Bay Crossings sits down with Maggie McDonough, owner/proprietor of the Angel Island Ferry
Bay Crossings recently sat down with Captain Maggie McDonogh, Owner/Proprietor of the Angel Island Ferry Company.
Published: November, 2000
What’s it like running the Angel Island Ferry? Walk us through an average day.
On an average day, we’re dealing with several hundred people, all with a variety of needs and interests going to and from island. We’re also dealing with the boats, how to maintain them and keep them looking nice. And our basic thrust regularly is serving the people however they want to be served. We just want to make everyone feel happy and welcomed and want to return to us.
How many boats do you have?
We have three boats. They vary in size from our smallest, the Bonita, which carries 118. She was a water taxi that was built in San Diego, shipped over and used on Lake Mead and we had her trucked up about four years ago. She’s been an excellent addition for us. She replaced the Herron, which was an old Mare Island ferry, which in turn had replaced dad’s first boat, the Gaycin, which was his original boat that carried 50 people. The big boat that we have was built and launched in Stockton in 1974 and she carries 400 people. She’s the one that we mainly use in the peak season to and from Angel Island as well as the one we use for the sunset cruise. And then our newest one is the Tamalpais, which we purchased up in Seattle and brought down from Alaska Cruise Lines. She’s more of a luxury yacht, and people really seem to like her. We use her for historic cruises and corporate parties and charters and things like that.
So you drive the boat yourself to Angel Island?
That’s correct. I drive all three of them.
How long a run is it out there to Angel Island?
It’s about ten to fifteen minutes and the round trip fare, which includes State Park entrance fee, is $5.50 for adults and $4.25 for children ages 5-11 and an additional dollar for bicycles. We operate year round, though of course in summer and the peak season we run a lot more frequently. When we get into the fall and the off-season, we run mostly for groups on the weekdays and we do offer regular service on the weekend.
So is this a growth business? Are you planning an IPO any time soon?
Well, we are growing, particularly with our charters and narrative tours that I do with the Tamalpias. We’re also considering doing an environmental program where we’re going to have school children come to the boat and take them out to where they can actually handle bay animals and release them. I wouldn’t say we’re growing at an outstanding rate but it is a nice continuous upswing.
Tell the story of the McDonogh family the Angel Island Ferry.
Well I’ll tell you as best I can. My father tells it better than I do. Basically, my great grandfather came to California and was hunting ducks out on McDonogh Island near Petaluma and going down into San Francisco and selling them to the poultry markets. And he came down here to Tiburon when the railroad came in. I guess that must’ve been in the late 1800’s. He opened Sam’s Boarding House and Clam Chowder House, which is directly behind our current location on the dock. And he catered to the railroad workers and the local residents. At that time, Tiburon was a very, very lively place. He had seven children and one of them was Sam McDonogh, which was my grandfather who, in turn, met and married Lillian Williamson.
The Williamson family owned Williamson’s Garage, right next door to us down here, which is now the new Water’s Edge Inn. They had a little business down here renting out fishing skiffs to the tourists that would come in from San Francisco. So for 25 cents, you would a full bucket of bait and rod and reel and the whole thing. Grandpa would tow you out and take you fishing and move you from spot to spot. I guess Grandpa was transporting some convicts and the boat broke down so Grandma had to go out with Dad, who was then 7 years old, and tow them all in. Grandpa was known as Sammy The Skiffman by the people on the Island. He also ran the launch boats that went in between the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge when that was being constructed. I believe a man by the name of Johnny Blackfoot ran the boat at that time and Dad always talked about being very vexed about it because he was too young to run the boat and he really wanted to do that. At any rate, Grandpa passed away unfortunately quite young, which left my father and his brother and Grandpa. Dad did a whole variety of things on the Bay – running tugs, running dredges. He worked as a civilian for the Army in the War, running tows that carried airplanes up to the Delta. And after doing all these things, Dad came back when the State Park System opened Angel Island and he built the Gaycin, retrofitted it. On his first day, he made $7.00. He was charging then…I believe it was 50 cents round trip. He also was the first person to start the Elephant Tour, which is now the Tram Tour on the Island. My Uncle Charlie used to run it around the Island and tell all sorts of silly jokes as he went.
In 1974, he had the Angel Island built. Dad had the blueprints for the first jet cat on San Francisco Bay but he decided he didn’t want to do that so he opted for a more utilitarian vessel which is the Angel Island. He originally wanted for her to be a front-loader so he could just pull over to the beach and flop the front end down but that never came to be. But we did keep her flat bottomed in case he was doing Delta tours because he figured the less drag you had when you’re operating up in the Delta, the better it probably is. And that went along and as I grew up, Dad brought me into the business and taught me to run boats and now my son, who’s 5 1/2, tells me how to run boats. It’s funny how those things work.
Have you done anything but work at the Angel Island Ferry?
No, I haven’t. I went to school to become an English major. And apparently now I can come to work and run ferry boats and I have very good punctuation and spelling for the most part.
Tiburon’s become a pretty swank place since the McDonogh’s settled there. Has gentrification helped or hurt your business?
That might be a better question posed to my father but I have to say that we have always been supported by the people here in town and we get an amazing number of people who ride the boat from Tiburon all the time so I would say it’s probably helped us all the way along. I don’t really think it’s had that huge of an effect on us.
See, to me it’s more of a passing, a watching old familiar faces either pass away or move out of town. The changes that I have seen, the new people: they’re just as nice as the people that were here before. They’re just different. ya’ know.
Finally, Maggie, you’re aware of plans for expanded ferry service and the creation of the new San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit authority. What does this mean to you? What do you think of it?
I think it’s a good idea. I think it’s a vast, huge idea. And it’s going to be really interesting to see how it unfolds and I certainly want to be a part of it. I think it’s something that’s going to benefit the Bay Area as a whole. I really do.
