The Steamships of Jacksonville
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/photos/676871364_duTCv-M.jpg)
Metro Jacksonville takes a look at an industry that once gave downtown Jacksonville an international and cosmopolitan flair: The Steamships of Jacksonville.
Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-oct-the-steamships-of-jacksonville
Great article!
I loved those images. Great story.
Thank you so much for posting this story! My mom worked for Merchants & Miners in the '30's and had so many fond memories of her adventures. If she had her way she would have continued forever, but proper ladies of that era got married and had children so that's what she did. But every time she talked about her work aboard ship she got all misty-eyed...she died this year at the age of 92.
Condolences.
What did she do Hoop? Was she actually on the ships? Do you remember any stories?
BT,
I believe she was the equivalent of a stewardess...basically she helped the passengers. This is one of those things I wish I had written down when she talked! I know she loved visiting Jacksonville and she also remembered the original "waving girl" in Savannah. She also said that she loved her job so much she didn't want to accept tips...which got her in lots of trouble with her co-workers.
It was only a couple of years ago that she took the AutoTrain down from Baltimore for a visit and drove across Florida to see one of her old shipmates in Sarasota. She was pretty spry up to the very end!
Oh yeah...one funny story. Mom was the oldest of seven and supported the family after my ne'er-do-well grandfather abandoned them during the Depression. She was gone for weeks (months?) at a time with little or no communication. Once when she came back to Baltimore she discovered that her mother had moved the whole brood - she had to go asking around to see where "home" was!
Very cool... In her day this was the only way to "see the world" and was probably in the minority of people who actually travelled very far from home. She got to see and do things and meet people she had read about but never really had any hope seeing or doing unless she had a job like hers. No wonder she loved her job... My twenty year Navy career afforded me the same opportunity. I went to places and did things most people will never, ever experience.
This is one of my most favorite articles ever posted on MetroJacksonville.com It actually made me go register my new account and post it here. Now, I am hooked on.
Welcome wsan... this site contains many articles of similar quality... along with many discussions of these articles.
There is a great model of the Fred & deBary on display at the downtown library right now.
When you look at place names on maps of this area, notice how many places have "landing" in them. Up and down the St. John's, these were the places that the river steamboats stopped for people and goods in the days before good roads. The St. John's was the highway.
Great article.
Just think if Jax recreated an historic reproduction of the "City of Jacksonville" that plied the St. Johns River.
What a unique tourist attraction. It could do daytime historic tours, sunset cruises, and overnights to Palatka and Sanford, or travel to Savannah, Charleston, or St. Augustine as an ambassador of the city.
(http://www.boatnerd.com/news/newsthumbs/images-07-4/13-GreenCoveSpringsFL9-12-0.jpg)
"The City of Jacksonville" has a nice ring to it!
Quote from: stjr on October 17, 2009, 10:49:28 PM
Great article.
Just think if Jax recreated an historic reproduction of the "City of Jacksonville" that plied the St. Johns River.
What a unique tourist attraction. It could do daytime historic tours, sunset cruises, and overnights to Palatka and Sanford, or travel to Savannah, Charleston, or St. Augustine as an ambassador of the city.
We nearly do stjr, there are two ships at the docks in Green Cove Springs, on the closed Naval Station, nee Clay County Port of Green Cove Springs. I understand they were built by Atlantic in Jacksonville but delivery never took place.
This is a subject I have squawked enough about that everyone should know it by heart. Cut deals with a major airline, Trailways, Annett, Greyhound, Disney Express Bus, and AMTRAK... Every adventurer comes in at JIA/JAX, on a single cruise-Florida tour ticket, they are delivered downtown to the river cruise port facility. They board one of the river cruisers for Sanford, two days on the water, overnight tied up at the downtown/waterfront hotel in Palatka. Day two finds them moving into the Port of Sanford, where they are met by a parade of Disney resort, Universal resort, etc... buses. The buses pull off and they head for 2-5 days of non-stop fun. At the end of it all, they again board the riverboats and head for Palatka. We lay our best meals, treats and honors. Once back in a real city (OURS) they are ready for reserved seat or bedroom home on Amtrak. Mr. investor, give me a call, and we'll talk BIG BOATS!
They go home very lucky, they are among the few tourists since the 1800's to have really seen and experienced The Real Florida. OCKLAWAHA
Ock, I can't make out the depths on the bows of those nice looking cruise boats. Surely they aren't double digits?
I'll have to look next time I go snooping across the river. The channel is good for 11' all the way to Sanford, downtown marina, it should be deeper to Palatka.
OCKLAWAHA
Excellent article. I really like the 1917 photo showing the steamer heading south from downtown.
What a beautiful article, great pictures!
My great-great grandfather was superintendent of the Clyde and Mallory Steamships lines in Jacksonville from 1907 to 1922. I am a little confused about the history of the company mergers, because his obituary printed in Oct. 24, 1922 issue of The Florida Times-Union clearly names it (more than once) the "Clyde and Mallory" steamships lines, but the article above states that it was in 1932 that it became the "Clyde-Mallory" Steamship Company.
For others who might be interested, there is a permanent exhibit about these steamships included at the Museum of Florida History (an excellent and *free* museum!) in Tallahassee. Also, the State Library of Florida has 79 images related to Clyde Steamship Co. in its Florida Photographic Collections, which is searchable online. I noticed that there is a website where you can buy authentic postcards showing the steamships, but they cost between $15 and $25 each, at: oldpostcards.com
Came across this article in the NY Times from September of 1899.
ANOTHER CLYDE BOAT STRANDED.; City of Jacksonville Ashore Near Portsmouth, N.C.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D0CE4DE133DE633A25753C2A96F9C94689ED7CF
Don't you just love the reference to the "St. James" river! ::)
I wish I could take a steamship to New York this weekend.
Great article. Thank you for always posting these. They are really fun to read through.
Nice photo post Stephen, but you failed to place a caption under the shot across the water... WHERE THE HELL IS THAT CITY?
OCKLAWAHA
Quote from: Dog Walker on October 18, 2009, 11:11:58 AM
Ock, I can't make out the depths on the bows of those nice looking cruise boats. Surely they aren't double digits?
Considering there were 450 FULL SIZE, WWII warships either tied up at the docks or anchored in groups out in the river when I was but a lad, I don't see why big ships couldn't call as far as Green Cove Springs.
The Port of Palatka is also quite successful, as is the Port of Sanford. Palatka probably leads in waterborne related industries, including a shipyard that lost a contract to build Navy Ships thanks to the Shand's Bridge. The contract was sweet enough that they even offered to put a draw-span in the Shand's FREE OF CHARGE, but good ol rubber tires, gas, and pavement, FDOT told them HELL NO! About 140 years ago the river would form great bars of sand visible from downtown Palatka. Today a channel is maintained through town but the Port was wisely located a couple of miles north of town.
Green Cove Springs Naval Station, was a fleet mothball base for the South Atlantic. It was one of my favorite bases, and as a kid I loved to walk out in the "Grand Canyon"... The canyon for me was out on any one of the many piers dwarfed between hundreds of ships packed together like sardines. AWESOME! Lee Field Naval Air Station (across the street) was tech schools and pilot training. NAS Sanford was aerial reconnaissance. OCKLAWAHA
(http://www.searchamelia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/mayport-ferry.jpg)
Yesterday I found "The Blackbeard" tied up at one of the piers in Green Cove Springs, now I'm wondering where it was during the recent shutdown and repairs to the Mayport Ferry? If it was in Green Cove, in operating condition, without a job, then there is NO EXCUSE for closing the Ferry. This leads to worry that the shutdown while needed for the work, might have been to "test the waters" and see if they could get away with closure.
(http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs26/f/2008/110/6/5/Blackbeard_by_GENZOMAN.jpg)
The REAL BLACKBEARD as depicted by a fantasy artist. Interestingly the artist got it right, the clothing is dead on correct, and the hair illuminated with punk and fusing (intended to scare opponents - which it did) The man himself was a cruel giant, he had 14 wives and may literally have been criminally insane. It took 6 shots and 27 "fatal" sword strikes to bring him down! Even then legend says the now headless body was thrown into the salt marsh, and it swam around the ship two times before sinking out of sight. WEIRD!
OCKLAWAHA
Today is National Maritime Day.
National Maritime Day is a United States holiday created to recognize the maritime industry. It is observed on May 22, the date that the American steamship Savannah set sail from Savannah, Georgia on the first ever transoceanic voyage under steam power. The holiday was created by the United States Congress on May 20, 1933.
Fascinating Article.. No trace that this was ever part of Jacksonville's Northbank today from what I see. It must have been amazing to live in that era . Great article !!!!! :)
I posted a few pictures of the ferry's from the past on the save the St. Johns river ferry the blackbeard was sold to green cove springs resident for 81,000 dollars fully intact. minus lifeboats radar. would post pictures along with documents but this site doen't permit pictures or documnetary reports.
Sure we do. Go ahead and post them.
Not to hijack, but I'm surprised that no one made a thread on the USS Adams; There was talk about docking it DT as a floating museum (nothing set in stone of course). Of course Jax desperately needs that obligatory warship to 'revitalize' DT. ;)
To comment on the blackbeard it was sold for 81,000 to a local in Gainesville and so far is still operational and may be used eleswhere
if there was a way to post the pictures after it was painted and decks sanded you think it was going somewhere to work other than mayport. if i remember those engines cost were about 320,000 dollars which increased the vessels value from 1.2 to 2.1 mil therew is alot more to the story, as to why part of the grant money was returned to the government it seems no one could produce reciepts how all that money was spent.
more to come down the pike
Thanks for this article. My grandmother's sister, my great aunt Edna Higginbotham Basham sailed on her honeymoon on the Arapahoe. They travelled to New York City. I have a clipping fom the newspaper. I believe the year was 1900, but not sure without verifying.