Flotte’s Notes on
An Unofficial Encyclopaedia
of Mobile & Baldwin Counties
Promoting local history, culture, outdoors,
businesses, attractions, food, people, and places
Please submit all comments, additions, and
corrections to: admin@flotte2.com
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·
The
·
Dog
River, Deer River, and
·
The
·
The deepest areas of the bay are located within the
shipping channel, sometimes in excess of 75 feet deep, but the average depth of
the bay is only 10 feet, which
is among the most shallow for a bay this size.
·
It
is approximately 32 miles north to south, 23 miles wide at its widest point,
and about 10 miles wide at the City of
·
A
combination of wind and tide delivers salty Gulf waters into the Bay from the
south that mix with varying amounts of freshwater from the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta. Due to the shallow nature of the bay,
dynamic climatic conditions, and man-made hydrologic modifications salinity
conditions in the Bay are remarkably variable.
·
The
Bay is influenced by daily diurnal tide changes that average a little less than
a foot and a half, with maximum changes exceeding two and a half feet.
·
The Mobile
Bay Ferry moves passengers and autos
between
·
The sandbar at
southeast side of the mouth of
·
Prior to the
channel, Mobile Bay was too shallow for heavy ships so small steam-power
vessels called lighters took
millions of bales of cotton from Navy Cove to Mobile.
·
Once onboard,
the pilot would navigate the ship over the Mobile Bar to a position four miles
northwest of Mobile Point known as the Lower
Fleet Anchorage. The anchorage had to be used because the mouth of the
·
It was not until
1826 that the U.S. Congress authorized money for the development of a navigable
channel in
·
In the year
1831,
·
In 1870,
congress authorized the first of many improvements to the port. The
obstructions were removed, three lighthouses were built, and by 1876 the ship
channel was dredged to a depth of thirteen feet. This was still too shallow for
modern ocean-going steam freighters, so the anchorage was still used.
·
In 1896, the
channel was dredged to a depth of twenty-three feet. Finally the need to
lighter the ships at the anchorage had ended.
·
The current
navigation channel maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provides safe
navigational depth of 45 feet from the Gulf of Mexico to the mouth of the
·
In the southern
edge of
·
Military
engineers built the channel through south
·
The canal is
maintained for barge traffic by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The agency is
also tasked with permitting any marinas on the waterway's shoreline.
·
Since 2004 the Intracoastal
Waterway has been a center of residential and commercial development.
·
In the late
1970s, the Corps spent $500,000 to $700,000 of tax payer money in the placement
of an experimental floating dike across Pinto
Pass, a tidally influenced river which runs from Battleship Park to Mobile
River, and in 1800-1900s was navigable and a channel used for Mobile. – Myrt Jones
·
Within
the Delta, the Causeway prevents the exchange of water between a number of once
open bays and the
·
Many of the
Causeway’s buildings were wiped out by Katrina’s storm surge.
·
·

·
In 1979, an
island was created from the silty sand dredged to
create a ship channel between
·
Although the
dredge spoil island was opposed by environmentalists, Dr. M. Wilson Gaillard, a
·
By 1981, when
the initial construction of the island was completed, birds were already
visiting the island. Although locals affectionately refer to the island as
·
The island
initially had a 35–acre planted marsh located along the northwest dike. Today,
most of the marsh has washed away. The
·
Upon completion of the
·
In 1983,
biologists discovered four brown
pelicans nesting on
·
·
The
·
The Corps
manages disposal to protect nesting birds. Five pipeline corridors on the
island's southern end are used to deposit dredged material during nesting
season. Outside that, any area on the island can be accessed. Dredged material
is poured into the diked area and settles sloping
toward the weir box in the north corner. While the material settles, the weir
box allows clean water to drain into the bay.
·
Source2:
·
The proposal was
to come off the Mobile Ship Channel with another deep channel into the
·
Families settled
on
·
In 1826,
Congress appropriated $10,000 to improve
·
Officials can't
say for sure when the pass closed. Resident J.U. Hamblin says it was a dredging
company that lowered the water level from 9 feet to around 3 feet. ``A
·
For years, the
Alabama State Docks, through Bob Hope (director) and Bill Black,
"leased" north and south Blakeley spoil areas from "rich
owners." This was done routinely every year or two, costing untold amounts
of tax payer monies in these agreements to have places for dredge material from
·
Alcoa, in
the 1950s, piped waste bauxite under the
·
The Coast
Guard's quarantine station was on
·
·
The
·
The islands form
the Mississippi Sound, a brackish estuary described by federal officials as the
most "fertile" part of the
·
Scientists say
the islands are shrinking due to the impact of ship channel dredging
·
Most have
freshwater lakes that serve as a stopover for migratory birds and as a nesting
ground for shorebirds.
·
See
Press-Register, June 15-16, 2008
·
·
o
o The first tower, 55 feet
tall, was built in 1838. Another was built in 1859 but destroyed by the
Confederates in 1862 during the Civil War
when they discovered that Union troops were using the tower to spy on them. The current lighthouse of 132 feet was built
in 1873 by architect Winslow Lewis. Throughout the 1890s and 1900s granite blocks were placed at the base
of the tower to control erosion.
o Lighthouse keepers lost
their lives in the Hurricane of 1906 and in 1919. In 1921, the lighthouse was
automated, and the light was deactivated eleven years later. Since that time,
the pile of granite blocks has managed to provide a secure footing for the
lighthouse without further aid from man.
o The lighthouse was deactivated by the Coast Guard in
1933
o The second-order Fresnel lens was removed from the tower in 1971, and then
placed on exhibit at the
o In 2001, the Alabama
Historical Commission rejected an offer of the lighthouse, reasoning that it
would cost too much to save. Fortunately, the Town of Dauphin Island stepped
forward and obtained ownership of the lighthouse from the federal government in
2003.
o In 2006, a Safety Trip was
made to the lighthouse to devise a safe manner for landing at the lighthouse
and for climbing the tower in preparation for a planned engineering study of
the lighthouse. Options for the lighthouse include moving it to nearby
o Captain Jim Hall offers trips to the lighthouse, or you can go on a Lighthouse/Shrimping/Dolphin
tour with Action Outdoors. The lighthouse is
not open to the public.
o Officials with the Alabama Lighthouse Association say
the first major repairs will begin in 2008, funded by $320,000 in federal
money. It would cost $1.3 million to fully secure the 132-foot-tall tower,
according to an engineering report released this year, and millions of dollars
more to make it accessible to visitors. Eventually, the association, which will
continue fundraising for a full restoration, hopes to rebuild the surrounding
island and open the tower to the public. – PR 12/25/07
·
Mobile Point Lighthouse
·
Alabama Lighthouse Association

·
Mobile Bar
Pilots
navigate the bay’s sandbars for ships traversing
·
Throughout its
history - even when it was under French, British and Spanish control - the
mouth of
·
In 1818, shortly
after the
·
By 1822, bar
pilots had established a base at Navy Cove - "Pilot Town"
·
When an
attentive pilot with good eyesight spotted a sail on the horizon, he'd run to
his rowboat, and others chased after him, said Warren Norville,
a Mobile Bay bar pilot descendant, historian and author. They'd race through
the waves in their 18-foot yawls, aided by spritsails, to the arriving ship,
and the first one aboard got the fare.
·
In the year
1831,
·
The fee was
princely. The early pilots enriched themselves as well as the budding harbor in
·
When the War
Between the States broke out in 1861, there were sixteen bar pilots and seven
upper bay pilots working. Many of the pilot boats were used as blockade runners
during the war. In fact, two of the bar pilots were captured and imprisoned for
attempting to run the blockade.
o William T. Norville and
"Black Bill" O'Conner, both from
o When Norville the blockade
runner was captured, Farragut offered him a pension,
a nice home and cash to pilot the Union fleet during the Battle of Mobile Bay
on Aug. 5, 1865. He refused, choosing prison instead, according to descendant
Warren Norville.
o Bar pilot Jim Griffin assisted Farragut's
fleet, according to a 1959 commemorative book for the sesquicentennial of
·
During the Civil
War, the Confederate Navy's Capt. Horace Hunley
sought to develop the world's first submarine in
·
By the time the
war ended in 1865, all of the prewar pilot boats had either been captured or
scuttled during the conflict. The sixteen bar pilots joined forces and formed
the Mobile Bar Pilots Association. They purchased two pilot boats.
·
In 1896, the
channel was dredged to a depth of twenty-three feet. Finally the need to
lighter the ships at the anchorage had ended. That year the bar pilots and the
upper bay pilots merged and formed the Mobile Bar and Bay Pilots Association.
Because of tradition, the pilots still used the system of changing out pilots
in the lower bay. It was deemed a better job to pilot the ships from the bay to
the port, so the nine senior pilots became town pilots and the junior pilots
served as bar pilots.
·
·
The Seaport Act
of 1927 placed the Mobile Bar and Bay Pilots Association under the jurisdiction
of the Alabama State Docks Commission. The commission decided to put the pilots
on a paid salary. The next year the No.2 pilot boat was destroyed in a storm. Because
the pilots were on a salary, they did not have the money to replace the boat.
This forced a change in the pilots work schedule. Now only one pilot was used
to make the full transit of the bay. After much lobbying, the legislature
removed the pilots from the jurisdiction of the State Docks. On March 9, 1931
the twenty-two pilots met at the Master, Mate, and Pilots Union Hall and formed
the modern Mobile Bar Pilots Association.
·
Because ships
were now only using one pilot to reach port, the Association had too many
pilots. The pilots decided not to replace retiring pilots and their number
gradually declined to fifteen. Because of improved communications, staying at
the sea buoy was unnecessary. In 1965 the pilots opened their new pilot station
on
·
In the 182 years
that American bar pilots have steered boats in Mobile Bay, only two vessels
have been lost with a bar pilot aboard.
·
In the 1840s,
they formed the Mobile Bar Pilots association, which today represents 12 pilots
who bring in about 100 ships a month
·
Bar pilots today
go seven miles out in the Gulf on 48-foot powerboats
·
In the past, a
bar pilot position was hereditary. Today it is stated that nepotism among the
bar pilots is a thing of the past. Of the last five men awarded apprenticeship,
only one has had a bar pilot in his family. Three of the current 12 pilots are
descendants of the captains who were at
·
The three-member
Alabama Pilotage Commission, appointed by the
governor, picks those admitted to the apprenticeship, the formal training for
becoming a bar pilot. The commission also sets the rates controlled by the
state.

·
The Delta has
been an important source of transportation and timber. In this century,
industries have found it a convenient place in which to discharge wastewater,
and worse.
·
Residential sprawl is threatening the eastern edge of the Delta along the
·
Private owners, including paper companies, timber companies and families, have
traditionally been major landowners of the Delta, which is estimated at 200,000
acres.
o
Kimberly-Clark Corp. was the main landholder
in the Delta, until it put its land up for sale in 1999, with about 70,000 acres. Other significant owners
include the Meaher family (more than 10,000 acres), AmSouth/Regions Bank
and Alabama Power.
o In the 1980s Scott Paper Co. worked
with
·
Public ownership of Delta land has increased, but at a pace slower than conservationists
had hoped for.
o Questions remain as to whether the tracts purchased
were the best possible choices for protecting the Delta.
o As of 1999, The Coastal
Land Trust retained about 5,000 acres in the Delta. The Corps of Engineers had 22,000 acres,
all designated for wildlife management and public hunting. The Conservation Department owned about
16,000 acres for those same purposes.
o The federal agency overseeing conservation of the
Delta is the Corps of Engineers, which systematically filled in