Melrose

The MELROSE was a double-ended ferry owned by the Southern Pacific. She was 2,662 gross tons, built in Oakland, California in 1908. The ferry had two large side paddle wheels powered by a two cylinder, 1,040 horsepower steam engine. For the next 21 years she was in service between San Francisco and Alameda carrying both passengers and cars across the bay.

Like many obsolete vessels on the West Coast during the depression, the MELROSE was to spend her last days as a fishing barge off Southern California.

In 1931 she was sold and converted into a first class fishing barge. Nearly 300 feet long, and 2,662 tons. she would have been the largest and "most palatial" fishing vessel off the coast. 

In April 1932, conversion nearly completed, the MELROSE was anchored off Whites Point, San Pedro. On April 20 and 21. 1932, a nor’ wester tore through the Southland. Gusts up to 50 miles an hour drove the fishing barges THOMAS. P. EMIGH, GRACIA, CHARLES BROWN, and the MELROSE ashore. She ended up broadside on the shore, with one of her ends up on the small rocky outcropping. Beach combers. souvenir hunters, and wave action quickly broke the wood ferry apart. An extremely violent storm dragged her inshore and smashed her against the rocks. She was a total, unsalvageable loss. 67 years of pounding surf have all but obliterated any trace of her remains. One of our few southern California shallow beach entry wreck dives, artifacts are still being discovered amid the rocks and kelp, especially on days of flat, calm seas.

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