So far, this is the oldest Harry Bosch novel I have read (from about 2001), and about the eighth. It took 37 pages, not counting the prologue, before Harry is mentioned as the original detective assigned to the case. I’ll call the former FBI profiler (not sure if that is the correct term for his job), who has had major surgery (heart), and been recovering with other major changes in his life: a wife, a new born baby, and running a charter boat with a friend around Catalina Island, Terry McCaleb. I guess I have to since Michael Connelly has called him that.
So I wasn’t familiar with Cabrillo Marina, but I quickly became aware that I knew the area, pretty well. *See Footnote at bottom regarding San Pedro. In 2022, I became interested in a select group of cargo ships. I started by following the BBC Volga as she was coming into the Port of Morehead City. The Port of Morehead City is the smaller of the two Atlantic Ocean ports in North Carolina. The other NC Port is at Wilmington. It was there, that I was introduced to the YM Warranty (Yang Ming) which was just coming up the Cape Fear River and turning around just south of the “new” bridge that crosses the river near downtown Wilmington. I caught the Warranty just as she was stretched across the river, in her turn, to put her bow heading back downriver, and before she docked to begin her off/on loading.
I guess old men are childish. Okay, men are childish, but maybe old men become more childish. We choose to focus on things, perhaps insignificant things that were never important during most of our “adult” lives. Cargo ships & ocean shipping was never important to me, but with the Volga and the Warranty, a whole new world was opened to me. And, whether insignificant or not, I made an education of my journey along with these two vessels. I used Google Maps, various port & river web cams and the vessel following apps to bring the various locations to life as these ships travelled around the World.
Surprisingly the BBC Volga, a Handysize container vessel, almost travelled around the World twice in a year. Not figuratively around the World, but in actuality, around the World. Starting in Japan, she headed east. Through the Panama Canal, eventually to Gdansk, Poland, and back through the Kiel Canal in Germany. But around and through the Gibraltar Straits, across the Mediterranean, and through the Suez Canal, across the Indian Ocean, down & around Singapore, and up the Coast of China, eventually back to a port in Japan. And then, she turned around and followed much of that route from west to east, back, from east to west. And now she has headed down the west coast of South America, and around the southern tip of South America back up to Jamaica and now nearer to the west coast of Africa. West & east, east & west, south & north, and more east.
But, the Volga has nothing to do with Los Angeles, or at least not so far. However, the YM Warranty introduced me to the Port of Los Angeles, the USS Iowa and the Wilmington area nearby. The “other” Wilmington. Apparently, the Warranty was assigned to a circuitous route between Busan, Korea and Wilmington, North Carolina, USA. It has stopped travelling through the Panama Canal to the US east coast, and only travels between Singapore, China, Korea, Los Angeles & San Francisco.
The current Google Street View actually shows the YM Warranty docked near the Wilmington (Port of LA) area. And incidentally, the Warranty is once again nearing the Port of Los Angeles having travelled across the high Pacific. I call it “high” because of the northerly arc of travel that many vessels take across the Pacific Ocean, that keeps them nearer to land & islands, which a more direct route across the Pacific would leave them far from any rescue or repairs.
And another aside, when referencing the vast Pacific Ocean, what about Johnston Atoll about 750 nautical miles, southwest of Hawaii? What a surprising place! I think at one time there were about 4,000 US military and staff, employed on this island that included a large airfield. The island had been used for Nuclear bomb testing, and later as a location for decommissioning biological & chemical weapons. At one time there was a thriving community, albeit, in the middle of nowhere to the Nth degree. So, ironically, I watched a YouTube video of the island as it is today (maybe a few years ago now) and there is now only one dilapidated two story building still left on the island and some storage bunkers. The barracks and other buildings torn down, the pool & movie theater gone except for their concrete foundations, the facilities for “toys” (sailboats, jet skis, water sports) for employees gone, and tropical vegetation taken over many of the paved roads and airfield. This island is toxic, and I pity those few that get to live on the island, in rotation, to monitor the environment. I hope they are paid well (probably not) because they are putting themselves in extreme danger. Okay, a vast Pacific Ocean, so let’s cross it with as many ports of rescue as possible.
Cabrillo Marina
West Basin – YM Warranty
I’m on Google Maps Street View and heading up the 110 from just above Cabrillo Marina (passing by where the Warranty docs and is visible from the Freeway) past West Basin and
on to Farmers Market Pl and Du-Pars Restaurant & Bakery. A trip that takes a little over 40 minutes (I guess with good traffic.). McCaleb is meeting with Jaye Winston at Dupars. McCaleb and family like the pancakes there, any time of day.
Bosch and McCaleb take a working lunch at a Cupids. Cupid’s Hotdogs Est. 1946
Bird Barrier, Carson, CA
And the real Cameron Riddell, President of Bird Barrier, and his current team.
The Goodyear Blimp tethered near the Bird Barrier warehouse.
Crunch Fitness 8000 Sunset Boulevard
El Conchinito Restaurant (permanently closed)
ALL OUT!
Hollywood Forever Cemetery (on Santa Monica Blvd.) – not from this novel, but Harry attended a funeral here once.
Hollywood Forever Cemetery is a short distance from the LAPD Hollywood Division. Further down Santa Monica Boulevard, from the cemetery toward downtown and just across the 101, is L.A. City College.
Lemon Grove Recreation Center just down from Romaine Street. *Elsewhere I recall the story of a young woman who was attending LA City College, and who was murdered and later found near Lemon Grove Recreation Center & the 101. She lived a short distance away on Romaine Street. What I noted from the aerial view of this area was that the Hollywood Forever Cemetery was only a couple of blocks away, but Romaine Street did not go directly there. I think this story may have been about a murder that was never solved, but because I visited these places via Google Street View, they are burned in my memory as if I had actually been there. And from this, I know that if you head up the 101, the Hollywood Bowl & the High Tower Apartments (from “Echo Park”) are about six minutes away.
United States Post Office Hollywood Station 90028 located just up Wilcox Ave. from the LAPD Hollywood Division a block past Sunset Blvd.
If you go up one block, from the Post Office, to Hollywood Blvd. and take a left and go about 3 blocks, you have Musso & Frank Grill on the right.
IN-N-OUT BURGER on Sunset Blvd.
City National Bank
[FOOTNOTE 02/13/24]: I was just watching an episode of Perry Mason, “The Case of the Arrogant Arsonist,” and quite a bit of the show had scenes from the San Pedro area down near the Port of Long Beach. The Vincent Thomas Bridge is there at the Port of Long Beach and San Pedro and this bridge was in the background for some of the TV show’s scenes. Here is a current webcam view of the bridge. Cabrillo Marina was there, but I didn’t see anything in the show with scenes from there.
There was a scene located at a fire station (Los Angeles Fire Department) along the waterfront. It was a different structure from what is there today, but I think it was approximately the same location. The YM Warranty has arrived at this port today and is docked at West Basin as in the Streetview of this area.
Funny, I just looked up at a Dodge car commercial and I am almost sure the cars are on the Vincent Thomas Bridge. I found the Dodge car commercial on YouTube and sure enough the commercial was made down in the San Pedro / Thomas Vincent Bridge area. Warehouse #1 is included in the commercial, and this warehouse is next to the Cabrillo Marina.
[end FOOTNOTE]
Bill Gibson, II 