Ferryboat Sausalito History Kathie's 2000 Articles

The following “Open Letter to Santa Claus” appeared in part in our December 1957 newsletter.

Dear Santa,
Thought you might be interested to know, as you pass over Antioch on Christmas Eve, just what that very large object is that looks like a boat sitting there in the moonlight.  It is a boat, Santa, and it is named the Sausalito.  Many years ago, it made many trips daily from San Francisco to Sausalito.  For the last twenty or some odd years, it has served as a clubhouse for a group of people known as Sportsmen.

While most of the members live in the Bay Area, many of them make weekly trips to the Club where they can enjoy its facilities, their cabins, social events, and have a great deal of fun.
Fishing and boating is the main source of enjoyment for its members, and in the evening they relax around the stove, the bar, and really have a good visit.  We have a fine restaurant aboard where delicious meals are served.  For the women folks, known as Lady Sailors, it is fine to get away from the dishes and the cleaning after.

Sportsmen members and the Lady Sailors have their meetings the first Monday of each month.  After business meetings have adjourned, coffee and cake are served by the Lady Sailors.  The men have a monthly drawing of a kitty in which they put a small ten cents a month.  This past month, the kitty had grown to the nice tidy sum of $10.00.  There are many fine men in the Club interested in its upkeep.  On December 7th, the Lady Sailors had a Christmas Party at the Club.  There were movies for the children and one of your helpers gave out the gifts and candy.  The temperature was comparable to that of your own  North Pole.  You would have been right at home with the tree, the gifts, and the brisk and bracing weather.

Incidentally, when you have finished with your Christmas and delivered the last packages, you might feel inclined to come down to that boat for a wonderful New Year’s Party.

A Moment of Silence

For many years, I have heard about a trolley car the Club had on the property. As I was looking through some old bulletins that Maggie Murphy gave me for the the Museum, I found the following article by Fred Hitchcock, written for the May 1982 bulletin:

In the late “Forties,” the Oakland Key System took all of the Trolley Cars off the streets and replaced them with buses.  After taking off the wheelsand electric equipment, they offered the car for sale.

Club member, Frank Shattuck, Vice Mayor of Oakland, prevailed on the Key System to donate a car to our Club.
The car was mounted on dollies and towed by truck from Richmond through the Franklin Canyon.  All went well until, going under a railroad overpass, the car got stuck.  In order to get through, they had to let out most of the air out of the dolly tires!

Upon arrival at the Club, the car was placed on the levee in back of where Area Four is now.  At this time, the San Joaquin Harbor had not been built and our own harbor was smaller (only extending to the Ferry Boat).  The berths at this time were for
small boats, mostly open skiffs powered by outboard motors up to about 10 H.P.

All of the seats in the street car were removed and racks were built to hang the boat motors on.  Of course, locks were put on the car doors for security.  Previous to this, the motors were stored on board the Ferry in a room which is now Cabin #19.  The members were glad to get the motors off the Ferry, not only because of the fire hazard, but also now they didn’t have to carry the motors so far from their boats to safe storage.

Kathie's September 2000 Article

The departures and landings of the ferries went so smoothly each day that the crews became highly skilled with their duties at the commencement and termination of each ferry trip.  The double-ended ferryboat was designed to permit the docking of a vessel in as short a time as possible.

By carefully estimating the tide and cross currents, the ferry skipper was able to adjust his speed to suit and ultimately to glide straight into his allotted gaping, pile-studded slip.  As soon as the vessel nosed into the mouth of the slip so that rudder control was no longer required, a deckhand stepped to the bow and removed the keeper pin from the forward rudder, thus unlocking it for the following trip in the opposite direction. After tying up, the keeper pin was placed in the rudder as it would become the forward rudder on the next voyage.

As the vessel approached the slip, a deckhand would pull the bow line tight and make fast to a huge cast cleat on the deck.  This entire operation took place in full view of the passengers awaiting to debark and it will be long remembered by all who rode the ferries.  The next step was lowering of the gangplank from an apron which was hydraulically adjusted throughout the day to suit tidal conditions.  As soon as the gangplank was dropped, the forechain was cast aside, the light rope which had kept the waiting passengers back during the operations was released, and the crowd surged forward to walk up the ramp through the Ferry Building exits to streetcars.  The entire tying-up operation took only a minute or two.

Kathie's August 2000 Article

There wasn’t a designated "fog season" on the San Francisco Bay in the early days. There were over 50 ferries on various routes taking hundreds of passengers to their destinations safely every day.

In foggy weather, the captain would order the first officer to handle the wheel so he could direct all his energies to listening for recognized bells and horns and the signals of passing ships. A lookout was posted on the bow of the vessel within sight of the pilot house. It was his duty to point in the direction of the last audible fog whistle from another boat. The point of direction was noted by the captain who confirmed his own opinion of the sound most recently detected. The ferry's own whistle was blown with monotonous regularity for the benefit of nearby ships

Remember, in those days there were no navigational aids, no radar, no loran, no radio direction finder, or any of the devices we deem necessary today. The captain only had a standard compass at his disposal. Navigation was accomplished almost entirely by sight and by ear.

On July 14, 15, and 16, Stockton Yacht Club will host the 47th Annual 4S Cruise-In.  For those of you new to this great event, I would like to tell you about its history.

The 4S started with the four clubs (Stockton, San Joaquin, Sacramento, and Sportsmen) getting together for an over-the-bottom race each year.  The host club would serve sandwiches at the end of the race.  The 4S has really changed since 1953.  Now it is a three-day event with games, food, and entertainment - and a lot of fun.

In 1986, Sportsmen Yacht Club donated the first perpetual trophy for the 4S games.  We won it that year, then again in 1992.  In 1997, we brought it home and were able to keep it in 1998 and 1999.

Now, in 2000, we hope to bring it home for the fourth year in a row.

Good luck to our competitors; remember fun first!

Thanks to the Internet, Freda Lucido, and Randall House Rare Books Store, we are finally the owners of the book, "Of Walking Beams and Paddle Wheels." It is a chronicle of San Francisco Bay Ferryboats. It is a first edition, signed by the authors, one of 400 copies, and was written in 1951 by George Harlan and Clement Fisher.

In the book, the authors talk about "the Caruso of the ferries," who delighted the passengers with selections of his favorite scores while helping with the mooring lines when the boat docked. The only additional information they had was that he also made appearances in the vaudeville houses in San Francisco and Oakland, played a few club dates, and then retired from the public eye.

Then, there was the deaf, one-arm man who carried a large supply of lavender packed in envelopes. The front of each (envelope) explained that this was the man’s only means of livelihood. When the boat had gotten underway, he would go into the top deck saloon, drop an envelope into each person’s lap in rapid succession, then double back after the travelers had a chance to read the message and either pick up the sale price of the packet, or the packet itself if it was a case of "no sale." He would then repeat the performance on the other side of the saloon, and finally on both sides of the main deck.

Kathie's May 2000 Article:

We have had a nice piece of history donated to our Museum.  A couple of years ago, Bob Morton, a friend of Don and Freda, told me about a hatch cover from a World War II Liberty Ship he had purchased in Berkeley in the 1970s.  He had always intended to make a table out of it.  As years passed, he found legs that looked nautical and put them aside to work on at a later date. Recently, he called about giving the hatch cover to the museum.  I said I would be happy to take a look at it.  Bob brought it to our home.  When I looked at it, I could see it was a very nice piece of history.  I also knew it would not fit in the museum.  I asked Bob if he would mind if it were put somewhere else on the Ferry; he said it should be where people could appreciate it.  Bob retired from the Navy in 1989 with the rank of Commander; he appreciates history and is willing to share a part of it with us. I called Bob Wallen, told him about the hatch cover, and asked if he would take a look at it to see what could be done.

In a matter of weeks, the hatch cover is in the sitting area of our Ferry!  Bob made it into a beautiful table, protected with five coats of Verathane. We appreciate this generous donation from Lcdr. Robert Morton, USN (Ret). A special thank you to Bob Wallen for doing such a fine job making it into a great table. 

 Kathie's April 2000 Article:

I was asked recently what I thought people bent on suicide did before there was a Golden Gate Bridge to provide an effective place from which to jump. The answer is, they jumped from ferryboats, showing no particular favoritism to any line.

Apparently, the jumpers put little thought into this way of leaving this earth. In the first place, the decks of the ferryboats were not high enough above the water to insure death by impact, and most jumpers did not want to jump forward of the giant paddle wheels.

Deck hands were pretty well trained to watch for jumpers; anyone acting peculiarly was closely watched for the duration of the trip. If someone jumped off the bow, the boat would pass over the body which would surface immediately astern and be quickly retrieved. Those who jumped from the afterdeck were less likely to be missed or picked up. One who decided to jump was quite likely to have a change of heart on hitting the frigid bay water which averages between 48 and 55 degrees.

Kathie's March 2000 Article:

Ferry travelers came from all walks of life and from all corners of the world.  It was an opportunity to relax, maybe read, or just enjoy the voyage.  There were people who rode the ferries that were very fearful, particularly when the weather was bad or the fog was thick.  They were concerned the ferry might sink.  Ferry sinking happened only to a startlingly few in the hundred year history of navigation, and loss of life on Bay travel was less than one millionth of a percent.  Statistics proved there was no safer place to be than on a ferryboat.

Since women of the outlying communities had to go to San Francisco for hospitalization, many births occurred aboard the ferries with the cabin matron and the husbands the only medical assistants.  Death, too, occurred on the ferries.  Many an old timer breathed his last from his ferry seat in those tranquil surroundings.

Kathie's February 2000 Article:

I received a call this week from our friend, Bill Knorp, telling me that Dr. Thomas Snead passed away on January 11, 2000; he was 92 years old.  Dr. Snead made several trips to our Sausalito.  One time, he brought his model of the Sausalito Ferry for us to see.  It is a working model complete with walking beam and paddle wheels, as well as passengers.  We have a picture of Dr. Snead and his model in our museum.  The actual model is currently on exhibit at the Boyd Museum in San Rafael.

Dr. Snead rode many of the San Francisco Ferryboats in the early days and no one was more knowledgeable.  He was a wonderful help to me in starting the museum, because he was always ready to share his knowledge.  In Nancy Olmsted’s new book, SIMPLE PLEASURES BEGIN WITH FERRYBOATS, there is a wonderful article about him.  The sketches he made for me of the seating arrangements of the Sausalito are also in this book.

Dr. Snead once told me that he loved to travel on the Sausalito, and did so often.  As a boy, he made friends with another young man he met on the Sausalito and they became friends for life.  When he decided, in 1948, to build a model of one of the San Francisco Ferryboats, he talked it over with his friend who said, "Why don’t you build the Sausalito, because that is where we became friends."  This young man later became a priest.

Thanks to Dr. Snead, the  memory of the ferryboats has not vanished. He will be missed by many friends and historians.  We thank him for sharing his knowledge with us, so we can share it with others.