Endeavored to put about. Vessel misstaged. Let go anchor. 7:30 P.M. Light Ship bore N. by E. about 6 miles. Wind N.S.W. Vessel heading from S. To. S.S.E and when we heard breakers I figured to be 5 miles West of Point San Pedro.

Wreck Report

Built for the Pacific Coast carrying trade, the schooner made a number of coastwise voyages before she was lost on August 2, 1910. Sailing from San Francisco with a cargo of general freight, lime, hay, and 14,000 board feet of lumber for the sugar plantations of Theo. H. Davies at Hana, Maui, Hawaii, James Rolph was swept by the current and plagued by the lack of a strong breeze. In the thick fog, her master, Capt. A. Olsen, did not see the schooner sail close into shore. At 10:00 p.m. the captain heard surf and ordered the ship tacked offshore, but it was to late and James Rolph crashed into the rocks at Point San Pedro, grounding 50 feet from shore at the same spot where the four-masted bark Drumburton had been lost in 1904. Rolph's crew managed to reach shore safely, but the vessel could not be pulled off the rocks. Tugs attempted to haul James Rolph free but wreckers from Capt. T. P. Whitelaw's salvage firm stripped the wreck of usable fittings before abandoning James Rolph to the waves. Delgado & Haller [2]

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