MAILBOAT NAME: M/V CARIBBEAN QUEEN
PAST NAMES: none
DIMENSIONS: over 120′ long, 335 gross registered ton cargo ship fitted with single diesel motor & prop, official # 176974
CONSTRUCTION: wood – may have originally been a sailing vessel.
YEAR BUILT:1945
BUILDER: Symonette Shipyards, Nassau & Hog Island (Paradise Island) Bahamas
EARLY CAREER: traded between Florida, the Bahamas and Caribbean – not necessarily a mailboat
BAHAMAS CAREER: cargo freighter to and within the Bahamas from 1945 – 1961 when wrecked off Cay Sal according to Wrecksite.eu on Jan 19th 1961 while motoring from Tampa to the DR in ballast. The submerged wreckage it struck may have been one of several merchant ships sunk by U-Boats off Cay Sal in WWII (see www.uboatsbahamas.com or www.uboatsbahamas.blogspot.com).
CAPTAINS: not known
FATE: sank off Cay Sal Bahamas whilst voyaging Florida to the DR via Old Bahama Channel
OWNERS: not known.
E. Dawson Roberts wrote for the Bahamas Historical Society that “My father was the foreman at Symonette’s Shipyards – formerly located on Hog Island – where he worked 8 hours a day – 6 days a week and designed ships at nights at home. Among these were, over the decade, The Anne Bonny, The William Sayle, The Caribbean Queen and The Jenkins Roberts. Each was over 120 feet long.”
Source: Lecture given 1990 at http://bahamashistoricalsociety.com/journal/i13a03.shtml
“On January 19th, 1961, the Bahamian cargo ship CARIBBEAN QUEEN, built in 1945, on voyage from Tampa to Dominican Republic in ballast, struck submerged wreckage and sank near Cay Sal Bank.”
Source: http://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?235732