Remembering the Big Quake

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

That far off 6.0 temblor that shivered the timbers of our floating home on July 8 stirred up memories of the much closer 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta quake of October 17, 1989.

In a 30th-anniversary retrospective of the “World Series Earthquake,” Marin Magazine pointed out: “The Loma Prieta quake let Marin off relatively easy. Damages in the county were $1.6 million of the $10 billion Bay Area total. No fatalities occurred in the county itself, although three Marin residents died in the collapse of Interstate 880.” Nevertheless, bridges and airports were closed, the Bay Area went dark due to power outages, and phone service was interrupted. Life in Sausalito was affected in many different ways.

A user of the Sausalito-based computer network WELL “eerily speculated that an earthquake might be in the offing,” according to a report in the Santa Rosa Oak Leaf newspaper. Here are some excerpts from the paper’s report two days after the deadly earthquake hit:

Three minutes after midnight Tuesday morning, a woman, known on the Sausalito-based WELL computer network as MacPost, said, “Nice little set of earthquakes on the west side of the San Andreas fault for the past hour I’m trusting they’re not leading to anything bigger, but if they do and you have to dig me out of the rubble, you’ll find me under the desk with the Macintosh on top... Ah, life on the faultline.”

WELL communications were cut off when the earthquake cut electric power to its computer, located in a building on the Sausalito bay. “But,” said the Oak Leaf, “when power was restored at 1 a.m., hundreds of messages and earthquake reports poured into the communications network. One of the first respondents was MacPost, reporting, “It’s eerie, dark and quiet out there, except for the occasional quivering of the Bolinas mesa under my house.”

Reporters across the country said the WELL conferencing system was a vital important source of information during the emergency.

The Whole Earth ‘lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, was started by Stewart Brand of Waldo Point Harbor and visionary physician Larry Brilliant in 1985; the name is partially a reference to some of Brand's earlier projects, including the Whole Earth Catalog.

COURTESY PHOTO

Buildings collapsed in the Marina in 1989, like this one at Beach and Divisadero

Shortly after the 1989 earthquake struck at 5:04 p.m., Brand was driving through the heavily damaged Marina District of San Francisco and stopped to help with rescue efforts. Later, he co-wrote an article for the S.F. Chronicle entitled “The Rescue that Failed,” detailing some of the problems that hindered rescue efforts. You can read it at https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/The-rescue-that-failed-disorganization-empty-14514985.php.

As the Bay Area began to recover from the devastation, this paper reported on the effects on local businesses. A month after the disaster, Rebecca Speight, the chairman of the Downtown Merchants Association, said “The morale is really low among the merchants right now. Business is down due to the earthquake and a number of businesses are barely hanging on.”

But Sausalitans were already organizing relief efforts, according to Marin Scope:

“Local residents donated several truck loads of clothing, food, toys and camping gear over the past week, which were collected at the Sausalito Fire Station According to Fire Chief Steve Bogel people are still dropping off items.

"’When the chips are down, people turn out to be pretty darned nice,’ said Bogel who described the response as overwhelming. Included in the many contributions so far was a check for $7,000, piggy banks dropped off by children, and brand new clothes with tags still on them.”

The Sausalito Tallship Society sponsored a benefit dinner and raffle for earthquake victims at the Sausalito Cruising Club on November 9. “The event featured accounts of Captain Ralph ‘Buck’ Buchan, Californian skipper, merchant marine officer, and former Marina District resident,” Marin Scope reported, adding, “Buck’s apartment was reduced to a pile of rubble, killing three occupants.”

Sausalito’s Japanese sister city, Sakaide, proffered some of the more touching gestures. A Sakaide official visited here just a month later and presented the city with a gift of 3,000 yen (approximately $300) and numerous letters of support and concern from youngsters who had visited Sausalito previously. A junior high student wrote, “We hear that there were not so serious damages in your city, so we feel assured. But we suspect that you may still have a shock on your mind. We wish we could visit you and help you."

“The letters are very cute,” Mayor Bob Mitchell told Marin Scope. ‘It was very nice to know they are concerned about us.’ Mitchell said that he felt bad that the city didn’t have a gift to give to Kometani so he took off his wrist watch, which Kometani had been admiring, and gave it to him. Mitchell had the watch made for himself with the seal of the city on it. “Since it was one of a kind I thought I would show our appreciation and give him the watch.”

Those of us who lived through the earthquake and its aftermath will recall how it brought out the best of the people of the Bay Area.

Library Reopens —at Age 115

By Margaret Badger and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The library paid $20 a month for its share of the Land and Ferry Company building

The recent announcement that the Sausalito Library is once again open to the public on a limited schedule brought to mind the 115-year history of this beloved institution. Founded in 1906, the library actually opened the following year on the second floor of the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company building on Water Street (now Bridgeway). In 1909 the library took over half of the second floor of the Bank of Sausalito building at what is now 729 Bridgeway, the home of Gene Hiller Menswear.

Fifteen years ago, the Historical Society newsletter celebrated the library’s centennial, and Margaret Badger detailed the long and winding story of the library from in the Society’s newsletter. Here’s a lightly edited excerpt from Margaret’s report:

For sixty-five years the Sausalito Library was housed in one downtown location. It stayed in the Bank Building (later the City Hall) until 1974 when it moved to its present location in the auditorium of the old Central School (now Civic Center) at 420 Litho Street. Through all of these years the staff, the patrons and the collection were challenged to work within very limited space.

For twenty-six years of its life in the Bank Building, the Library was in one room. The other rooms on the second floor of the building were used for doctors' offices. So when in 1935 the doctors moved out and the library expanded to occupy the entire second floor, the situation changed very much for the better. It was not long, however, before the library again needed more space. In the 1940s, with the coming of thousands of workers to Marinship, demands on the library increased to the point where a small branch was set up in the new Marinship housing.

The need for adequate library space was not limited to Sausalito. In the early 1900s, small towns around California were working with Carnegie philanthropists to establish free-standing library buildings.

Did Sausalito make an effort to receive Carnegie money to build a free-standing library? The pieces of evidence that we have — and there may be more not yet found — show some early awareness of the Carnegie opportunity. In the 1921-22 Annual Report a reference is made that a request for money from Carnegie was given "no favorable reply."

We do not know for a fact why Sausalito did not get a Carnegie grant, but we do know that by 1917 and the start of World War I funds were much more scarce, and that the last grant given in California for a library was in 1921.

Meanwhile, growth of the Sausalito Library collection was controlled by its location and size. The City Engineer forbade any more weight on the second floor and required that for every book added, one needed to go. But it was not until the 1960s that the issue of a new site for a larger library for Sausalito came up for public debate. Once more, the confounding issue was securing a site for a library building. A strong group of library supporters proposed a building on city land that was at the time leased to Herb Madden, Sr. Opponents, including Madden, felt strongly that the waterfront should have only waterfront usage and others pointed out that the pro-posed Aaron Green building, if constructed on the waterfront, would forever block one of the best Bay/City vistas in the region. Opponents also argued that a new library would be better located in New Town outside of the increasingly busy downtown tourist traffic. Robin Sweeny led a heated campaign to preserve the waterfront site (now known as Gabrielson Park) and to locate the library elsewhere. Herb Madden Sr. tilted the scale by offering his leased land at no cost to the City for a park, but at a price fora library! The measure to locate a free-standing library on the waterfront site was defeated.

Another measure was put before Sausalito voters two years later to acquire a former railroad station (located between Caledonia and Bridgeway across the street from present-day Robin Sweeny Park) for a building site. It was also hotly debated and richly imbued with local passion before its defeat. Over time, many ideas about where to put the library were aired including citizen proposals to house the books on one of two recycled ferry boats, the Charles Van Damme, which was actually aground outside of City limits, or the Berkeley.

In January 1975 the library's search for a more spacious home was finally realized when the former Central School was transformed into the town's Civic Center. Although locating the library in the former school auditorium was considered temporary at the time, after a few years its permanence was established. While less impressive than a Carnegie Classic Revival-style structure, and lacking the glamour of a Bay view, still the chosen library location hidden inconspicuously inside the old Central School has worked well. At this location its caregivers — a devoted library staff and the Friends of the Library — have brought the library proudly to its 100th year and the community remains well served into the 21st century.

A 100-Year-Old Epidemic

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Back in March of last year, we wrote about the deadly influenza epidemic of 1918, and its eerie parallels to the COVID-19 pandemic which had just been identified. The Spanish Flu, as that virus was called, lasted until April 1920. And just one year later, Sausalito was fighting yet another horrific epidemic. This time it was smallpox, and again the parallels to our recent experience are stunning.

In February 1921 the Sausalito News announced:

“The local board of health is insisting upon a more careful observance of the quarantine laws as some of the people instead of doing everything possible to check and eliminate small pox are greatly endangering health conditions by their indifference. Dr Allen H. Vance, local health officer, says that inasmuch the public are careless, the local board of health will rigidly enforce the law, and has authorized the following order: On and after this date, February 19, 1921 any person found entering or leaving any house under quarantine shall be punished to the full extent of the law. Ordinance No. 71 states that a fine of from $25 to $500 may be imposed or imprisonment from ten to ninety days.”

That same issue reported:

“After trying it for a week the Sausalito public schools, finding the attendance very light on account of the small pox, were closed yesterday until the 28th of this month. The average daily attendance was cut down at least seventeen per cent, which if kept up for much longer would cut the apportionment of the teachers down one and possibly two as the apportionment of teachers is based upon the average daily attendance for the term. It is very necessary if the present number of teachers is to be maintained that all patrons of the school have their children attend school regularly. Larger portion of money received by the district is received from this source on average daily attendance.

“On the 15th Dr. Kelly of the State Board of Health vaccinated 57 children in the two schools. Some of these children would be absent from school next week on account of the vaccination. Then too, Tuesday will be a holiday, and some of the pupils would be absent on Monday—at least that has been a rule. The reasons given above are why there will be no school next week It is almost impossible to ascertain why so many children are out of school. But sickness, fear of the epidemic, and effect of vaccination will account for the largest number of absences. Notice—Dr. Kelly will be at the schools on Monday a. m. the 21st for the purpose of examining those vaccinated on last Tuesday. He will also vaccinate free any who may desire him to do so.”

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

South School, between Third and Fourth Streets, was closed due to smallpox

Measures like those led to strong declines in smallpox after 1921, but the stubborn affliction lingered in pockets. In 1927, according to the News, a popular May Day Fete had to be cancelled in San Anselmo: “Owing to the fact that a few cases of small pox had appeared over the county it was thought inadvisable to group so many children and possibly expose them to this dread disease.” However, the paper added, “In Sausalito, where every precaution had been taken by vaccinating all school children within 24 hours of the first appearance of small pox, it was considered perfectly safe for the children to go ahead with their plans.”

The earliest evidence of one of the greatest scourges in human history dates to the 3rd century BCE in Egyptian mummies, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s “History of Smallpox". Caused by virus variants, smallpox is estimated to have killed up to 300 million people in the 20th century and around 500 million people in the last 100 years of its existence, according to Donald Henderson, author of Smallpox: the death of a disease, considered to be the definitive archival history of smallpox.

The last naturally occurring case of smallpox was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980.

First Female Members of San Francisco Yacht Club

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Back in 2012 we wrote about the 1873 move of the San Francisco Yacht Club from its small clubhouse across the Bay to a new home on the Sausalito waterfront. At the time It was the second yacht club in the U.S., according to historian Jack Tracy, and the first on the West Coast.

That original Sausalito clubhouse was destroyed by fire in March 1897 but was rebuilt and reopened with a gala dance 13 months later. In his book Moments in Time, Tracy writes, “The new clubhouse became a Sausalito landmark for the yachting fraternity on San Francisco Bay, and the setting for countless memorable parties and celebrations over the next twenty-five years.”

Part of the club’s growing popularity was due to a decision to accept female members, as reported in the Sausalito News of December 1899:

Some months ago the yachting fraternity was greatly surprised over an innovation of the San Francisco Yacht Club. At one of the monthly meeting! the board of directors elected to membership Mrs. E. A. Sparry. This action caused considerable comment for some time. A visit to this clubhouse at the present time shows how successful the action of the board of directors has been. What have been heretofore blank and dreary rooms have been embellished by woman's touch until everything about the club shows a finish and a refinement that can be the work only of the fair sex. Since the election of Mrs. Sparry the club has taken into active membership Miss L.C. Campbell, Miss Grace Martin, Mrs. A. L. Black, Mrs. E. Shoobert, Miss E.L. Wilson, and Mrs. Geo. Story. Mrs. Sperry and Miss Martin at once started in to make the clubrooms inviting, and it was but a short time before the hill residents of Sausalito were spending their leisure moments at the club headquarters.

The ladies society named Las Amigas has taken the upper rooms of the club house. The dance room has been arranged for the game of basket-ball, and the reading room provided with periodicals and decorated with rugs and flowers. Meetings are held every week and the club is supporting a social meeting place, of which Sausalito has long been much in need.

Ironically, it was a 20th-century innovation that forced the club out of Sausalito. Tracy notes: “Finally, it was the automobile, more than anything else, that precipitated the decision to move the San Francisco Yacht Club from Sausalito. By the early 1920s, the limited space around the clubhouse had become inadequate for parking the automobiles of members and guests. In addition, Water Street [now Bridgeway] was becoming more noisy and dusty from the increasing traffic, though this was a nuisance the yachtsmen could endure. But in 1922 the demon automobile struck a blow that could not be tolerated. A new ferry landing was built just north of the clubhouse by the Golden Gate Ferry Company.

“The wake of the large auto ferries passing close to the yacht club anchorage played havoc with mooring lines and boats as well, popping hatches and cabinet doors and all but swamping the smaller boats.” By 1926 decided to relocate.

That decision led to a schism described on the Club’s website: “One group, headed by Commodore Clifford Smith, felt that Belvedere Cove would be an ideal location. Another group felt that the Club should move back to San Francisco and lease land from the city on the Marina. After considerable discussion, the Belvedere site was finally selected. Those who opposed the move resigned and formed the St. Francis Yacht Club.”

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SFYC Yacht club skinny dips, as shown here in the 1880s, presumably ended by 1899

Sausalito’s First Hybrid—1927

Sausalito’s first hybrid transportation arrived nearly 100 years ago. Not a car, but Steel Electric class car ferries. These vessels were powered by hybrid diesel-electric engines

“Wonderful New Ferry Boat, Redwood Empire, In Service,” was the headline of an unsigned editorial in the July 20, 1927 Sausalito News. The paper acknowledged that it hadn’t always been so kindly to the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, operator of the newfangled ferry. In March of that same year, the News reported: “For years the people of Marin County have chanted complaints against ancient rolling stock, slow trains, slow ferries and not enough of them, delays in schedules, neglected stations and the like.”

COURTESY PHOTO

MV Quinault, AKA the MV Redwood Empire

But the Redwood Empire was something else, according to the later editorial:

“The Sausalito News has only one object—that is to serve the people of Sausalito and the people of the North Bay Counties. It looks at the service that the railroads and the ferry companies give through the eyes of the people. Our ferry service was rotten. The News said so! The third rail is still bad and dangerous—The News still says so.

“But the ferry service has been improved and the rates have not been raised. And The News believes that the Northwestern Pacific has turned over a new leaf in its official attitude and that as long as it gives concrete evidence of a desire to serve the public that it should be commended.

“The Sausalito News thinks that the three new ferry boats in the N. W. P. automobile ferry service are excellent. It believes that they offer the safest and most dependable and most pleasing transportation of any automobile ferry boats on the bay.

“It appreciates the fact that during the day the people of Sausalito are receiving practically fifteen minute service from the Northwestern Pacific. The News believes that when a fight is won—that the hatchet should be buried. The News believes that if those people who have ‘enjoyed’ a grudge against the Northwestern Pacific—and there are many of them—will ride on the new boats and lunch at the counter of their electric kitchen restaurants—that they will very likely forget their old grouch in a delicious cup of coffee.”

After a decade of service on San Francisco Bay, Steel Electric-class ferries were idled by completion of the Bay Bridge in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. They were sold in 1940 to Puget Sound Navigation Company. The Redwood Empire was renamed the MV Quinault, serving P.S.N. until Washington State Ferries acquired and took over operations in 1951.

On November 20, 2007, the entire Steel Electric class was withdrawn from service due to hull corrosion issues. The Quinault was already out of service by that time.

In 2009 Washington State Ferries sold the Quinault and the other Steel Electrics for $200,000.00 to a recycling firm. That August she was towed out of Eagle Harbor to Ensenada, Mexico and was cut up for scrap, closing the chapter on another Sausalito first.

Richardson Bay Bridge Milestones

By Robert Harrison and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNE T. KENT CALIFORNIA ROOM, MARIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY

The Redwood Bridge crossing Richardson Bay, Mill Valley, circa 1932

The recent announcement of late-night lane closures for emergency repairs to finger joints on the Richardson Bay Bridge aroused my curiosity about the history of the local landmark, which is a prominent feature of our view from Gate 6 ½ in Kappas Marina.

In the Anne T. Kent California Room’s Community Newsletter, historian Robert Harrison tells the story of the Bridge’s evolution:

The Richardson Bay California Redwood Bridge, spanning 2,452 feet, was completed in 1931. This bridge was an important link in the new State Highway 101 going from San Rafael to Sausalito. The bridge provided a four-lane roadway from Manzanita, just north of Sausalito, to De Silva Island in Strawberry. It included a 56-foot lift section to allow the passage of marine traffic.

The bridge, known as the Redwood Bridge, was constructed of more than two million board feet of redwood timber including over 600 redwood piles making it the largest redwood structure in the world. The bridge engineers reported that redwood was selected because it was “most suitable for a permanent structure of the character required, not being subject to dry rot or the destructive effects of close proximity to salt water.”

The Richardson Bay Freeway Bridge, spanning 2,864 feet was completed in 1956, replacing the Redwood Bridge with a six-lane concrete and steel bridge. It was 86 feet wide and had a 35-foot clearance above high water. The replacement bridge was constructed parallel to and just east of the Redwood Bridge at a cost of $3.2 million (about $28 million today).

It’s the bridge that carries traffic over the north arm of Richardson Bay today. Though this new bridge lacks the character of the Redwood Bridge, it remains the only long bridge spanning a body of water entirely within the boundaries of Marin County.

Environmental concerns, the diminished role of the railroad, and better roads were all factors which eliminated Marin’s need for long bridges to travel short distances. Yet a glance at the history of these projects reminds one of the creativity and bold concepts of early transportation entrepreneurs.

Following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake the concrete bridge was seismically upgraded and widened to 138 feet to accommodate nine lanes of traffic.

That seismic upgrade became a political flashpoint in the mid-90s, when the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) refused to approve the project on the grounds that Caltrans’ plan to fill in the base of the bridge with concrete walls would block a view corridor, according to a report in a January 1995 issue of this newspaper.

Caltrans lobbied Republican governor Pete Wilson to intervene, and Wilson teamed with State Senator Milton Marks in attempt to eliminate the BCDC by defunding the Commission and turning its caseload over to the California Coastal Commission.

That led to an unusual coalition between environmentalists and developers, who opposed the Governor’s plan on the grounds “the enemy we know is better than the enemy we don’t know.”

At the time, the Coastal Commission was dominated by Southern California commissioners and staffers and had at least as contentious a reputation as the BCDC. It was feared that turning over existing cases to regulator unfamiliar with them, would just grind everything to a halt. So, stakeholders from usually opposing camps came together and helped to keep the BCDC as the regulator of San Francisco Bay. As past president of the Floating Homes Association, I was part of that coalition, and recall one dinner meeting when I was seated next to Sylvia McLaughlin, cofounder of the Save San Francisco Bay Association, a pioneering environmental organization featured in the film “Rebels With a Cause.” She was a charming dinner companion and a determined crusader.

Caltrans has announced that the repair work will keep the on-ramps from Bridgeway and Shoreline Highway in Mill Valley closed from 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. up to June 18. During those hours, traffic is being detoured via southbound 101 to the Spencer Avenue exit, then to Monte Mar Drive and northbound 101. A Caltrans spokesperson says the closures are necessary to ensure the safety of construction workers replacing expansion joints[LC1] .

 [LC1]

Once Upon a Waterfront

By Catherine Lyons-Labate and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

PHOTO BY CATHERINE LYONS-LABATE

Crane begins to dismantle the Issaquah ferryboat

Catherine Lyons hitchhiked from Illinois to Sausalito in 1974 and found her way to the Gates waterfront community. A photographer since childhood, she immediately began recording her impressions of what she recalls as “a beacon for wanderers, artists, and free spirits, seeking to live among the elements.”

Now, nearly a half century later, she has created a 209-page hard cover picture book featuring hundreds of her photos, as well as recollections of her own and of others who formed the Gates Co-Operative, a sub-tenant of Waldo Point Harbor. The book, Once Upon A Waterfront, tells the stories of many colorful Co-Op characters, and of some of the memorable events, both magic and tragic, that marked their lives.

A turning point for Catherine came with the destruction of the beached ferries Charles Van Damme and Issaquah in 1983. We recently recounted the early history of the Issaquah, but in this excerpt, Catherine writes its obituary:

In 1983, rumors solidified into fact that the Charles Van Damme and the Issaquah, the entrance pillars to the Gate 6 community, were marked for imminent demolition. From across the waterfront, neighbors gathered together in front of the Charles Van Damme for an historic portrait.

The Van Damme was more than just a charming landmark. It was a place of gathering.

Community Thanksgivings took place here; Spook Houses were put up every year for trick-or-treaters; Artists set up studios in every available nook and cranny; Yoga classes and children's movie nights were regular staples of the community. These were all part of the fabric of this surreal environment. I had my 4-harness floor loom in one of the pilot houses where I spent hours weaving bags and blankets to sell at the annual Art Festival.

In the final days before the Charles Van Damme was demolished, I took a group photo of our waterfront community, as well as many family portraits. This was a final act of protest; showcasing the fabric of the community relying on this grand vessel.

When the bulldozer toppled our beloved ferry boat, more than a structure was crushed. The hopes that this would be a lasting pillar of our community and an historical site were buried along with it.

On this day I began documenting the waterfront in a serious manner. I felt compelled to capture every moment, person, and structure as a way to preserve the fabric of our community. Once Upon a Waterfront is the result of that urgency to document this unique lifestyle and community. My camera and I have been on a mission spanning a lifetime.

For many years, the Issaquah was a destination for world travelers who had heard of this magical waterfront dwelling. People came in response to Doyle Nance's open invitation to share stories and drink chai served each evening. Native American fishermen used to drop by each January during herring season. My daughter, Calli Rose, was born on the Issaquah in 1979. Her birth was celebrated by the entire neighborhood, welcoming her with flowers, food, and blessings.

Immediately following the harrowing destruction of the Charles Van Damme, we banded together as a community and negotiated to dismantle the Issaquah ourselves. I could not bear to see another of our monuments reduced to driftwood before our eyes.

The Issaquah was a private residence. Doyle Nance, the last owner/resident of the Issaquah, shared the space with me and our daughter Calli Rose. He arranged for the dismantled sections to be removed and stored off the property Unfortunately, negotiations did not allow the dismantled sections to return to the Gate 6 property. The two pilot houses were refurbished and eventually placed at the Galilee Harbor dock entrance where they remain today, preserving some of the rich history of the waterfront.

Some relics of the Van Damme were salvaged and a group of neighbors is spearheading a campaign to have them restored for display in the new park at Waldo Point Harbor, near where the ferry was beached. Learn more about their campaign at https://www.charlesvandammeferry.org.

Today, Catherine lives on A Dock with her husband, Michael Labate, who is president of the Floating Homes Association. On June 9, the FHA will present a Virtual Gala & Tour featuring video visits to some of the more unique floating homes, a history walk to local landmarks, live and silent auctions, magic, music and more. For information and to purchase tickets, go to https://www.floatinghomes.org.

Catherine’s book will be for sale at Sausalito Books by the Bay where a book signing is scheduled for Sunday July 18 at 2:00 p.m. She’ll conduct a drop-by book signing on Sunday afternoon, June 20 in the new Waldo Point Park. Or the book can be ordered directly from www.onceuponawaterfront.com.

Memorial Day in Marinship

Nora Sawyer, Sausalito Historical Society

When the keel for the Liberty Ship William A. Richardson was laid on June 27th, 1942, the United States had been at war for a little more than six months. Just three months before, residents of Sausalito’s Pine Point had been evicted, and their homes relocated or destroyed. The point itself was dynamited, the shoreline and tidal flats filled, and crews worked day and night to build the Marin Shipbuilding Division of W.A. Bechtel Company – Marinship, for short.

Between the laying of the William A. Richardson’s keel and the launch of its last ship, the Marinship saw three Memorial Days.

On Monday May 31st, 1943, the Marinship observed its first Memorial Day with the launch of the tanker Moscoma. “The entire ceremony was keyed to the day,” observed the Sausalito News, “with the birth of a new ship and the honoring of the nation’s hero dead jointly underlying the program.” Among the dignitaries in attendance was U.S. Navy Chaplain Lt. Howell M. Forgy, who gave the invocation “with a voice and delivery which made ‘Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition’ famous at Pearl Harbor.” Forgy had served as chaplain aboard the USS New Orleans, and during the attack had been overheard using phrase, which became widely quoted and was even turned into a popular song by Frank Loesser in 1942.

The next year, the shipyard marked Memorial Day with the dedication of the S. S. Mission Buenaventura, its thirtieth large tanker and forty-fifth ship launched from the shipyard. Though the ceremony took place two days before Memorial Day, its bow was painted with a wreath of red poppies, in remembrance of American servicemen and women who had died overseas.

On National Maritime Day on May 22 that year, shipyard workers gathered to hear from Clarence Smith, known as Smitty, “a man who helped build the ship that was sunk under him in the Indian Ocean.” The shipfitter leadman had helped build the Sebastian Cermeno, a Liberty Ship launched from Sausalito in March 1943. On June 27, 1943, he was serving aboard the merchant ship when it was struck by two torpedoes from a Nazi submarine. Smitty, aboard a lifeboat, barely escaped the vortex created when “the large vessel rose straight on her nose, until almost vertical, and then slipped quickly under the water.”

Three men went down with the ship, and two more died at sea. The rest escaped in five lifeboats. After twenty days at sea, the lifeboat carrying Smitty and 24 other survivors was picked up by a British Convoy, who “gave them tea and cigarettes, washed off the heavy oil which covered the survivors ever since the Cermeno went down, and gave them new clothing.”

“It was the greatest feeling of my life,” the Sausalito News quotes Smitty as telling the Marinship workers “to get into those clean clothes and know you were saved. We stayed aboard the small warship nine days. Now I am crazy about the British.” 

After a medical discharge, Smitty returned to his job at the Marinship. Harry Faulkner another survivor who’d also helped build the Cermeno was re-deployed as a seaman. After Smitty finished his story, “workers stood in a minute of silent tribute to the five men who were lost in the sinking of the Ceremeno, and to the 5,500 seamen lost in line of duty since the war began.” When the war ended, the Sebastian Cermeno was the only ship built at the Marinship lost to enemy fire.

I couldn’t find newspaper coverage of the last Memorial Day observed at the wartime shipyard. Perhaps the yard was too hard at work – June 16 1945 saw the launch of the USS Huntington Hills, produced in a record-setting 33 days, with 28 days on the ways and 5 at the outfitting docks. This broke the prior record of 59 days, set by the Ellwood Hills (also built in the Marinship) that April.

By that final Memorial Day, the war’s end was in sight. Germany had surrendered to the Allied forces on May 9th, and Japan would formally surrender September 2nd. On September 8, 1945, the shipyard celebrated the launch of its last ship, the Mission San Francisco. All told, the Marinship launched 15 Liberty ships, 16 fleet oilers, and 62 tankers — a total of 93 ships in three and a half years.

As you walk or drive through the Marinship this week, you’ll see historical photographs featuring the Marinship and its workers. Sponsored by the Sausalito Working Waterfront Coalition, the Sausalito Lion’s Club, Sausalito Foundation, Marin Performing Stars, and the Historical Society, these posters look back at a proud chapter in the history of Sausalito’s waterfront, celebrate our continuing maritime heritage, and honor those who have died while serving in our country’s military. As you pass, take a moment to remember those who died, and also think of the bustling wartime shipyard, the workers who kept it going, and the ships that were built and launched from our shores.

The Sweetest Little Ferry

By Annie Sutter and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Most people know that Issaquah Dock at Waldo Point Harbor is named after an old ferryboat. Annie Sutter tells the story of that long-gone waterfront relic in her 1987 booklet, The Old Ferryboats of Sausalito:

PHOTO FROM ANNIE SUTTER

Old “Squash” almost looks squashed in this Marin Scope photo

The Issaquah was described by those who knew her in service as "the sweetest little ferry that ever was." Known as "Squash," the 114' propeller driven double ender was built in Puget Sound in 1914. In 1918 the little steamer was purchased by the newly formed Rodeo/Vallejo line, and the new owner brought her down the coast to San Francisco Bay under her own power. Although "Squash" and the crew were severely knocked about by a storm on the way down, she was put to work immediately upon arrival on July 4, 1918. In 1927 the opening of the Carquinez Bridge put the line out of business — a taste of what was to come — and the Issaquah moved over to the Martinez/Benecia run until 1941 when she went to work on Mare Island/Vallejo service, and then was laid up after the war at Vallejo.

Issaquah remained retired until 1954 when Sausalito artist Jean Varda bought her for his young Greek bride and brought her to Sausalito. But the bride apparently did not appreciate the gift, and after a couple of years the pretty little ferry sold and resold again. There were various plans — a night¬club, a developer's office, a restaurant — there were bursts of enthusiasm and subsequent burnouts over the years; claims, counterclaims and liens, problems which seem to have beset all the old ferries as time went on. In the late 50's the boat was divided into living quarters and rented out to tenants, but by then she had begun to hog, and teredos had bored through the hull.

Most of the tenants on board the Issaquah apparently — and not unreasonably — were unwilling to invest the tremendous amounts of time and money involved in keeping even with the disintegration. But one used his head instead of his energy to get the ferry a facelift, by allowing a movie company to use her in a film in exchange for a new paint job. And paint her they did, but only the side they were filming. And when the cameras began to roll, a banner saying things about the cheap movie company unfurled from the upper deck. Issaquah got the other half of the paint job.

But desultory maintenance isn't enough. Deal only with the surface and you've got but a brief respite, an impermanent truce in the endless battle waged on board the ferries with time, worms, weathering and rot. Both ferries at the edge of the freeway will have to be saved soon — if indeed it is still possible. Why did it happen? Whose fault is it that we are losing these representatives of an important part of our maritime history?

"Blame the corporations that sold them," said the salvor. "They should've cared enough to sell them to someone willing to maintain them, not someone like me."

"But," said the old timer, "old and tired ferry boats were a dime a dozen in those days. Who knew how quickly they would become objects of historical value?"

"Go take pictures of them," said the historian, "for soon that's all you'll have left. Everybody had something that's lost now — if we knew it would have value someday, why we'd have a fortune."

"Blame the people who lived on board. Why couldn't they pick up a paintbrush once a year? They just wanted a pad, and they were too lazy to put a 2 x 4 under a sagging timber."

"Blame [landlord Donovan] Arques. He wouldn't ever turn those boats over to anybody, why should they do all the work when they don't even own it?"

And on go the arguments; blame time, blame teredos, blame the irreconcilable distances between what you think you want and what you're willing to put together. Blame the myriad circumstances waiting to contribute to our roster of historical losses.

According to Wikipedia, the movie mentioned above was "Dear Brigitte" starring Jimmy Stewart. “Squash’s” good side can be seen beached on the mud behind the Charles van Damme.

 In the 1970s the two pilot houses were salvaged from the mud flats and restored. They are the sole remnants of the vessel and are displayed at the foot of Napa Street, in Galilee Harbor.

Fred Peters, Restaurateur/Raconteur

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

In the long list of one-of-a-kind Sausalito characters, Fred Peter’s, founder of Fred’s Place café, is a standout.

A Phil Frank caricature of Fred Peters

Some excerpts from Annie Sutter's story of Fred's life published in this paper in November 1985 describe

Fred as “tall, lean, dark haired, sporting a drooping mustache, waving his spatula about and chewing on a cigar stub cheerily carr[ying] on conversations with patrons filling the counter and tables, and lining up at the door. He's going at top speed, tossing out quips, gossiping, joshing with the employees all the while flipping eggs, whirling omelets, frying mountains of potatoes, pouring coffee and ringing the cash register. Fred learned the restaurant business from the top side down, so to speak, as an apprentice in a fine hotel in post-war Germany....”

Annie’s profile continues: "In 1955, I left for the United States," recalls Fred. "When I got to New York, the immigration agents were all standing there, sorting everybody into lines according to profession. Oh — I was worried if I was ever gonna get work. But when they found out that I was a professional in the restaurant business, I had a job on the spot...it didn't even seem like working. All of a sudden —only eight hours a day and people used to say Thank You! After I was working there a few days —I didn’t even speak English yet—and they said to me, ‘Fred, you don’t have to come here on Tuesday and Friday—you’re off.’ I thought I was fired.

"So then I made it to San Francisco. And one day in 1960 we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and down into Sausalito and into the Mobil Station over there, and I saw the Valhalla. I walked in and said I'm looking for work, and the manager said, 'you start on Tuesday.' I walked back to the car and said, 'let's unpack, we're home.' We moved into the Portofino, right next door with a swimming pool. Life was absolutely beautiful...”

After six years, Fred decided to do something on his own.

"So I decided I'm gonna go into the hot dog business. I looked around for a location and found one that was out of town -- I mean FAR. In 1966, Sausalito ended 6 feet after the Village Fair. Bridgeway was a two lane road going out of town and in front of Spring Street, it was dirt and a little white pony was standing there where I went and opened my business...

And that's how Fred's Place came about. "This was not my business, you know; making hamburgers,” Fred explained. “I can behave myself around frog’s legs, Chateaubriand and Dover sole, but I never touched a hot dog before. I never cooked any coffee before…The first day I opened, I had the place spotless clean and the first customer orders hot cakes. I was a nervous wreck making this short stack…”

The rest of the story is history. People have returned over and over again to eat breakfast and lunch at Fred’s.

PHOTOS BY LARRY CLINTON

One of the more popular features at Fred’s was a large communal table where a group of regulars gathered every morning. Marin Scope columnist Ralph Holmstad described the scene in December 2002: “Sausalito has an unusual organization. Its name is Stammtisch and it meets every morning at Fred's Place, the friendly coffee house and restaurant on Bridgeway at Spring Street. The name is German. It means ‘the regulars.’ It refers to a group of friends who take over a big table in a favorite restaurant, talk together, and solve all of the world's problems. Next morning. they do it again.”

One of those regulars, with a perfect Sausalito name, Dick Seashore, told Marin Magazine that the locals were far from exclusive. Seashore maintains, "We're friendly. In Germany you have to be invited to sit at a stammtisch table. In the summer here we see German tourists and invite them to join us.” Dick says this organization has two or three women members, and according to Seashore they even “brought in a Republican from Mill Valley to broaden the political discussion.”

Dieter Rapp, a landsman of Fred’s from Germany, was considered unofficial leader of the Stammtisch table. Upon Fred’s untimely death in 1988 at age 53, Rapp contributed a fond remembrance to this paper. Here are a few excerpts:

For many of his customers, Fred’s was much more than a coffee shop. It was home. Boat people, lawyers and courageous tourists alike would quickly take a liking to the particular seating arrangement which was common in Germany and which he would often announce to newcomers in his baritone: “Ve share tables here." Big, round oak tables drew people from all walks of life together for easy, down-to-earth conversation and a hearty meal.

Rapp added, “Fred loved to relax on his houseboat where he lived for many years before houseboats were the ‘in’ thing, listening to Willie Nelson records played at concert-hall volume, and enjoy a drink or two.” Fred’s houseboat on Issaquah Dock was a log cabin with an oversize arrow stuck in its roof, as if it were under Indian attack.

A houseboat neighbor, George Richardson, bought the place after Fred’s death, vowing "Fred’s is going to stay Fred's. We’re going to serve the same good food and have the same people coming in.” Since then the place has changed hands a number of times, but the basic ambiance and menu remain consistent. During the pandemic, the tables are smaller and farther apart, and there’s more outdoor seating, but otherwise the place feels the same.

On the Waterfront in 50s Sausalito

By Jack Tracy and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

“Sausalito in 1950 was a peaceful small town once again,” says Historical Society founder Jack Tracy in his book Moments in Time. Here’s the rest of Jack’s account, lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

After the turmoil and the wartime crowds, a quiet settled over the town that had not been experienced in decades. The ferryboats were gone. Steam whistles, for over eighty years a familiar sound to Sausalitans, could no longer be heard. Long lines of automobiles, their occupants impatient to embark for San Francisco, were a thing of the past. In 1950 weeds grew in the vacant lot where once the Northwestern Pacific depot stood. The ferry slips were slowly rotting away.

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Hulks burning in Richardson's Bay

The Golden Gate Ferry landing at Princess Street was also abandoned and quiet. The tiny building that once housed Lange's Launch Service had become the Tin Angel, a restaurant and bar. The San Francisco Yacht Club was gone. The imposing clubhouse with its graceful arches was now a bait and tackle shop for local fishermen.

The railroad yards and shops were gone from Sausalito. Many trainmen still lived in town, but there was little activity on the remaining tracks. The locomotives built in the Sausalito shops were only memories.

Richardson's Bay, referred to as the "Boneyard" during the 1880s because of numerous sailing ships laid up there, still had remnants of a windjammer fleet in 1950. Most of them would sail no more. The showboat Pacific Queen, ex-Balclutha had been towed to Southern California after a brief attempt in 1946 to convert her to a floating poker palace. The Echo and Commerce were burned before World War II, but the once lovely brig Galilee was still there, on the mud near the foot of Napa Street. The steam schooner Lassen was beached off the foot of Johnson Street near the rotting bones of smaller vessels.

On the night of November 12 1944, the old schooners Wellesley and Santa Barbara and the freighter Mazama were burned near the Madden and Lewis Yacht Harbor, to clear the sand spit of hulks. Hundreds watched as the mayor, with fire chief and city attorney present, ignited an oil-soaked rope leading to the ships. To everyone's surprise, one of the vessels contained thousands of gallons of fuel oil, which burned fiercely through the night. Cities around the bay watched in horror as they assumed Marinship or all of Sausalito was being consumed by flames. The next day as the fire continued, Sausalito was criticized in the San Francisco press for neglecting to inform others of the bonfire.

The waterfront north of Marinship became the final resting place for veteran ferryboats, once worked prodigiously, now abandoned. Here the City of San Rafael, Vallejo, Charles Van Damme, Issaquah, and City of Seattle eventually were left to their fates. Ironically, these ferryboats had never been part of Sausalito's past, but served other Bay Area cities. Nevertheless, Sausalito is where they would live out their final chapter, in Sausalito's future. The huge vessels became living quarters and work spaces for artists and craftsmen and in the 1960s became the nucleus around which the houseboat community grew.

The business community of Sausalito in 1950 was still centered around Princess Street and Bridgeway. The shoe repair shop, the Purity Store, Central Pharmacy, the Gate Theatre and Eureka Market, and other small shops were patronized by locals in the days before tourism became an industry. The bars like the Four Winds and the Plaza were small neighborly places where the bartenders knew everyone who came in. On Caledonia Street, with its own movie theatre since 1943, the pattern was much the same. The Marinship hiring hall had become an auto repair shop once again. Sausalitans still had hopes that Marinship might yet be converted to an industrial plant of one sort or another. Several companies expressed interest in the large marine ways, but the piecemeal dismantling of the shipyard was well under way by 1950.

Sausalito in 1950 was on the threshold of its "art colony" years. Always a haven for writers, artists, poets, and creative souls of many bents, Sausalito experienced. an influx of artists in the decade after World War II. At first some returning servicemen and women may have come to place themselves as far as possible from the insanity and horror of war. They sought the quiet backwaters, as Sausalito was in those days, where natural beauty and serenity abounded. Local artists raised in Sausalito or who came in the 1920s or 1930s welcomed the creative energies released in Sausalito during the 1950s. Art shows held in various places around town over the years evolved into an annual art festival, with established older artists intermingled with newcomers. Many well-known Bay Area artists emerged from the Sausalito art colony of the 1950s. The art festival has become a continuing tradition providing a showcase for local talent.

The film On the Waterfront, released in 1954, was set on the East Coast — on a very different waterfront. Elia Kazan’s masterpiece received eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Marlon Brando, Best Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint, and Best Director for Kazan.

Moments in Time, chronicling Sausalito’s history through the 50s, is available at[LC1]  http://www.sausalitohistoricalsociety.com/society-publications.

 [LC1]

Billie Anderson, Fair and Square

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

PHOTO COURTESY OF JILL ANDERSON

Billie Anderson, perhaps reflecting on her Marin Scope years

Billie Anderson, co-founder and managing editor of the Marin Scope and dedicated member of the Historical Society, passed away peacefully at home early April 17 following a long illness.

In a tribute, Kim Huff of the Sausalito Woman’s Club wrote: “Billie was a strong voice for the club as well as the community. She joined the club in 1989 and went right to work serving the membership. She served on several committees during her time as a member most notably Budget and Civics, she served as Treasurer for the SWC and as well as on the Board and Chairwoman of the Scholarship Recognition Fund.

“She was also well known to the Sausalito community as the outspoken Editor and Co-Owner of the MarinScope until it was sold in 1998. Billie was never short of words and always had a well-documented point of view. Billie was indeed her own woman and will be remembered for a very long time for the handprint she left on Sausalito.”

Here are some lightly edited excerpts from announcement in this newspaper of Billie’s retirement in 1999:

For the past 29 years, Billie Anderson has been the driving force behind the editorial content of the Marin Scope Community Newspapers. Originally from Washington, Anderson and her husband, Paul, moved to San Francisco in 1965. Both in their twenties, they shared a vision of launching a community newspaper somewhere in the Bay Area. Sausalito proved to be the ideal location.

"We literally drove around the Bay Area looking for a town without a newspaper and found Sausalito," Anderson said. The vision for the Marin Scope, she said, was to create a forum for community discussion. “Our premise was to start a local paper that would allow the community a chance to participate and to be close to what was going on. To become a resource for the community and not to tell them what to do, but to tell them what was happening,” she said. Residents were, at first, suspicious of the new paper, fearing that the Andersons were aligned with a particular political group. “Over time they figured out what was going on,” she said.

Anderson started out on the production side of the paper but with time took an active role in the editorial side. "She's such an absolutely very, very effective smart person. It became very clear after a while that she had all the abilities and skills that it took to be a first rate newspaper editor," said Doris Berdahl, who wrote for the paper through 1980 and served on the Historical Society board with Billie. “She was the person who really saw to it that things got done,” Berdahl said. “She saw to it that it came together and got out to its readers."

In 1984, the Andersons acquired other community newspapers and later founded the Mill Valley Herald. "We tried to continue the traditions that each newspaper had," she said. With the expansion, the staff blossomed to 25 people with offices in each of its communities. They later consolidated all the offices in Sausalito. “I think that the most rewarding thing has been being able to be a really productive part of each of the communities and able to do something that I think was a significant contribution," Anderson said. “My feeling is that the newspapers have their own life and my hope is that they will move in a direction that still keeps them a community resource and provides a place for dialogue... and working out community problems in a neutral space.

"The papers give everyone in the community an opportunity to say what they want to say and work out issues through the newspaper. Hopefully that philosophy will continue. It has kept them healthy and strong."

Berdahl observed that Anderson has made her mark in Marin. “I know that there's been a great deal of respect for Billie for how she has handled community news... She became a very powerful woman in Marin County as a whole. I have heard from various organizations that they all felt she was the person to go to..." she said.

Supervisor Annette Rose, who served one term on the Sausalito City Council before moving on to the Board of Supervisors, praised Anderson for striving to maintain balanced coverage in the Marin Scope. “I think Billie was really responsible for the coverage that the Marin Scope tried to give to the extremely divisive community issues that we've had in Sausalito, especially during times when people are running for office... they covered every candidate equally and fairly," she said. Rose credited Anderson for taking proper measures to keep her own voice out of the balanced coverage of the issues. "When there was an issue that she felt very strongly about, she would sign her name to the article and make it clear that was her opinion," she said. “

In her later years, Billie contributed columns to this Historical Society space in Marin Scope, and edited Dorothy Gibson’s popular guide Exploring Sausalito's Paths and Walkways. She is survived by her husband Paul, son Matt and daughter Jill and their families.

Santana in Sausalito

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

COURTESTY PHOTO

Lauren Bacall in one of her rare sails with her husband, Humphrey Bogart

Recent mentions of the legendary yacht Santana in Latitude 38 reminded me that the boat Humphrey Bogart made famous spent much of her middle years in San Francisco Bay, in and out of Sausalito.

Santana was built in the depth of the depression, when if you had to ask the price of such a showpiece, you really couldn’t afford it. Originally a 55-foot schooner, Santana changed hands, and configurations, frequently over the years. The first Hollywood celebrity to own her was George Brent, frequent co-star of Bette Davis, who re-rigged her as a yawl in 1941. Brent sold her to Ray Milland, who, after a presumably lost weekend, passed her on to crooner-turned-tough guy Dick Powell after just three months. Bogie took her over in 1945 and enjoyed cruising and racing on her for 12 years. His wife, Lauren Bacall wrote in her autobiography, "When he bought that boat he was enslaved—happily so—and truly had everything he'd ever dreamed of."

Perhaps she was thinking of Santana when Bacall came up with the title for her autobiography: By Myself. According to a 1982 profile in Sports Illustrated: “A typical weekend on Bogart's Santana began Saturday morning and ended Sunday night. The usual destination was White's Landing or Cherry Cove on Catalina Island, a barren, rocky place, 30 miles out to sea where there was little to do but sit in the sun, swim, eat illegally caught Pacific lobsters and drink.

“Sometimes David Niven, an enthusiastic sailor, went along. Except on the Fourth of July, when women were invited, the cruises were usually all-male. Bogart once said, ‘The trouble with having dames along is you can't pee over the side.’” Bogart did a lot of racing with Santana in Southern California, and compiled a very respectable record, SI reported.

After Bogey’s death in 1957, Santana began changing hands again, and was brought to the Bay Area by

Brigadier General W.H. (Wally) Nickell, U.S. Army, Ret., an independent oilman from Sacramento, where she was maintained at a small boatyard in San Rafael. Nickell and the proprietor of the boatyard, Emile (Babe) Lamerdin, competed in two Transpac races and three Mazatlan races in the early 60s, “but the results were only moderately satisfying,” said SI. “By then, Santana and the other ocean racers of her vintage were outclassed by modern boats, but being a good heavy-weather boat, she continued to do well on San Francisco Bay, racing as many as 20 times in a season.”

In 1969 Santana was purchased by Charlie Peet, a real estate investor and part owner Gatsby’s, the popular pizza and jazz joint on Caledonia Street. Peet was quite an adventurer, according to SI: “Early one Monday morning in September 1969, well before dawn, he and his wife and four friends were returning under power to San Francisco from the Monterey Jazz Festival. They were three miles outside the Golden Gate when someone spotted a tiny light bobbing in the darkness. When they drew nearer to investigate, they found five nearly dead men clinging to four life jackets; one had a flashlight. The five, all bartenders, had set out for Los Angeles three hours earlier and just outside the Gate their boat had sunk under them. They had drifted on the outgoing tide and had run out of hope and strength just as Santana happened by. One of the men still carries a laminated card in his wallet that says, ‘God is alive and sailing on the Santana.’ And whenever any of that Santana crew walks into 12 Adler Place, a San Francisco bar, the bartender shouts, ‘Here comes my savior!’"

Peet and his wife Marty took the Santana on a 35,000-mile two-year South Pacific voyage in 1971, and after they returned, he told stories of their adventures with a slide show at Campbell Hall. As he told Marinscope, “Halfway around the world, you can say you’re from San Francisco and everybody knows where that is. But when you say that you’re really from Sausalito, people say ‘Oh. yes. That’s the little town across the bridge!’ Sausalito is the best-known little town in the world.”

Always politically active, Peet ran for City Council at that time, but withdrew his candidacy in 1974. Announcing plans to build a new liveaboard vessel, he sold Santana and another round of musical berths ensued. For a while she belonged to Paul Kaplan, part owner of Keefe Kaplan Maritime (KKM) in Point Richmond and Sausalito. Kaplan restored and re-rigged Santana once more back to a schooner, and then sold her to a group with connections to Nantucket, Mass. The group had Santana hauled to Melville, RI for restoration.

In 2014 the Newport Daily News reported that the anonymous owners “want it to be as original as possible.”

Just like Bogey and Bacall.

John Mays and the Casa Madrona

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

John Mays, who restored and expanded the Casa Madrona Hotel, died in March 2020, but his obituary ran just last week in the San Francisco Chronicle. It tells of some of the innovations he introduced at the venerable landmark, such as naming the upstairs restaurant after his daughter Mikayla. He hired his dear friend, renowned artist Laurel Burch, to help renovate the space. She painted a colorful mural at the entrance titled "The Legend of Mikayla."

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Mason’s Garage, built in 1924 to accommodate commuters’ automobiles, looms behind the marchers

The large white Italianate building had been built as a private residence in 1885 but was later converted to a boarding house and hotel. Over the years it changed hands several times. Historical Society member Liz Robinson recounted the misadventures of two previous operators of the Casa Madrona, Robert and Marie Louise Deschamps, in a 1979 issue of Marinscope.

The couple had come to Sausalito in 1959 responding to an ad to operate a “small hotel.” Their son, Jean Marie, told Liz, “the building was in ruins. Mattresses on the floor, broken furniture (and very little of that)! It was a flop house!”

Liz recounted: “M. and Mme. Deschamps had no hotel experience when they arrived and nothing had prepared them for the cast of characters they would find inhabiting the Casa Madrona and its rowdy beer/wine bar—a hang-out for a noisy, brawling bunch. . . Often, in the morning, no matter how securely everything had been locked the night before, the bar would have been broken into and all the beer would be gone…”

Jean Marie told Liz, “It was a boarding house for down and outers, most of whom rarely paid their bills. Eventually they decided to close the hotel, ostensibly to remodel, in fact to get rid of some of the least desirable guests.”

John Mays acquired the property in 1976 in an estate sale and one of his first challenges was to keep the structure from slipping down the hillside. John buttressed up the unstable hillside below the old Victorian hotel, and came up with the idea of having rooms stepped up the hillside like little cottages, tying them in with the old hotel at the top. Eventually he purchased the Village Fair next door, which had its own colorful history.

The Historical Society’s Doris Berdahl told the story in this newspaper in 2009:

“The big, bulky structure at 801 Bridgeway--originally a parking garage and purveyor of ‘gasoline, oils, greases, tires, tubes and accessories,’ later the Village Fair and now an elegant inn, spa, and restaurant serving award-winning Tuscan cuisine—has come a long way since it began servicing Sausalito's first horseless carriages back in 1924. 

“In fact, this photo says it all.  As a parade passes down Bridgeway, the man standing in front of his Model T Ford at far right, apparently pouring water into an overheated radiator, avails himself of one of Sausalito's newest amenities—a gas pump and water hose.  They grace the front of the building in a straightforward, no-nonsense display of what the new garage has to offer.

“By the 1940s, it was clear that the massive parking garage in the middle of town, meant to serve San Francisco commuters in the days before the bridge, had to be demolished or put to some other use.  Happily, there were creative people around who saw its possibilities The building became the birthplace of the Trade Fair, which showcased local artists along with then-avant garde furniture, pottery, jewelry, handwoven fabrics and other arts and crafts. 

“When the Trade Fair moved to the ferryboat Berkeley, then moored on the Sausalito waterfront, a kind of natural evolution took place at the former garage site. New owners pioneered the concept of transforming a once-industrial building into an attractive shopping arcade, setting the stage for the later development of Ghirardelli Square and The Cannery in San Francisco.  Small boutiques, selling unusual, often imported, merchandise not found anywhere else, began to fill the old place, converting its former automobile ramps into walkways and stairs.  These ascended to the top floor past lush plantings, fountains and waterfalls. A favorite feature for many years was the lower ramp, dubbed Little Lombard Street.

“The Village Fair lasted for a half-century, attracting devotees from all over the world.  It closed with the transfer of ownership in the late `90s, a victim of a deteriorating building, changing times and the fact that its marketing concept had been extensively copied in other places.  For a long time, regular visitors to Sausalito couldn't believe it was gone.  To this day, they come into the Visitors Center across the street, often after a long absence, still cherishing memories of the Sausalito of 20 or 30 years ago.  And the first question they ask, often indignantly, is, ‘What have you done with Little Lombard Street?’ 

“Fortunately, while Little Lombard is gone, the building that housed Mason's Garage lives on, playing a handsome new role in the life of downtown Sausalito. Who would have predicted the European sophistication of Poggio, or the luxurious accommodations of Casa Madrona, back in the days when a constant succession of little black cars rumbled up the runways and you could fill up your tank right out at the curb.”

John Mays’ Chronicle obituary notes that he also served as a Director and then Board President of the Center for Attitudinal Healing. Ironically, the same issue of the paper carried an obituary for the Center’s founder, Jerry Jampolsky.

Certainties of Life in 1920s Sausalito

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

The personal income tax became a permanent part of American life when the 16th Amendment was ratified in 1913. (During the Civil War Congress had passed the Revenue Act of 1861 which included a tax on personal incomes to help pay war expenses. That tax was repealed ten years later.)

By 1921, at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties, the IRS was in full force, as noted by the Sausalito News:

Work has begun on the collection of the income tax for the year 1920. Uncle Sam (through the Bureau of Internal Revenue) is addressing to every person in the United States the question "What was your net Income for 1920?" The answer permits of no guesswork. Every single person whose net income for 1920 was $1000 or more and every married person whose net income was $2000 or more is required to file a return under oath with the collector of internal revenue for the district in which he lives on or before March 15, 1921.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

 With two competing ferry systems during the 20s, traffic jams were routine here

The penalty for failure is a fine of not more than $1000 and an additional assessment of 25 per cent of the amount of tax due. For willful refusal to make a return the penalty is a fine of not more than $10,000 or not exceeding one year's Imprisonment, or both together with the costs of prosecution. A similar penalty is provided for making a false or fraudulent return, together with an additional assessment of 50 per cent of the amount of tax evaded.

The Income tax applies to women as well as men. Husband and wife must consider the income of both plus that of minor dependent children, and if the total equals or exceeds $2000 a return must be filed. A minor who has a net income in his own right of $1000 or more must file a separate return. To be allowed the $2000 exemption a married person must be living with husband and wife on the last day of the taxable year, December 31, 1920. Divorcees, persons separated by mutual agreement, widows and widowers, unless they are the sole support of others living in the same household, in which case they are allowed the $2000 exemption granted the head of a family, are entitled only to $1000 exemption. The normal tax rate for 1920 the same as for 1919 — 4 per cent on the first $4000 of net income above the exemption and 8 per cent on the remaining net income. This applies to every citizen and resident of the United States. In addition to the normal tax a surtax is imposed upon net incomes in excess of $5000.

Full instructions for making out returns are contained on the forms, copies of which may be obtained from collectors of internal revenue. Persons whose net income for 1920 was $5000 or less should use Form 1040 A. Those whose incomes was in excess of $5000 should use Form IO4O. Revenue officers will visit every county in the United States to assist taxpayers in making out their returns and the date of their arrival and the location of their offices will be announced by the press or may be ascertained upon inquiry at the offices of collectors. This advisory service is without cost to taxpayers.

According to irs.gov, average income in 1920 was $3,269.40, the average amount of tax $148.08 and the average tax rate 4.53 per cent.

As Ben Franklin wrote 1789, “in in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”  Judging by the accompanying photo, by the 20s another certainty was traffic jams in Sausalito.

Memories of Phil and Farley

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

If you never knew Phil Frank, you have my sympathy. If you’ve never heard of Phil Frank, here’s an opportunity to learn about one of our most beloved local figures. Cartoonist extraordinaire, mainstay of the Sausalito’s Historical Society and political activist, Phil gave generously of his time and talent to many local campaigns and causes, using his distinctive drawing style and gentle wit to pinpoint the foibles of life hereabouts. We lost Phil way too early in 2007, but fortunately much of his work remains in books, greeting cards, and in the SHS archives.

In 1990 Phil sat down for an oral history with radio personality and longtime Sausalitan Jan Wahl. Jan began by asking about his cartoon alter ego, a newspaper reporter and sometime park ranger named Farley.

“Some people call me Phil, some call me Farley, some call me Frank.” He began. “There are just too many Fs in my life.” Here’s an excerpt from their conversation, lightly edited for brevity and clarity:

Farley is the comic strip in the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s the only locally featured comic strip that we know of in the whole country. The strip used to be syndicated in about 50 newspapers, but I took it out of syndication six years ago. The reason I did it has a very interesting Sausalito connection.

When we had gotten settled in Sausalito and began getting involved in local issues, especially around the houseboats and the development project that was going on about 1975, I found that Marinscope was willing to run cartoons and I proposed that I do an occasional single panel cartoon for the paper. The first one was about a lady going downtown in Sausalito and wanting to know if her husband needed anything. He turns to her and says, “Yeah, pick me up a couple of tee shirts and a redwood burl coffee table.” [Jan cracks up.]

So it grew from that kind of humor satirizing downtown Sausalito and the strips became bigger and bigger and more complicated and right to the heart of local politics. I would draw the cartoon on a Sunday and drop it off Sunday night and it would be in print Monday. It would be all over town, and it seemed to fire a lot of peoples’ imaginations. It kind of took cartooning one step beyond where it is when a cartoon is syndicated, because you have to work so far in advance. I would go from that cartoon, which I had so much fun doing, to having to sit down and draw strips that were going to be nationally run, but not for 30 days. Yet I had to appear timely.

The more I did the cartoon for the local paper, in exchange for free Xeroxing and a photostat made now and then, the more frustrating it became to try and do the syndicated strip. So I showed a handful of the Marinscope cartoons to the Chronicle editor, and said, “What do you think of this as an idea? Let’s take this strip and make it local, just about San Francisco.”

The editor said, “I’ve never seen this done before,” and my response was, “All the more reason to do it.”  It took me a month to sell the idea. In a rough form I’d give them six cartoons every week that never actually ran in the paper. After a month they grasped the idea. Once we set the specific start date, about two months out, I notified the syndicate that I was going to cancel the syndicated strip, and I told Marinscope I wasn’t going to be able to do a local cartoon any more. So, no more free Xeroxing.

I just moved the same characters from national to local.

ILLUSTRATION FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Some of Phil Frank’s Marinscope cartoons seem just as relevant today

Farley is sort of the hero of the strip and a lot of people think I identify with him. I do to a certain extent, but the situations are very different. He’s an urban kind of guy, he lives in San Francisco. We do look a lot alike but he’s single, I’m married, I have a couple of kids in their twenties. We have very different life experiences, and I try to keep it that way.

At a 2008 city-wide memorial tribute, dubbed a Philabration, the Bay Model was festooned with tee shirts, posters and flyers Phil had created for various causes and candidates. He left a lasting impact on everyone who met him, and even on some who never did.

Early Sausalitan Fred Perry Looks Back

usalitan Fred Perry Looks Back

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Fred Perry, Sr. was born in Alameda on Dec. 7, 1875, and has parents brought him over to the tiny town of Sausalito when he was just two years old. Nearly 70 years later, then known as Pop Perry, he recounted some of his early memories for the Sausalito News.

“Pop Fred Perry is the agile little man whose shock of white hair and tanned, weather beaten face have been a familiar sight around Sausalito for well over the half century mark,” reported the News, adding that the Perry family settled in a home at Pine Station, a cluster of houses on the waterfront that was taken over by the Marinship operation in World War II.

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The Perry family heads up Turney Street in their store’s delivery wagon c. 1909

Fred began school on Water Street (now Bridgeway). “Children from the first seven grades were all crowded into one classroom, and when the walls of the room began to bulge with the large number of us youngsters, we were moved to a ‘new’ school building,” Fred recalled. “It was a great day when all of us little boys and girls carted our bundles of books, and our old fashioned slates to the new school to begin classes.” Fred and his buddies competed in the spelling bees, pulled the little girls’ pigtails, and in general, made life for their teacher something of a problem.

The last couple of years grammar school were spent at school in San Rafael, where he stayed until he reached the "second” grade . . . what is now the seventh grade in the modern school system. “How well I remember the licking I got at the hand of the principal of the school,” remarked Fred, flashing mischievous twinkle at the News reporter. After school, Fred went to work in a restaurant. “Saturdays,” he recalled, "were the big days when the whole San Francisco Yacht Club crowd mobbed the place, and kept us all busy with their orders for special chicken dinners.” That was the beginning of an eclectic career, including various stints in the railroad industry, the work he most enjoyed.

When he left the restaurant, he went to work at Fort Baker and was there when they built the first 13 buildings in the fort. Fred remembered the site of the fort and the hills of that area as wonderful duck shooting country. After 11 months, Fred took a job as storekeeper in the railroad shops, and soon afterwards, became an engineer on the milk tram from Alto to Sausalito.

He stuck at the job for nearly 18 years, until in 1897, he went to work on the Sutter Street cable car line in San Francisco, as conductor. According to the News, “Fred’s dusty old album of pictures contains one of himself, the shortest conductor on the line, standing beside the tallest ‘gripper’ (he who keeps the cable car from careening down the hills). When they took off the horses, and put new fangled cars on the line in 1901, Fred had to resign.” At five feet one, he was too short to reach the bell cord.

“My real start, though,” said Fred, “was when I resigned from the railroad and went into the tea and coffee business, built my little store on Caledonia St., and made a fresh start.” He made a real go of the new business, and in 1917, sold it to his oldest son, Jack, and went back to work for Northwestern Pacific and the government, handling the mail.

In 1922, Fred became a foreman for a contractor, and helped build up the streets and buildings in Sausalito. He went back into his tea and coffee business in 1924, in partnership with his youngest son, Fred, Jr., or “Fritz.” In 1928, the second floor above Perry’s store was built, and became the well-known Perry’s Hall, used for parties and dances by local organizations. Then Fred reversed course again, selling the store to Fritz in 1935.

Throughout his life, Fred remained active in civic and fraternal organizations. He belonged to the Knights of Pythias for 55 years and was also a Forester and a member of Native Son of the Golden West. According to the Historical Society archives, he was also a member of the Sausalito Volunteer Fire Department, sergeant-at-arms of the Sausalito Improvement club, acting secretary of the Sausalito Board of Health and a trustee of Central School. He and his wife Alfay raised three sons, John (Jack), Matthew (Matts) and Frederick B. (Fritz) all of whom became prominent figures in Sausalito. Before he passed away following a stroke in 1952, Fred could look back on a life well lived.

The long, colorful life of 769 Bridgeway

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

While clicking through online copies of the Sausalito News recently, I came upon this intriguing headline:

“Sabotage Try Foiled In Sausalito.”

The July 1944 story goes like this: “The old Empire Garage building at 775 Bridgeway Boulevard, Sausalito. Bridgeway was the scene of an attempt to sabotage the Marinship war effort Wednesday night, July 12, when saboteurs entered the third floor of the building and spread oil on a number of packing cases containing vital electrical equipment.”

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Village Fair as it looked from 1960-77

At that time, the large upstairs space had been taken over by Marinship authorities and was being used to make wooden templates for cutting sheets of steel according to engineers’ specifications.

The News recounted: “The attempt was frustrated by prompt action of Officer F. E. Graham of Prospect Avenue, a member of the Marinship police force. Graham first detected the presence of an intruder when he found the lock had been pried off a third story door. He entered and in the darkness could not immediately see the oil. Apparently the person or persons had already fled upon hearing his approach.  Acting Lieut. Bolton Hall of Marinship Plant Protection Division was immediately notified. More careful inspection disclosed the oil. If the fire had been started, it is believed that even prompt fire fighting efforts might not have prevented serious loss. Additional protective measures have now been taken at other Marinship warehouses to prevent any further efforts at sabotage. Full investigation is underway by the FBI. Ten years in jail and $lO,OOO in fines are penalties facing such attempted saboteurs under both federal and state statutes. All Marinship officers are fully armed at all times, with definite instructions to defend government property from sabotage.”

There are no further mentions of sabotage in the paper, so this episode remains an unsolved mystery. But the article piqued my curiosity about that location:

In June 1935 the Sausalito News reported that 700 people crowded the garage for a sport show that featured boxing, wrestling, fencing and other events. One wrestling match was between “Kid” Capley and Rolf Pedersen of Sausalito. Rolf was better known as “Swede” Pedersen, a Golden Gate Bridge construction worker and fireman who became a legendary Sausalito historian and raconteur. Swede’s Beach at Hurricane Gulch is named for Pedersen, who pilfered bootleg whiskey that had been stashed there during Prohibition.

The garage was closed for a while after the war but reopened in February 1946. Announcing the new enterprise, the News reported: “The garage building in which the new enterprise is located was built in the middle twenties by the late Clinton Mason, and was known as Mason’s Garage. The garage was later operated by Bert Gazzola and Yates Hammett and known as the Empire Garage. When the latter owners moved to the Ferry Garage, the structure lay idle for some time during the depression years, and made a brief stab for fame when its top floor was converted into a Chinese gambling establishment.”

A year later the News reported: “Heath Ceramics, a new Sausalito industry, is located on the top floor of the Empire Garage building on Bridgeway.”

The Historical Society’s Doris Berdahl, writing in this paper in 2009, recalled: “The building became the birthplace of the Trade Fair, which showcased local artists along with then-avant garde furniture, pottery, jewelry, handwoven fabrics and other arts and crafts.

“When the Trade Fair moved to the ferryboat Berkeley, then moored on the Sausalito waterfront, a kind of natural evolution took place at the former garage site. New owners pioneered the concept of transforming a once-industrial building into an attractive shopping arcade, setting the stage for the later development of Ghirardelli Square and The Cannery in San Francisco.  Small boutiques, selling unusual, often imported, merchandise not found anywhere else, began to fill the old place, converting its former automobile ramps into walkways and stairs.  These ascended to the top floor past lush plantings, fountains and waterfalls. A favorite feature for many years was the lower ramp, dubbed Little Lombard Street. “

Another feature was a pictorial retrospective assembled by the Historical Society. After the expansion of the Casa Madrona Hotel in the late 70s eliminated Little Lombard, the Society moved the exhibit across the street to the Ice House during the City’s 1993 centennial, and established that relic as a visitor’s center.

Today, 769 Bridgeway is the home of Bacchus and Venus wine shop and tasting room.

You can view back issues of the Sausalito Sun and Marinscope at https://cdnc.ucr.edu.

Dorothy Gibson: more than a legacy

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Throughout her 65 years in Sausalito, Dorothy Gibson gave generously of her time and talent. In addition to her career in social work, the transplanted Buckeye volunteered for various city commissions and non-profits, including the Historical Society, where she served on the Board for six years. And her giving didn’t end when she died on January 18, 2019 at the age of 95. Dorothy bequeathed her 1,200-square-foot home on Johnson Street to the city, to provide low or moderate-income housing to full-time city employees.

PHOTO FROM SAUSALIT0.GOV

Dorothy relaxing in her cozy Johnson Street cottage

Dorothy's civic involvement included serving on the Planning Commission in the 1970s and the Design Review Board in the 1980s. As a volunteer, she was active with the Sausalito Historical Society, the Volunteers in Public Safety (VIPS), and Sausalito Village. Dorothy was actively against the development of hotels along the Marinship waterfront. This became such a hot issue Dorothy ran for City Council in 1974 only to lose to Sally Stanford by 27 votes. Dorothy was later appointed head of the Transportation Committee and was involved in amending and rewriting the General Plan for Sausalito. In 2013 she had the honor of serving as grand marshal of the City's annual Fourth of July parade.

An avid hiker and founding member of The Mt. Tamalpais Interpretive Association, now Friends of Mt. Tamalpais, she incorporated trails and pathways into the city plan.

She published the first edition of her book Exploring Sausalito's Paths and Walkways in 2001 and began leading free Saturday morning walking tours to teach people about Sausalito's history and neighborhoods through our paths and stairs. My wife Jane and I joined one of those off-road treks to north Sausalito and bailed out when she led us close to home at Kappas Marina. The rest of the group trudged all the way back downtown to Viña del Mar Plaza.

Dorothy also published Marin Headlands (Images of America) in 2009 and Sausalito's Parks, Plazas, Playgrounds and Benches in 2017. The Marin Headlands book is available through the Historical Society website: http://www.sausalitohistoricalsociety.com/society-publications.

After she retired, Dorothy traveled the world, visiting more than 50 countries and, from 1989 to 1999, reporting back to Sausalito with her "Travels with Dorothy" letters to this newspaper.

According to an obituary at Legacy.com: “Later on, Dorothy would travel throughout the US, Alaska, and Canada, camping in all the National parks. She would drive her 1968 Volvo 122S Amazon Station wagon with her two cats Simi, the Siamese, and her black and white, Tuxedo. The back seat made nicely into a double bed, the cat box and feed station were on the back seat floor. There was room for skis and poles on the sides. Charcoal, wood and hibachi took up the passenger floor.” All these travels developed into a second ongoing Marinscope feature called "Postcards from Dorothy."

On her passing, the Historical Society’s Steefenie Wicks wrote that Dorothy “had her own path.  That path led her to not only find the paths in Sausalito but also the path to a strong political career here. Her small figure that we have all become accustomed to seeing has now joined the spirits of the paths. So next time you climb one of Sausalito’s hidden stairways or find yourself walking up a path on the hillside, take time to look around and say hello to Dorothy because her spirit is watching you, saying: ’Keep to the path’.” Sadly, Steefenie left us just a few months after Dorothy.

The City Council is still discussing how to best utilize Dorothy’s last gift. The one bedroom, one bath house needs some minor repairs, and could possibly be expanded. Dorothy also left the city some cash to help prepare her home for a new life of service to the community.

Liveaboard Life in 1944

By Tops’l Annie and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

In the 1940s, the Sausalito News ran a feature on yachts and yachting, under the pen name Tops’l Annie. One of these essays described the joys of living aboard a yacht in Sausalito:

To the land-lubber the yacht harbor is always a fascinating pot . . . there is a constant stream of sight-seers every sunny weekend. Occasionally one overhears an incredulous "Do people LIVE in these boats all the time?” ... The remark caused by the sight of a bit of washing strung up in the rigging, or puffs of smoke emitting from the Charley Noble removable kitchen chimney, in case you didn't know. Of course, people live on 'em . . . and like it. Live on them summer and winter .... or just in the summer-time, as they choose.

It's a grand sun-tanned life ... a perpetual out-of-doors camping experience, highlighted by the fact that you have a good permanent stove in your galley and a main cabin (living room or salon) heated by a fireplace or cheery Shipmate stove. The interior of a ship’s cabin is always a thing of beauty. Hardwoods which have a lovely sheen are used as a finish. Shining brass ship-lamps and other nautical equipment complete the harmony of the room, which will also serve as a dining room, with a polished hardwood folding table The book shelves are lined with tales of the sea and well worn mariners’ books. In the larger boats, sleeping quarters are separate compartments. The galley (kitchen) is compact and efficient.

Living is reduced to its essentials on shipboard, quarters are compact, and housekeeping is at a minimum low. Of course, there are inconveniences .... tub baths are out, unless you have a WANDER BIRD, and there are no Bendix installations for wash day ... but the compensations are numerous. There’s an informal friendly atmosphere to living aboard ship .... your neighbors like the same things you do, and there’s a good deal of camaraderie between boat people. It’s no wonder that the traditional response to the host’s toast aboard ship is “It’s good to be aboard.”

One point, incidentally, that should be emphasized . . . the casual visitor to the yacht harbor should not make a practice of going down on private floats, perhaps hopping on an unoccupied craft to "look her over." A boat is a man’s home, just as a house is .... don't go aboard until you're asked.

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Wander Bird under full sail

The Wander Bird mentioned above was “an integral and beloved part of the San Francisco sailing scene,” according to Latitude 38. Besides her bathtub, the schooner was best known for a 1937 voyage around the Horn to San Francisco. One of the crew members was the son of the owner, 4-year-old Warwick ”Commodore” Tompkins Jr., who went become a premier racing sailor.

Tompkins is also a remarkable raconteur and told that story and more during a 2014 Historical Society panel discussion titled Sausalito Salty Stories. To see a 10-minute film of the legendary voyage, search for 1936 Voyage Around Cape Horn on YouTube.