Cast in 1679 in Lima, Peru, the 8-pound San Francisco bears the coat of arms of Don Baltasar de la Cueva Henriquez y Saaverdra, 24th Viceroy of Peru.


Originally emplaced at the Castillo de San Joaquin to guard the San Francisco Bay, the cannon was subsequently moved to Sonoma at the request of the Mexican Governor of Alta California. On July 20, 1846, Captain Montgomery of the U.S.S. Portsmouth sent a military detachment to retrieve the cannon and return it to the Presidio.

Devoted November 29, 1960, the West Coast World War II Memorial is a rounded wall of California stone set in a grove of Monterey pine and cypress. Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, it bears the names of 413 members of the armed services who were lost or covered at sea in U.S. Pacific waters between 1941 and 1945.

The memorial was built by the American Battle Monuments Commission, a governmental agency also responsible for its preservation. Cemeteries and memorials maintained by the A.B.M.C. save the legacy of American servicemen whose remains were not returned to this country for final interment. The West Coast Memorial is one of three A.B.M.C. memorials on U.S. soil dedicated to lost soldiers of World War II; the others are the East Coast Memorial at Battery Park in New York City and the Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii.