Berkeley (ferryboat)

Berkeley
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
The stack of the Berkeley.
Location	San Diego, California
Built	1898
Architect	Union Iron Works
NRHP reference No.	90002220
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	December 14, 1990
Designated NHL	December 14, 1990

The Berkeley was one of several ferryboats of the Southern Pacific Railroad that operated on San Francisco Bay between the Oakland Pier and the San Francisco Ferry Building for sixty years. Built in 1898 by the Union Iron Works of San Francisco, she served after the 1906 earthquake, ferrying refugees across the bay to Oakland.

The Berkeley was in regular service from 1898 to the spring of 1958, when she was taken out of service for repairs. She never returned to service, as Southern Pacific decided to end all ferry service on July 29, 1958. The Berkeley was put up for sale, and was purchased by the Golden Gate Fishing Company to be used as a whaling processing facility. Before she was put to this use, however, she was sold to ferryboat enthusiast and businessman Bill Conover. Conover had the Berkeley docked in Sausalito, a small town on the Bay in Marin County, and converted her into a gift shop called "Trade Fair". However, the Berkeley was not well-maintained in her gift shop incarnation and 12 years of serious deterioration took a toll. In 1973, she was sold to the Maritime Museum of San Diego. She was towed out of San Francisco Bay by tug on May 31, 1973 arriving 3 days later in San Diego where she was subsequently restored. She currently serves as the main "building" of the Maritime Museum of San Diego.

The Berkeley was notable for having been the first propeller-driven ferry on the west coast. At the time of her launching on October 18, 1898, she became the largest commuter ferryboat in the United States with a 1700 passenger capacity. She was also remarkable for being one of the earliest ferries to be powered by a triple-expansion steam engine.

The Berkeley was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1990 and California State Historical Landmark No. 1031 in 2000.

National Historic Landmark plaque for the Berkeley.

During the time she was docked in Sausalito, actor Sterling Hayden rented one of the pilot houses of the Berkeley as an office while he wrote his autobiographic book Wanderer (published in 1963).

While the Berkeley was under construction in 1898, the battleship Wisconsin was being constructed adjacent to her.

See also

• Ferries of San Francisco Bay

References

• "Berkeley: A Pioneering West Coast Ferryboat", in Mains'l Haul Spring 2004 (entire issue) Vol.40, No.2, published by the Maritime Museum of San Diego.

External links

• Berkeley at the Maritime Museum of San Diego
• San Diego Landmark #1031 from www.sandiegohistory.org
• National Historic Landmark Page