Background
John Leale (1850-1932) was born on the Isle of Guernsey and came to San Francisco in 1864. He married Fanny A. Cheney in 1881.
They had two daughters, Marion W. and Edith. Leale was at the helm of San Francisco ferryboats from 1873-1914, "the Golden
Age of ferries on the Bay." Leale was in his prime during the zenith of ferry service in the late 19th Century, and he played
an important role in the relief effort after the 1906 earthquake. He made some 125,000 round trips across the Bay during his
career. Hog Davis hired Leale as the South Pacific Coast's (SPC) first ferryboat captain. At one time or another, Leale captained
all four of the SPC boats – NEWARK, BAY CITY, GARDEN CITY and ENCINAL. He also served as an agent of the Department of the
Shipping Board for San Francisco and San Pedro during World War I. As head of the Service Bureau, he signed on more than 10,000
officers and crew.
Biographical material taken from the Shipping Register, September 29, 1919 and May 25, 1920, and San Francisco Bay Crossings.com,
"A South Pacific Coast Bibliography," by Randy Hees, http://www.baycrossings.com and http://home.netcom.com/~hees/NRRWGauge/SPCbib.htmlO,
respectively, accessed September 14, 2007.