History: Cursed Ship Departs San Blas in 1775 to Become 1st to Sail into S.F. Bay Gary Kamiya - San Francisco Chronicle
August 17, 2014

Ayala Cove on Angel Island is named for Spanish Capt. Juan Manuel de Ayala, who commanded the first ship to sail into San Francisco Bay. Photo: Art Frisch, The Chronicle

Early the morning of Aug. 5, 1775, Spanish Capt. Juan Manuel de Ayala and his crew of 30 discovered the place that Spanish navigators had missed for more than 200 years: la Boca del Puerto de San Francisco, the entrance to San Francisco Bay.

Within hours, the 58-foot-long San Carlos became the first vessel to enter the world's greatest natural harbor. The squat, two-masted packet was an unlikely candidate for such an honor, for the San Carlos was known to be an unlucky ship.

As her chaplain, Father Vicente Santa Maria, wrote in his journal, "It was thought impossible that His Majesty's supply ship San Carlos should make an expedition. ... She was never to be counted on since her mission could never be accomplished as the orders called for. The best that could happen to her was in one place to escape being wrecked or in another to have a few days' relief from danger."

The San Carlos had seemed cursed from its first voyage in 1768, when it left San Blas (Nayarit), north of present-day Puerto Vallarta, bound for La Paz at the tip of Baja California. The voyage across the Sea of Cortez normally took two or three weeks, but adverse winds prevented the San Carlos from reaching La Paz for three months, and when it arrived it was a virtual wreck.

The ship's bad luck continued the next year, when it sailed for San Diego as part of the "Sacred Expedition," led by Capt. Gaspar de Portola and Father Junipero Serra - a land-and-sea journey that established the first Spanish settlements and missions in what is now California. The nightmarish four-month voyage ended with two-thirds of the crew and passengers dead of starvation, disease and scurvy. The survivors were so weak they were unable to drop anchor.

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