MAILBOAT NAME: S/V Alice Mabel
PAST NAMES: not known – named after Sir George William Kelly Roberts’ daughter
DIMENSIONS: 47-ton sailing schooner later fitted with an auxiliary motor, official # 151898
CONSTRUCTION: presumably wood
YEAR BUILT:1923
BUILDER: not known precisely, but she was built in Marsh Harbour, Abaco
EARLY CAREER: not known
BAHAMAS CAREER: As part of the fleet in the Richard Campbell Limited company she plied from Nassau to unknown out islands with mail and freight.
CAPTAINS: not known
FATE: not known but no longer listed after 1940 as being registered in the Bahamas.
OWNERS: Sir George William Kelley Roberts, Harbour Island, Bahamas, owner of Richard Campbell Company Limited of Nassau. Before him J. W. (John Wilson) Roberts, owner of the Abaco Lumber Company, of West End Grand Bahama was said to be the owner in 1930.
NOTES: There are three mailboats in Bahamian History named after Sir George W. K. Roberts’ sons: The M/V Richard Campbell, the M/V Gary Roberts, and the M/V Noel Roberts. This is the only one known to be named after one of his daughters.
Source: “Harbour Island Story,” by Anne & Jim Lawlor, MacMillan Caribbean, 2008, p.151
Thanks to Mrs. Eldwyth J. Roberts and Danielle Roberts of Abaco, descendants of Sir George Roberts for their assistance.