Crawford Family History

Now in its fifth generation, Crawford Nautical School has been training mariners since 1923. Our grand-uncle Jack Sullivan opened the School in New Orleans. Twenty years later our grandparents, Capt. Lorcan F. Crawford and his wife Hannah, moved the school to San Pedro, California. Since then the School has had branches in San Diego, Wilmington and San Francisco, California. In 1985 the School moved to Seattle, where we continue to prepare mariners for US Coast Guard Deck and Engine licensing examinations and STCW competencies in particular, and for the vocation of becoming good shipmates in general.

Our father William P. Crawford died in March 2013, fittingly while teaching. He was first licensed as Unlimited Master when he was 21 years old, directed Crawford Nautical School’s California locations for 20 years and authored the Mariner series of highly regarded texts on terrestrial navigation, celestial navigation, weather and Rules of the Road. He continued teaching at our Seattle branch for another 20 years. before our family migrated to the US from Ireland, the Crawfords were water-borne. Our grandfather sailed around Cape Horn (and was swept overboard) on the Sailing Bark “Fingal.” A subsequent wave swept him back. One of our father’s ships was torpedoed and sunk in World War II. A second was caught in the sights of a kamikaze pilot.

Grandfather, father, uncles, cousins and brothers have served as Ordinary Seamen, Able-Bodied Seamen and the range of officers from Third Mate to Masters of their own vessels. Their ships — fishing boats, tankers, towboats, container ships — have carried cargoes ranging from oil to lions and tigers to all parts of the globe.

Here are photos of a few of their vessels: