that he had sighted a submarine just 30
minutes before. The pilot immediately
ordered to continue “sea-speed,” which is
about 25 percent above ordinary harbor
“maneuver speed.”
Before swinging into the entrance channel,
the pilot asked the master what the draft of
his ship was, and upon being told that she
was drawing 30 feet, he whistled and shook
his head. The captain noticed his concern and
asked if that was too deep. The pilot told him
that shoaling in
the channel made
it extremely close,
without much
margin for safety.
At this point the
captain said, “Well
pilot, take her just
as far as she will
go. I wouldn’t stay
out there with
those damn subs
tonight for any
damned safety
rules – we’re
loaded with hightest
aviation gasoline!”
Once inside the outer bar and relatively
safe from a torpedo, half speed was ordered
on the engine room telegraph to enable
better control of the vessel in the narrow
channel. Upon passing the lighthouse point
Coast Guard lookout station, we were of
course challenged by blinker light as to the
ship’s complete identity.
In fact, another page in the book shows
a map of the locations where enemy subs
were sunk. In 1942, German submarines
sunk more than 100 freighters in the Gulf of
Mexico, and in fact part of the civilian effort of
the war on the island included people who
would keep watch for submarines from the
rooftops of tall buildings.
Another interesting volume – which may
very well turn into two or three – is called
“Whatever happened to …?” and includes
iconic parts of Boca Grande that no longer
exist. They include the drawbridge trestle
at Placida, the L Dock, different types of
transport on the island, the Japanese Bridge,
30 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • March/April • 2021
Boca Grande Pass Marina, the FPL fuel tanks
at the south end, Miller’s Marina as it used to
be and the old “S-curve” road on the south
end. There’s also a “tidbits” portion, with
scraps of history about the island’s former
haunts.
As the island has changed considerably
over the years, there are many stories about
these places that no longer exist. One story
about the S-curve was that a bus was going
around the curve (which ran along the Gulf
of Mexico from
Belcher, passed
what was then
the Laff-a-Lott,
but is now South
Beach), and the
bus driver was
“distracted” by a
passenger and
went partially
off the road into
the water. There
is a multitude
of stories about
the Laff-a-Lot,
back when many
Flooding near
the "Laff-a-Lot
curve" after the
storm. The storm
winds started at
3 a.m. with a max
wind speed of
60 mph coming
from south/southwest.
Date June
18,1982
locals swore it wasn’t safe to go there at night
because of bar fi ghts … and once, even a
shooting.
There are many other volumes in progress.
For instance, family members of “Mama
Dear” Thompson, otherwise known as Mary
Francis Thompson, have donated photos
and other historical information regarding
her life on the island. There is also a series
of books donated by a family in Tennessee
from the Boca Grande Land Company, with
a lot of information no one has ever heard
before about the island. These books were
an incredibly rare fi nd, and the method in
which the history center obtained them is
amazing as well.
“Family members were cleaning a relative’s
house in Tennessee and found these
cardboard boxes,” Blaha said. “When they
were looking through the boxes, they found
these books containing numerous references
to Boca Grande. Then they discovered one
of their relatives had worked for a central
Florida chemical company back in the early