A Tale of Two Storeships
Correcting the Record of Joshua Norton’s Association With One Ship — And Introducing His Earlier Association With Another
IN HIS 1939 biography, Emperor Norton: Mad Monarch of America, Allen Stanley Lane wrote that, in 1852, Joshua Norton
owned a storeship and rented room in it to other merchants. It was mired in the mud on one of his water lots at what is now the corner of Front and Howard Streets.
On the next page, Lane reproduced the language of the rice purchasing contract that Joshua Norton and Co. signed with the firm of Ruiz, Hermanos on 22 December 1852. Under the terms of the contract, the rice was “to be carted and stored on board the storeship ‘Genessee’” by the Ruiz firm.
More about this contract shortly.
Forty-seven years later, in his 1986 book Norton I: Emperor of the United States, William Drury ran with Lane’s thumbnail account — and ran quite far.
Drury writes that, at some point in 1850 or early 1851, Joshua Norton
bought two water lots near Rincon Point. These, marked off by stakes driven into the mud, possessed one asset of immediate value. An abandoned brig, the Genessee, had been fenced in by the surveyor’s stakes. She was an ugly old derelict, rusted and scarred, but her holds were sound, so Norton removed her masts, roofed her deck like the biblical ark, and used her as a storeship. No longer would he have to pay excessive charges to warehouse the cargoes he bought.
Drury goes on to say that, during San Francisco’s great fire of May 1851:
[Norton’s] goods were in the Genessee, beyond the reach of the flames, and he may even have profited from the misfortunes of his competitors by renting space in the storeship to those whose warehouses had been destroyed.
In the months after the fire, Drury writes:
[Norton] did nothing to improve his water lots at Rincon Point. There was no need; their value increased immediately when the Pacific Mail Steamship Company built a passenger terminal and a warehouse alongside. When a big side-wheeler from Panama berthed beside the Genessee, the warehouse was crammed with cargo and so was his storeship.
Finally, Drury informs us that, when Norton signed the rice contract in December 1852, he:
told his stockman in the Genessee to clear the decks for rice.
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IT’S A FINE STORY — but, there doesn’t appear appear to be any evidence to support it. (Yes, once again we find William Drury out over his skis.)
If Joshua Norton really was running the Genessee as part of his business, one would expect to see newspaper ads from Joshua selling goods from the Genessee and promoting opportunities to rent warehouse space there. I find no such ads.
Let’s look at what documentation of the Genessee in San Francisco does tell us.
The ship Genessee arrived in San Francisco in early April 1851 after a 195-day voyage from New York via the Juan Fernandez Islands off of Valparaiso, Chile. In addition to cargo and crew, there were six passengers.
Above: Three items about the arrival, cargo, and passengers on the ship Genessee from New York to San Francisco, Daily Alta California, 11 April 1851, p. 2, columns 5 and 6. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
On 16 June 1851 — two months after the Genessee’s arrival ― and at the very moment that William Drury claims Joshua Norton owned the Genessee — the ship was sold to James McCormic in a court-ordered U.S. Marshal’s sale.
Ship Genesee in “List of Vessels Sold by the U.S. Marshal,” Prices Current and Shipping List, 31 January 1854, p. 4. Source: Genealogy Bank
By March 1852 (and probably before), the Genessee was being used as a storeship. Here are two ads showing Norton’s contemporary Ferdinand Vassault (1819–1900) storing and selling lime from the Genessee in March and April 1852:
Some two years later, in February 1854, a public auction was scheduled to sell goods that were being stored on the Genessee with delinquent or defaulted rent payments.
Here’s the ad from 20 January 1854:
Ad for public auction of goods on the Genessee, Daily Placer Times & Transcript, 20 January 1854, p. 3. Source: Genealogy Bank
Note that, in both 1852 and 1854, the Genessee is listed as being at the California Street Wharf. At this time, the foot of “California Street proper” was around Sansome Street, with the wharf extending another three blocks or so to around Davis Street.
So, both Lane’s and Drury’s claims as to the location of the Genessee — Lane’s “First and Howard” and Drury’s “near Rincon Point” — probably were some 6–12 blocks southeast (and on the other side of Market Street) of where the ship actually was.
However, the Genessee’s location along the California Street Wharf was much closer to Joshua Norton’s office in late 1852 — 95 Jackson Street, near Battery — than a First and Howard / Rincon Point location would have been.
All of these locations are pinned or shaded on our Emperor Norton Map of the World.
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IT APPEARS THAT the only documented connection between Joshua Norton and the Genessee is in the California Supreme Court’s official report of the case of Ruiz, Hermanos v. Joshua Norton & Co., published in 1856.
The report makes clear that Joshua stored the rice he’d contracted to buy from Ruiz not as the owner of the ship — but as a renter of warehouse space on the ship.
Here’s the language of the original contract between Norton & Co. and the Ruiz brothers, as published in the report:
Language of the rice purchasing contract that Joshua Norton and Co. signed with the firm of Ruiz, Hermanos on 22 December 1852, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California, vol. 4, 1856, p. 356. Collection of Harvard University. Source: Google Books
Goddefroy, Sillem & Co. was the commission agent for Ruiz, Hermanos, and “the vessel” was the Ruiz ship Glyde.
A similar contract was signed by Ruiz, Hermanos. But, notice, in this contract signed by Joshua Norton & Co., that the language of the contract is in the voice of the signer. So, the rice is “to be carted and stored on board the storeship ‘Genessee,’ for account and risk of ourselves.”
In the same vein: If Joshua or his firm owned the Genessee, the more apt phrase would have been “our storeship ‘Genessee.’” The separation and differentiation implied by the more objective “the storeship ‘Genessee’ is an initial tell that the Genessee is an independent “ship for hire” — not an asset of the Norton operation.
This is further clarified by two excerpts in which the Court describes the facts of the case. Here’s the first:
Excerpt from description of Ruiz, Hermanos v. Joshua Norton & Co., Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California, vol. 4, 1856, p. 356. Collection of Harvard University. Source: Google Books
Note that Norton & Co. stored the rice “at their own cost and charge…on board of the said storeship “Genessee.”
Here’s the second excerpt:
Excerpt from description of Ruiz, Hermanos v. Joshua Norton & Co., Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California, vol. 4, 1856, p. 359. Collection of Harvard University. Source: Google Books
Once again, we see the Genessee described as a storeship “in which,” i.e., inside which, Norton & Co. “had engaged storage for the whole cargo, at their own risk and cost, and for their own account.”
Certainly, a major factor in Joshua’s choice of the Genessee was that he needed to find a storeship that was convenient to the Glyde and that had both the strength and the space to hold 200,000 lbs. — that’s 100 tons — of rice.
Although merchants like Ferdinand Vassault used the Genessee and other storeships as literal B2B wholesale stores, it is of course possible that Joshua previously had used the Genessee strictly as a warehouse. This kind of business use would not have showed up in the papers.
But, it is unmistakable from the California Supreme Court’s report of the lawsuit and appeals in Ruiz v. Norton that Joshua Norton related to the Genessee as a client — not as an owner.
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NOW TO A SECOND storeship — one that I’ve never seen referenced in accounts of Joshua Norton.
In June 1882, the Daily Alta newspaper ran a front-page article, “The Last of the Storeships,” that included the following list of ships associated with the California Street Wharf:
List of California Street Wharf storeships, “The Last of the Storeships,” Daily Alta California, 5 June 1882, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
In addition to the Genessee (fifth line), the list includes the ship Orator.
It appears that, at least for a brief moment in August 1850, Joshua Norton leased space on the Orator with the intention of sub-leasing the space to others. Here’s an ad I discovered recently — the sole ad in this connection that I’ve found thus far.
Ad for Joshua Norton & Co. renting space on the storeship Orator, San Francisco Daily Evening Picayune, 13 August 1850, p. 3. Source: Genealogy Bank
The British bark Orator arrived in San Francisco from Sydney via Honolulu on 31 May 1850, bringing with her 154 passengers and assorted cargo:
Arrival notice for British bark Orator, Daily Alta California, 1 June 1850, p. 3. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Two weeks later, the Orator was advertised for sale at a public auction to be held on 23 July 1850:
Ad for public auction selling the British “barque” Orator, Daily Alta California, 16 June 1850, p. 3. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
A report in the Sydney Morning Herald of 8 January 1851 noted that the Orator had been “condemned” and was “now a store ship”…
Notice about the status of the Orator, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 January 1851, p. 2. Source: National Library of Australia
…but, based on Joshua Norton’s ad of 13 August 1850, this appears to have been belated news.
A reasonable conclusion to draw from Joshua’s ad is that, in fact, the Orator sold at the auction of 23 July 1850 and was quickly converted into a storeship — and that Joshua jumped on the opportunity.
The storeship Orator was listed for sale again in November and December 1853:
Ad announcing storeship Orator for sale, Daily Alta California, 13 November 1853, p. 3. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
After this, the trail goes cold.
But, one can’t help but find poetry in the fact that one of the earliest San Francisco associations of the trader and merchant who 9 years later would become the Emperor of the United States — the habitually and eternally proclamatory, speechifying and, yes, oratory Emperor — was with a ship called…the Orator.
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