 The good ship El Capitan used to sail the bay between Oakland and San Francisco in the 1870s, mostly in the fog. Its skipper was Captain Bill Transhell, and he was known among the ferry boat set as having a heavy hand on the whistle. He found any number of excuses for tooting that whistle, but the one excuse which he never forgot was the time he was entertaining Mr. and Mrs. Crittenden on the bridge.