The ''Frolic'' was a

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...

which sank northeast of Point Cabrillo, near

Caspar, California Caspar is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California, Mendocino County, California, United States. It is located on the Pacific Ocean, north of Mendocino, California, Mendocino, at an elevation ...

. Historians have called it "the most significant shipwreck on the west coast". Its shipwreck site, later known as "Pottery Cove" or "Frolic Cove", was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as Frolic (brig) in 1991. The ship was built in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

. It was on return from trading in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

with a load of

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

and perhaps

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

when it sank. The opium-trading brig ''Frolic'' wrecked on a reef north of Point Cabrillo, a few miles from what is now Mendocino in 1850. Agents of

Henry Meiggs Henry Meiggs (July 7, 1811 – September 30, 1877), known in Chile and Peru as Enrique Meiggs, was an American businessman. Business career Lumber Born on Jul 7, 1811, in Boston, Meiggs came to New York City in 1835 and began a lumber business ...

investigated the wreck for salvageable cargo but found that anything of value had already been taken by the local

Pomo The Pomo are a Indigenous peoples of California, Native American people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to ...

people, possibly coming from Buldam near modern Mendocino. However, their investigation led to the discovery of the

coast redwood ''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995: 606–607 is the sole living species of the genus '' Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast redwood, coast ...

forests of the Mendocino area and the beginning of the timber trade that would drive the local economy for decades... Mendocino itself was founded in 1852 as a logging community for what became the Mendocino Lumber Company, and was originally named Meiggsville after Meiggs. A cannon salvaged by sport divers in 1966, and other artifacts from the wreck, are on display in the

Point Cabrillo Light Point Cabrillo Light is a lighthouse in northern California, United States, between Point Arena and Cape Mendocino, just south of the community of Caspar. It has been a federal aid to navigation since 1909. It is part of the California state ...

house. The cannon was moved to the lighthouse in 2003 after previously being shown in the garden of Kelley House Museum in Mendocino from 1996 to 2003. The Mendocino County Museum is the state repository for the ''Frolic'', including a second cannon. Dr. Thomas Layton has donated a vast collection to the Mendocino County Museum to add to its own collection The wreckage of the ''Frolic'' was supposedly rediscovered in 1984 and was the subject of a 2003 episode of the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

series '' Deep Sea Detectives'' entitled "Gold Rush Disaster: The Frolic". Point Cabrillo and the

can be seen in background of a 1986 photo of the exact location. With

Gallery

Point Cabrillo Light Station State Historic Park - August 2022 - Sarah Stierch 02.jpg, Chemically preserved 1850 cannon from the ''Frolic''

References

External links

Shipwrecks of the California coast Archaeological sites in California National Register of Historic Places in Mendocino County, California Shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places in California Opium clippers California Gold Rush Maritime history of California Baltimore Clipper {{California-NRHP-stub