A fiery redhead is making waves in the maritime industry. Maggie McDonogh is not only the owner of the Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry, she is one of the few female captains in this male-dominated field.
Running the Tiburon-to-Angel Island route her father started in 1959 has been challenging. But McDonogh’s tenacity and fierce loyalty to her family roots keep “the little ferry that could” running and profitable.
You might say it’s personal. McDonogh’s great-grandfather came to Tiburon with the railroad and started a boarding and chowder house. Her grandfather ran a fleet of rowboats between the north and south towers of the Golden Gate Bridge during its construction and transported supplies for the U.S. Army stationed on Angel Island during the 1930s. When they began planning to turn the island into a state park and decommission its military installation in 1959, her father, Milton, founded the Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry.
“On the first day he made seven dollars,” says McDonogh. The company now ferries between 55,000 and 70,000 people annually to the state park.
(Courtesy of @angelislandferry)
McDonogh grew up at the docks her dad helped build. By her early 20s, the ferry company was growing so rapidly that he needed her help. McDonogh earned her U.S. Coast Guard Master license and took on the nickname “Captain Maggie.” Eventually, she took over the family business altogether.
Funding is just one of the challenges for an independent operator like the Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry Company. “We’re not public like some of the bigger companies that have the benefit of funding from bridge tolls and other public dollars, in addition to their farebox revenues,” says McDonogh. In 2018, when the State Department of Parks and Recreation put the Angel Island route out to bid, McDonogh rallied the support of the town of Tiburon and state lawmakers.
“This ferry company is part of the collective memory of our community,” she says. “I can't tell you the number of times I meet somebody and go into their home, and I see their family picture with our railing of the ferryboat in the background.”
Like a master of chess, McDonogh is always planning her next move. Her fleet will soon include one of the first zero emission ferries in California, financed with the help of a $24-million grant from the California Air Resources Board. Plans are underway to electrify the first two vessels in the fleet, and EV Maritime in New Zealand is designing a third, plug-in hybrid electric vessel. The Prime Minister of New Zealand even came to San Francisco for the signing ceremony.
McDonogh has also forged a strong partnership with the Angel Island Conservancy to offer several historical island events for America’s 250th anniversary, including a recent Fourth of July celebration. On October 10th, during Fleet Week, the island will hold a Victorian Sundae Social and Picnic.
The Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry embarks on one of its sunset cruises, offered most Saturdays and Sunday evenings between May and October.(Michael Parker)
The Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry also hosts specialty cruises for the public on holidays and during special events like the Blue Angels performances and the Lighted Boat Parade. They offer sunset cruises on the Bay most Saturday and Sunday evenings, May through October, and have hosted everything from beach parties to weddings. McDonogh is even licensed to officiate the ceremony.
McDonogh never tires of sharing her window to what she calls one of the great estuaries of the world for wildlife. “We see harbor seals, pelicans, dolphins. Once we saw killer whales, and that caused quite a kerfuffle with the biologists up and down the coast.”
Ever a family affair, fifth-generation McDonogh Becky, Maggie’s daughter, helps as a deckhand when she’s not fishing commercially. The Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry is the only carrier that will hire teenagers as young as 16 to give them maritime experience. “It’s our obligation to pass on knowledge to the next generation, just like my father did,” says McDonogh.
“I know I’m tiny. I’m one of the few females in a male-dominated business. And the pressure you put on yourself because of that is—you need to be better,” she continues. Small businesses, McDonogh believes, are the threads that hold a community together.
// Find the Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry schedule and event information at angelislandferry.com
(Courtesy of Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry)
