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University of California Berkeley Bancroft University of California Library/Berkeley Regional Oral History Office William J. McGillivray TUGBOATS AND BOATMEN OF CALIFORNIA 1906 - 1970 With Comments and Additions by William Figari An Interview Conducted by Ruth Teiser Copy Number of California 1971 by The Regents of the University o c (U 3 O S-l 00 <U c jn 0) cfl -o o 60 Q. Cfl V-4 00 O 60 r-l P4 fl g M-l 0) > & H vO o r- S -> B >> nj n r-l [fl -( 3 -I C o- u> Q u. a a i-i- H- i-; u> CK5 a, a u. 6) U Q, u- a, a, (W ^3 tn i- - i-i o tn a. (W 3 tn cr a to o o 3 tr c a All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between the Regents of the University of Cali fornia and William J. MeGillivray, dated April 15, 1971. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, in cluding the right to publish, are reserved to the Bancroft Library of the University of California at 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, U86 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 William J. MeGillivray requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. - - BOATMEN OF CALIFORNIA 1906-1970 TABLE OF CONTENTS TUGBOATS AND William J. McGillivray i PREFACE iii INTRODUCTION Tugboat Adventure 10 Early Days with Crowley ^ Along the Waterfront n 2 on Sunday ... "If You Don t Show up On Strikes, Railroad and Jack London U2 The Jinxed Sea Prince ^ Long Tows 48 Tom Crowley eg of Characters "All Kinds ^ Family and Boyhood The 1906 Earthquake and Fire ^ on the Learning to Work Tugboats 6g Further Recollections of Railroading ^ Back to Crowley 75 The Red Stacks 80 Going to Sea 82 San Pedro and Coastwide Operation g^ Two Wars and the Depression QO the The Fillmore Street Hill and 191! ^ Wine and Shipwrecks 95 Further Reminiscences of Tom Crowley McGillivray to Various People 99 APPENDIX A - Letters from William J. - when ..." sketches by APPENDIX B "I remember "ri^en in The Pacific Captain McGillivray and published Work Boat 136 INDEX PREFACE San Francisco Bay Maritime History Series The following interview is one of a series of tape-recorded recollec tions devoted to the history of San Francisco Bay in the first half of the twentieth century. This was an especially colorful, active period of mo mentous technological 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 permis sion 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 Department Head Regional Oral History Office 11 September 1971 Regional Oral History Office 1+86 The Bancroft Library University of California at Berkeley ii San Francisco Bay Maritime History Series Thomas Crowley, Recollections of the San Francisco Waterfront, 196? Captain William Figari, San Francisco Bay and Waterfront, 1900-1965, 1969 Captain William J. MeGillivray, Tugboats and Boatmen of California, 1906-1970, 1971 Captain Ernest W. Winther, Observations of San Francisco Bay from 1900 on, in process. iii INTRODUCTION William McGillivray was born in San Francisco on February 23, 1891. Like many another San Franciscan of his tine, he found his life disrupted on April 18, 1906, when his home and school were both destroyed by the earthquake and fire. In this interview he recalls that event and its result, the beginning of his career as a tugboat man with Thomas Growley. As a young man, Captain McGillivray was "a good-looking happy-go- lucky sort of guy," whose love of fun and adventure was balanced by an innate ability to operate boats and an inherent practical good sense. This according to an associate of many years. Although several times he left the tugboats to try other careers, he always returned to the expanding Crowley organization, and he progressed steadily to positions of increasing responsibility. Shortly after the Standard Oil Company asked Crowley s Red Stack to send boats to San Pedro, Captain McGillivray became general manager of the organization there, the San Pedro Tugboat Company, continuing until his retirement at the end of 1970. He has served for many years on the board of directors of the Red Stack Towboat Company. Captain McGillivray is known as a good storyteller, and a writer of tugboat reminiscences. His series of "I Remember When" sketches for the Pacific Work Boat appears as an appendix to this volume , as do numerous letters of recollections. During his years at San Pedro, Captain McGillivray frequently came to San Francisco, usually spending an evening with Captain William Figari swapping reminiscences of the early experiences they shared. In the first session of this interview, on January 17, 19^9, Captain Figari participated. It was held in San Francisco in a conference room at the Crowley offices at Pier 32. The second session, with Captain McGillivray alone, took place August 20, 1970, soon after the death of Thomas Crowley on August U. It was held in a conference room at the then recently completed Crowley Tugboat & Launch Company headquarters at Pier 50. In the first part of the interview McGillivray is several times referred to as "Mac," while Captain Figari is referred to as "Bill," "Willie," and "Will." iv Shortly after Captain McGillivray s retirement, both participants read over the first section of the interview, and both made some minor corrections and changes. Captain McGillivray read and corrected the second section. On first reading the transcripts he thought that they needed "a lot of cleaning up," but agreed finally to the interviewer s request that the informal, conversational quality be retained. Ruth Teiser Interviewer 3 September 1971 Regional Oral History Office U86 The Bancroft Library University of California at Berkeley December 6,1971 Mrs Willa Baum Regional Oral History Office Room ^86 University Of California Berkeley, California 9WO Dear Mrs. Baum, Received bound copy of TOWEOATS & BOATMAN OF CALIFORNIA and thanks for same. There are a few little corrections that 1 would like to note here below however the language of Figari and 1 does need some cleaning up. Letting the words just roll out in waterfront fashion doesn t look so good on paper. Also for about half of the time we didn t realize that it was all recorded on tape. On page 9 in the last paragraph propeller is mispelled. On page ten Figari said "A fellow by tht name of Capt.toohr Earnest Mohr, a good towboat man" You may add that Mohr was in charge of the San Pedro Tugboat Company to start with and he was later relieved by Me Gillivray. On page 18 on the third statement from the bottom up, 1 should have sdded that the Shipowners & Merchants tow- boat Company (Red Stack* had a number of stockholders in it but Tom Crowley took over and owned more than 50# of the stock. That made him the boss. On page 20 look at the third paragraph and. you will note that the word Kegs was left out at the end. On page 21 on the third line of the third paragraph it may be good to leave out the words"come in here" as it seems to have no connection in the matter. On page 22 it may be tetter if you add"on the raft" after the word night. On page 23 in the last paragraph you may add"and get their gear from the rear of the barroom again. On page 24 1 should have said" French ship"in the second line and on the third line I should have said" be up on the bow"and not the bar. On the last paragraph on page 2? it reads "Crowley havfc been very good to us and not has. Also on the 8th lane of this paragraph you mention Thomas P. instead of Thamas B. Crowley. On page 29 in the second line of the last paragraph We used to sleep aboard* that.