William Thomas Shorey began his maritime career on a whaling vessel in 1876, at age 17. The son of a white Scottish planter and black Creole woman, the sailor was born in Barbados, West Indies, in 1859, and emigrated to Boston as a young man.

Oakland's city historian Peter Conmy compiled a history of Shorey in 1972, and a copy of it is in the Oakland History Room files. In that document, Conmy cites Shorey's description of a brutal sea fight that a sperm whale nearly won.

"Evidently enraged, the whale attacked first one boat, smashing it, and then a second one, and then attacked the one I was in. By good fortune, we were able to fire a bomb into him which, exploding, killed him and saved us," said Shorey in a 1908 interview.

Shorey acquitted himself well on that North Atlantic and East Arctic voyage, upgrading his status from "greenhand" to "boat steerer," making him the one who handled the boat's course through rough water and flailing whales' tails.

On his next voyage aboard the Emma H. Herriman, he went south through the Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope, on to Australia and Tasmania, and then -- via the Pacific -- to South America and finally, San Francisco. All told, the trip took three years. Later he was again promoted, from third officer to first officer

The next time the Emma Herriman sailed, it was to the Arctic. Shorey began this voyage as a second officer. (Apparently, captains selected their men and repositioned their status for each voyage, not necessarily honoring a previous voyage's title.) On the next outing, he was first officer again. And the third time the Emma Herriman departed from San Francisco, in 1886, he was commander.

It was extraordinary for a black man in this era to be master of a ship -- only 20 years after slavery was abolished and with largely white crews. The San Francisco Examiner called him the "only colored captain on the Pacific coast."

Shorey, who settled in Oakland on Eighth Street, went on to captain many other ships: the Andrew Hicks, the Gay Head, and the John and Winthrop -- and to great acclaim. In 1907, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about the John and Winthrop caught between two typhoons, with winds so strong they actually took the sails off the ship; later the ship got stuck in fog, which masked the fact the ship was only 20 feet off a reef.

After the ship's return to San Francisco, the crewmen told the newspaper that "nothing but Capt. Shorey's coolness and clever seamanship saved the vessel." And indeed, tales of Shorey's success were often reported in the daily papers.

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