Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California San Francisco Bay Maritime History Series Thomas B. Crowley Crowley Maritime Corporation: San Francisco Bay Tugboats to International Transportation Fleet An Interview Conducted by Miriam Feingold Stein 1973 - 1975 Copyright @ 1983 by the Regents of the University of California All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between the Regents of the University of California and Thomas B. Crowley dated September 14, 1979. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley . Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with Thomas B. Crowley requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Thomas B. Crowley, "Crowley Maritime Corporation: San Francisco Bay Tugboats to International Transportation Fleet," an oral history conducted 1973-1975 by Miriam Feingold Stein, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1983. Copy No. TABLE OF CONTENTS -- Thomas B. Crowley PREFACE i INTRODUCTION iii INTERVIEW HISTORY v SHIPOWNERS AND MERCHANTS TUGBOAT COMPANY AND CROWLEY LAUNCH AND TUGBOAT COMPANY The Original Shipowners and Merchants Tugboat Company Thomas Crowley , Sr., Crowley Launch and Tug, and Shipowners and Merchants Shipowners and Merchants Towboat Company, Ltd. Buying Army and Navy Tugs Present Operations of Shipowners and Merchants Docking a Ship: Fees and Alternatives I1 PUGET SOUND TUG AND BARGE COMPANY Origins of the Company Alaska-British Columbia Transportation Company Puget Sound-Alaska Van Lines Alaska Hydro-Train Servicing the DEW Line I11 OIL TERMINALS COMPANY General Functions The Alviso Terminal The Crescent City Terminal The Meridian and Eureka Terminals The Petaluma Terminal IV PACIFIC BARGING COMPANY V PRUDHOE BAY-ALASKA PIPELINE Servicing the Alaska Pipeline The Ecological Impact of the Pipeline The Canadian Alternatives Arctic Marine Freighters Oregon Coast Towing VI HARBOR TUG AND BARGE Developing Passenger Service on the Bay Golden Gate Scenic Steamship Company Relations with the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District Ferry Service to East Bay Points Hauling Sugar Beets and Gravel Colorful Characters VII SAN PEDRO TUGBOAT COMPANY Origins of the Company The Tugboats Crowley Launch and Tugboat Company's San Francisco Bay Operations Capt. Ernest Mohr San Pedro and Long Beach Harbors VIII BAY CITIES TRANSPORTATION COMPANY Origins of the Company Barges and Tugs Barging Molasses Independent Iron Works--a Competitor? Cargo Traffic on San Francisco Bay World War I1 and the Tugboat Industry Comments on the State of the Shipping Industry IX BULK HANDLERS INCORPORATED X SMITH-RICE COMPANIES Origins and Growth of the Companies Salvage Work XI PACIFIC DRY DOCK AND REPAIR COMPANY Origins of the Company Comments on Finances Present Operations XI1 MERRITT SHIP REPAIR COMPANY Origins of the Company Present Operations Ship Building XI11 FOREIGN OPERATIONS Rig Tenders Puerto Rico Marine Lines Carriba Hydro-Train Hauling Cargo to Hawaii Other Foreign Involvements XIV LABOR RELATIONS Prior to and after the 1934 Strike Strikes, 1939-1959 Some Effects of the Garrnatz Act The 1969 Strike Union Politics Relations with the ILWU The MEBA Comparison with East Coast Conditions XV GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND ASSISTANCE Dumping Wastes Alaska Oil Pipeline Federal, State, and Local Regulatory Agencies Navy Competition Changing Transportation Legislation Helpful Congressmen Professional Associations XVI BACKGROUND Education Effects of the Depression Early Work Experience Family XVII OIL PIPELINES XVI I1 CROWLEY MARITIME CORPORATI ON XIX LEGAL DIFFICULTIES The California Inland Pilots Association Files Suit The Crowley Counter-Suit The Murphy Tugboat Company Suit A Further Suit Campaign Contributions and the Golden Gate Ferry A Long Term Waterfront Lease XX THE GOLDEN HINDE INDEX PREFACE San Francisco Bay Maritime History Series The following interview is one of a series of tape-recorded recollections devoted to the history of San Francisco Bay in the first half of the twentieth century. This was an especially colorful, active period of momentous tech- nological and sociological change in American maritime affairs, and San Francisco Bay reflected the period well. For the economic historian, the reminiscences illustrate the changes in San Francisco Bay that took place in response to worldwide maritime conditions and to changes in California; for the maritime buff, they are full of the bustle, color and variegated characters of a lively shipping port serving deep-water, coastwise, and river and bay traffic. Thanks are extended to the Crowley Launch and Tug Company for permission to research in their extensive scrapbook collection and for the help and advice given by members of the firm over the years that the series has been in progress. Our gratitude also to the staff of the San Francisco Maritime Museum for the use of their historical documentation and for their help in checking out names, dates, and facts. The Regional Oral History Office was established to tape record auto- biographical interviews with persons prominent in the history of California and the West. The Office is under the administrative supervision of James D. Hart, director of The Bancroft Library. Willa K. Baum Division Head Regional Oral History Office 1 June 1983 Regional Oral History Office 486 The Bancroft Library University of California at Berkeley San Francisco Bay Maritime History Series Thomas Crowley, Recollections of the San Francisco Waterfront, 1967. Thomas B. Crowley, Crowley Maritime Corporation: San Francisco Bay Tugboats to International Transportation Fleet, 1983. Captain William Figari, San Francisco Bay and Waterfront, 1900-1965, 1969. Captain William J. McGillivray , Tugboats and Boatmen of California, 1906-1970, 1971. Captain Ernest W. Winther, Observations of San Francisco Bay From 1900-1971, 1972. INTRODUCTION In1963 Mrs. Willa Baum from the Regional Oral History Office telephoned to inquire if my father Thomas Crowley would be interested in giving an interview to be taped. After consulting with my brother and sister I approached my father with the idea and to my delight he reacted with enthu- siasm. This request came at a perfect time in his life as he had the desire to reminisce at leisure. Oral history interviews benefit the questioner and the subject as well, often the two become sympathetic friends. Our family was pleased to have an invaluable record of a life we knew to be colorful and unique in its successes. Ten years after the first interview the oral history office persuaded my brother Thomas B. Crowley to record his memories on tape. Though he was busy, he subsequently recorded an extensive recollection. My purpose here is to introduce in a small way each of these personali- ties as I knew and loved them. Thomas Crowley, my father, died at age ninety-three, and Thomas B. Crowley, my brother, is a very vigorous and active sixty-eight-year-old today. My father was a gregarious, forceful, and charming man. He was opinionated without being pedantic, warm to human needs, stubborn with adversaries, and uniquely interesting to the opposite sex. ,His sense of humor and vibrant personality kept him in constant demand at his many clubs and on the golf course, but business was his great love. Vacations were never a means to relax for him, but travel to a foreign country was appealing. A man with very little formal education, he was extremely well read in areas of history and literature. Some of his favorite books were Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, The Autobiography of Pulitzer, and all of Dickens and Shakespeare. He had endless intellectual curiosity and believed one should constantly try to improve oneself whether it was speech or manner. He never hesitated to criticize; with a knack for frankness he could also be very prejudiced. Newspapers were a very important means of communication for the tour boat business, so many of Dad's cronies were reporters on the Call Bulletin and Chronicle. Among the names I remember were Coblentz, Gleason, Annie Laurie. On his frequent trips to New York he often stayed at the Lambs Club, an all-male sanctuary for writers. A woman writer was a rarity and he grew to know Mrs. William Brown Mahony, publisher of the Washington Post, and admired her tremendously. With his gregarious ways he also enjoyed politick- ing in Washington, D.C. One of the mainstays of the crowley' Launch & Tugboat Co. was Dad's secretary Miss Marie Carey. She was an imposing woman who seemed six feet tall (she was about 5'6") and she ran the payroll with an iron hand, giving the men free advice as she doled it out. In the days when red nail polish was only worn by women of a shady type, Miss Carey shocked everyme by wearing brilliant red polish completely out of character with her severe manner. Tom, my brother, has always been studious and knowledgeable, though a somewhat shy person. Fascinated by physics and astronomy, he would have made an excellent research scientist. My father was careful to nurture Tom's interests but emphasized the business was to be his sole career. Tom's interest in mathematics prepared him well for the computer age and the very latest of high tech equipment has been used at Crowley Maritime Corporation under Tom's management. Industrious, efficient, disciplined, brilliant-- all those adjectives would apply to him, giving his father cause to be very proud of the results.