MAILBOAT NAME: M/V Iris Star (confusion with a later vessel M/V Iris Star II?)
PAST NAMES: not known
DIMENSIONS: 50′ long, 15′ wide, 6.5′ deep, 22 gross tons, 24 net tons, 40-horsepower engine, official # 159949
CONSTRUCTION: wood
YEAR BUILT:1935
BUILDER: Benjamin Roberts’ father in Marsh Harbour, Abaco
EARLY CAREER: crawfishing and transporting crawfish from Bahamas to Florida
BAHAMAS CAREER: mostly a crawfish boat which transported crawfish to Florida, but carried freight and possibly mails in the off season to locations such as Georgetown, Exuma.
CAPTAINS: not known
FATE: sunk off Nassau while carrying freight to Exuma
OWNERS: Rupert W. Roberts, Marsh Harbour, Abaco
NOTES:
Thanks to Mrs. Eldwyth J. Roberts and Danielle Roberts of Abaco, descendants of Sir George W. K. Roberts, for their assistance. Mrs. Eldwyth Roberts wrote:
Bennie’s Dad was a boat builder and built his boats the Iris Star I and II, which he ran crawfish to Florida, but like a lot of crawfishing boats they carried freight (and I guess mail) when crawfishing was out of season. The Iris Star II sank off Nassau carrying freight to Exuma in the off season.”
“Did you check on the boats owned by Sir George W. K. Roberts, one of his boats the Captain Roberts was the one that went to Bennie’s Dads rescue when he went down on the Iris Star II”
We have published information on this blog on the M/V Captain Roberts, which was only afloat less than a year before being destroyed in Harbour Island in October 1945 where it was built.
Not much is known about the Iris Star II, but will look into it – feedback is, as always, welcome!