Excellent first comment (sub-article?), too. I love the maritime history and the role that Mother Nature played in it.

The San Francisco waterfront was built for a purpose (commerce), it provided jobs (longshoremen, teamsters, and sailors), it is now functionally dead, and all those jobs are gone. That is the “harsh, brutal reality” of this particular labor situation. I gave a vignette of 118 years of that history that I know and lived, for the benefit of anyone who might be interested what the author meant when he wrote “… its storied public waterfront…”. Hopefully, a few people now know a little of why it’s “storied”.

Why has the SF waterfront been functionally dead for over 20 years? Geography (wrong side of the Bay for a modern port, no acreage for a container terminal) and technology (containerization, formerly skilled jobs automated down to button-pusher status). The port and the jobs are in Oakland now, and there aren’t nearly as many of those jobs, ton-for-ton, as there used to be.

This is not a San Francisco story or an America story. It’s exactly the same situation at every port (and aboard every ship) in the world. The only thing left to do with the San Francisco waterfront is to convert it to shops, restaurants, and offices.

Public access is an issue, but it’s not the real issue. The real issue is the relationship between money and government. Will Ellison get his way? How many ordinary working people will get the chance to make a living as Ellison makes vast profits? It’s not about demolishing low income housing, or building high-rent housing. It’s about a consortium of wealthy individuals benefiting from a public resources.

The facts and history are now out on the table. It’s pointless for me to waste words trying to refute motives you attribute to me. “Yes you did, No I didn’t” and on, and on. You’re welcome to the last word, I’m out.

Btw, Jared Huffman is campaigning here in the Anderson Valley, today, Saturday, Feb 18. It’s an opportunity to continue asking questions about saving Hendy Woods and the other seven State Parks scheduled to close here in Mendocino County.

I joined my first ship, the APL cargo liner SS President McKinley, at Pier 29 in September, 1969. Your first ship becomes you first love, and she was a magnificent beauty. A C-6 six hatcher, booms and guys and topping lifts and cargo runners from here until the cows come home. We crossed westbound to Yokohama, basing ourselves and that ship to pieces, in what the Second Mate claimed was record time. It was five days and something, as I recall.

The crew was Sailor’s Union of the Pacific on deck, Marine Firemen, Oilers, and Watertenders in the engineroom, Marine Cooks and Stewards in the galley. The officers were Masters, Mates and Pilots for the Deck Officers and Marine Engineers Beneficiary Association for the Engine Officers. At 18, I was steeped in first and second hand stories of the 1934 waterfront strike.

I sailed for 40 years, the last 26 as Master, but there are only two ships I care to recall. President McKinley is the first, and the last ship I took delivery of as Master, USNS Rappahannock, which I was responsible for 11 years, is the other.

As for the yacht “America”, she was a rich man’s toy, but there’s a working class backstory. She was commanded by a Sandy Hook pilot, I forget his name (could google it, but I guess that would be cheating). Sandy Hook was to New York harbor about as the Farfallons are to San Francisco … how for out you had to take a sailing ship before she was free and clear to proceed to sea on her own. The pilots raced to get to each incoming ship first, that’s how they made their money, so they were working class racers. That Sandy Hook pilot was hired to take the yacht “America” to Great Britain and see if he could pick up some races. The rest is history (when Victoria asked “Who is in second?”, she was informed, “There is no second”).

But at the same time, on a far grander scale, a much more significant, heroic, and memorable race was being waged and won. By the summer of 1851, as “America” was headed east to Great Britain, the passage from New York to San Francisco was a voyage to riches, and worth whatever a person could afford. Donald McKay, who’d been building fast ships for some time, was exceeding himself with each new commission. In competition with other East Coast shipbuilders, each new launch set new standards, until that summer of 1851.

From McKay’s yard was launched the clipper “Flying Cloud”. Wait until you hear this story.

Flying Cloud was built on speculation and owned by a fellow who probably never intended to take her to sea. But a spot on McKay’s delivery list was worth gold, so he put up $50,000 for the right to call Flying Cloud his own. A New York shipping company, Minturn & Grinnell, needed a big fast clipper to send to San Francisco, so they paid the original owner $90,00 to buy his ship, before she was even delivered.

So Minturn & Grinnell had the ship they needed, but lacked a Captain who was up to the task. Because on a square rigger (unlike today), the Captain was the difference between success and failure. Ships in those days were owned in “shares”, usually 32 or 64 shares, depending. One of the Minturn & Grinnel principals, holder of 4 shares, nominated Captain Josiah P Creesy to be Master. The other partners agreed, so Captain Creesy was offered the job, on condition of buying 2 shares (to insure his interest in the outcome, and a great bonus for himself).

Captain Creesy was a pretty ordinary, reliable, dependable, hard driving clipper Captain, successful on the China trade through the 1840′s. But his wife, Eleanor, was the real prize. Eleanor Creesy proved herself the finest navigator of her age. Which will shortly bring us to San Francisco.

Sailing ships depend on wind and current to make progress, and man’s knowledge of the wind and current patterns in 1851 was only just becoming scientific. A Navy Lieutenant, Matthew Maury, having been injured on duty, was assigned to the Navy’s Hydrographic Office in Washington, where he set out to find useful work. Having the logbooks from thousands of voyages, from the Revolution to the 1840′s, he set out to extract all possible data and plot it. By the time Eleanor Creesy assumed the duties as navigator of the clipper Flying Cloud, this information was available, and Eleanor was one of the few who saw the potential.

On Jun 2nd, 1851 the clipper Flying Cloud cleared New York harbor, dropped her pilot at Sandy Hook, and set sail for San Francisco via Cape Horn. A brand new ship never runs just right, and on a sailing ship the standing rigging has to stretch and set, but Captain Creesy didn’t have time to wait. Flying Cloud took off from Sandy Hook and immediately began ripping off fantastic “day’s runs”. On the third day out, this all caught up with them.

Everything on the main and mizzen above the topsails came crashing down on deck, and over the side. She had experienced a major partial dismasting, bad news, unbelievable man-killing work (much of which would later be enshrined in the ethic of the Sailor’s Union of the Pacific and other maritime unions). But in 24 hours, Captain Creesy and his crew had Flying Cloud back to work and headed for Cape Horn.

This is where Eleanor comes in, because she was the one who could read the magic charts, and plotted a highly unconventional course for Flying Cloud. Eleanor’s course would take Flying Cloud through the Doldrums (still air, high pressure just above the equator) and across the equator faster than anyone aboard had ever seen before. Working down the coast of South America, weirdness cropped up.

The carpenter reported flooding in the forepeak, lots of water coming in. He consulted with Captain Creesy and they estimated that one of the hawsehole plugs, now underwater due to the ship being driven so hard, had come out. So the Captain brought the ship before the wind and when she stood up, the carpenter replaced the missing hawsehole plug. Put back on course, water continued to pour into Flying Cloud. Finally, a crewmember worked his way aft and reported that he’d seen two fellow crewmembers secreting an auger out of the crew’s quarters in the foc’sle (sleeping in the hole, also enshrined in maritime union culture).

With Flying Cloud running before the wind again, the carpenter found the auger holes and plugged them. Flying Cloud began pounding out astonishing day’s runs toward Cape Horn and San Francisco. I’ve never rounded Cape Horn in a square rigger, but I’ve looked at the charts and I’ve been enough other places (including two trips to Antarctica) that I can see what would be going on. Rounding Cape Horn from East to West is probably the most difficult, treacherous task that any ship, crew, and captain ever faced.

Eleanor Creesy again saw the way, she used the high technology of the day in ways nobody else had ever done before, and she guided Flying Cloud “from 50 to 50″ (50 degrees south to in the Atlantic to 50 degrees south in the Pacific, around Cape Horn at 55 South) in record time. Clear of Cape Horn, Flying Cloud earned her name and began tearing north toward San Francisco.

In the most astonishing display of sustained speed under sail, Flying Cloud ran off the stunning total of 374 miles, noon to noon. To shorten this a bit, Flying Cloud followed Eleanor Creesy’s hand, ran out almost to Hawaii to find good winds, met up with a British packet 200 days out of Liverpool, when they “spoke” Flying Cloud was 83 days out of New York. When the wind picked up, observers on the British packet watched in awe as Flying Cloud tore free for the horizon and disappeared in no time.

Her Main topmast came down one more time, just a couple days out of San Francisco, but captain and crew restepped the mast and Flying Cloud headed for the San Francisco pilot station. Arriving in the late evening, Eleanor told her husband to stand “on and off” until morning. The morning of Aug 31st, 1851, Flying Cloud boarded her San Francisco pilot and proceeded to anchor in five fathoms of water between North Point and Alcatraz. Flying Cloud had made the passage from NY to SF in 89d, 21h with Eleanor Creesy navigating. They had broken the previous record by seven day, a full week.

This story is not as famous as the yacht America, but consider this. Two years later, Josiah and Eleanor did it again, this time NY to SF in 89d and 9h. That record stood for something like 130 years, until finally broken by a special built racing yacht with modern electronics. Having volunteered at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park since I retired, I can say without regret or rancor that San Francisco has no idea the stories its waterfront could tell … nor much cares.

I hold no love for the man, but how about an honest indictment of his actions without the character assassination, implying that he’s evil because he makes money?

By the time the 70s rolled around, postal workers and transit workers were about the only ones courageous enough to back their demands with real stands and walk off the job. Auto workers — particularly Chrysler workers, pre-Iaccoca — were capitulating to management, and the Chrysler bailout under Iaccoca was the end of auto workers as a real force in the labor movement. By the early 80s, the situation had deteriorated so badly that Reagan felt free to fire striking air traffic controllers, something no president would have dared do as late as the 60s.

“Somewhere along the line, we screwed the pooch” is such a vacuous statement, suggesting that it all happened on its own, which is exactly what rich people want workers to believe. And, there aint no damned “lord” involved at all. Until the Working Class awakens, once and for all, and abandons kaputalism, permanently, these cycles of boom and bust, of worker rights and worker slavery, will continue, as they have since the evil kaputalist system supplanted feudalism and ensured that former serfs would remain under control of the wealthy.

Is the labor movement stronger today than it was when George Meany ran things? Are you familiar with the term “Pyrfhic Victory”? Is America stronger and more equitable and more prosperous now, or when George Meany ran the labor movement?

Man, you can debate philosophy from now until the cows come home. But I’ve asked the pertinent questions, and the truth is contained in the answers. Things don’t make sense, they’ve never made sense, it’s just life. Those who are good at it get ahead, and those who aren’t fall behind.

Somewhere along the line, we screwed the pooch. Now we’re having to pull ourselves out of the bog. Lord grand that it’s a long time before America has to go through this again, because it’s not going to be pretty.