Dedicated to Empowering and Informing the Burlingame Community

The Sherman will be leaving Burlingame very soon.

The ship that has been anchored off the shore of Burlingame for several decades known to many as The Sherman, as well as by several other names, will be leaving either early in the morning on Sunday, perhaps about 1:30am and if not possible at that time then another attempt will be made at higher tide on Sunday at 4:30pm.

Here is how she looked today with tug boat awaiting. The entire history of The Sherman can be seen in an exhibit inside the Burlingame Hillsborough History Museum inside the Burlingame Train Station.

Martha and sherman

 

Posted in , , , ,

28 responses to “The Sherman will be leaving Burlingame very soon.”

  1. holyroller@hotwire.com

    I used to go there when it was a night club in the 1970’s.
    It was fun and unique.
    Where is it going?
    Why is I going? (I thought I saw a lot of “improvements” going on some time ago.
    What will be filling the space?
    This event reminded me of some of “The Old” night clubs that used to be all around that area. 1970’s 80’s.
    -The EggPlant
    -Some “Nautical Themed” place-Crow Nest?
    It was a Middle Eastern Hangout.
    -The Frog Pond-Rated X
    -That Disco Place that was on the Top Floor near The office building with The Red Framed Widows
    -The Caribbean Night Club next to the Old Hyatt Movie Theater-Dangerous
    -The Velvet Turtle
    -The Hyatt with “Danny Marona”
    There was no shortage of places to go and experience a great night life, and if you got “Lucky” finish off at “The Frog Pond.”
    GROSS!
    However, those were the times.
    That Boat-The Sherman was Crazy Fun, for many years.
    So were those other places. There was an awesome “upscale” Chinese Restaurant on the top floor of one of those buildings near the Sherman also.
    There used to be a Great Mexican Restaurant out that way as well Called “Tia Maria.”
    They had headsets you could put on at the table and listen to the Airplane Pilots, and Air Traffic Control while you waited for dinner.
    Sorry to see the ole’Sherman go but I guess there is a need for the space.
    Does anyone know what it is?

  2. Jennifer

    Not sure it is a space issue, but I suppose nobody has been paying “rent”? Is that what it is called on water? Lots of money was put into the latest restaurant iteration, and it was pretty cool, but it’s been empty for perhaps three years (?)
    I’d love to know what will happen to it in Stockton, but its Burlingame days seem numbered.
    By the way, Holy…..I think that great asian restaurant at the top of one of those hotels was called Kee Joon (perhaps my spelling is off). Anyway, it was delicious- was that in the 1980s/90s?

  3. holyroller@hotwire.com

    Kee Joon’s is right!
    Thank you Jennifer.

  4. Russ

    Looks like they will attempt to move it this afternoon, Sunday about 4 or 4:30 if it’s not too windy.

  5. Russ

    This just in, high tide will be at 3:57, so most likely that’s when they will attempt the move.

  6. AK

    The former owners tried to paint the boat with paint that was not intended for boats that will have constant submersion, and the paint washed off, and it required an environmental clean up. I’m not sure that the owners ever paid the bill for that problem.
    Regardless, I believe that the city wants to clean up the area to attract some anchor office tenants to the 787,000 sf Class A Office complex that’s entitled with Millennium Partners. No anchor tenants signed, no construction. The construction jobs, property tax and office jobs in town will create a lot of tax revenue for the city and economic vibrancy for the city restaurant and retail tenants.

  7. holyroller@hotwire.com

    With all the open space out there.
    Little or No Traffic.
    Infrastructure-Water, Sewage, Electrical, Gas, Parking, in place. Easy access to HWY 101-North or South, Easy and Safe Public Transportation, Avenues, SFO International Airport, there is no better place in The County of San Mateo, possibly the entire State of California, maybe the entire US.
    The land has been vacant @20 years or more.
    Yet the cost of litigation alone; I am speaking of Hooverville, this land could have, should have, been purchased already.
    20 plus ears this eyesore/goldmine has sat.
    Why? Seriously Why?
    That would be an interesting tale.
    As a Community we have to draw a line .
    The Burlingame Bayfront would be an excellent environment for a learning center.
    IT IS MORE THAN HALFWAY THERE!
    Dear Vice Mayor Nagel,
    Could you please respond to my question?
    This week please.
    HR

  8. lala

    Though I am not Vice Mayor Nagel, The State of California owns that land/waterway as well as the land that is fenced with the tall weeds. Margaret, the Parks Director has been working with the States land department and is trying to get the land for a Burlingame park. From what I understand, the State is agreeable but we need to come up with the money to thus turn it into a park which I believe is estimated to cost a bit over a million.

  9. AK

    Burlingame is completely dependent on the continued success and potential new development of hotels.
    The current plan is for Millennium Partners to develop a 787,000 sf Class A Office and Health Club on the former Drive In Theater/Burlingame Point.
    http://www.burlingamepoint.com/
    The State land may be leased but not purchased by anyone.
    For several years, Burlingame has turned down many interested schools who have wanted to lease or purchase buildings on the Bay Front. The cited reason has been that in the event of an earthquake, there is no public safety out there, and Fire/Police couldn’t easily reach school children.
    And, the city has wanted to preserve the land for hotels and other tax generating entities.

  10. lala

    That is correct. The state is going to lease the land to Burlingame to make a park for a very nominal fee and with a long term lease.

  11. J. Mir

    This place is quite isolated. It looks like an ideal location for a park, but a very poor location for additional offices. Looking at Burlingame Pt plan, I see a potential traffic nightmare. Let’s hope a giant data center ends up there, because it doesn’t look like there’s enough flow for the addition of 400+ cars, does it? Contrary to what was said, there is no quick access to 101 either south or north direction. And there is no weekday Broadway train, or train shuttles there, and spotty Samtrans service (KX and 398 only). Traffic along bayshore is already very dicey during soccer/baseball season where Bayside fields has only 1 entry/exit point. And that diceyness is the worst at rush hour timing in the evening when ball games are getting started. And its still a fairly popular fishing area – usually a dozen folks with each 1 car there fishing during high tide. Considering there is already lots of office vacancies out there (one can find them on Craigslist every day), where would the demand come from? And would they plan for sea levels to rise substantially over 50 years? Things to think about!

  12. holyroller@hotwire.com

    Does anyone know how/why the ship was named the Sherman?
    I know there is a Sherman Street in Burlingame off of El Camino Real, North of Broadway.
    I think this question might be a “stumpper” for you Jennifer…
    How did the streets of Burlingame get their names. Who were they named after and why?
    I am sure you have the answer somewhere.
    Thanks Jennifer.

  13. AK

    This would not be a good location for a data center as there is no significant fiber, PG&E power is much more expensive than SVP or other regions of the US like Oregon and Washington and the land is fill and subject to extreme earthquake hazards.
    There is also tsunami / storm surge risk at this location. I analyzed all this for the former owner of 600 Airport a few years ago.
    The Burlingame Point project will likely require a major anchor tenant from out of town to justify its construction. It’s already entitled.
    Sherman was named after the owner of the boat who purchased it for restoration and restaurant development. It’s original name was the General Coxe.

  14. holyroller@hotwire.com

    OK J. Mir…
    You win.
    However, maybe we are watching a “Gift Horse” sail away.
    Think of it.
    The Burlingame School District Mobile Academy:
    The BSD Maritime, Art and Mathematical Learning Center.
    A Public School.
    No special interests.
    No Financial, Racial, GPA requirements or quotas to determine who gets in.
    The only requirement to stay at this school is attendance.
    No excuses!(with the exception of severe-verifiable medical issues)
    Great Teachers only need apply.
    Full Benefits, one year probation starting pay for every single teacher, administrator, custodian, librarian, $100,000.00 per year.
    Everyone who takes care of the school, ship, students restrooms, vacuums the library, puts books away provides a positive atmosphere for student growth.
    The point of J. Mir’s revolutionary educational concept is to create a positive experience at school that more than likely-students do not have at home. they have ZERO access at home.
    Great Idea J. Mir.
    You have created one of the best educational systems ever.
    Thank you J.
    May I call youJ.?

  15. Cathy Baylock

    Holy, here is the answer to your question about street names in Burlingame. As you probably already know, “there are no streets” in Burlingame only Avenues, Drives, Lanes, Ways, etc… Here is the link: http://burlingamehistory.org/2013/06/21/where-did-our-street-names-come-from/

  16. longwong

    Hai Guyz 🙂
    nice sendoff parteee for b-games own boat…got a pic of da old crew
    http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.102813.1313918355!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/gallery_1200/gal-love-boat-cast-jpg.jpg
    & of courss the onboard entertainment
    http://www.televisioninternet.com/news/pictures/CHARO.jpg
    hahhaa…bet holyrollerz wishes he had a pauze button back when the show was on gucci guggci gucci goo …hahahahahahaha!
    sorry guyz im really obsessed with TV reruns that i missed out on…da 70s-80s seemz like a BLAST!!!
    so awesome b-game had its own boat..neva got to check it out..this town is so….much….FUN!
    TTFN 😉

  17. holyroller@hotwire.com

    I really miss wearing my socks up to my knee’s.
    Due to my varicose veins those long socks will probably be back sooner than later.
    What about Backgammon?
    Stay’n Alive!

  18. AK

    Holly,
    Are you going to help us to organize the 1st Annual Burlingame Voice Masquerade Ball Fundraiser?
    AK

  19. holyroller@hotwire.com

    Yes
    If it is at Bruce Dickensons House…

  20. Joe

    I forgot to post this SF Chronicle front page piece about the Frank M. Coxe/ Sherman that ran on 12/22. Our own Martha May is a well-quoted below:
    After almost a century on Bay Area waters, the Sherman, a former Army troop transport in World War II, Alcatraz escape vessel and repeat restaurant failure, is being picked for parts at a dry dock on Vallejo’s Mare Island.
    “It had such a glorious, glamorous life,” Christina Snyder, executive vice president of Mare Island Dry Dock, said on a recent day as a giant crane lifted wood panels off the Sherman’s deck. “She was a war vessel, a fancy restaurant. Just to see this kind of end is sad. But all good things must come to an end.”
    By the late 1970s and ’80s, it was named the Pattaya Princess and operated as a Thai restaurant in Burlingame, just south of San Francisco International Airport.
    In 1978, James “Jim” Katsaras, the owner of Diamond Jim’s Showboat, was shot to death on the ship by a disgruntled business partner. After stabbing a legal researcher at a law office with a pen knife, police said at the time, Giacomo Messina boarded the vessel and shot Katsaras five times at close range with a shotgun. Detectives told the San Mateo Times that Messina had been a partner on the boat venture — and wanted out.
    Messina would later be acquitted for reasons of insanity, according to the Stockton Record.
    The same year of the killing, architect Robert Sherman spotted the vessel as he ate lunch at a nearby restaurant, said Martha May, 97, a co-founder of the Burlingame Historical Society, who befriended Sherman and later chronicled the ship’s history.
    Click through for the rest along with some pictures:
    https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/A-ship-with-no-home-The-sad-but-colorful-and-14926296.php?cmpid=gsa-sfgate-result#

  21. P

    In response to the 1st post….I followed in your dance steps. Those were my haunts, too,
    The Showboat, The Eggplant, Kee Joon’s, Tingles @ The Dumfey Hotel, San Mateo, Little Orphan Annie’s, San Mateo….The Peninsula circuit.
    Best years of my life.

  22. P

    I am stuck in NoVA….
    My dance floor is my hardwood floor along with self-quarantine & my memories.

  23. Paloma Ave

    You must be at least 70+ years old?
    What inspired you to post to this topic?
    (Another old fart wants to know) LOL

  24. hollyroller@gmail.com

    I went there in the 70’s early 80″s.
    It was a lot of fun and fun to walk around the inside of a ship. “Back Then,” a lot of “Clubs”@ Airport Blvd. would have Free Food @ “Happy Hour.” Good Food too.
    Disco Will Never Die Baby!
    Just ask BD.

  25. hollyroller@gmail.com

    Egg Plant.
    Where did they come up with that name?
    Remember the “Castaway.”
    “Ernie’s.”
    Danny Ramona.
    Velvet Turtle.

  26. Paloma Ave

    Danny Marona
    Shipwreck Kelly’s

  27. hollyroller@gmail.com

    Shipwreck Kelly’s was very cool too.
    Wasn’t SWK at that the Hotel that was heavily damaged in the 1989 Quake?

  28. Paloma Ave

    Shipwreck Kelly’s was located at the Amfac Hotel, later called the Airport Marina Hotel.

Leave a Reply

RECENT COMMENTS

RECENT POSTS

CATEGORIES

ABOUT THE VOICE

The Burlingame Voice is dedicated to informing and empowering the Burlingame community.  Our blog is a public forum for the discussion of issues that relate to Burlingame, California.  Opinions posted on the Burlingame Voice are those of the poster and commenter and not necessarily the opinion of the Editorial Board.  Comments are subject to the Terms of Use.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

All content subject to Copyright 2003-2026

Discover more from The Burlingame Voice

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading