Birthplace of recreational boating in the South

On the Mississippi Sound, Pass Christian claims the birthplace of yachting in the South, but it turns out its claim should probably be more significant.

- TROY GILBERT

Quiet on the approach with sails full and lines tight, the sugar sands of Mississippi’s Gulf Islands do not appear much different today than when 12 yachtsmen raced wooden sloops and schooners around Cat Island on July 21, 1849. Thus began recreational boating not only on the Gulf Coast but in North America.

With roads scarce and trestled bridges over the miles of marsh and waterways non-existent, coastal Mississippi’s natural harbors and ports on the Mississippi Sound and the Gulf of Mexico were growing as lumber, fishing, and resort towns serving New Orleans and Mobile—and it was all sail-powered. Schooners, luggers, and a few new steamers made their ways along the coast and through the shallow lakes and bays interconnected by narrow passes through the marsh to deliver goods, mail, and people. Long before the first Mississippi River bridge was completed in Louisiana in 1930, even railcars hopped onto steam-powered ferries to cross the mighty river.

Wooden boat builders and shipyards peppered the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and it wasn’t uncommon to see mastless wooden sloops lowered from the upper floors of downtown New Orleans office buildings as the well to-do built small sailboats for transportation. Whether to conduct business travel or to take their families to second homes or resort hotels on the Mississippi coast and escape the heat and yellow fever epidemics that plagued the cities in the summer months, boating was a popular way of life on the Gulf Coast.