San Salvador Island, of Lucayans, pirates, Columbus, and a priest

 

User: Jamaicajoe at wikivoyage shared, CC BY-SA 3.0 
 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SanSalvador_map.jpg

By Jane Feehan

Aspects of South Florida history and that of The Bahamas often connect our news and events, our culture and people. It’s why a few posts about Bimini appear in this blog.

Recently I met a few Fort Lauderdale residents either from or who have visited San Salvador Island, about 380 miles southeast of Miami. This 12-mile long, five-mile-wide island is home to fewer than 1,000 residents.

San Salvador’s history is intriguing. A consensus of historians and geographers point to San Salvador as the probable site of the first landfall in the Americas of explorer and mapmaker Christopher Columbus.

After leaving the Canary Islands September 6, 1492 Columbus reached what he thought was Asia on October 12, 1492. “He saw, as the day dawned, a level island…covered with trees.”  A crew member later described the place as having “very green trees and much water.” 

Curious but peaceful Lucayan Arawak Indians greeted the European visitors. They called their home Guanahani ("small land in upper waters"); Columbus renamed it San Salvador, meaning Holy Savior.

Columbus continued to travel westward seeking riches not found in San Salvador Island. The Lucayan population, decimated by European disease and hardships imposed by European slavery, disappeared in less than 30 years. The Spanish never populated San Salvador and abandoned it.

Island history thereafter is about others seeking opportunities, including English pirates.

Pirate George (or John) Watling operated briefly from San Salvador in 1680, making part of his fortune through “wrecking.” He and his men intentionally caused ships to run aground leaving crew and cargo vulnerable to murder and plunder. (Wrecking in early Florida meant salvaging crew and cargo and selling or keeping cargo when they could and by consent. At times wrecking was the main source of income among settlers.)

Though Watling pirated in and around San Salvador in 1680, he died in Peru in 1681 in an unsucessful mission. He left quite a reputation; the island was referred to as Watling’s (or Watling) Island for nearly 300 years. There was plenty of news about Watling Island in the 1800s. Newspapers in London published dispatches from the island after hurricanes as well as frequent reinsurance notices after ships wrecked off the island.

Watling Island, along with its neighboring 700 islands of The Bahamas (baja mar means shallow sea in Spanish) became a British colony in 1718. The Bahamas gained independence July 10, 1973.

And when and why was the island renamed San Salvador? The story goes back about 100 years and resulted from the efforts of Father Chrysostom Schreiner, the first permanent Catholic priest (Benedictine Order) assigned to The Bahamas. He arrived in Nassau in 1891. For years he researched the history of the 1492 Columbus landing.

Controversy swirled around the site of landfall for years. Some researchers used incorrect maps in pinpointing the site. Others, such as Captain A. B. Beecher R.N. Polter, consulted journals Christoher Columbus left and was convinced the journals, not the maps, were correct. His book, The Landfall of Columbus on his First Voyage, published in 1856, details his research and conclusions.  Even American writer and historian Washington Irving (1783-1859) jumped into the debate claiming Cat Island, 57 miles northwest, was the actual landing site. (Cat Island is site of the tallest point in The Bahamas—about 204 feet.)

Father Chrysostom moved to San Salvador in his later years* where he died in 1928, but not before convincing the Parliament of The Bahamas to change the name and encouraging recognition of the island as “one of the most important shrines in the world.”

The Parliament of The Bahamas recognized his efforts with Act. No 27 of 1926 ( from Bahamas Laws Portal) that states: "Cat Island to be referred to as Cat Island. The island now known as Watlings Island to be referred to as San Salvador or Watling Island.”

Common use won. We know this tiny island today as San Salvador Island.

A note for visitors

Visitors these days stay at several places, including Riding Rock Inn Resort and Marina.

Scuba diving enthusiasts explore San Salvador’s underwater caves and caverns. Anglers laud its fishing; the International Game Fishing Association noted a record wahoo catch—155 pounds—in 1990.

Points of interest:

Capital of San Salvador: Cockburn Town (pronounced Coburn). One of the smallest towns in The Bahamas

Churches: Holy Saviour Roman Catholic Church, St. Augustine’s Anglican Church

San Salvador Museum (former jail)

New World Museum

Dripping Rock Cave

Father Schreiner’s Grave

Dixon Hill Lighthouse

Ruins of Watling’s Castle (authenticity in doubt; Watling most likely did not live there)

Christopher Columbus Statues

San Salvador may be small, but it holds historical significance and offers a singular Bahamian experience.

======

 * Father Chrysostom’s research about The Bahamas was entered into the Catholic Encyclopedia. 

Unrelated but interesting: The first plane (Rogers Airline out of Miami) to fly into San Salvador arrived in 1927. The pilot stopped to refuel while on a project to build wireless installations in The Bahamas. Father Chrysostom and a commissioner were taken on a brief flight over the island, perhaps the first residents to fly over San Salvador.

Note: An internet search on San Salvador without also using “island,” will often produce entries for the capital of El Salvador in Central America.

 Copyright © 2026. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Howard, Blair. Visitor’s Guide to The Bahamas. Published in Orlando: 2013 (no other publishing information in book)

Kelly, Michael James, San Salvador. Chicago: American Popular Publication Co. 1892

Ramsey, Peter. A History of the Bahamas. Published in Orlando (no other publishing information): 2025.

The Illustrated London News, Oct. 22, 1842

The Times, Nov. 8, 1843 (London)

The Guardian, Nov. 15, 1845 (London)

Daily News, Aug. 23, 1856 (London)

The Guardian, May 21, 1906 (London)

The Daily Telegraph, Sept. 26, 1908 (London)

The Daily Telegraph, May 5, 1920 (London)

Salt Lake Tribune, May 26, 1925

The Daily Telegraph, Aug. 9,1926 (London)

The Herald, Jan. 29, 1928 (Miami)

The Miami Herald, July 18, 2002

https://www.bahamashistorythroughmaps.com/

https://islandmapstore.com/2021/01/san-salvador/

 

 

Tags: The Bahamas, San Salvador Island, Father Chrysostom Schreiner, Christopher Columbus landing, fishing, scuba diving

Arthur Burns "Pappy" Chalk and Chalk's Flying Service, once oldest in the world

Chalk's seaplane landing 1974
 State of Florida Archives

 

By Jane Feehan

The history of his eponymous airline is better known than the personal story of Arthur Burns “Pappy” Chalk. A look back at decades of articles, want ads and his obituary fills in some of the gaps in his background while raising contradictions. His choppy personal and career history suits a timeline presentation rather than a narrative format. The A.B. Chalk story—gaps and all—remains an interesting one.

1889 – Arthur Burns Chalk was born in Illinois. One Miami obituary claims wanderlust prompted him at 11-years old to move to Paducah, Kentucky. Wanderlust probably didn’t claim him. There were a few people named Chalk in Paducah at that time; some were elected officials. Someone he knew lived there, father or other relative maybe?

1911 – Chalk reportedly operated an automobile garage service in Paducah. He learned to fly after Tony Janus, a “dare devil” pilot, gave Chalk a flying lesson in return for a plane repair. Chalk “flew as an amateur” for five years.

1916 – Chalk moved to Miami – probably with his mother, “Mrs. E.J. Chalk,” and two sisters. They lived on NE 23^rd Street. Nothing was in the news about Chalk that year. Some accounts say he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War I but returned after a short stint because of a “disability.” Wikipedia reports he flew for the Army Air Service.

1917 – A.B. Chalk’s name begins appearing in Miami newspapers. He informally launched his flying service in July that year at the end of Flagler Street “under an umbrella.” Columbian airline Avancia once claimed it was the oldest airline in the world, also established in 1917. Chalk’s by some accounts, began a few months earlier. (Some say KLM is now the oldest existing airline.)

1918 - Chalk had also been operating a garage for car repair as he launched flying service. A classified ad introduces his shop, a “first class auto repairing” service at 1508 Avenue D in Miami. It read:

Attention – Arthur B. Chalk, formerly foreman of the mechanical department of Dixie Highway Garage has bought the Seminole Garage at 1508 Avenue D. We announce a policy of efficient, careful attention to all makes of automobiles … free air and water can be obtained in front of the garage – no inconvenience of driving inside.

1918 – Another classified ad by Chalk offers a Cole 7-passenger (car), a bargain, phone 643

1919 – Chalk’s Flying Service begins “boat plane” flights between Miami and Bimini

1920 – Chalk moves his flying operation to Watson Island (near MacArthur Causeway) where his company remained until after his death. In the early days, he offered sightseeing flights for $5 and flying lessons for $15 an hour.

Chalk's Flying Service
       Watson Island circa 1920
State of Florida Archives

1920 – Automobiles became ubiquitous and provided Chalk a steady income through repairs and sales. He advertises cars and planes for sale at his now-named Royal Palm Garage on Avenue D:

One Curtis F Flying boat for $1,500. Includes flying instructions

One 1920 5-passenger Maxwell for $1,000

One 7-passenger Hudson with wire wheels for $2,000

1923, February – Chalk aborts his flying boat takeoff with two passengers after hitting a “porpoise” in Biscayne Bay. He delayed the flight to repair holes left in the pontoons after the incident.

1923, August – Chalk and a mechanic announce a plan via Miami news outlets to fly across the country to Seattle. On the itinerary is a stop in St. Louis to enter an international air race representing Miami. They discuss plans to remove pontoons from their flying boat and install landing gear. There is no other information on this trip or race in either Miami or St. Louis newspapers. Perhaps they had problems installing landing gear?

1924 – Chalk's Flying Service picks up movie director Alan Crosland in Nassau for a flight to Miami. His company gains notice. The airline grows its business by flying big game anglers to Bimini.

1928 – A piece appears in the Miami Herald about Chalk and “aviation enthusiast” J.R. Lilly of Chicago discovering a toothpick in the engine of a plane that crashed and killed its pilot off Melbourne Beach. They thought the toothpick was used to determine fuel flow and was mistakenly left in the engine. The news is noteworthy for two reasons: One that Chalk was known to the press (as referred to then) as an aviation expert and two, that he operated a school, Chalk’s School of Aviation off County Causeway (MacArthur Causeway).

1920-1933 – Prohibition years. Some sources report Chalk made money smuggling large hauls of alcohol to the U.S. from the Bahamas. This is not verified. His obituary reported long-time business partner Dean Franklin said Chalk made money during Prohibition, but it was from flying bootleggers to the Bahamas and at times, revenue agents on the hunt for bootleggers. (No comment.)

1932 – Chalk married Georgia native, Lillie Mae, who ran his business with an iron hand until her death in 1964. Her maiden name did not appear in local obituaries. She was known as “the energetic figure who ran the world’s smallest international air depot.”

1936 – Chalk and Lillie Mae built the airline’s office by hand with coral rock at Watson Island.

1966 – Chalk “sold the airline to a friend” but remained active in operations until 1975. He claimed his airfield was the smallest port of entry in the United States.

1977 – Arthur Burns “Pappy” Chalk fell out of a tree while attempting to trim branches. He died May 26 at age 88 of complications (broken hip) from the fall. He and Lillie Mae did not have children together but she had a son from an earlier marriage. They also helped raise two of Chalk’s nephews.

Chalk owned and operated his airline without fatalities for 50 years. Chalk’s was later bought by Resorts International who flew passengers to its hotel in the Bahamas. The airline was moved to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport for security reasons after September 11, 2001. A fatal accident occurred in 2005 and its license was revoked in 2007.

Note: Yes, that was a Chalk's seaplane in the opening scenes of the 1970s TV series, Miami Vice.

 Copyright © 2022. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami Herald, Sept. 6, 1918

Miami News, Oct. 7, 1918

Miami Herald, Oct. 29, 1918

Miami Herald, July 8, 1920

Miami News Feb. 9, 1923

Miami News, Aug. 23, 1923

Miami Daily News and Metropolis, May 24, 1924

Miami Herald, March 1, 1928

Miami News, June v10, 1964

Miami Herald, May 27, 1977

Miami News, May 26, 1977

Florida State Archives

Wikipedia

Tags: Miami airlines history, Chalk's Flying Service, Aviation history, Arthur Burns "Pappy" Chalk, Miami history, The Bahamas

Aeromarine Airways launches flying boat service in 1920s: breakfast in Miami, lunch in Nassau, dinner in Palm Beach?

 

Flying boat used by Aeromarine in 1920
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Flying boats. Flying luxury boats. That’s how Miami reporters described the new passenger planes of Aeromarine Airways in 1922.  One headline in the Miami Herald teased readers with the idea of “breakfast in Miami, luncheon in Nassau …. and dinner in Palm Beach.” The idea could be transformed into reality by the airline.

Described as “a Pullman on wings,” the planes offered writing and card tables, a bathroom and individual seats and windows.  Music was played from a radio to a loudspeaker in the cabin, which carried only 11 passengers. The planes, powered by two 400-H Liberty engines, were flown by two pilots and guided by one “radio man.”

A reporter described ascent from the water into the air as a swift, smooth glide to an altitude of 100-500 feet. Forty minutes later they viewed the clear waters (and large fish) of Bimini. After a 2.5-hour flight the flying boat landed in waters off Nassau, 187 miles from Miami.

Aeromarine Sightseeing and Navigation Company merged with Florida West Indies Airways (among the first to fly U.S. international passenger flights) in 1920 or 1921 (reports vary) to form Aeromarine Airways with a Miami office at 28 North Bayshore Drive. 

The new company acquired the old FWIA Key West to Havana mail route. Mail routes were contracted with and paid for by the United States Postal Service, providing most of the capital for the early passenger airline industry.  Aeromarine Airways’ maiden flight took place from Miami to Bimini in late 1920 or early 1921 (accounts vary) on the Christopher. 

The company's  fleet of 27 aircraft, manufactured in Keyport NJ, bore names of historic explorers or their ships (think Nina, Columbus, Santa Maria and Balboa). Aeromarine had flown much of the eastern seaboard area before the Florida initiative.

Flights were a hit with many in Florida, including a few in the movie/entertainment industry. The Miami News reported a film crew producing a movie for Paramount Studios took a trip from Miami to Nassau for the project. Another story featured an onboard party for a famous French dancer. It was probably the first time a chef whipped up and served a fancy inflight meal (excluding dirigible flights) for guests.

Cost? About $30-$80 a ticket depending on one way or roundtrip fare and whether to the Bahamas, Key West or to Havana. 

Company President Charles F. Redden and his colleagues proposed big plans for Aeromarine. They hoped for service between New York and Miami (only 20 hours!) and Miami and Havana. Redden visualized Miami as a “mammoth” transportation hub not unlike some in Europe. The company planned to build a flying boat with four engines for 26 passengers and a cabin twice the size as was in service. Not all came to fruition, but they did tout new technology that was deployed to enhance safety: a large signal kite equipped with a radio aerial that could expand the area to call for help in an emergency.

Though Aeromarine could boast about a stellar safety record before Florida, an accident occurred in the Florida Straits January 13, 1923. The Columbus experienced engine failure and crashed into the seas with 10 to 12-foot waves flooding the hull. Four people died; a ferry, the H.M. Flagler, rescued four or five including two pilots.

The accident, however, did not spell the end of Aeromarine Airways by 1924. The freeze or cancellation of their valuable mail route contracts did.  The name was not forgotten. Aeromarine West Indies was incorporated in Florida in  2007.

 Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami Herald, Dec. 2, 1920

Miami News, Dec. 14, 1922

The Herald, Dec. 31, 1922

Miami News, Jan. 15, 1923

Miami News, Jan. 30, 1923

Miami News, Jan. 31, 1923

Miami News, Feb. 12, 1923

Miami News, April 19, 1923

Miami News, Nov. 13, 1924

Miami Herald, Dec. 20, 1924

Miami News, June 22, 1925

Wikipedia

 Tags: Aviation history, Transportation history, Miami history, flying boats, The Bahamas

Prohibition and the only legal hanging in Fort Lauderdale

Building circled  Coast Guard site of
Alderman
hanging 1929
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Rum running from The Bahamas to southeast Florida seemed an adventurous profession during Prohibition (1920-1933). That perception changed for South Floridians in 1927 when a federal agent and two U.S. Coast Guarders were murdered at sea after chasing down a boat carrying rum.

Aug. 7, 1927, Secret Service Agent Robert K. Webster was on his way to Bimini aboard Cutter 249 from U.S. Coast Guard Base Six in Fort Lauderdale to investigate a counterfeiting ring. Along the way, he and the crew stopped a suspicious-looking boat skippered by James Horace Alderman. 

Alderman and his mate, Robert Weech, denied they had liquor, but 160 cases--a small load--were found. After they were arrested and brought on board the cutter, Alderman found a gun and shot Webster and Boatswain Sidney Sanderlin in the back, severely wounded Machinist Victor Lamby (who died later that day) and shot cook Jodie Hollingsworth (who survived).  Alderman told the remaining Coast Guard crew he was going to take them out to the Gulfstream and make them jump into the sea. Weech broke a fuel line and threw a match into the patrol boat but it failed to ignite.

The Coast Guard crew managed to subdue the rumrunners when their boat wouldn’t start. With assistance from Base Six, the surviving Coast Guarders brought the two back to Fort Lauderdale where they were charged with piracy and murder.

It took two years to convict the rumrunners; Weech testified against Alderman and received a sentence of a year and a day. Alderman was sentenced to death by hanging. A new federal piracy law of the time required that the death sentence be carried out in the port city the “pirate” was brought. Broward County did not want to perform the execution, so the Coast Guard agreed to carry out the sentence.

While incarcerated, Alderman found religion and wrote a book about his life. His wife appealed to the White House for executive clemency three times but was denied (or ignored). As the hanging day approached, the media were blocked from covering the event.

A few civilians and Dr. Elliot M. Hendricks, a Fort Lauderdale physician and Public Health Service and Quarantine Officer for Coast Guard Base Six, witnessed the execution at the base’s seaplane hangar Aug. 17, 1929. It stands as the only legal hanging ever held in Broward County.

Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

_______

Sources:

Miami News, Aug. 16, 1929 

Miami News, Aug. 17, 1929

Miami News, Aug. 9, 1929.

Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2005.

Weiding, Philip and Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1966.

Willoughby, Malcom, Commander USCGR. Rum War at Sea. U.S Government Printing Office, 1964.

Tags: Florida Prohibition history, Fort Lauderdale Prohibition history, Fort Lauderdale history, Florida history Fort Lauderdale, rum runners, bootleggers, film researcher, The Bahamas

Bruce Stanley Bethel, Bimini Rum King

Barely visible, Bimini is in The Bahamas
West District
40 miles off Florida

By Jane Feehan

Prohibition (1920-1933) proved to be a financial boon to organized crime as well as to the adventurous. Illicit liquor trafficking also benefited The Bahamas where much of it was traded and stored before it made its way to the speakeasies, warehouses and alcove hideaways along the South Florida coast.

About forty miles off Miami lies the small island of Bimini, part of the Bahamian archipelago. Today it is known more for its game fishing opportunities than for its role during the Prohibition era when its dangerous shoals provided cover for smugglers. Before the 1920s, island inhabitants made a subsistence living off the “wracks” or wrecks of ships that met their demise atop those shoals.

Bimini shoreline
Florida State Archives

After 1920, things changed with Bruce Stanley Bethel, a quiet, retired British soldier. A polite man who was said to have attended church regularly, “Bethel of Bimini” helped island inhabitants, mostly blacks, make a comfortable living from the brisk export liquor trade. A veteran beset with debilitating war wounds, Bethel welcomed smugglers with a few heavily padlocked warehouses of liquor. His business was licensed.

A long, spindly dock made of twisted mangrove roots pointed the way to the first of several warehouses

NASA photo of the boomerang-shaped island

Bethel built for the liquid gold.  Some said the amount of liquor stored there was impressive—enough to “bewilder the mind.” A bar was installed in the first one, where conviviality reigned and customers were encouraged by one of Bethel’s minions (he rarely entered the warehouses) to sample rather than buy. Today we’d call that good marketing.

Bethel probably picked up some of his marketing skills in Nassau where he and his brother operated a liquor store. When the Volstead Act of 1919 opened the window to Prohibition, Bethel saw opportunity. He reportedly looked at a map and pointed to the boomerang-shaped Bimini. A supply of liquor close to the Florida coast could reap profits. He loaded up two chartered schooners with liquor and set sail for the tiny island. The liquor salesman opened a business within hours of his arrival.  Within a few years, Bethel’s prestige among the island’s 300-500 British subjects was rivaled only by that of its resident commissioner.

Besides building warehouses, Bethel converted a concrete ship, the SS Sapona into a warehouse. He purchased the ship from Miami Beach developer Carl G. Fisher in 1924. Its engines were stripped out and sold; Bethel had the ship towed to Bimini where he used it for liquor storage. It sunk in the hurricane of 1926. Rather than serving as a tangible reminder of rum running days,  the old ship today serves as an artificial reef, attracting divers from around the world. (For years it was used for military target practice; most of the concrete on its hull is gone.)

A case of liquor from one of those warehouses purchased for $18 could be sold as high as $100 in Florida. By 1928, Bethel estimated that he had sold more than $3 million – at island prices – of liquor.  

But, in a few short years it was over for Bimini.  Traffic had shifted, according to W.T. Cleare, the island’s commissioner, to Gun Cay. The glory of Bimini as smugglers’ paradise faded into history. Bruce Stanley Bethel died penniless in 1950.

Sources:

The New York Times, Aug. 5, 1925.

The New York Times, 18, 1928.

www.concreteships.org

Tags: Florida rum running days, Prohibition and The Bahamas, smugglers in Bimini, Bimini bootleggers, Bruce Stanley Bethel, historical researcher, Florida film researcher, SS Sapona, The Bahamas