Ancient maritime history were an early Mediterranean seagoing people that travelled far. Early writers do not give a good idea about the progress of navigation nor that of the man's seamanship. One of the early stories of seafaring was that of Odysseus. In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, the Argo which in turn was named after its builder Argus. Thus, "Argonauts" literally means "Argo sailors". The voyage of the Greek navigator Pytheas of
Golden Fleece (clipper) of their voyages, the two ships arrived in San Francisco a few hours apart, on Oct. 29th, after passages of 128 days. "Golden Fleece" sustained relatively little damage for a ship with so many voyages around Cape Horn. Nevertheless, she had several mishaps. In 1857, on her second voyage, as "Golden Fleece" was entering the Golden Gate, she struck Four Fathom Bar off Point Bonita, better known as the "Potato Patch". "Golden Fleece" was run up on the mud flats, and made it to the wharf with 12-14 of water in the hold. In 1873, "Golden Fleece" lost all her