Photo courtesy William E. Wilson Collection, Historic Mobile Preservation Society
Bay boats were integral to life on Mobile Bay for years. The below photograph pictures one such bay boat, The Baldwin, sitting dockside. Belonging to Magnolia Spring Transportation Company, the vessel began its service on July 23, 1905, starting out on Fish River. At the time, the boat was the only sternwheeler (a steamboat that is propelled by a paddle wheel at the stern) serving Magnolia River, Fish River and Weeks Bay. Along its route, it also made frequent stops to the Silverhill landing, Point Clear wharves and Zundel’s; the latter was one of the longest wharves on the shore. The boat also delivered the mail to these areas. The Baker Towboat Company bought The Baldwin in 1911; it was then transferred to service the Mobile, Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers as a tugboat. The Baldwin was still in use in 1946 when the company went out of business. Records do not indicate what happened to it after the 1940s.
“…On [the North Wharf in Point Clear] trestle there were tracks on which one of the last horse-drawn street cars from Mobile was used to transport passengers from the boat to the hotel. By this means they could reach their destination sooner than if they had remained on the boat to go around the point to the hotel wharf.”
– an excerpt from the “Bay Boats and Their Captains”
chapter of “Battles Wharf and Point Clear” by Florence
and Richard Scott
By the Numbers
170
The number of people on The Baldwin’s Grand Excursion to Fort Morgan in 1909. Held by the Fairhope Christian Endeavor Society, the trip was “a rousing success,” with tours of the fort and free hot coffee with a picnic lunch.
3
The number of days a week the bay boats would make a roundtrip in the early years. As the years went on and the Eastern Shore’s population increased, the boats transitioned to daily roundtrips.
31
The nautical miles on Magnolia Springs’ boat mail route. The U.S. Postal Service’s Magnolia Star River Route is the only year-round boat mail service of its kind that remains in operation in the United States.
50 cents
The average Saturday evening fare for a roundtrip journey from Mobile to the Eastern Shore on a bay boat in the early 1900s. On travel days during the week, the price was listed as 25-35 cents, “according to landing.”
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