Apologies that it has been 18 months since I posted – during the interim I published a series of 15 feature articles on the history of mailboats for the Weekend magazine of the Nassau Tribune, which can be found at www.tribune242.com and www.ericwiberg.com/articles. I met with my fellow Bahamian friend James today and he suggested re-activating this blog and I promised that I would, so here goes. These are roughly 75 images of ships, people, mundane details, and settings at Potter’s Cay Dock in Sept. and Nov. 2016, taken by me or others taking photos of me with Captains Taylor. I was even given a tour aboard the Lady Rosalind’s interior and met with Captains Eddins and Limus Taylor. The captions are scant at best – I can improve on them on request – but here goes:
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| That’s the KCT to the right and Legacy to the left. |
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| Note how very shallow the water is at the bow of the East Wind – perhaps 3-4 feet…. |
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| Captain Limas Taylor of the FIESTA MAIL and the author, Capt. Eric at Potter’s Cay before Capt. Limas took his ship to Key West Florida to avoid the worst effects of Hurricane Matthew. |
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| Salvage and wreck removal by the Bahamas Ferries cargo docks. |
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| Three captains sharing a laugh aboard a mailboat – Capt. Eddins Taylor in the middle, preparing for Hurricane Matthew. |
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| How close the vessels get to one another due to space constraints |
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| The gentleman in the middle is frantically welding to fix the bow ramp so the loaded mailboat can leave ASAP. The passenger in the back does not seem overly impressed. |
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| A previous name in Arabic or Chinese – hard to tell. |
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| This shipping company utility vehicle still has the Japanese writing on it from previous ownership…. a global trade…. |
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| This fishing vessel cannot get to the dock because of the abandoned wreck in the way. |
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| Mr. Bo Henghy, after whom the Bahamas Ferries vessels were named! Finally found an image of him. |
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| The Bahamas Ferries freight terminal which is being expanded with wreck removal in 2016. |
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| The original Captain Taylor from Pirate’s Wells, Mayaguana, patriarch of the Taylor fleet and companies. |
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| The newest of the Taylor fleet, to be renamed President Taylor and delivered in late 2016 / early 2017 from the US Gulf. |
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| Entrepreneur and ship owner Tom Hannah in discussion on deck of the New G. |
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| The bow ramp was being repaired and painted on the sister ship VI Nais alongside, so Hannah and his crew did the next best thing to discharging on their own – they fork-lifted the cargo over the rails and deposited it ashore that way! |