The Ancient Mariner and Tujunga’s Tugboat

Charles grabbed the top of the door to brace himself as the large truck lurched along what is now Foothill Boulevard. Behind him, the vehicle was loaded with lumber from which he intended to build himself a new home. It was 1921 and Charles had previously spent some time here to recover from asthma … but he had returned and planned to stay.

As he slowly makes his way to the edge of his lot on what is now Samoa Avenue in Tujunga we see that the lumber in tow is not new. In fact, it’s quite old. The boards reveal weathered white paint, much of it peeling from the aged sunbaked wood. Who was Charles and from where had he hauled all this old used lumber? For the answers to those questions, we travel back in time.

Capt. Charles Farr was on a mission when he arrived in San Pedro in 1901. He had spent the last several years in Toledo, Ohio as superintendent of a bethel ship. This was a decommissioned vessel converted into a church for sailors.

Born in England, emigrating in 1881 at the age of 22, he led the life of a hard drinking cursing sailor on the Great Lakes – until a day that changed his life. At the age of 33 Charles stumbled into a Salvation Army meeting, heard the Gospel and had a conversion. Just five years later he managed the Bethel Mission Boat on the Maumee River in Toledo. He married Marie Layton in 1896 and, on the advice of a friend, they headed west in November 1901.

In his pocket he carried a letter from Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones, the mayor of Toledo, who extolled Charles’ virtues and skills as a missionary and superintendent. One evening Charles came across a large, dilapidated ship in San Pedro Harbor. It was 92 feet long and in bad shape, but he could see the possibilities. This was the tugboat Warrior, decommissioned by the Banning Company years before and basically rotting where she sat. In her prime she shuttled passengers to Catalina Island and back.

On the strength of the mayor’s letter and with sheer determination, by 1903 Charles was able to build a house of worship within the ship. For 17 years he ran his church on the water, constantly struggling with funding. Finally, in December 1920, the captain announced his retirement. The Harbor Commission had plans for expansion and he was told the old bethel ship had to go. He tried at first to sell it, but there were no takers. He then implemented plan B and began to dismantle the ship’s superstructure, loading the planks of wood onto a large truck. The hull of the ship, massive and worn, was burnt to the ground right there on the shoreline while the captain looked on.

Arriving at his lot in Tujunga, there was a sight to behold. He had built a hull of stone to replace the one that had gone up in flames. The point of the rock bow faced the street and was 12 feet off the ground. Capt. Charles was no stranger to hard work and got busy reconstructing his ship, albeit now on top of stone. When complete, the structure resembled the original ship, with the exception of a stone stairway running up to the deck along the port side.

Marie had suffered health problems requiring Charles to move her into a board and care facility, so she never lived in the boat house. He was said to have fit right in with the eclectic community of Tujungans and lived out his days there until his death in 1939. Not long after his passing, Tujunga’s Tugboat was condemned and torn down. Nothing remains today with the exception of a photo of the captain in front of his boat house. A faded sign hung upon it reads, “Ancient Mariner.”