MAILBOAT NAME: M/V San Salvador Express
PAST NAMES: M/V Johnette Walker, M/V Innocent Express, M/V Pack One
DIMENSIONS: 111′ long (also listed as 106.2′), 9.2′ deep, 22.2′ wide, gross tons 136 (also listed as 209 gross tons), net tonnage 100, tug design, Bahamas flag (now Panama flag), USCG doc 266825, IMO 7018006
CONSTRUCTION: steel
YEAR BUILT: 1953
BUILDER: F. B. Walker & Sons, Hull # 146, Pascagoula Mississippi.
EARLY CAREER: originally a US Gulf tug, then M/V San Salvador Express mailboat serving that island, then in 1975 the Johnette Walker (her original name), then sold as the Innocent Express and finally her present status as Panama-flagged Pack One.
BAHAMAS CAREER: served San Salvador, southeastern Bahamas, as the San Salvador Express and by 1975 as the Johnette Walker.
CAPTAINS: Captain Roy Oral Lockhart, 1927 – 2002, who also commanded M/V Noel Roberts, M/V Church Bay, M/V North Cat Island Special, and was awarded the Queen’s Certificate of Honor on 23 October 2001 (source: www.emeraldridgemortuary.com)
OWNERS: not known
FATE: still trading in Panama as M/V Pack One
NOTES: There is a 1979 law case alleging that the Johnette Walker was mixed up in the drug trade, pretending to be the M/V Superfly II of Panama – more at http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/470/384/1363071/ United States v. May May, 470 F. Supp. 384 (S.D. Tex. 1979)
An excerpt reads that; “Commander Crosby observed that there was no hailing port painted on the vessel, that the name SUPERFLY II was simply painted on a white board, that a white life ring on the port side had the name M/V JOHNETTE WALKER painted on it, that there were extra fuel drums on the deck, that the hull shape of the vessel was of a type commonly built in the United States, and that no flag was flying.”