Monterey Clipper & the San Francisco Felucca

Genoese immigrants brought the lateen-rigged silena to San Francisco; about a thousand feluccas fished out of the city by 1890, and the type evolved into the motorised Monterey clipper.

Origin

Genoese 'silena' adapted as the San Francisco felucca from the late 1860s; roughly 1,000 working out of San Francisco by 1890

Motorisation

Single-cylinder gas engines from about 1925 produced the Monterey clipper; around 500 running from San Francisco at peak

Builders

Beviacqua and Genoa Boat Works are named in sources as builders of motorised Monterey clippers

Decline

Down to about 200 boats by the 1950s as purse-seiners took over; most survivors are now pleasure craft