The Misadventures of the Steamer Lily White

The Misadventures of the Steamer Lily White

The steamer Lily White has its place in local Fort Myers history for bringing newspaper publishing magnet Stafford Cleveland to town in 1884. When Captain Henry L. Roan realized he had Cleveland as a passenger, with his Miehle flat-bed press, he bypassed calling on his Fort Ogden stop and went straight to Fort Myers. From that endeavor, the Fort Myers Press was born.

Sadly not all of Lily White’s history is remarkable. In the 1890s and at the turn of the 20th century, the steamboat was plagued with mishaps, from being capsized twice, seized, and burned to the water’s edge.

Two Weeks Missing 

In September 1894, reports from Key West read that a storm had “passed all and well.” A week later the Lily White, owned by Thomas Langford and James Hendry was missing. The schooner left Punta Rassa for Key West with a crew of five, two passengers, Captain Albert Griffin, and a cargo of cattle. It departed on Sunday, September 23 and “since which time nothing has been heard from her, although wreckers have searched the coast far and wide.”

Two weeks passed before she was discovered off the coast of Anastasia Island. “The steamer, May Gainer,” according to the local paper, “arrived at the shipyard dock. . . about 11 o’clock with the dismasted [sic] and disabled schooner Lily White in tow from St. Augustine. Both masts of the schooner are broken off at the deck and her rails are also broken. Her hull is all right.” The captain and crew luckily survived but the cargo of cattle died. Less than three years later she was back calling on her regular stops from Mobile, New Orleans, and ports along southwest Florida with Capt. Griffin again at the helm.

Fierce Wind Spout Capsizes Vessel 

In July 1897, the vessel met with perhaps the similar circumstances it did three years earlier. The Lily White hit a “wind spout” 30 miles out from land causing her to capsize and took the lives of passengers Nathan Swain and a sailor, Charles Shorlund. Unfortunately for Swain he was only on board the because he was ill and wanted to return home sooner.

Two steam tugs searched for the lost schooner, but failed to locate her.

T. M. Lybass, who arrived in Fort Myers on the St. Lucie shared with citizens and friends the horrors of the wreck and the amazement that some survived. Besides Swain, Shorlund, and Capt. Griffin, Sheriff T. W. Langford was on board with apprehended criminal Gabe Anderson (arrested for stealing a diamond ring) and Lybass all survived.

The local paper reported in detail the frightful disaster:

The schooner was making good headway with a strong northwest wind blowing, although the sea was very rough, sending the three Ft. Myers’ passengers below sea sick. Suddenly at about three in the afternoon a loud shout came from above for the men to get out, at the same time the ship went over like a shot. At the first warning Mr. Lybass and Nathan Swain jumped for the doorway, where they became wedged, a great suction seeming to draw them back into the cabin; after a struggle they forced their way through, followed by Sheriff Langford, who had not emerged when the cabin went under. The boat had been struck by what the sailors term a windspout [sic], a firce [sic] column of revolving air that laid low everything in its path. It came without the least warning, and there was no chance to shorten sail, and even had there been it is doubtful if the vessel would have stood the shock. This windspout [sic] was the forerunner of a severe gale that at once sprung up and kept the sea in an uproar all night.

The vessel had been completely turned over, and only her copper bottom showed on the surface.

The men frantically searched for anything they could use as a flotation. Lybass grabbed a hold of a bucket while Capt. Griffin clung to a small section of the broken tompost. The cook had noticed the life boat close by and the others swam over to it.

Yet safety was still not in their grasp. Lybass told how “the storm was raging and the sea rolling high, and night was coming on, without the sign of a sail in sight.”

The ordeal lasted three hours, but luck was on their side when they noticed strapped to the side of the lifeboat were paddles. Through the storm and afterward, the men took turns with the oars when they spotted the sail of the Lily Bird. The men had no water, no food, and had serve sunburn; enough so that “at first they had some difficulty in getting to the boat,” it was reported, “as the men [on board Lily Bird] were under the impression that they were a lot of escaped Negroes from Key West.”

After the rescue, the Lily White was spotted about 35 miles from Sand Key by Oxus, a cable ship. With a strong easterly current the vessel was drifting at five to six knots, and soon disappeared from sight heading toward the Bahama Banks - same route from its 1894 capsize. Near Key Largo she was picked up by a tug, Clyde, and returned to its home port where she was refitted.

Capt. Griffin, Sheriff Langford, Lybass, and prisoner Anderson were all commended for their bravery. The schooner Dart, which Swain was traveling on, never sighted the wreck, and the crew did not learn of the ordeal until they reached Fort Myers.

A week later, Sheriff Langford still felt the effects of the affair, but regardless he got Anderson to jail to await trail.

Lily White vs Custom Officials 

By January 1901, Lily White returned to business as usual, this time under the ownership of William Towles. The paper reported her local stops with such details as “The schooner Lily White came in port last Friday from Key West, with a lot of brick for the residence of Mr. W. H. Towles.” Sadly her bad luck had not run out. In mid January leaving Punta Rassa she was seized along with another vessel, Doctor Lykes, by the cutter, George W. McLane and towed back to Key West. It was stated the vessel had “169 demijohns of Cuban rum. . . besides a miscellaneous cargo.”

The following month the crew of Lily White appeared before U. S. Commissioner James G. Jones. Each crew member was held on $300 bonds, the vessel $3,000, the duties found on the ship were valued at $1,500. The hearing was scheduled for May.

Towles ran into difficulty trying to retrieve his vessels from U. S. custom officials. On board was material for his new residence, a large consignment of groceries for Harvie Heitman’s grocery store, and freight for George Shultz of Punta Rassa.

In mid February the Doctor Lykes was released, but not the Lily White, although part of Heitman’s goods were transfered. Towles worried more that his vessel would be sold by the government under confiscation proceedings.

Burning to the Water’s Edge 

In March 1901, the Lily White made its first trip since being seized. She left Key West for Punta Rassa to transport cattle. Later in the month, Towles took his vessel to Tampa to be completely refitted. It would be three months before she returned to the open waters where she would sail for another nine years without incident.

Yet bad luck reared itself one last time. The headline in the local paper ran “The Schooner Lily White a Total Wreck - The Cause of Accident Not Known.” While docked at the Gulf Refining Company in late December 1910, a 50-gallon drum of gasoline exploded during the night. Two people were reported dead and two others were listed in serious condition at Gordon Keller Memorial Hospital. As for the schooner, it was “wrecked and sank to the bottom almost immediately.”

Her days of plying the waters along southwest Florida are long gone, but the community of Fort Myers will always remember Lily White’s claim to fame being that one passenger who brought the news of the world to their doorsteps.