Page 23 - RedWhiteFleet_interiors_Sep10

OPPOSITE, clockwise from vessel and its captain, a means to make money for as long RACING FOR YELLOW FEVER
left: Dave Crowley Sr. (seated) as the ship remained in port. Boatmen procured services on A boatman’s rowing and sailing skills were fundamental to the
and his sons pose for a portrait. behalf of a variety of different businesses, including sailors’
Tom Crowley (standing center), the competitive work on the Bay. In 1878, a yellow fever epidemic
founder of the company that would boardinghouses, stevedoring companies, ship chandlers hit the southeastern United States, and the waterfront’s famous
become Red and White Fleet, learned (retailers who provided supplies for ships), butchers and “shanghaiing crimps,” who kidnapped people to serve as
much of his trade as a Whitehall produce marketers, customs officials, police, and doctors. sailors, decided to organize a boat race to raise money to
boatman by working alongside Thomas and Dave grew up around the cutthroat business of benefit the people stricken with the disease.
Dave Crowley on the waterfront. the waterfront, with its rugged crews and merchant ships,
• The waterfront world in which and they learned to use their wits and skills as much as their Whitehall races first became popular among boatmen that
Tom Crowley lived and worked was year. Some thirty boats, most of which were Whitehalls, took
highly competitive and full of rough brawn to beat out competitors. It was not uncommon for the off in a light September breeze from the Vallejo Street pier
characters. • Waterfront businesses early Whitehall boatmen trying to gain the upper hand on a and headed to Sausalito, then to Fort Point and back to the
targeted their services at the ships competitor to toss their competitors’ oars into the water. starting point. About $400 ($10,000 in today’s currency) was
that constantly arrived in San
Francisco Bay from faraway places.
The Crowleys accosted incoming ships
in order to be the go-between for the
businesses and their new customers.
RIGHT: Two men lower a Whitehall
boat into the water. The small
rowboats were usually operated by
two people, and though they were
reliable and effective at the hands of
skilled oarsmen, they offered little
protection in rougher seas.

Early Days • 23