San Diego is a very fine, secure harbour . . . within there is safe anchorage for ships of any burthen.  There is a sorry battery of eight pounders at the entrance: at present, it does not merit the least consideration as a fortification.  –William Shaler, captain of the American trading ship Lelia Byrd.

In 1803,  American sailors and Spanish soldiers went to war.  Read the story of  the “Battle of San Diego Bay.”