Monday, December 04, 2017

In 1908, the Bay Line bought a 190 foot steamship, drawing 9 feet of water, called the MANTEO. They extended the railway dock in Panama City 200 feet to accommodate it and began to ship naval stores out of St. Andrews Bay. After harbor improvements in 1908, the Manteo was the first deep draft steamship to enter Apalachicola Bay and for about four years the ship made a regular route from New Orleans and Mobile to Northwest Florida ports and Tampa. It was retired in 1912 but in the next year it was supposedly outfitted in Panama City by Venezuelan strong man Cipriano Castro for a Central American revolution. After that, the steamship was renamed the VAN and in 1925 it was taken into custody off Boston by Prohibition agents after attempting to bring 3000 cases of liquor into the country. This was one of the largest liquor busts in Prohibition history. In 1930, FDR had it sunk offshore from Boston Harbor in a government program to dispose of derelict ships in the Boston area. (from the August 28, 1909 DOTHAN EAGLE)



 http://bostondeepwrecks.com/wrecks/Van.html

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