Page 60 - Historical Study of Yerba Buena Island, Treasure Island and Their Buildings

helped by designating 1.5 acres for use by the Navy under emergent conditions. The Navy
erected one of its tent camps, Camp Paul Jones, on this acreage.

In 1918, a severe epidemic of influenza spread throughout the San Francisco Bay Area which
caused Goat Island to be quarantined for several weeks. A young man, who just completed
landsman training, was assigned as a boat orderly to one of the launches which transported
caskets from the island to San Francisco for burial. He recalled that it got to the point where
" ... On Yerba Buena, funerals seemed an almost daily occurrence, sometimes with six to nine
caskets. The first one to die (that day) had their casket placed on the traditional field piece. The
rest of the caskets were loaded into a truck which followed along behind" (Ref. TT). This
outbreak along with a fear of Meningaccous, the bacterium that causes cerebrospinal meningitis,
caused three isolation camps to be established on the island.-The "first camp", located near the
top of the island, was set up as a regular tent camp where all recruits were placed for their first
three weeks on the island and were not allowed to mix with the rest of the Island's population.
Through this method of quarantine, the sickly and deceased personnel would not likely
contaminate other trainees. After three weeks of quarantine, each recruit was evaluated and, if
determined healthy, reassigned to another camp to begin their training. The "second camp" was
a group of ten isolation cabins located behind the detention barracks. These cabins, identified
jointly as Building 17, were apparently used as "sick bays" for ill recruits. The "third camp",
also a tent camp, was established specifically for Meningaccous patients. It was located on the
northwest point of the Island (where the Treasure Island causeway is now) right next to the
cemetery. The Meningaccous disease appears to have been serious, judging by the large size of
the camp in 1919.

Despite all the construction on Y erba Buena Island, training had also started in San Diego.
Although moving the Training Station to San Diego had been proposed as early as 1908, the
increase in military population at Yerba Buena Island, reaching a peak of 13,000 men during
World War I, caused overcrowding which impacted the facility and provided the impetus for
change. In 1922, the Navy decided to shift all training to San Diego. This eventually resulted.in
officially transferring the Training Station to San Diego in 1923. See Figure 28, a 1923
photograph of the US Naval Training Station at Treasure Island.

The April 23, 1923, San Francisco Chronicle reported the issuance of the following orders from
Rear Admiral Roger Walles, commandant of the 11th Naval District:

"The San Francisco Naval Training Station, the Navy Department stated, will be
decommissioned July 31. Fifteen days prior to that time the radio school, the
general electricians' school, the yeoman school and the musicians' school will
be transferred to San Diego. The pharmacist mate school and the bakery school
will follow in August.

In addition to the orders transferring all naval training activities at Mare Island
and San Francisco to San Diego, Admiral Washington also issued instructions to
all recruiting stations west of Chicago to send all naval recruits here [San Diego J
beginning July 15."

1-36 Historical Study ofYerba Buena Island, September I, 1995
Treasure Island, and their Buildings