Built in 1898 by the Union Iron Works of San Francisco, she served after the 1906 earthquake, ferrying refugees across the bay to Oakland.

On October 3, 1900, Berkeley was leaving her dock in San Francisco, when she collided with the coastal passenger liner SS Columbia.

Due to a misunderstanding of signals, Captain Blaker of Berkeley thought that his ship would be able to pass in front of Columbia while the larger liner was travelling forward at a slow speed towards her dock.

The collision resulted in the destruction of one lifeboat onboard Berkeley and badly injured Columbia's iron bow.

Conover had Berkeley docked in Sausalito, a small town on the Bay in Marin County, and converted her into a gift shop called "Trade Fair".

During the time she was docked in Sausalito, actor Sterling Hayden rented one of Berkeley's pilot houses as an office while he wrote his autobiography Wanderer (published in 1963).