States: From Monroe's Hemisphere to Petroleum's Empire". University of Georgia Press. Retrieved 23 April 2018 – via Google Books.
  4. Venezuela (23 April 2018). "Cuerpo de leyes de Venezuela: con un índice alfabético razonado y referente, en que se expresan las reformas que ha recibido cada ley, y se encuentra a un golpe de vista la que rige en cada materia, el cual se ha impreso separado para que sin detrimento de los tomos pueda reimprimirse con las variaciones que exijan las posteriores reformas de la leyes". V. Espinal. Retrieved 23 April 2018 – via Google Books.
  5. "San Francisco Call 9 March 1902 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  6. Nancy J. Olmsted, Vanished Waters: A History of San Francisco's Mission Bay", Mission Creek Conservancy, 1986, Chapter 7, Steamboat Point, 1851-1864 from foundsf.org accessed February 19, 2015
  7. "San Francisco Call 4 September 1897 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  8. Domingo Marcucci from findagrave.com access March 10, 2015.
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