USAT General Frank M. Coxe

Design and construction

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. It was designed by the New York firm of Cox & Stevens, 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 of Charleston, West Virginia, located on the Kanawha River, a firm which specialized in shallow draft vessels such as ferries, riverboats, and tugs. (The Hyde was sunk by Japanese artillery at Corregidor on April 15, 1942, during World War II.)

Military use

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.

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.

Alcatraz prison break

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. 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

With the outbreak of World War II, Angel Island became a critical processing center for US troops heading to the Pacific theater of battle. The 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. However, 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. By 1947 the Coxe was obsolete and was decommissioned.

Tour ferry

After her military service the Coxe was bought by the Golden Gate Scenic Steamship Line, which now operate the Red & White Fleet 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

After retiring as an active vessel, the Coxe was converted to a floating restaurant called the Showboat in Stockton, California. 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.

Current use

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.

The new owners obtained an extended lease from the City of Burlingame and renovated the vessel. 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.

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.