The Sausalito (Antioch, California)

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The North Pacific Coast ferry Sausalito.

Sausalito, a wood-hulled boat built by John W Dickie in 1894, carried passengers and narrow gauge freight cars for the North Pacific Coast Railroad. She was later operated by the North Shore and Northwestern Pacific. Northwestern Pacific removed the rails from her main deck in 1903 and used her to carry only passengers and express wagons. In later years she carried autos on her main deck.

On the evening of 30-Nov-1901, the bay was covered by a thick fog. Sausalito was crossing from Sausalito to San Francisco when she rammed fellow North Pacific Coast ferry San Rafael. The older, single-ended San Rafael was mortally wounded, but there was time to lay a plank between the boats and the passengers and crew were able to evacuate before San Rafael went down. Some small number of passengers, possibly only two or three, and Old Dick, the horse who pulled the express carts on the San Rafael, died.

This event inspired the beginning of Jack London's novel The Sea Wolf.

Veterinarian Dr J S McCue, sitting in San Rafael's restaurant, had an ear knocked off by a timber. He is recorded as saying that this would not have happened if he had been in the bar where he belonged.

Northwestern Pacific retired Sausalito in about 1930. There is some controversy about why they chose Sausalito and not Cazadero or Tamalpais, which were in some ways in worse shape. Sausalito was the oldest of the three boats.

The Sportsmen Yacht Club acquired Sausalito, which had been stripped of her engine and boilers, in 1934 and moved her to Antioch. She has sat aground in the same place since 1939, on a bed of packed sand and a timber cradle. She serves as a clubhouse. From the outside, she looks her age, but on the inside, one can see that she is well taken care of.

The main deck is divided into small cabins which the members rent. Each cabin has running water and a loft. The paddle boxes are used for storage.

The cabin deck has a long room in the middle that was being set up for the annual Saint Patrick's day party for 175 people. There are galleys on each side. At the river end of the room is a bar from the 1939 Fair on Treasure Island. The clerestory still has its original stained glass. There is patch visible of the original green paint, where a pay phone was removed some time ago.

Much of the boat's decorative woodwork is still in place. The doorways at the ends of the cabin deck still have rounded corners, unusual on San Francisco ferryboats, to make room for freight cars.

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