The John W. Callahan

Come travel through time with me if you will.  Close your eyes and release all thought of the here and now, of current tasks to be done, of debts to be paid, of all responsibilities .... and thus open your mind for a journey into the past ... where you find yourself on the wharfs of old Apalachicola in December of 1846, a scant 167 years ago.  It is a bustling busy place with people and cargo bustling about at all hours of the day and night.  With the growing season over, the cotton harvest is flooding into port from the farms upstream.  The total will be a staggering 153,386 bales this year.  Conversations among residents and visitors are of an international flavor where French, Dutch, Spanish Native American and African American language and dialects mix with English.  The records at the Customs House document ocean going vessels visiting port this year will total 95 ships and barks, 61 brigs and 88 schooners.  As you walk along the waterfront, you overhear discussion about the arrivals and departures that take place at all hours where tide, winds and river levels are of far greater concern than the clock. 

Eleven paddlewheel steamboats navigate the waters between Apalachicola and the upriver ports of Albany on the Flint and Columbus on the Chattahoochee.   On the Apalachicola River, there are over eighty landings and on the Chattahoochee there are close to 180 landings.  As you drift among conversations, you overhear about how Captain Greer's PEYTONA, the queen of the river in 1846, which made record time in traveling upstream from Apalachicola to Columbus in 34 hours and 30 minutes, a land speed of around 7� knots which when considering current would have been more like 12 to 15.  In response you hear a comment about the FLINT, as tiny as the PEYTONA is large.  She was built in Albany with engines installed in Apalachicola and only produced 11 horsepower but it is a good bar rather than speed that brings her fame "as she bore her course onward with the dun of waters flowing underneath, there was a flow of fluid above that was of quite a different color, and though the stream was no so broad, its power was much greater.  A spirited interest was manifested by some in the success of the craft." (Apalachicola Commercial Advertiser).   Drifting along the wharfs you encounter a different conversation about the low water in the Chattahoochee River in early December where the Columbus Enquirer reported that the "River is hardly boatable yet, but with a small sprinkle more in the upcountry, it will come down booming, and our steamboat boys will have an opportunity for making up lost time, warehouses here being full and ready for shipment." 

Paddlewheel boats running the river this year are the LOTUS, CHAMPION, PEYTONA, VIOLA, MARY ANN MOORE, NOTION, BOSTON, EMILY, COLUMBUS, EUFAULA and ALBANY comprising a total cargo capacity of 2,400 tons.  Compared this to the cargo capacity of the 244 ocean going vessels entering port at 71,323 tons which is they have thirty times that of the paddlewheel river boats.  It becomes evident that many upriver trips are required to fill the holds of the international sailing ships bound for European markets.  Add to that the limited cotton harvest and shipping season of only half the year and fluctuating river conditions which limit travel, one quickly realizes that speed and the ability to haul more cotton quicker is a huge financial advantage.  The paddlewheel boats run day and night and often operate with a fire on the bow to illuminate the way adding to the adventure and perils of a river journey.  In the far off distance you hear the sounding of a steam whistle announcing another arrival into port and the stevedores transition from idle conversation to prepare for the landing.  The merchants, inspectors, creditors, dock master and Customs officer all spring to life to repeat their well-practiced roles with shouted commands as she comes onto the docks.  All conversations transition to speculation about the new arrival, her cargo and planning for the offloading and processing into the warehouses or the fleet lying at anchored in the bay. 

Let your mind's eye place you at any of the shipyards in Albany, Eufaula, Columbus or Apalachicola where Longleaf Pine planking and Live Oak framing timbers are employed by hundreds of skilled craftsmenin building new vessels to meet the burgeoning demand for cargo and passenger transportation.  Discussions among owner, designer, foreman and the many skilled shipwrights span topics from material supplies from the sawmills, steel fasteners from the mills in Columbus and boiler equipment from northern mills, to use of the adze, saw, chisel, mortise, hammer, caulking iron and cotton caulking used to form the final product.  Four boats were launched this year.  The ALBANY was launched in January at the city of that name, followed by the FLINT in April and then the SOUTHERNER.  The schooner OREGON was built in Apalachicola.  She was 70' long with a 24' beam and 5'6" draft.

Your journey continues to find you in the pilot house of the PETONA where the pilot is advising Captain Greer of the passage through the shoals at Blountstown, past Alum Bluffs and into Aspalaga landing.  On the bow a deckhand uses the lead line for measuring depth, heralding to the wheelhouse the depths marksas Captain Greer deftly maneuvers his vessel among the hazards with speed andgrace.  He sounds the steam whistle to announce arrival. With confidence and intensity he orders the boiler engineer to reduce steam and to the deck hands to make fast the lines as she comes alongside the dock to take on passengers and cargo bound for upriver destinations.  Making a hasty departure the journey is continued upstream to Coe's, Sampson's, Pank's, Ferrell's landings before arriving at the major port of Chattahoochee where General Jacksononce crossed his troops during the Seminole wars along the highland path across North Florida known as the Spanish Trail.  A bustle of excitement fills the air as this speedy traveler goes day and night to maximize profit from her travels and to traverse the river while conditions permit.

And so now, while still in this imagination state, let your mind gaze into the crystal ball to look into the future where once again graceful wooden sailing ships frequent the docks, bay and gulf.  Picture that paddlewheel transportation is once again operating between Apalachicola, Columbus and Albany.  Conjure a future where local shipwrights once again build and maintain vessels for local, upriver and international customers powered by sail and steam (and now internal combustion and perhaps one day the latest innovation, solar power).  Frame an image where experiential educational tourism is the new export of an international scope that is on a parallel with other world heritage sites accessible by the global transportation grid.  Envisage a place which beckons visitors to take a trip back in time and into the future and as they come to our coastal and river communities primarily for that new "export" on a scale surpassing that of the cotton era.  Such a utopic scene would have many benefits, among them being minimal environmental impact, heritage preservation, a sophisticated and educated populace where jobs are born from knowledge of our history and promotion of our future as one of the most unique places on the planet. Where web development skills, mathematics applied in ship building, multi lingual skills to interface with visitors from all over the planet have become the counterpart to the sophisticated populace which once managed the international export of cotton.

As we wind up this experience of time travel into the past and the future, we must return to the present.  But now with that return, you are empowered with a vision of the distant shore we seek to attain at the Apalachicola Maritime Museum.  Much of what we have written in the above paragraphs is already underway.  The AMM Wooden Boat School, directed by Ron Dierolf, a retired engineer and mathematics instructor at Gulf Coast Community College received recognition by the Florida Department of Education for work with the Project Impact after school program for the incorporation of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) as one of the three top programs in the state and has been referred to the national level for review.  We have a number of light craft and large wooden vessels currently being built and refurbished with traditional methods.  We are expanding our sailing program as a certified training program under the American Sailing Association.  We have procured the historic Yacht Basin on St. George Island which will soon become an expansion site for the AMM.  We have completed the build out of our paddling center at Breakaway Lodge where over 100 kayaks, canoes and paddle boards are available for small and large groups.  

And, of greatest significance, is the conclusion of the 18 month restoration of our 86' paddlewheel vessel that should be arriving into her new home docks in Apalachicola this month to resume commercial paddlewheel transportation between Apalachicola and Columbus after a 90 year hiatus.  Soon we will be opening our Chattahoochee location at the historic riverboat landing site on River Road.  This will become a port for the paddlewheel vessel and a launch point for downriver paddle excursions.  The Chattahoochee site is a 120 acre campus including a museum in the renovated historic commercial structure there, riverboat remains, springs, a 20 acre island in the river and a live music venue along � mile of river frontage just below the city of Chattahoochee RV park.  The reach goes all the way up the Chattahoochee River to Lake Lanier where we have a historic structure at the dam there.  We hope that you will join us on our journey as we make dreams into reality by protecting, preserving and promoting the maritime heritage, ecological treasures, archeological, commercial seafood, hunting and fishing paradise which all come together to create one of the most fantastic places on the planet.

An personal anecdote here is that my grandfather, Albert Floyd, met my grandmother, Margaret Thomas, at Chattahoochee landing in 1907.  Albert was the boiler engineer on the last steam powered paddlewheel boat, the CALLAHAN, and his father, Theodore, was the pilot.  My grandmother was traveling down from Bainbridge to meet her sister who resided in Quincy.  They went on to marry in 1917 and move into his grandfather Samuel's house in 1917.   This is the house at 145 Avenue E.  The large oaks in front were planted by my grandmother in the year they were married.  A tangible link to the past.  Samuel first came to Apalachicola in 1842 and would have known of the PETONA and experienced the scenes envisioned above.  My father, James, passed along stories from his father, Bert, about his times on the CALLAHAN enriching my life and engendering the calling that drives this Maritime Museum mission.