click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
I've seen old photos of Frank Quan's old shrimp boat, the Seabreeze, floating and in apparently good condition, but I'm afraid she isn't going back into the water anytime soon. Her stern now has major damage and where her motor used to be is now just a spacious cavity. Crude signs and chicken wire warn against climbing on her--a real temptation for a big boy like me.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
Oh gosh, I've told the historic story of China Camp in dozens of blog posts, so I won't bore you again with all the details. Lets just say that rampant discrimination was imposed on newly arrived Chinese, and the netting of Bay Shrimp was one of the few occupations the immigrants were allowed in the late 1800's. China Camp is located about 30 miles north of San Francisco on San Pablo Bay, the northern "thumb" of San Francisco Bay.
Frank Quan is getting up there in years, but has lived here throughout his life. Frank and his brother modernized the shrimp drying operations by building a brick lined kiln in the 1930's. Previous to that the tiny Bay Shrimp were spread on straw mats on the nearby hillside for drying. That small craft at the end of the pier in this photo (above) is Frank's "new" boat. Mr. Quan is just about as shy as I am, but some day I'm going to get up enough nerve to ask if his new boat has a name, other than the required registration numbers boldly displayed on each side. I've always gotten a chuckle out of the name for his 12 foot dinghy--the "Zero Two". Frank is an old bachelor, just like me.
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