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Anniversary of Demise of Small-Town Coronado

EXPENSIVE PILE OF SCRAP
Marks 43rd Anniversary, End of "Old" Coronado

By Joe Ditler

In her prime, the ferryboat San Diego was taken for granted, as were her four sister ships.

But now, we see just how effectively they protected the small-town magic of Coronado.

Photo courtesy Coronado Public Library and the Frank Jennings Collection.

ALAMEDA, CA - From backyard to bone yard to scrapyard, the ferryboat M.V. San Diego has been slowly whittled down to a few buckets of scrap iron. The well-documented demise of the familiar old boat ends here, on the 43rd anniversary of her forced retirement as a San Diego-Coronado ferryboat.

On August 2, 1969 the car-carrying ferryboats ceased to operate in our waters. On that night, at midnight, the ferry engines went cold, the Coronado Bridge opened. On that night we said good-bye to the romantic old ferryboats and to the small town of Coronado.

"The sound of her whistle on a foggy night,

of her chains rattling, pilings creaking,

and cars driving over old wooden planks

lulled us to sleep like a heartbeat in the womb."

In hindsight, it is so easy to see how the slow and methodical ferryboats had kept Coronado’s small town character glued together, staving off an inevitable and uncontrollable growth.

Last week, word was received from the California State Lands Commission that it cost more than $636,000 to demolish the ferryboat San Diego. Her scrap metal steel was sold for roughly $168,000, which brought the overall demolition costs to nearly half a million dollars – a figure believed to be $100,000 more than it cost to build the boat in 1931.

Slowly but steadily the once magnificent ferryboat San Diego was whittled down to this small pile of scrap iron. This is the last photo ever taken of the ferryboat. Photo courtesy California State Lands Commission.

These costs do not include the hundreds of man hours by commission staff spent inspecting the vessel, researching her long list of alleged owners, and orchestrating the complicated process of literally removing a vessel of that size from existence. It also did not include the expensive costs of a trespass suit brought by the commission to obtain rights for the boat.

The ferryboat San Diego will never again appear in a headline or news article, unless it is in historical reference. In her prime she sported immaculate white paint with emerald isle green trim and shuttled us back and forth, to and fro, never complaining, never asking for a day off, never asking for a raise.

The sound of her whistle on a foggy night, of her chains rattling, pilings creaking, and cars driving over old wooden planks lulled us to sleep like a heartbeat in the womb.

The ferryboat’s final “voyage” has been chronicled in great detail over the past six months as she went from being a derelict vessel and a hazard to navigation on the Sacramento River (San Francisco) to the scrapyard for complete and thorough demolition.

In 1931 the M.V. San Diego – measuring 191 feet on deck (LOA), 43.5 feet wide and drawing 14 feet – made her way to San Diego from Oakland under power from her three 350-hp diesel-electric engines. She barely survived a storm rounding Point Arguello that nearly ended her career before it had begun.

Headed south around Point Arguello on her maiden voyage (1931), with the owner's car

strapped to the deck, the ferryboat San Diego nearly didn't make her destination

of San Diego. Photo courtesy Coronado Public Library.

At this point there is a lot of “what if” taking place on Facebook and the Internet. “What if we could have brought her back? What if we could have saved her?”

While it would have been cheaper than buying the Padres, bringing that ferryboat back to Coronado was a pipe dream, a dream that others had tried and failed at. Like small town Coronado, the Great Ferryboat Era had been left in the dust of what once was. Denial of that is but a vain grasping at the wind.

Time marches on, we embrace the future, but we honor our past. Thanks to the enormous reach of the Internet, many people have documented the ferryboat San Diego and, in fact, the Great Ferryboat Era. This has been through first-hand descriptions, through photos and ephemera dealing with the era, and through the most moving accounts from those who remember.

The once-glorious old working ship M.V. San Diego will be forever documented in the halls of the Coronado Public Library for everyone to see and enjoy, for generations to explore. The price to cross the bay of history on a ferryboat of memory? A library card. For more information visit www.coronado.ca.us/library.

The ferryboat San Diego prepares to leave the Coronado Ferry Landing.

Photo taken by the author - summer of 1966.

Tags: community, people

11 members like this

Comment by Lisa Krause on August 13, 2012 at 10:29am: Such a sad story. :-(

Comment by Rob Crenshaw on August 13, 2012 at 11:25am: Great article Joe. I too remember the noises... the chains especially. How about the diesel smells among other odoriferous sources from the boat and the bay.

Comment by Donald Kirk on August 13, 2012 at 11:51am: Oh, the price of progress. I only got to ride the ferry once, with my dad in the mid 60's long before I ever lived in Coronado.It is such a distant memory but a happy one that I will hold onto for ever.Hopefully we won't have to go through it again pining over the pedestrian ferries that now run between Coronado and San Diego. Don't take them for granted. Nice story Joe!

Comment by michael daniel shourds on August 13, 2012 at 12:30pm: sad. use to ride the ferry all day for a dime or untill they gave us the boot off . ride our bike to the zoo all for one dime the zoo was free if you were under 16. good summer days . great story Joe

Comment by Bob Kipperman on August 13, 2012 at 2:20pm: I think I see my 57 TBird.... But, it did make some dating across the water "geographically undesirable" (45 minute wait between ferries after midnight)..... coming home 3 or 4 am was not fun. Still, I do miss them...

Comment by Louise Wicarius on August 13, 2012 at 4:20pm: Nice article, Joe...makes one sad though...the smells and sounds are forever in my mind...rode her many a time :@

Comment by Jeffrey Atencio on August 13, 2012 at 5:50pm: When Coronado lost these beautiful ships and their service, Coronado lost her identity. Never was there a better symbol of the Crown City than arriving on the ferry. That big ugly blue gash across our skyline did more to hurt us than anything else. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. The SDCBB is just that, a slash across the jugular of our beloved town's throat. Even though it served the civilian workers at North Island for a few years, the benefits will never equal our loss. The loss is worse than what Katrina did to New Orleans. Look at the ugly condominiums that sprung up on top of those beautiful 1920's and 1930's homes scattered throughout town. Sad doesn't come close to describing the loss, anger and depression I feel when I go home to visit and nothing of my hometown is familiar to me anymore. My memories were erased so some could make a huge profit from their real estate holdings. The ferries were the integral heart of our hometown. The bridge allowed the heart to be stolen from us. It's tragic what we've lost. Thank you Joe, for keeping our past where it belongs, out front as a reminder to those that have benefited from changing Coronado for their personal gain. They should be ashamed. The rest of us should be proud. Proud that we really had the Emerald Isle in our hand and heart. Those pirates deserve what they get. As for the ferries, I feel like I lost a close friend to cancer as I look at the pictures above. I doubt I'll ever recover from this loss and you know, I think I don't want to.

Comment by Louise Wicarius on August 13, 2012 at 6:16pm: Touche, Jeffrey!!! Greed and shame are prefect statementsfor the reality. I am restoring my Cape (bungalow) and going to have it historically recognized next year, when I can, so its' integrity can not be compromised. One attorney referred to it as a "tear down" and I fired him!

Comment by Jeffrey Atencio on August 14, 2012 at 9:44am: Good for you. These homes have a lot of history just because they are here in Coronado. Many were designed and built by famous architects and while they may be outdated a little, they were built at a time when home building was done right. The work was done by master craftsmen, not beer guzzling, pot smoking guys between jobs.These men took pride in their work. Don't think so? Go look at the dining hall / ballroom at the Del. Not a single nail was used. It was built with hand fit lumber.

Comment by Louise Wicarius on August 14, 2012 at 5:27pm: Yes, my home is dated, but I love it. It was built by a noted architect who did several in this neighborhood. Need to find his name, another wish my mom were here moment. It has many unique features. I have an ironing board and table that come out of a wall in the kitchen instead of a breakfast nook, an outdoor patio for dining off the formal dining room and one of my favorite oldies but goodies, the old Dairy Mart Farms door in the wall for Bill Wakefield to deliver eggs, milk, etc. It is small but efficient and ,in it's own realm, every room independently zoned for heat with built in wall heaters in baths and fireplaces along with the other heat! Windows with cross ventiliation for a/c...not a "tear down" to me!

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