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THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF 1906

he year 1906 started out with the incorporation of the city, living up to their motto: “Anything, Anywhere, Anytime on PREVIOUS PAGES: A panoramic
company under a new name, the Crowley Launch and Water.” And while the company’s official passenger service did photograph of San Francisco captures
TTugboat Company, a change that took into account not begin until 1915, during the Panama-Pacific International the destruction of the city in the wake
the gas-powered boats Crowley had begun to purchase with Exposition, the 1906 Earthquake showed that Crowley was of the 1906 earthquake and fire.
reinvested profits. With his expanded fleet and crew, Crowley ready to take on the responsibility of transporting passengers. LEFT: The destruction of the
had become an indomitable presence on the wharf. Although Speaking years later in an oral history for the University of earthquake and fire led to widespread
a big year for the company, 1906 proved to be an even bigger California’s Bancroft Library, Crowley detailed his company’s flooding down by the waterfront.
year for the city when the Great Earthquake struck San efforts immediately following the quake: “We had everything Crowley boats sprang into action
Francisco on April 18 at 5:12 a.m. With an estimated magnitude to do with all upon the Bay.” While other ferry companies during the crisis, ferrying passengers
and belongings out of the city to ports
of 7.9, the quake caused devastating destruction as far north as stopped service, Crowley and his crew sprang into action, all around the Bay, foreshadowing the
Eureka and led to three days of fire and chaos in the city. transporting stranded San Franciscans across the Bay to Red and White Fleet’s rise to action
Crowley and his crew did not stand idly by. Using his Oakland as fires engulfed the city behind them. “The business during the 1989 earthquake eight
new fleet of ships, he began ferrying residents out of the city rush got so big that we had to bring in those big barges decades later.
toward safer ports in Oakland and Sausalito. While other local instead of depending on the launches,” Crowley added. “But
maritime companies halted operations, Crowley and his crew we took a great many over in the launches and we took a great OPPOSITE: The sky above San
Francisco turns into a wall of smoke
transported countless souls, belongings, and valuables out of the many back, too.” The barges Crowley referred to were three- on April 18, 1906.
hundred-foot-long grain barges, which were large enough
to allow passengers to bring some of their furniture and
belongings on board, enabling them to set up temporary
lodgings across the Bay in Oakland if their home had been
damaged or destroyed by the quake.
While most boats transported stranded citizens back and
forth to Oakland, a few simply moored in the Bay until it
was safe to return to land. “Let me tell you, there were a lot of
passenger steamers out in the Bay, and we were the only ones
operating,” Crowley said. “I remember many fellows coming

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