1847 How a Yankee SEA CAPTAIN joined the CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH. Autograph Letter Signed (his retained copy). Hamburg, Germany, [December 9, 1847]. To Meir Krohn [Cohn]. I have been quite disappointed not seeing or hearing from you this day, as I had reason to expect. This is to inform you, that my mind is now full made up to embark on board my vessel tomorrow. Wind fair or foul, provided the weather suitable for the reason I shall desire you to pay three outstanding bills and then close my account but before doing which I must see you. Now as yet not a document of any description relative to my business. Have I yet seen. The letter, copied by Goodrich on fragile paper, is complete but separating at folds, with a lower portion which had come detached, tape repaired on verso; minor edgewear; otherwise Fair to near Good condition overall. The letter is undated except for the docketing note on verso, which looks it was originally written as 1848, then changed to 1847. But it’s probable that Captain Goodrich, having just completed a voyage from the capital of Uruguay to Europe for a German Jewish financier (the surname “Krohn” was changed from “Cohn”) had run into legal problems while stopping at the Portuguese Azores. This may have decided him not to continue transatlantic crossings which is why, in 1848, he was receptive to an offer from “Lord” George Gordon – a pretended British nobleman – to sail a group of gold-seekers in the perilous route around Cape Horn to San Francisco and the gold fields. York, is chartered to convey this Associati0on. She is commanded by Capt. Goodrich (one of the members), an experienced Cape Horn and Pacific Captain, who has made some of the shortest passages on record, sails January 18th. This Association is thoroughly equipped with horse-power Machinery, Tents and Camp Equipage. A small Steamboat is taken out for running on the Sacramento [river]. A Geologist, Assayer and Physician accompany the expedition. The first group left New York in February 1849 on the overcrowded, leaky vessel Goodrich commanded, for a hair-raising 8-month voyage around the Horn, a second group led by Gordon himself, following via the Nicaragua route, both, after great hardships, arriving in California in the fall of 1849. “Lord” Gordon, who narrowly escaped a violent conflict with his disgruntled passengers – and probably also with the irascible Goodrich – went on to become a rich San Francisco wheeler-dealer.