Posts Tagged ‘World War I’

A front-page headline in the San Diego Union screamed the news: “AMERICAN GUNBOAT TAKES HUN RAIDER OFF MEXICAN COAST.”  Less than a year after America’s entry into World War I, San Diegans were riveted by reports of a captured German raider ship “set to create havoc with Pacific coast shipping.”

Three U. S. Navy gunboats had taken their prize fifteen miles off the coast of Mazatlan on March 19, 1918.  Heavily armed and reportedly flying the flag of the Kaiser’s Imperial Navy. . .

Read the complete story of The German Raider.

The German “raider” Alexander Agassiz

In the early 1900s, the ultimate status symbol for a business tycoon in America was a luxurious, ocean-going yacht. A personal mark of opulence in San Diego was the 226-foot steam yacht Venetia, owned by John Diedrich Spreckels. Read more about Spreckels’ famed yacht: The Venetia.

The “Venetia” leaving San Diego in 1924. From Adams, The Man: John D. Spreckels.