Yet it was a simple human story that opened up that world to JoAnn Semones of Half Moon Bay.
It happened when she spoke to the daughter of a woman lost on the passenger steamer San Juan, which went down Aug. 29, 1929, within five minutes of colliding with an oil tanker twice the size of the passenger ship. The loss of life - 55 passengers and 20 crew - made it Pigeon Point's worst maritime disaster.
 Jo Ann Semones, at her Ocean Colony home, looks over photos of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse and people lost in the 1929 wreck of the San Juan, a story that found its way into her new book about shipwrecks in those waters. |
Semones came across that story while researching the rich history of Pigeon Point and the array of ships and maritime characters that passed through those waters. It was one story, along with compelling old photographs, quotes from people who were in the area at the time, and the gripping atmosphere of the storied coastal waters, that make up her recently published book, "Shipwrecks, Scalawags, and Scavengers."
"Gosh, there's a ton of human fate there," said Semones.
Hardbound, published by Glencannon Press Maritime Books, dedicated to partner Julie Barrow of Half Moon Bay and decked with a colorful photo of the lighthouse courtesy of Rudy and Alice Rico, the book is 116 pages of 100 years if maritime magic between 1853 and 1953. It chronicles the shipwrecks in those waters in an informal, conversational style, peppered with old photos and sketches that give a sense of the time and place, an appendix of names of those lost at sea and quotations from survivors, families or crew associated with the stories.
And, it's a labor of love for its author, who says that ocean travel figures in her earliest memories and that the sea has remained a guidepost in her life since.
"It's fantastic, it's exciting, it's rewarding," she enthused over the publication of the book. "It's a little unbelievable to really see it come to fruition. It's a dream come true because I have such passion for the subject matter ... I always was drawn to the sea."
Semones was a toddler of around 2 when she made her first ocean voyage, traveling on a military transport ship with her mother and younger sister from San Francisco to Tokyo, where the family lived for two years. Her first memory was of "balloons, a band on deck, the railings and all that," she said. "One of those memories you have that's in color. An unforgettable experience for me."
A career in journalism, and a stint on Capitol Hill as a press secretary, master's and doctoral degrees in public policy all followed for Semones, along with a stint as consultant with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary developing concepts and text for the then-new Pigeon Point Lighthouse Interpretive Center. She also wrote for maritime-oriented publications and the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" international book series.
Along the way, she accumulated enough information about Pigeon Point and its storied past that friends urged her to write a book.
She explained that she was always drawn to shipwrecks because "I think they really tell the story of the people and the times."
That lives in her book, along with "a sense of the period, and maritime commerce on the coast."
The book is available at Barnes & Noble and online at Amazon.com, Semones said, and a book signing is tentatively in the works at the 135th anniversary celebration of Pigeon Point Lighthouse on Nov. 17.
w