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Legends
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THE BON SECOUR FLEET
Drawing by Hazel and Richard Brough
from the book �Food, Fun, and Fable.�
Among the many legends of Bon Secour is one, which is both legend and legacy � the schooners and powerboats of the old Bon Secour Fleet. Old ships may wreck or rot or burn but their legends live on to be told and retold by those who knew them in their glory. Many a schooner never dies but becomes a legacy left for the future. These schooners have been rebuilt into hard-working shrimp or oyster boats minus the beauty of spreading sail, but equipped with the satisfying hum of powerful motors. Most villages have a corner store on main street where men gather to see the girls go by and to tell jokes. Bon Secour is different, for its main street is a river; there men gather at the store by the waterfront to watch the boats come and go, to discuss the past history of each, and to tell tall tales about its prowess. The fishing boats are the faithful workhorses of this sea-faring community but they also furnish it with glamour. Charley Wakeford says that you have to remember that glamour lasts longer in boats than it does in gals. In Bon Secour everyone gets to know each boat by the sound of its engine, so that one can lie in bed on a still night and tell which boats are passing up or down the river.
Some boats still in service are nearing the century mark. It is rumored that others are even older. The MARY ETTA has belonged to the Nelson Family for almost a hundred years. Captain John Nelson, who helped to write this story, and who loves all boats, says the MARY ETTA is like a member of his family. In fact, he and his wife love her so dearly that they named their only daughter for their boat. It seems that this fine schooner, now turned shrimper, helped to found the Nelson Fisheries.
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MARY ETTA was acquired by the Nelson's in 1896
and used as an oyster dredger, transporter, and shrimp boat. She was retired in 1969 to the shady banks of the Bon Secour River. Although battered by hurricanes and tropical storms, it rests there today.
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The MARY ETTA was built at Fowl River on the west shore of Mobile Bay over one hundred years ago (about 1860). Captain Frank Nelson bought her from Pat and Tom Lilley. The Nelsons still have the original bill of sale. The Lilleys had named her MARY ETTA for a daughter. Originally she was a two-masted schooner and Mrs. Nelson says that she was a joy to see under sail. The MARY ETTA has been rebuilt several times and is still in service with Nelson Fisheries as a shrimper and doing a fine job.
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Although the actual builder remains a mystery, what records exist indicate that the vessel's keel was laid in 1860. Launched as the CURLEW, she became property of the Nelson Family in 1896 and was renamed at that time. She is similar to the Biloxi schooners, but her cypress construction and original single mast are clues to researchers that she was likely a member of the New Orleans lugger fleet that plied the coastal shallows in the 1800's and heavily influenced the designers of the later schooners. MARY ETTA carried two masts for most of her active, commercial life. The second mast was added to make her more competitve with her contemporary oystering vessels.
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A hundred years ago schooners were the backbone of all life in Bon Secour. Among the fleet then were four famous veterans of service in the Civil War. These four were the MARGARET JANE, the CLARA LACOSTE, the OCEAN and the WAR EAGLE. They all had a fine record as blockade runners for they had carried the salt, made in Bon Secour and essential to the economy of the Confederacy, through the blockade and into Mobile harbor. Near the end of the war two of these, the WAR EAGLE and the OCEAN, were taken up near the head of Bon Secour River and deliberately sunk to keep the Yankees from confiscating them. They were raised later and were refitted to sail to Mobile for many more years in peace.
The OCEAN belonged to the Witt Brothers. It was one of the few one-masted schooners � a sloop really � for it had been built as a yawl in Brooklyn, N.Y. and had been rebuilt later in Bon Secour. So far as is known locally it was bought after the death of its owners by a man from Biloxi and put into service as a fish boat with an auxiliary motor.
Little is known of the MARGARET JANE. She was built in Bon Secour and was owned by Capt. John Steiner.
The CLARA LACOSTE had a long life during most of which it was the property of the LaCoste family who had built it near their old homestead on the south bank of Bon Secour River. She was two-masted and about fifty-seven feet long. When last seen she had gone to wreck at Bayou la Batre.
Captain John Plash owned a fleet of his own years ago. He used these boats to freight oysters and green produce to Mobile. The PURITAN and the UNDINE were two-masted schooners and were built at Bon Secour. The PURITAN was sold to Bayou la Batre and is probably still working but the UNDINE is on Plash's shell pile at Oyster Bay. The BON SECOUR was built as an engine boat and was the flagship of the fleet in her young days. Captain Wilmer Miller and Captain John W. Miller helped a great deal with reminiscences of these and all the following schooners and boats. The BON SECOUR sank in the Gulf. The CORNELIA PAULINE was rebuilt from the old ALICE and at the end of her life sank in Bon Secour River. According to local legend the 1916 hurricane was accompanied by a tremendous tidal wave, which washed some boats ashore. The BON SECOUR is supposed to have been stranded on a slope near Oyster Bay. If so, it must have been quite a job to refloat it.
Drawing by Hazel and Richard Brough
from the book �Food, Fun, and Fable.�
Many boats have left scant history behind them. The ST. CHARLES had one mast and was owned by Jimmy Allen, Sr. She sank in Bon Secour River. The MAMIE G. had one mast and was owned by Charlie Witt. She sank in Witt's Creek. The CIRCE had one mast and was owned by Allen Wallace who used her as a fish freighter. The MARY LOUISE had one mast and was owned by August Smith. The NYMPH had one mast and was owned by Capt. Christopher. The GERTIE RHODES had two masts and was owned by Charles Styron. The CORRIGAN had two masts and was built and owned by John LaCoste. It was last seen beached in Bayou la Batre. The C. A. SWIFT had two masts and was owned and built by John LaCoste. The J. C. SMITH had two masts and was owned and built by Herbert Steiner, Sr. It was sold to a bar pilot and was driven ashore at Navy Cove by the 1906 storm. The NEWTON, the NORTH STAR and the KATIE RAFIELD were all two masted schooners, which were owned and built by Conrad Billie. The ESTELLE and the ALMA G. were both built in Bon Secour, both had two masts and both were owned by John W. Miller and Harold Wallace. The ALMA G. was later sold to Edward Swift who put in engines and changed it to a fishing boat. It went to wreck at Bon Secour. The GLENNON had two masts, was built in Bon Secour and was owned by Tom Nelson. It was sold to Bayou la Batre. The CLYDE had two masts and was built and owned by Will Steiner who also owned the ENTERPRISE. These carried lumber to Mobile. The NELLIE META also ran lumber to Mobile. It was owned and built by John Carver, Sr. who also owned the WATER WITCH and the RUTH. The NELLIE META was sold to John Nelson who converted to engines. Captain Nelson says that it is still oystering in Louisiana. The HOBSON was owned by John Steiner and was two-masted. The MARY GREY had two masts and was built in Bon Secour. It was owned by John Steiner and was lost in the 1906 storm. The OLIVIA was owned by Roshier Steiner and was built in Bon Secour. It was turned over in the 1906 storm and Capt. Steiner and two sons were drowned. It was wrecked in the storm. The NATIVE was owned by Capt. Rohnwick and had two masts. It was leased at one time by Capt. Frank Nelson and Capt. John Nelson says he crewed aboard it for his father.
Another man who owned a little fleet was Captain John Henry Andrew Miller who had the VIRGINIA, the AGNES BILLIE and the WANDERER. All were two masted schooners. The WANDERER sank in Bon Secour River. The AGNES BILLIE was sold to Ewing Seafood Company. The head of this company is said to have had his family aboard and been cruising off Sandy Bayou near Shellbanks when the schooner caught afire. With great presence of mind this man tore off the hatch covers and threw them overboard and put his family on them and thus he saved their lives. The VIRGINIA was first sold to the Bar Pilots and used as a pilot boat. It was later sold to a doctor who made a pleasure boat of it. It is reported to be in Tampa now.
The SWAN was built in Bon Secour by John and Walter Miller and was the first motor powered boat built as public transportation to run to Mobile.
The BALDWIN was built and owned by a stock company. It was a stern-wheeler and was steam powered. It was built to carry passengers to and from the old Henrietta Hotel at Palmetto Beach and only put into Bon Secour because Mr. C. A. Swift owned an interest in it. One of its early skippers was Capt. Buck Curran.
Bon Secour Shrimp Boats.
The roster of well known Bon Secour boats would not be complete without mention of the NELLIE and the ELEANOR. These were steam powered tugs owned by the Lyons and Swift Lumber Company and were mainly used to barge out the lumber.
Another well known schooner was the W. M. KUPPERSMITH. It had two masts and was owned and built by John Steiner. It had a 7-� horsepower engine installed in 1909 as auxiliary power and everyone thought it went like the wind then. It was later sold to a sportsman who made a yacht out of it.
The NEWPORT and the CECILIA, both two-masted schooners, were built in Bon Secour and owned by Capt. Andrew Mund. The CECILIA was finally sunk near Nelson's Wharf in Oyster Bay. The NEWPORT was sold to the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co.
The last boat on the roster is the AMELIA S. and it was saved for the conclusion because it is very dear to the heart of Charley Wakeford. It is his own boat and is named for his wife Meme. It has a long and fascinating history. It started life as a two masted schooner and was owned by Manuel Gazzier. It was built by Styron and Sons in Bon Secour. Its ownership passed through many hands. Back in Prohibition days it was twice seized as a rum runner bringing in a cargo from Cuba as valuable as liquid gold. Each time it was sold by the Treasury Department. All of this time it was named the MARGUERITE G. and it was a well known boat to put it mildly. Years later when Charley Wakeford bought it he rebuilt it, put in new engines, renamed it the AMELIA S. for Meme and operated it for some years as a fishing boat and a charter boat. Charley says that he has it laid-up now and listed with the Coast Guard as in idle status.
The above list really only scratches the surface of the better known boats of the Bon Secour Fleet. It would take a dozen pages more to list them all from earliest times to the present. It mentions none of the great new boats which fish far out in the Caribbean and which seem to old timers almost like floating laboratories with their radar and two way radios and other equipment. The old timers at Bon Secour say that they worked their boats by guess and by God and are proud to boast that they made their way in independence. Though it is obvious that they appreciate the wonderful assistance of this branch of the service-for their sons, they still say with pride that they took their boats to sea before, as one old captain put it, "the Coast Guard nursed everybody".
Fishing, oystering and shrimping have always been the main industry, the lifeblood as it were, of Bon Secour. It is only natural, therefore, that seafood should also be the main sustenance of the fleet. On the fishing boats that leave Bon Secour's docks even today the roux is always cooked and ready so that some of the first catch can be thrown into the pot for Gumbo or Jambalaya.
On present day boats a good gasoline cooking stove is usually found but on the old boats and schooners a charcoal furnace, probably made at the old pottery up at Daphne, was often used with the furnace set in a box of sand for safety.
This is the way potatoes were fried on a fishing schooner on a charcoal furnace. Wash and peel ten medium sized potatoes. Wash and peel four onions. Have black iron skillet about one third full of hot grease. Cut potatoes and onions in round slices. Put into skillet, put on lid and let cook, stirring occasionally and salting and peppering to taste. Sometimes the potatoes were not peeled but only scrubbed in seawater, then sliced ready to cook. Four potatoes per man were about the usual allowance.
These were often served with hot fried fresh caught fish. The fish were cleaned, scaled, washed in seawater, then rolled in meal, salted and peppered and dropped in hot grease. The fish was eaten on tin plates accompanied by tin cups of hot coffee with either buttered store bread or hot cornbread also made in a skillet on top of the furnace. It is often rumored that the skillet was scrubbed out with a little sand and seawater. The tin dishes were thrown into a loose mesh croaker sack and towed behind the boat for a few miles, this being an early form of the automatic dishwasher.
Written in 1965 by Charley and Meme Wakeford for their book �Food, Fun, and Fable.�
The assistance of Captain Wilmer Miller, Captain John W. Miller, and Captain John Nelson is gratefully acknowledged.
 
 
 
 
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