In 1903, the Little Nanny ship was in service transporting goods between Eureka and Klamath, Calif., when a couple of unusual passengers were brought aboard.
The Nanny, a 36-foot double-ender with a 10-foot beam and single mast, brought supplies and merchandise from Eureka, returning with loads of butter and salmon for market.
That fall, the Nanny sailed north and into the mouth of the extremely shallow Chetco river for a load of salt salmon. While inside, the bar closed completely, delaying the ship’s departure for three weeks.
During this time, a rancher killed a bear and discovered she had left two young cubs. He captured the cubs, which were taken aboard the Nanny, where they had the run of the deck, but spent most of their time sleeping in a box up forward.
When the engine started for the return trip, the agitated cubs climbed to the top of the mast and remained there for the entire 40-mile ocean voyage to the Klamath River.
The bears were reloaded in crates and taken to an enclosure at Eureka’s Sequoia Park, where California’s first zoo was established, in 1907.
Source: Hughes, Ralph. Tales of Del Norte County. Del Norte Historical Society, 1997, pp. 33-34.
Sequoia Park Zoo, www.sequoiaparkzoo.net/about/sequoia-park-zoo-history/. Accessed 28 Oct. 2018.
