Interview with Captain Shirley Knowles

By Mary Swift-Swan

Born on a farm in Maryville, Missouri, Shirley’s family moved to Colorado when she was just five years old. Shirley Kohlwes moved to San Francisco in 1960 after graduating from college. She learned to sail on the Bay in a Rhodes 19 out of Sausalito. She later owned a beautiful 47’ steel yawl, which she loved. She crewed on yacht deliveries between San Diego and Seattle just for fun. Boating was an avocation which eventually became a vocation. In her early 30’s, after a 16-year marriage, she needed to support her two young boys. Someone said to her, “Why don’t you get your license? You have enough sea time.” She went to the local licensing school, studied for her license, sat for it, and passed it. Her first issue was a small tonnage.

With her new license in hand, she made the rounds to Golden Gate and Crowley’s Red and White fleets. The Operations Manager at Crowley told her she needed 90 days aboard vessels of the size she wanted to run to upgrade her license to drive them. She went to the union hall. She sat there each morning until she got a dispatch as a deckhand. She was finally dispatched to Red and White. The Operations Manager asked, “Did you bring your license?” When she explained she was there as a deckhand, he asked her to bring her license next time. It took a month before she was again dispatched to Red and White. She took her license along and they gave her wheelhouse time. The Operations Manager liked what he heard about her performance. He offered Shirley a unique opportunity to come back as an observer in the wheelhouse. She rode for 90 days straight. The Operations Manager went along and vouched for her at the Coast Guard office, and they upgraded her license. She was hired the next day.

Captain Shirley began the rotations with Crowley at the bottom of the list as a Captain. She became one of the regular drivers of water taxis. Water taxis took crews and stores back and forth to the ships. She started out on the graveyard shift, starting at the bottom of the Captain’s list. She said, “It was several months before anyone I transported spoke to me. Finally, a Tug Captain accompanied by a Bar Pilot I was taking to their vessels, said, ‘May I introduce you to my Captain?’ I have had a soft spot in my heart for those two individuals ever since, because they said hello.” She chuckled in reflection. “I continued to run a water taxis for a few more years. One aspect that was a real thrill was taking the first women graduates from Cal Maritime to their ships to begin their careers. Finally, when I worked up to driving ferries, I asked one of my deckhands, ‘You know I’d like to meet some of the other women captains on the Bay. Is there an organization or place were all the women gather?’ He laughed at me and said, ‘Don’t you know? You are the only one on the Bay.’”

After a driving ferries for a few years, Shirley learned that the Operations Manager position was opening up. Having a strong business background, she prepared her resume and kept it in her briefcase. One day, the VP of Operations took a ride. She gave it to him. He was pleased with how she handled the ride, and passed that along to the General Manager. Within a week, Shirley became the new Operations Manager. She held that position for ten years, then took an early retirement at 55 in the mid 1990s.

Captain Shirley was in charge when the1989 earthquake rocked the Bay. She had just read the State plan for earthquakes. Dealing with the real thing was so far beyond the realm of imagination, the State plan was not very helpful. “We moved thousands of people out of the City that night. We kept running until there were no more people who needed to leave the City.” She was in charge when all the regulations were waived. “In two weeks, we built five new ferry terminals around the Bay. It was amazing, the level of cooperation we had to make that possible. Putting down brows, driving piles, putting in sewage lines, lighting everything. They weren’t beautiful, but we had them built in two weeks. Emergency situations call for extraordinary deeds. It just amazed me how quickly and smoothly things moved when the need was there. It was an amazing time.”

In her tenure as the Operations Manager, she hired and worked with a number of graduates from the Cal Maritime Academy. She spoke at the school, particularly to mentor the young women interested in working on the waterfront. She was duly impressed with the school and the caliber of the students. When Captain Shirley retired from Ferry Operations, she joined the California Maritime Academy as the first director of Career Development. She is still in that position today.
Since Captain Shirley arrived at CMA there has been 100 percent placement for all graduates. She brings leaders from a variety of marine businesses to Career Days and other events to help students learn what is available to them. “CMA students are highly sought after. There are just over 100 students in each graduating class. Not all who want to hire graduates are able to do so.” She qualified that it is not automatic. Cal Maritime is not for everyone. It is a linear program requiring long hours. Most students maintain 18 to 27 units. She explained, “In addition, students in the summer go to sea for two months each year to gain real hands-on experience. Those who make it, get their own jobs. I simply help them find the best opportunities.” Now that the college is growing, Shirley may no longer be able to work directly with the growing number of students.

Anticipating new demands and student needs, she is putting up a comprehensive website for easy access where jobs, co-op, and intern opportunities can be posted by employers.

When asked what has really stayed with her from a lifetime of working on the waterfront, she said, “It’s the people. They have always been kind to me. I think of them like farmers. Real people who work in the elements.” Shirley was the first woman president of a Rotary Club in San Francisco. Two awards that quickly came to mind were the Maritime Woman of the Year award, given by the Propeller Club of the Golden Gate, and later, the Big Wheel award for Maritime Contributions. She’s even had the pleasure of driving movie stars out to film Escape from Alcatraz. “There are many fun experiences I hold dear,” she reflected.

Captain Shirley then relayed a conversation that took place recently at a baby shower for a CMA graduate. She said, “I think I was the only gray hair at the shower. One young woman told me she was working for West Star, running the Hawk. That was the first boat I drove. I knew then I’d come full circle. Now there are those women out there I wanted to talk to when I started 30 years ago. It’s taken a while, but now women are on the waterfront. Good women that are well trained and very capable professionals. I’ve had a good life doing a lot and enjoying what I’ve done while I was doing it. I enjoyed taking my two boys to Little League when they were growing up, because my favorite job has always been being a mother and now a grandmother. Those are the important things. Maritime is how I make my living. It has been good to me and I’ve been good to it. Hopefully, I’ve touched a few lives. That is all we can really hope for.”