M/V Captain Dean V
Source: “Island Captain, The Autobiography of Mail Boat Captain Ernest Dean of Sandy Point, Abaco, Bahamas,” with Gary W. Woodcock, White Sound Press, Decatur Illinois, 1997 p.108
MAILBOAT NAME: M/V Captain Dean V
PAST NAMES: none
DIMENSIONS: c.90 feet length, 16 passengers, IMO # 7816692
CONSTRUCTION: steel, single Caterpillar engine,
BUILDER: Jerry Thompson of St. Augustine Trawler Company, Inc. St. Augustine Florida, aka St. Augustine Marine
BUILDER: Jerry Thompson of St. Augustine Trawler Company, Inc. St. Augustine Florida, aka St. Augustine Marine
YEAR BUILT: 1978 – keel laid Nov. 30 1976, delivered Nov. 30, 1977
EARLY CAREER: always traded the mail with some passenger service to Eleuthera
BAHAMAS CAREER: mail to and from Nassau, Abaco, Eleuthera, other islands
CAPTAINS: Capt. Ernest Dean then Capt. John Dean, then Capt. Stanford Curry
FATE: burned and sank at the Frederick St. docks causing the death of Capt. Stanford Curry on or about Sept. 30, 1986. Following this salvaged by Haitian businessmen who kept her in service under an unknown name trading from Haiti to Miami.
OWNERS: Captain Ernest Dean, Sandy Point Abaco
Christening of M/V Capt. Dean V
Source: “Island Captain, The Autobiography of Mail Boat Captain Ernest Dean of Sandy Point, Abaco, Bahamas,” with Gary W. Woodcock, White Sound Press, Decatur Illinois, 1997 p.108
Captain Ernest Dean was very fond of this ship and writes nostalgically of her christening, which was well attended in Nassau by families of the owner, the builder, and government dignitaries. He writes: “The Minister of Transportation gave a speech about how vital the mailboat service was to the people of the Bahamas and how important it was to upgrade it with new, modern boats like the Captain Dean V. After this, the Pastor of the Nassau Free Temple Church gave the invocation and asked a blessing. My wife [Eula of Lady Eula mailboat fame] broke a bottle fo champagne on the hull and named the boat Captain Dean V. I was very proud.” (page 70 of “Island Captain”).
Since Capt. Dean describes his career and each boat so well in the book, and I don’t want to quote too long passages from the book he wrote with Gary Woodcock, I encourage readers to buy the book and read it. But here is a sad passage about the loss of the vessel which is relevant.
“From all the reports, I was able to gather that there had been some mismanagement of a quantity of gasoline on board and a large portion of it had gone into the bilges. Captain Curry went below with a pump to try to get rid of it. While he was working the pump the gasoline gook fire and he was badly burned. I immediately went right to Nassau to visit him. I was very, very much upset to see the condition he was in. He was in very bad shape, and he died within a day or two.”
“The ship had taken fire until it sank. I guess some hoses and things burned and let water come in. There was enough damage for the insurance company to declare another total loss, but not enough to sell the ship for scrap. A Haitian group bought her and got her back running. She was raised and towed to Miami and rebuild with a big new dining room, much better than the one with which she was originally build. I don’t know where she is now [2009] but the last time I saw her she was making a regular run between Haiti and Miami.”