Nostalgia & History > Looking for info on 1945 SF Bay Area self-propelled car ferry

Hi all,

I am looking for info on 2 self-propelled car farries built in 1945 by my great grandfather Walter W. Johnson's company, the Walter W. Johnson Company.  

They were built for the Navy to use loading ammunition at Port Chicago and connected the Northwestern Pacific line in Tiburon.  Each ferry held 8 cars and were propelled by 6 sea mule motors, and contained a galley and living quarters for its crew of 23.  

Specs, photos, any additional info would be great.  I am also looking for information on the Bay Engineering Company that helped design the floats.

See:
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-herald-walter-w-johnson-build/184250280/



 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/25 17:24 by skyking.

Here's a clipping of the article. Great subject! I never get tired of car float stuff. 

Thanks for sharing this with us.  

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Was it public opinion that got them to do this
after the Port Chicago explosion?
 

timz Wrote:
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> Was it public opinion that got them to do this
> after the Port Chicago explosion?
>  

I bet it was more about capacity. Contemporaneous with this article the Army was busy planning a huge construction project to build a kind of Port Chicago facility in Marin. Ammunition storage would be up in Ignacio in Novato across 101 from Ignacio yard on the NWP, with an overpass to be built to carry the highway over the lead into the base. The rail-to-ship transload was going to be on the east side of the Tiburon peninsula, accessed via a lead from Meadowsweet (San Clemente). The impetus for this was capacity to support the invasion of the Japanese home islands. Project terminated pretty much right after the Empire of Japan surrendered. 

 

"Northwestern" Pacific to be exact... great article!

Fixed - thanks for catching that!