built with "hundreds of century-old bricks, many stamped with the name of the California brick factory from which they had come: Richmond, Stockton and Corona." Press coverage states that "these bricks had come north from San Francisco as ballast on lumber ships. In the years after the 1906 quake, Fort Bragg sent tons of timber to the city to be used in rebuilding. Coming home, the ships used bricks from Bay Area factories for weight and for new construction in Fort Bragg." Eventually, however, steam-powered vessels proved more dependable than sail, and railroads gained greater penetration of the coastal regions. Sailing vessels continued to compete with steamships and railroads well into the 20th century, but the last purpose-built sailing lumber schooner was launched in 1905. Steam schooners Soon steam schooners (wooden but powered) replaced the small two-masters in the dog-hole trade and larger schooners, such as the still existing C.A. Thayer and the Wawona, were built for longer voyages and bigger cargo. West Coast shipyards continued to build sail-rigged lumber schooners until 1905 and wooden steam schooners until 1923. In 1907 observers noted the increase in size of schooners. The first three-masted schooner built on the Coast was launched in 1875. It was also the first lumber schooner to exceed 300 tons. Ship wrights built the first four-master in 1886 and the first five-master in 1896. The later were more generally involved in the overseas trade. Sail schooners grew from fifty to 1,100 tons during this period. More than 50 major shipbuilders operated on the Pacific Coast during the era of the coast wise schooners. Demand for coastwise lumber shipping continued until after the First World War and total lumber transported by the railroads did not exceed its seaborne competition until about 1905. Even in the 1870s mills shipped lumber directly from some dog-holes to Asia and South America. The last wooden steam lumber schooner built was constructed by Matthews Shipbuilding, Hoquiam, Washington in 1923 for the A. B. Johnson Lumber Company. Esther Johnson was of wooden construction with planking of three inch Douglas fir, long by and with draft. On 29 March 1943 the ship was purchased by the War Shipping Administration and by June had arrived in Australia to become part of the U.S. Army's Southwest Pacific Area fleet as X-9. Esther Johnson arrived in Milne Bay on 4 October 1943 and, capable of transporting wooden piles sufficient