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OPPOSITE: Shown here standing well as extending ownership in other tugboat operations, from deadly fires. Opponents were concerned about its cost
at Howard Street Wharf, their amassing forty-eight barges and twenty-seven tugs, until they to the city. Crowley helped reframe the issue by asserting that
main place of business in the early eventually acquired full ownership over the next few years. it could be a shared resource to protect many Bayfront cities
1900s, Crowley brothers Tom (right)
and Dave (left) developed their San Francisco’s first world’s fair, the Panama-Pacific from fire, including Oakland, Alameda, and Sausalito.
business beyond basic shore services International Exposition of 1915, became a coming-out By the 1930s, San Francisco’s bustling waterfront and port
for incoming ships by gradually party for Crowley’s guided tours of the elaborate fairgrounds was one of the busiest and most prosperous in the United States.
acquiring a small fleet of tugboats that extended across two and a half miles of waterfront. The The Crowley brothers rode that wave into the modern era with
and barges. underlying commercial message was that San Francisco was all of its glory and bitter challenges, including the West Coast
the gateway to the East. Adorning the Ferry Building was a Waterfront Strike in July 1934. The waterfront labor dispute
BELOW: Tom Crowley, photo-
graphed here later in life, never grand welcome to visitors from around the United States and brought ship owners and longshoremen face-to-face in a bloody
lost the rough-and-tumble edge world: “California Invites the World to the Panama-Pacific conflict that resulted in injuries and death and climaxed with a
that made him so successful on International Exposition.” citywide strike that paralyzed San Francisco businesses.
the early waterfront. When San Francisco won hosting rights for the 1915 Over the years, Crowley made use of his social skills to
world’s fair, Crowley knew it would attract scores of fairgoers form important relationships on land. As his revenue grew and
to the waterfronts eager to experience a Bay tour. Tom had he was able to afford the fees, he joined several esteemed social
the shipyards build him double-deck passenger boats with clubs in San Francisco, connecting him with local businessmen
which to ferry passengers to and around the Panama-Pacific and politicians. Although he had not received much in the way
International Exposition’s 635 acres of waterfront fairgrounds. of a formal education, he had a reputation for being able to
Three years later, he bought a 25 percent share of the Ship speak to anyone, whether a sailor on the docks or a member of
Owners & Merchants Tugboat Company and then increased his the city’s elite, and he used his eloquence to build relationships
ownership over the next few years until he owned the company. that benefited and protected his growing business.
Now helmed by Thomas Crowley’s grandson, Tom Escher,
MARITIME SAVVY the Red and White Fleet is as ubiquitous on the San Francisco
The Crowleys’ enterprising efforts around building a profitable Bay as the Whitehall was over a century ago. While Escher is
and durable company didn’t begin and end with their balance focused on different types of opportunities in 2019—and not
sheet. They were politically savvy and keenly aware of what was defying the same odds that Thomas Crowley did when trying
needed on the waterfront. In January 1920, Thomas Crowley to secure business sixty miles offshore in gale-force winds—he
weighed in when the city’s only waterfront fireboat, the Dennis will never forget what his grandfather taught him, nor will he
T. Sullivan, was hanging in the balance. He argued that the forget what his grandfather endured to found the company
fireboat was needed to protect the busy shipping waterfront that continues to this day.

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