Union Steamship Company

[stubones99]

Ormond beach is about 120 miles north of Sebastian (and Sebastian inlet.) so most likely they are a little bit farther north from here. If I recall, they had a big Navy school and Vet hospital in Volusia county, but that's something I recalled.

Down south of Sebastian, at the south end of north Hutchinson island, the Navy had their first UDT school and now has a museum.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Don't want to dupe all the text but on post #7 I see the Northland Girl.
My father operated and owned a boat almost identical to the "Girl" but a bit smaller at 21.5 X 103'.

TAD her name was Halawii. Not sure of the spelling. "Home of the sea" in some native Hawaiian language I assume. She was powered by a 268A DD. That would be 8 cylinders of 268 cu in each. A very long engine as the Roots Blower was on the fwd end of the engine .. 500hp. She was a 10 knot boat and (because she was refrigerated) mostly freighted meat for Carsten's Meat Packing Co to SE ports .. mostly Juneau. I spend some time aboard her in 1949 .. I was 10.

 

[Marin]

Home of the Sea in Hawaiian is Halekai.

 

[Donsan]

Back when they were trying to make Sebastian Inlet (here in central Florida, east cost) they tried aerial bombs, then explosives, and blew out windows for 35 miles, and finally dug it with smaller explosives to break up the coral...

Apparently they thought a big blast would just blow a big trench, but all it did was remove the sand, and all windows within a 35 mile radius.

Funny, I grew up in the Cocoa area and never had heard Sebastion Inlet was man made. I just read about it on Wikipedia and the recent history doesn't surprise me at all. It is the worst inlet I have ever seen and I actually took a boat out to the ocean there a few times and scared the crew mightily. The stories about the Spanish gold fleet trying to escape a hurricane around Sebastion had erroneously given me the impression the inlet was already in existence in the 1600 and 1700 timeframe.

Just north of Patrick Air Force Base there is an area where the lagoon and ocean come very close. It has been surmised that Mother Nature is trying to create a natural inlet there. Most likely, another urban legend.

 

[stubones99]

Patrick AFB has been on the short list of bases to be closed for years and I've recommended that if they did, that another cut be made at the thin part of the base between the Atlantic ocean and the Banana river since it is too far to the ocean when we get tropical storms and hurricane rainfall. The Banana river and Indian River Lagoon flood since the only ways out are Sebastian Inlet or Ft Pierce.

I doubt it will happen in my lifetime though, since logic and reality see eye to eye.

 

[Tad Roberts]

Photo of an old Minstrel Postcard, probably late 1950's....

 

[Tad Roberts]

And on a busier day some years earlier....

 

[Marin]

And on a busier day some years earlier....

Ernie Rose gave us a print of this picture or one almost identical. It's a color shot. I'd not seen the photo you posted before this one. Thanks for putting it up.