Berkeley

Berkeley was one of several ferryboats of the Southern Pacific Railroad that for sixty years operated on San Francisco Bay between the Oakland Pier and the San Francisco Ferry Building. Built in 1898 by the Union Iron Works of San Francisco, she served after the 1906 earthquake, ferrying refugees across the bay to Oakland.

Berkeley was in regular service beginning in 1898. On October 3, 1900, Berkeley was leaving her dock in San Francisco, when she collided with the coastal passenger liner SS Columbia. Due to a misunderstanding of signals, Captain Blaker of Berkeley thought that his ship would be able to pass in front of Columbia while the larger liner was travelling forward at a slow speed towards her dock.