Wooden Boat AtlasDesigners, builders & classes · v3.0

Atlas / Builders & Yards

1868 – 1970 · San Francisco, California

Kneass Boat Works

Mission Street, Pier 70 and 3rd Street, San Francisco

A century-long San Francisco small-craft yard: launches, rowboats, lifeboats, cruisers — and more than five thousand craft for two world wars.

Founder
George Washington Kneass
Sites
22 Mission Street; 671 Illinois Street at Pier 70 in partnership with Martin Vice; a second yard at 718 3rd Street from 1898; an emergency shipyard in 1941
Succession
Sons George Jr. and Webster Kneass; the yard operated until 1970
War output
Over 5,000 craft including patrol boats, minesweepers and SC-497-class subchasers
  • 1882Pacific — 18-ft schooner, sailed across the Pacific
  • USS Nasomee (YTB-260)
  • 1918Peruvian Navy patrol boats
Sourcing notes & unresolved questions
  • The available source gives a founding of 1868 and a founder born in 1859 — internally inconsistent. One of the two dates is wrong; the source does not say which.

Wooden Boat Atlas v3.0 · built 30 July 2026 · a project of the Golden Gate Wooden Boat Foundation · licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · open data · corrections