R Taylor Sinker Redwood Cutaway #202

This guitar is a custom order from the R Taylor workshop. It features beautiful Sinker Redwood top, mahogany back and sides and venetian cutaway.

“Sinker” Redwood                                     

On July 25, 1850, the Baltimore-built clipper ship Frolic, sailing from Hong Kong to San Francisco, ran aground off Point Cabrillo on the Mendocino coast of California. Laden with Chinese silks, ceramics, a prefabricated house and 6000 bottles of Edinburgh ale,   the vessel lay on her side in shallow water and was left for salvage.  The following spring Henry Meiggs, a San Francisco lumber merchant, sent an expedition up the coast to claim salvage rights to what might remain of the cargo. They were too late in getting to the wreck site, as the local Mitom Pomo Indians had already been through what remained of the ship and removed what could be salvaged.

 The expedition crew, discouraged by the lack of salvageable goods, left the site and trekked inland where they discovered huge Redwood trees growing along the Big River. Meiggs ordered a steam-powered sawmill from New York and located it at Meiggsville (later renamed Mendocino). His crew felled some of the centuries-old trees and attempted to float them downriver in huge raft-ups of 100 foot long logs. Many of the logs sank.

 Today, because of environmental regulations, it is illegal to salvage this precious wood from the river bottom where it has laid for over 150 years. Only logs that are dislodged naturally by winter high-water flooding may be recovered downstream.

 The mineral deposits on the river bottom that have leached into this Redwood (Sequoia sempervirons-sunkunus) have caused it to have a wide range of coloring, from a walnut-brown to almost blood-red, often within the same piece of wood. This tree most likely grew on a ridge top and was subject to high winds and less irrigation, taking the brunt of bad weather for hundreds of years. It has excellent tap tone, very tight grain and is very stiff for this species. We are pleased to be able to offer this tonewood in very limited quantity.

In the last 10 years, local salvage divers have recovered some small items from the wreck of the Frolic. These glass, shell and wood artifacts are on display at the Mendocino County Museum as part of the Thomas N. Layton Collection.

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