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 52, 53, 54, Second class railroad roof coaches, built by
the Carters in
1884
56, 57, 58,
First class railroad roof coaches, built by the Carters in
1884
67, 70, 71,
First class railroad roof coaches, built by Harlan in 1887
75, First
class railroad roof coach, built by the Carters in 1887
The View From the Bay:
San Francisco Maritime Heritage
Boat Tour
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by Andy Fahrenwald,
Chapter President
Our San Francisco waterfront and labor history boat
tour of the structures
and sites of San Francisco's maritime history was a great
success. The
event, which was co-sponsored by Laborfest 97, attracted
over 250 people.
The fog burned off as we embarked; it was a sunny, breezy
day on the Bay.
For four hours we were treated to a highly informative
running narrative
as the San Francisco panorama scrolled by. Beside our
featured tour
guides, we opened the mike to the veteran waterfront
workers and labor
organizers who were aboard, adding some very colorful
comments on the
role of women and the left in the 30's labor struggles. The
Babar Jug Band
below decks provided old-time music, and backed up a number
union
songs sung by a growing group of old-timers who emerged
from the
crowd.
The Harbor King, our tour boat, turned out to be an
historic vessel as well
- one of the original harbor tour boats, recently restored
to red and white
splendor. Captain Paul Bishop displayed remarkable
navigational skill as
we raised the magnificent art deco 3rd and Army Street drawbridge and
cruised into Islais Creek to see the historic hand operated
copra crane,
down another narrow channel to see the tugboat fleet and an
antique
steam pile driver, patrolled waterfront sites of the great
General Strike of
1934, and came in close to floating dry-docks at the Union
Iron Works,
probably the oldest ship yard on the Pacific Basin. When
asked how he
handled his boat with such dexterity, in such close
quarters and brisk
wind, with no bow thrusters to help, Captain Bishop
responded: "Oh, it's a
Zen sort of thing."
Archie Green, perhaps the leading American authority on the
material
culture and traditions of labor, a Bay Area shipwright in
the 40's and the
author of "Only A Miner," "Wobblies, Pile Butts & Other
Heroes," and
"Calf's Head and Union Tails" acted as master of
ceremonies. His multi-
faceted commentary ranged through detailed descriptions of
work
processes and the realities of life on the waterfront to
the radical political
background of waterfront labor organizing.
Ted Miles, Assistant Curator from the San Francisco
Maritime National
Historic Park, provided a counterpoint to Archie's remarks,
describing the
days when San Francisco was the most important Pacific
Coast seaport and
shedding more light on the remaining industrial
infrastructure we viewed.
Harvey Schwartz, labor historian and archivist specializing
in West Coast
labor history who has done extensive oral history work with
members of
the ILWU and the Pile Drivers Union and the author of "The
March
Inland: Origins of the ILWU Warehouse Division, 1934 -
1938,"provided
some vivid descriptions of the pitched battles between the
ILWU and the
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