Farragut’s Press NEWSLETTER OF THE MARE ISLAND MUSEUM, 1100 Railroad Ave, Vallejo CA 94592
Mare Island Historic Park
SS Vallejo, a Mare Isaland Ferries, Now, restored, is a houseboat in Sausalito
Crossing the Bridge
In Mare Islands earliest days people and goods got to Mare Island by water. One week after the yard opened two oxen were brought across by boat. Many men rowed their own boats across the strait and made sure when they returned home to take their oars with them so their boats could not be stolen. These small boats were navigational hazards. Many took the ferries. Ferries were owned by private companies and the shipyard. Sometimes tugs or fireboats were put into service when there were problems with a ferry. At one time you could get 42 rides for $1.00. All food had to be brought by boat, either as individual orders from a store downtown or large quantities to be sold in the commissary. This was one of the reasons for keeping the prisoners active and being put to work as farmers to grow food on the island. In the early 1900s trains bringing supplies, such as coal, to MINSY had their cars loaded onto special barges and then the barges were towed across the Napa River. The train cars were put back on the rails on the
Some of the men who built the first, all wood, Mare Island Bridge
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shipyard. However, by 1917 when we entered WWI this method was too slow. How to solve the problem, build a bridge! Building a bridge had been a topic long before. In the 1870s when engineers proposed building a pontoon bridge. As the yard began building bigger ships the need for a bridge became obvious, they needed more supplies. Capt. Harry George repeatedly asked the Navy for funding to build as bridge with no results, but finally the Navy authorized $500,000 for a causeway bridge. Bids opened 17 August 1918 and by the end of the year pile drivers were at work. They needed to span 3000 feet (more than half a mile) and by the spring of 1919 it had reached across the Napa River. The official opening date was 3 July 1919. The bascule bridge was two lane and wooden and had gates which opened for the boats. A year later, in the summer of 1920, the bridge was paved and railroad tracks were added. This caused major traffic jams because one lane of traffic had to be stopped whenever a train crossed the bridge; however, it allowed the shipyard to get more materials at a greater pace. 1 2 The bridge brought big changes to the shipyard. During the first month 2 gallons of alcohol from the paint shop were transported across the bridge and sold to drinkers in San Francisco. No one had planned where they were going to park cars or how to control speed. The commandant, at one point, vowed to close the bridge if cars did not slow down during the afternoon rush. Bikes were another problem. The bike stores In Vallejo sold out within a month of the opening of the bridge. Now there were oodles of civilian bikes. But the shipyard had bikes for employees, for years, 2000 of them... If you needed to go to another office or building you went to the front of your building and either there or within a short distance you could find a bike which you could ride to your destination. How to distinguish what belonged to the Navy and what was personal property? The Navy decided to paint part of their bikes red and no bike with this marking could cross the causeway without a written letter allowing the bike to leave signed by one particular officer on the base. During the Depression the federal government
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Fate of the reactor cores of decommissioned nuclear submarines. http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08600.htm
Mare Island Causeway Bridge #1
Mare Island Causeway Bridge #2, with the distinctive counter weight
established many programs to provide work for the unemployed and to stimulate the economy. One of those programs the WPA, Works Progress Administration, had many employees working on Mare Island and working in construction. They were involved in at least 14 projects, building or modifying structures. One of these was working on Dry Dock #3. More important, however, was their work on the causeway bridge #2 which was all concrete. A dedication ceremony was held on March 13, 1935, ten months after the first pile was driven. The bridge was designed by a naval officer and was three lanes wide which meant traffic did not need to stop for a crossing train as the track was located in the middle lane. This bascule bridge was 4,478 feet long and had a center section which was lifted skyward by a counter weight. This allowed ships to pass. As soon as the new causeway was opened, the old causeway was torn down and the wood was given to the state to give to needy people to use as firewood. Before this bridge had been in use less than twenty years, 8000 cars were crossing itEdaily. A one-way rush hour plan had to be developed; in the morning only those entering could proceed across the bridge and at night only cars leaving. In the intervening years the Mare Island Causeway
Bridge became a topic of much discussion and anger. On the upper Napa River all the bridges had openings that were typically 100 feet high and 140 feet wide. In Napa both Kaiser Aluminum and Basalt Rock were using ocean going barges which were 100 feet in width. They could travel down the Napa River through the bridges until they reached Mare Island where the bridge opening was only 75 feet wide. It created a major bottleneck and much frustration. The argument was that ALL bridges on the Napa River should have the same clearance. Representatives from businesses and government in both Napa and Solano Counties went to the Congressional hearings in Washington to get approval for the building of the bridge. Finally it was passed and money was appropriated. In June 1978 bids were requested for a new causeway The distinct counter weight and narrow opening of Causeway #2
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bridge that would have a 140 foot opening. It was expected to cost $10,000,000 and take two years to build. Now all four bridges on the lower Napa River would have the same clearance. In March 1980 the old bascule bridge was lifted and put on a barge. The piers and piles were removed with small explosive charges. By 28 April the new lift span was in place and the causeway was opened. The official dedication took place on 2 May with the same scissors used to cut the ribbon during the dedication for the 1935 bridge. Ernie (Ernest D.) Wichels was the guest speaker as he was the only person on the shipyard who had witnessed the opening in 1919, 1935 and the new bridge now in 1980. In 1984, at a surprise dedication, a small park was named after Ernie Wichels in the parking lot by the landing for the ferry on Mare Island. More recently, the entire causeway is now named Ernest D Wichels Causeway. Many of you may not be aware that Ernie was the base historian for many, many years. In October 1989 the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred; the causeway was carefully examined and it was determined there was no damage. Even in the midst of the closure, the most joyless time on the shipyard, the bridge was repainted because the paint was about to fail and if the Navy had waited longer it would have required removal of all the paint. Today the City of Vallejo is planning to paint the bridge again. Once it was going to happen in 2016 and now it is supposedly to be painted in 2019.
August 2018
It is the bridge that anyone who now lives, studies, visits, works or volunteers on Mare Island has to use on a daily basis. Frustrating as it is to have to wait while a small boat goes through the opening; it is still for many of us the most direct and fastest route to where we are going. Thankfully we do not have to use the North Gate which is on Highway 37 and where the traffic is often standing still on the Wilson Avenue Bridge in the morning. Three bridges built in almost one hundred years, and the last one in seemingly good shape though looking a bit weather worn; not a bad record!
Visitors
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A very active quarter! We have had visitors from 33 states, a U.S. territory, and 12 foreign countries. . Visitors came from the following states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Guam, the U.S. Territory. Oh! and Washington, D.C. Visitors came from the following countries: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Korea, the Philippines, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom
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does one tell that on a male with his cap on?) Women should never have extreme hairstyles, nail polish or make-up. When the service member is in civilian clothes they may dress as they please, but it should always be in good taste. Does that mean torn jeans are acceptable or not? Dating is also discussed. At the academy females may date plebes or civilians, but she may NEVER date an upper classmen. If a date comes for a weekend for a dance, they should be sure to have suitable clothes for church which for the female should be a daytime dress, but no hat or gloves; for the men, a suit and tie is required. High heels are not recommended for female dates as there is much walking on the campus at the academy. Fortunately when attending a reception, you no longer have to leave a name card. At parties food is not offered until one is offered a drink( not water!) Napkins are always used and should be handed to you by the waiter or you may find them on the table. Unfortunately calling cards have not disappeared. When you visit a senior officer, you should leave two officer calling cards and one Mrs./(Mr.?) calling card. Should that officer’s mother live there or be visiting and you are introduced, then three officer cards are left and two Mrs. You also leave that amount of cards if you are introduced to other members of the family such as the father, daughter or…?. There is a required size and format for the cards. See if you can figure out what these rules really mean. Cards for male officers were to be 3 1/8 x1 5/8 ; single women officers 2 7/8 x 2 and married female officers 3 ¼ x2 1/4. Are they
(Left) The Navy Wife, from the 1940s. (Right) Service Etiquette, 5th Edition, published Aug. 15, 2013!
Proper Manners!??
When the library first opened seven years ago some of the first acquisitions were a number of books from the 1940s for the Navy wife and how to properly behave in social situations. These books were entitled The Navy Wife: What she should know about the customs of
the Service and the management of a Navy household. It was accepted that the book was typical
of the lifestyle at the time. We thought those rigid rules had disappeared, but… Recently another book was donated with a copyright of 1977 and still in use at least through the 1980s. This one is entitled Service Etiquette and it not only applies to the wife and her management of the household, but also to the spouse (notice I did not say wife) because it also refers to women officers and enlisted and it is much more detailed than the original books. One of the first behaviors it covers is “Form of Address.” This tells you that the Admiral is always referred to as admiral, even when using his name. Medical officers in the rank of CMDR and above are to be addressed with their rank. Medical officers in the ranks below commander are addressed as doctor. On board ship the captain of a ship, regardless of his rank, is always addressed as Captain. Women officers are treated exactly as males, except when below the rank of commander she is always addressed as Ms., regardless of her marital status. It is also important when you introduce someone as captain that you say Captain, United States Navy, as the naval rank is equivalent to colonel in the other services, not the lowly rank equivalent to lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. In uniform you should be sure all parts of the uniform are clean and hair is well cut and shampooed. (How
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Sir, why was your daughter half sitting and half standing when you introduced us? Well, has anyone ever told you that you have boyish looks but act older than your age?
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Farragut’s Press different sizes to indicate marital status- not for males. Does it indicate importance? Highly questionable because the female married officer had the largest card. It’s your guess! Perhaps even more frustrating is that there were rules where the name and service had to be placed and if your name was followed by Jr., it had to be written in full;-Junior. Eight pages followed with examples of cards. Enough information about calling cards to put one to sleep! Another topic was introducing people. A man was always presented to a woman-“Ms. White may I present Commander Jones;” men were always to rise if seated and wait for the woman to offer her hand. It gets even more complicated! A woman does not rise if she is presented to someone her age or younger but must stand for someone older than she. Could you always tell or know if someone was older? For dinner parties one should plan on at least two courses, an entrée and dessert, however, preferred is a three course meal with soup or salad, main dish and dessert. At dinners where salad is served, it comes after the main course which should have meat and vegetables. Coffee should always be served after dinner. Cigarettes should also be offered at a formal dinner and individual ashtrays are often made available. And at the end of the chapter were lists of rules for informal, formal and VERY formal dinners. Then there is a whole chapter on luncheons and lighter repasts, setting the table, seating plans and precedence, rules of serving at the table; duties of the host and hostess; good table manners and proper toasts. And that is only HALF of the book.
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Lash me to the mast and Damn the Torpedoes People!! Mare Island Museum Wants… NAY!! NEEDS!! YOU!!
Wanted! NEEDED!
Preserving the history of Mare Island
Mare Island Museum Hours
Monday through Friday 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Every Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Closed Sundays
Tel: (707) 557-4646 Shipyard tours by appointment, please call: (707) 664-4746 or (707) 280-5742
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Do you like parties? How about wedding receptions? Perhaps you once worked in a store and really enjoy greeting people and making sales. Do you have a special attachment to the chapel? Or, like some of us, you are a history buff who loves reading about one historical event which then piques your interest in a different historical event. Or you just like people and enjoy hearing their stories. Or, better yet, you are good with a hammer or wrench, or you like electrical work or computers. If you have any of the above mentioned characteristics Mare Island Museum wants and needs YOU! We are, like so many museums and historical sites, in need of volunteers. If you like parties, perhaps you would enjoy being a docent at a reception or a party in the admiral’s mansion where one of the benefits is a free meal, and it may be quite good! You are needed to help keep things on an even keel, make sure they do not steal the silver (actually there is none in the house) and ensure they clean up and are out of the premises on time. Men may volunteer for this job also! If you are the sales person or like greeting people we are desperately in need of a volunteer who can work Saturdays which is our busiest day in the museum. A warm greeting is an excellent way to start a tour and, if you are willing, we can also train you how to do a brief
Farragut’s Press orientation to the museum. And between times you are that excellent salesperson in our gift shop. Benefits are free Diet Coke or bottled water! Every Wednesday we have a “work crew” in the museum, many of them former Mare Island employees or retired Navy, and these guys do all kinds of jobs: building, repairing, cleaning out junk (in our opinion) and then having a garage sale where our junk becomes another one’s treasure. If you are capable of doing anything above mentioned, or not mentioned, we need you. A benefit, they take a long lunch hour, eat at a restaurant and solve the problems of the world (or at least some of the museum’s problems.) Really like the chapel? There is a cleaning crew of volunteers there on the first Thursday of every month to do a good cleaning so the chapel is pristine for weddings, events or tours. You are needed there to assist in the cleaning and preservation of the chapel’s interior. Benefit-they always go to lunch after they have finished and you get to enjoy the beautiful Tiffany stained glass windows on a regular basis And the history buff- you are needed to become a tour guide. You will learn lots about Mare Island which you never knew and that leads you to want to find out more about some related topic. You accompany our trained tour guides to see how they present the information and when you are ready you will do one section of the tour, perhaps the mansion. You will add other sections as you are comfortable with the information. And the learning never stops. Today two tour guides, one with 14 years doing tours, and the other close to five, were discussing new information on the caissons on the dry docks which neither knew. The benefit here is being around people who are as interested in history as you are and sharing stories and information and always candy to snack on and occasionally something better to eat. All jobs are open to men and women. Training is provided for all these volunteer positions. You will work with trained volunteers until you feel comfortable enough to do it on your own. If you are interested please contact the museum at (707) 557 4646 during museum hours or (707) 280 5742. Or come into the museum and meet some of the people with whom you will be training. Museum hours are Monday through Friday (10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) and every Saturday (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.). We can send applications via an email address, if necessary. And be assured you are wanted and NEEDED.
August 2018
One of the 25 plus Tiffany stained-glass windows found at the Mare Island’s St. Peter’s Chapel, the largest collection of Tiffany stained-glass west of the Mississippi. This is one of the priceless perks of volunteering at the Mare Island Museum!
Christmas Concert
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The annual Christmas concert at St. Peter’s Chapel will be held on December 2, 2018, at 2:00 p.m. The Vallejo Choral Society, which has been singing at the concert for many years, will again be performing this year. And as usual there will be sing-a-long songs to help get us all into the Christmas spirit. Tickets will still be $15.00 each and will go on sale on 1 November at the museum, the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum and Visit Vallejo. You can also call the museum at (707) 557 4646 with a credit card to pay for your ticket and the ticket will be available at Will Call at the chapel on the day of the concert. And remember this concert is always sold out, so you might want to get your tickets early. Following the concert there will be a reception in the museum with light refreshments as is usually held.
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Navy blimp L-8 (left) in flight and (right) in mysterious disaster. She was crewed by Lt. JG Ernest Cody (inset left) and Ensign Charles Adams (inset right)
Navy Ghost Stories
It’s almost Fall and Halloween is a great time for eerie tales and paranormal events. Here are a few from naval history. In August 1942 a Navy blimp, L-8, was sent to the Farallon Islands to look for possible Japanese submarines approaching the West Coast. It was crewed by Ernest Cody and Charles Adams who reported they saw an oil spill and would be investigating it. At about 1030 hours a Pan Am plane saw the blimp and it appeared to be on course. At 1200 hours people on a beach near Daly City watched the blimp crash into some rocks along the shore before heading back up into the sky. L-8 would finally come down just a short distance away in a residential part of the city. When rescuers rushed to the scene of the incident, they discovered the cockpit was empty. There was no sign of either Cody or Adams anywhere. Investigation proved that all equipment was in working order, the radio was operating and parachutes and life rafts were in place. However, two life vests were missing, though these were commonly worn when a mission was over water. No remains of the men were located. Theories included the supposition that the two men fought and they fell out an open door. Another theory was that they had been captured by the enemy. Some even proposed that UFOs had been involved. The men were never found. The blimp was repaired and was operational until1982 though not used for military purposes. The mystery of
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the men has never been solved. The USS Hornet, now berthed in Alameda is considered to be the most haunted ship in the Navy. She was very active during WWII and destroyed 1410 enemy aircraft, damaged over a million tons of shipping and helped in the sinking of the battleship Yamato. During her military service it is believed that 300 men died on the ship, most probably not from combat events. She also recovered the Astronauts from Apollo missions 11 and 12. Visitors who have visited the ship have reported many strange occurrences such as doors opening or closing, things moving across the floor and spectral sailors walking through the ship. An electrician working on the ship in 1995 reported that his whole crew was bunked and no one else was on the ship. All of a sudden they heard loud noises like someone closing the hatches. The supervisor of the crew came to the area and asked who was sneaking around and closing the hatches. But the entire electrical crew was all in the bunking area. In 2013 the educational manager retold a story to a reporter about the day she was sitting in her office and it suddenly got very cold. She saw a man in a blue uniform who was clear as day and looked normal except he never made eye contact and was sort of slow moving. And then she saw him walk through the bulkhead. The Hornet museum now offers special evening tours that talk about these unusual experiences and offer the prospect of having such an experience.
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USS Hornet (CV-12) as she stands today. A floating museum to her career as a ship of war and in support of the American space missions. And yes, haunted night tours of the “most haunted ship of the Navy” can be found at the USS Hornet Museum website: www.uss-hornet.org
The Nautilus, the submarine which sailed under the North Pole, was decommissioned at MINSY in 1980 and then underwent an overhaul here before she was towed to Groton to become a museum, was like most submarines which had constant noise from fans and turbines which made the sound of footsteps very rare. Now as a museum there are sounds of footsteps where there should be none, the banging of doors and lockers with no one there, unexplained sounds over the telephones and even, once, an apparition of a figure carrying a light. The crew that now keeps watches over the submarine has named the apparition Herb. We all know there are no ghosts, but it is reassuring to know that in addition to the crew and staff responsible for Nautilus, there is an extra person named Herb watching out for the boat. The final haunted ship in this story is the USS Constellation which was built in 1854, the last of the “sail only” warships. She remained in service for nearly a century and was decommissioned in 1953. She is now docked in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. There were quite a few deaths on her and one really grisly death. A sailor was found guilty of treason and was tied to the front of a cannon which was then fired and sent him to a watery grave. During reconstruction workers reported hearing sounds of a man crying and then a cannon being fired. They also saw a man in a Civil War uniform. Both of these are thought to be connected to the treasonous sailor. A friendly ghost, thought to be a captain, has led tours around the ship and the visitors thought they were being led by a docent. In 1955 the USS Pike was moored next to the Constellation and reported seeing apparitions, lights and hearing strange noises. . An officer on the Pike is said to have taken a picture of an apparition dressed in
18th century clothes, wearing a cocked hat and carrying a sword. The apparition was described s having a glowing radiance. Book a tour on the Constellation and you can decide whether or not she is haunted! BOOOooooo! Happy Halloween!
USS Constellation: As seen in 1914 (top), as seen present day, in Baltimore, MD (center), as seen in Star Date 4202.1, commanded by Commodore Decker
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Farragut’s Press Coming Events
August 2018
Christmas Concert
2 Dec, 2018 2:00 P.M. Start, St. Peter’s Chapel Tickets on sale beginning 1st Nov, 2018 Please contact Mare Island Museum (707) 557-4646 for questions and ticket sales. Please have a credit card available for ordering tickets by phone
Reunion Code 950
8 Sept, 2018 11:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M., MI Museum POC: Tom Watson, (707) 507-5259
Reunion Shop 31
29 Sept, 2018 11:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M., MI Museum POC: Sam Shoults, (707) 255-9402
For further information on any of these events contact the museum at mihp46@att.net or call (707) 557-4646
Design Reunion
6 Nov, 2018 10:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M., MI Museum POC: Jim Holland, (707) 224-8593
Corporate Members of Mare Island Museum We like to thank the following corporate members for supporting the mission of the Mare Island Museum:
Nautilus Data Technologies Petroleum Wine Consulting Savage & Cooke Society of Architectural Historians Touro University United Site Services Weston Solutions
Abrasive Blasting and Coating, Inc Association of Marine Underwriters Boyz Garage, Inc. CS Marine Constructors Inc. Davillier-Sloan Department 66 Enclos Factory_OS, Inc. Lennar Mare Island Mare Island Brewing Co. Mare Island Dry Dock, LLC
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