Page 28 - RedWhiteFleet_interiors_Sep10

thirty-six-foot motor launch, the Jenny C. They used the and passengers without requiring a larger crew. Crowley
$900 in profits they’d made buying heavy Arctic clothing continued adding to his gas-powered fleet, purchasing boats LEFT: At the 1915 Panama-Pacific
from prospectors returning from Alaska’s Yukon Gold Rush from other captains or commissioning new boats as profits International Exposition, Crowley
debuted his first sightseeing service,
and then selling it to other prospectors heading back to the allowed, and eventually adding the Crowley, Spy, Scout, Chief, and it proved a huge success. He
frigid climate. Comet, and Meteor to his holdings. It was a smart move, as the maintained his sightseeing boats and
As the nineteenth century turned into the twentieth, the advent of gas-motor technology spelled the rapid end of an ran them occasionally from Pier 16,
fast-growing state of California was rapidly approaching era for the Whitehall boatman years, which were essentially shown here with crowds of people
1,500,000 people, and Crowley relentlessly reinvested his over by 1905. But, ever nimble, Crowley found new ways for hoping to catch a tour on the Bay
during a visit from the US naval fleet.
increasing profits in his business. To provide a place for his his boating business to prosper. SHANGHAI
growing crew to sleep near the boats—and near news of Tom Crowley’s shrewd business instincts were comple- OPPOSITE: Despite the Life on the waterfront was not always savory, and the
late nineteenth century was a particularly rough-and-
incoming ships—Crowley built a two-story bunkhouse at the mented by his character and good-hearted deeds. One notable enthusiasm for his new sightseeing tumble period. Increased shipping traffic meant that
wharf. By 1904, the arrival of gas-powered boats put an end incident happened in June of 1900. According to the San tours, Crowley’s main business good crew could be hard to find, especially in the still-
to the Whitehall boatmen. As soon as the technology was Francisco Chronicle, in a story titled “Crowley’s Tender Heart,” remained his maritime transport small city of San Francisco. This led to the practice of
available, he added a thirty-six-foot, gas-powered launch, the a pretty little woman who was booked for Honolulu under services around the waterfront, using “shanghaiing,” or kidnapping, men for the purpose
his gas-powered boats such as the
of serving as boat crew. The term got its name from
Crowley C., a faster and more efficient vessel that, at twice the name of Miss McDonald missed her schooner, which was Crowley (bottom) as a link between the bustling port of Shanghai, a common shipping
the length of a Whitehall, could transport many more goods leaving the Mission Street dock. She saw the vessel tacking incoming ships and the businesses destination in the 1800s.
and services at wharves (top). In San Francisco, some Whitehall captains would
form relationships with local bartenders who operated
saloons along the waterfront. For a small fee, these
bartenders would serve a “mickey,” or drugged drink, to
a sailor. Legend has it that captains would then row their
Whitehalls under the docks beneath the bars, where
trapdoors would open, dropping the sleeping sailors into
the boats waiting below, a claim many have disputed.
San Francisco wharves were considered state property
by 1863, making it illegal for saloons to operate on the
docks and thus making the trapdoor story more of an
urban legend. In reality, it is much more likely that the
drugged men were transported to waiting Whitehalls
by horse and wagon.
Regardless of how they got there, by the time the
unfortunate men awoke, they would already be out at
sea, often bound for Alaska or ports more distant. “We
will never know if my grandfather ever did this,” says
Tom Escher.
ABOVE: Carts such as these were sometimes used to carry
shanghaied men down to ships waiting at the waterfront.

28 • Red and White Fleet Early Days • 29