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USAT General Frank M. Coxe

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Coordinates: 37°35′30″N 122°20′18″W / 37.591677°N 122.338267°W / 37.591677; -122.338267
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History
United States
NameGeneral Frank M. Coxe
BuilderCharles Ward Engineering Works, Charleston, West Virginia[1]
Laid down16 July 1921[1]
Launched3 March 1922[1]
Acquireddelivered 1 December 1922[2]
Decommissioned1947
FateSold and became a harbor tour boat and finally a floating restaurant, scrapped 2020
General characteristics
TypeTroop ferry
Tonnage
Displacement900 long tons (914 t)
Length144 ft (44 m) (LBP)[1]
Beam28 ft (8.5 m)[1]
Depth9 ft (2.7 m)[1]
Propulsion2 Ward water tube boilers[1]

The General Frank M. Coxe was a steam ferry which was built for the United States Army to provide transportation services among several military facilities that ring California's San Francisco Bay. The Army port facilities, including the vessels, throughout the bay were under the command of the San Francisco Port of Embarkation from its establishment in May 1932 through World War II and the Korean War.

The 144-foot (44 m) ship's keel was laid on July 16, 1921, launched March 3, 1922, and delivered December 1, 1922, to the War Department by Charles Ward Engineering Works.[1][2] Coxe and sister-ship USAT General John McE. Hyde were designed and built shortly after World War I to ferry army personnel to island bases in strategic harbors, in answer to the increasing military importance of the Pacific ports.

Prior to the availability of the current system of bridges and highways in San Francisco Bay, mobility on the water was critical. It is estimated that the General Frank M. Coxe carried six million passengers during her military service.[3]

Design and construction

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The Coxe was not a navy ship; it was among the thousands of vessels owned and operated by the US Army for specific logistical purposes.[4] It was designed by the New York firm of Cox & Stevens,[5] who were renowned Naval Architects specializing in yachts and small commercial and military craft. The Coxe was built in 1922, along with the General John McE. Hyde (built 1921), to Cox & Stevens design #244 by Charles Ward Engineering Works[5] of Charleston, West Virginia,[6] located on the Kanawha River, a firm which specialized in shallow draft vessels such as ferries, riverboats, and tugs.[7] (The Hyde was sunk by Japanese artillery at Corregidor[8][9] on April 15, 1942, during World War II.)

History

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Military use

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The Coxe was an active military vessel on San Francisco Bay from the 1922 to 1947, being decommissioned and sold for surplus in 1947 after the end of World War II.[4]

Prior to the building of the Golden Gate and Bay bridges in the mid-1930s, ground transportation in the Bay Area was hampered by the Bay and the rivers which bisected the region from San Jose to the Sacramento River Delta. However, this region was heavily populated by the Army personnel who garrisoned and maintained the ring of fortresses and ancillary facilities from Fort Point and Fort Cronkite at the mouth of the Bay, to the Benicia Arsenal at the mouth of the Delta. There were two island fortresses: Fort McDowell (Angel Island) and Alcatraz, with each of these becoming special purpose facilities by the time of the Coxe.

By the 1920s, Angel Island and Alcatraz were considered obsolete as artillery positions, with their purposes supplanted by larger coastal guns and extensive electronic mines as the primary coastal defenses. As aircraft developed, these also became irrelevant. Angel Island developed as a processing center for inductees and recruits, and Alcatraz developed into a maximum security military prison. The Coxe provided a regular service between Fort Mason, on the north coast of the San Francisco peninsula, and Fort McDowell on Angel Island, with periodic stops at Alcatraz. The Alcatraz service continued after the Army relinquished control to the Federal Prison Bureau in the mid-1930s.[10]

Alcatraz prison break

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The Coxe prior to restoration, with a dummy paddle wheel constructed on the port side

Alcatraz Prison almost lost one of its boarders when John K. Giles, aged 50, a mail robber and four-time convict, stole an army uniform from the prison laundry and jumped aboard the Coxe just before she departed for Angel Island. Although a count of both the soldiers on the Coxe and the prisoners working on the docks alerted the authorities to an escape, an error in communication and forged documents allowed Giles to land at Fort McDowell. However, a discrepancy in his uniform brought him to the attention of an officer, who then recognized his forged documents and arrested him not knowing of the prison break. Giles was returned to Alcatraz to serve-out his sentence.[10] There was some controversy over whether this constituted a successful escape and a recapture, or a foiled plan. Officially, Alcatraz retained its perfect record as "escape proof" until it closed in the mid-1960s, since it was assumed that all other missing prisoners had drowned.

World War II

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Fort McDowell, after 1932 a facility of the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, became a critical processing center of the for US troops heading to the Pacific theater of battle with U.S. entry into World War II.[11][12] The early troop processing was substantially divided between Fort McDowell and Fort Mason, and despite the new bridges and highways, ships and ferries were the only connection between the locations. During World War II, the Coxe made as many as eight scheduled trips per day between Fort McDowell and Fort Mason.[13] After activation in May 1942 of Camp Stoneman, the largest troop staging area on the west coast, Fort McDowell continued as a center for processing unassigned enlisted personnel and prisoner of war camp.[12][14] After satisfying the exigencies of the war, Fort McDowell was eventually phased-out after World War II, and was closed as a processing center prior to the Korean War.[15] By 1947 the Coxe was obsolete and was decommissioned.[13]

Post military use

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Tour ferry

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After her military service the Coxe was bought by the Golden Gate Scenic Steamship Line,[16] which now operate the Red & White Fleet[17] of ferry and tour boats on San Francisco Bay. The Coxe operated as the SS Frank M. Coxe as a local cruise ship and tour ferry until the 1950s.

Restaurant

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Moored in Burlingame, California (2009)

After retiring as an active vessel, the Coxe was converted to a floating restaurant called the Showboat in Stockton, California.[18] The restaurant went through several leases and was operated under several names in various locations. At one point it was a dance club catering to the “under 21” patrons. In the 1960s and 1970s it was berthed at Jack London Square in Oakland, California, and then moved to Burlingame, California and operated as the Pattaya Princess, a Thai restaurant, in the 1970s and 1980s, closing in 1990.[19]

Current use

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From the closing of the Pattaya Princess until 2006, the General Frank M. Coxe was a vacant hulk, until local restaurateurs bought the ship from Mr. Robert Sherman, where it remained berthed in San Francisco Bay in Burlingame, California, just south of San Francisco International Airport.[19]

The new owners obtained an extended lease from the City of Burlingame and renovated the vessel.[20] The name of the vessel was changed from the General Frank M. Coxe to The Sherman in honor of the previous owner, and then was operated as a restaurant of that name.[19]

In 2008, the owner had taken out a loan to repair her, but the loan defaulted and The Sherman went into foreclosure. The State Lands Commission, who owns the land The Sherman rested upon, asked for the vessel to be moved. On Sunday, June 15, 2014, The Sherman/Coxe was removed from her location in Burlingame and towed to the Stockton Marina.[21]

The Sherman was towed to Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, CA and broken up for scrap. The work was completed on January 10, 2020.

References

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Notes
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Pacific Marine Review (1922). "The Charles Ward Engineering Works, Charleston, West Virginia". Consolidated 1922 issues (November 1922). 'Official Organ: Pacific American Steamship Association/Shipowners' Association of the Pacific Coast: 651. Retrieved 27 August 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ a b Pacific Marine Review (1923). "American Shipbuilding—Deliveries". Consolidated 1923 issues (January 1923). 'Official Organ: Pacific American Steamship Association/Shipowners' Association of the Pacific Coast: 61. Retrieved 27 August 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ Angel Island, Branwell Fanning and William Wong, Arcadia Publishing, 2006 ISBN 978-0-7385-4719-0, pg 28
  4. ^ a b Aaron Kinney (2007) Steamboat reopens as restaurant, Oakland Tribune, Dec 4, 2007
  5. ^ a b Daniel S. Gregory Ships Plans Library Archived 2008-03-20 at the Wayback Machine, Coll. 34, Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc.
  6. ^ Location of Charles Ward Engineering Works, US Coast Guard records
  7. ^ Description of Charles Ward Engineering, West Virginia State Archives.
  8. ^ U.S. Army ships and Watercraft of World War II by David H. Grover (page 75); Published: Annapolis, Md. by the Naval Institute Press, 1987 (ISBN 0870217666).
  9. ^ "MOBILE" Battery “M” 60th coast artillery (a.a.) by Lt. Col. E. L. Barr - describes the sinking of the Hyde
  10. ^ a b Report of the Warden, United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, California. Excerpted from Federal Offenders: 1934-35
  11. ^ Clay, Steven E. (2011). U. S. Army Order Of Battle 1919–1941 (PDF). Volume 4. The Services: Quartermaster, Medical, Military Police, Signal Corps, Chemical Warfare, And Miscellaneous Organizations, 1919–41. Vol. 4. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press. p. 2126. ISBN 9780984190140. LCCN 2010022326. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  12. ^ a b Soennichsen, John (10 August 2017). "Fort McDowell". California State Military Museums, California Military History Online. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  13. ^ a b General Frank M. Coxe (vessel), California History Magazine, Volume 66, page 37, published by California Historical Society
  14. ^ Johnson, Danny (LTC (Ret)) (10 August 2017). "Camp Stoneman". California State Military Museums, California Military History Online. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  15. ^ Angel Island Emigration Station, National Park Service. Description of operation and closure of Ft. McDowell.
  16. ^ Golden Gate Scenic Steamship Line brochure, published 1949.
  17. ^ Agenda of the San Francisco Port commission, December 17, 2002 - Golden Gate Scenic Steamship Corporation operates the Red & White Fleet.
  18. ^ General Frank M. Coxe (vessel), California History Magazine Volume 66, page 37 published by California Historical Society
  19. ^ a b c Kinney, Aaron (2007-12-01). "1920s steamship ready to reopen as restaurant". San Mateo County Times.
  20. ^ Site Description - Lease extension documented by county records Feb 9, 2006
  21. ^ San Mateo Daily Journal June 17, 2014 - Steamship Sherman sets sail: Historic Burlingame ship had become ‘dilapidated,’ mayor says
Bibliography

37°35′30″N 122°20′18″W / 37.591677°N 122.338267°W / 37.591677; -122.338267

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