20 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL. 1 



As the plan for marine exploration has developed step by step, and as 

 practically all of the Captain's other activities have developed, navigation 

 plans and facilities developed step by step. Each successive vessel, owned 

 or built, must show an increase in magnitude or in efficiency or in both, as 

 experience in navigation goes on "from strength to strength." To test his 

 mettle in sailing on the open ocean, Allan Hancock, in partnership with 

 his friend, Hancock Banning, purchased the Cricket, a 54-foot boat, 

 large enough to travel extensively in the waters between Los Angeles 

 and Santa Catalina Island. Later Allan became sole possessor. The range 

 of operation was somewhat limited, and inevitably the Cricket soon had 

 to give place to a larger, speedier rival. 



The Captain had a new vessel built to his own design, the Velero I, 

 a 78-foot cruiser, with 300 horsepower to take it along at a speed of 1 1 

 knots. In 1915 the Velero I was put into commission, the fastest and 

 trimmest cruiser on the coast. Although it sailed with a crew of two, the 

 Captain and an engine-room assistant, it was eminently suitable for ex- 

 ploring any or all of the Channel Islands, or all of the waters between 

 Point Conception and San Diego. 



The satisfaction in sailing this craft was not complete for long. The 

 engine room and galley were cramped for space, and in other respects 

 there was much lack of room; hence, after two years of service, in 1917 

 the Velero I was put on the ways and cut in two, so that a 21 -foot section 

 could be introduced between the two parts. Now the vessel, with a length 

 of 99 feet, had more generous engine-room and galley space, and a fair- 

 sized recreation hall. The additional equipment included a complete wire- 

 less apparatus. While World War I was raging, the field of operation 

 was not extended ; but, after the war was over, the Channel area was no 

 longer sufficient. Mexico called, and the Captain answered. 



Although Lower California and the Gulf of California lie so near 

 southern California, there was a woeful lack of information about any 

 portion of this area, unless, possibly, the ports of occasional call. To ac- 

 quire such information and to learn something of the conditions for navi- 

 gation, Captain Hancock planned an expedition to that part of Mexico in 

 which the shore line and suitable locations for anchorage could be investi- 

 gated. 



On January 30, 1921, the Velero I left the home port on a 3,000-mile 

 cruise, southward along the west coast of Lower California and into the 

 Gulf of California, as far as Tiburon Island. This cruise was important 

 for its immediate intrinsic value, but even more so because the informa- 



