The schooner Forester, launched in Alameda in 1900, carried cargoes of lumber from the northern forests of Oregon and Washington to destinations around the Pacific, including China, India, and Australia. It was 250 feet long, 32 feet wide, and weighed 680 tons. During its last years, it served as a tidal break around the main tower of the Carquinez Bridge west of Martinez while the bridge was being built from 1925 to 1927. In 1935, its first and only captain, Otto Daeweritz, chose to beach it on the Martinez mudflats and live there. During its working life, it set world records for a sailing craft and once sailed from Australia to San Francisco in seventy-five days. It was the last intact schooner on the Pacific Coast until it burned to the waterline in 1975, leaving only the burned hull.