Deadliest Florida maritime incident of WWII off Jupiter

Gulfland burning off Jupiter 1943
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

 

By Jane Feehan

From 1942 to 1943, German U-boats sank more than 600 merchant ships off the U.S. East Coast. According to writer and Florida-during-World War II historian Eliot Kleinberg, 16 ships were sunk during the war off Florida between Cocoa Beach and Boca Raton.

The Florida maritime incident during the war that claimed the most lives, however, did not involve a U-boat.

Eighty-eight of 116 crewmen perished when two tankers collided off Jupiter Inlet October 20, 1943. The ships were running in opposite directions off Jupiter’s coastal bulge with lights out under war conditions. The Gulf Belle, emptied of cargo, and the Gulfland, heavy with a shipment of high octane fuel, ran into each other without warning; collision was followed by a fiery explosion seen from land.

Gulfland towed to Hobe Sound and sank
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory 

The Coast Guard Temporary Reserve, with its flotilla of cabin cruisers and fishing boats, responded to the emergency and saved 28 from both ships. A small dog was rescued from an engine room of one of tankers.  The Gulf Belle was towed into port where bodies of the crew were removed. The Gulfland burned for weeks in Hobe Sound and then sank.

____________ 

Sources:

Palm Beach Post, Oct. 24, 1943

Palm Beach Post, Apr. 23, 1944.

Tags: Maritime incident, Florida in WWII, Jupiter maritime incident, Jupiter history

WWII German ship crew finds refuge, cigars and a few beers in Port Everglades

SS Arauca from NavSource.org

By Jane Feehan

Port Everglades once played host to German cargo ship, Arauca, as a result of World War II hostilities. The ship set sail on its maiden voyage before England (and France) declared war on Germany Sept. 3, 1939.

After leaving Mexico, Arauca was sighted and chased by British cruiser Orion off Florida’s coast December 19, 1939. One shot was fired over the bow of Arauca in a maneuver meant to drive it beyond the neutral sea limit. Instead, the German ship, in a pursuit witnessed by many on Fort Lauderdale’s shores, found refuge in neutral Port Everglades.

The crew was confined primarily to Arauca until shortly after the U.S. entered the war in December, 1941; their stay in Fort Lauderdale was not entirely gloomy. One newspaper reported the Rotary Club sent cigars and magazines to the German sailors for their first Christmas in Port Everglades. Another account reports the German crew met the crew of British Merchant Marine vessel, the Harburton, at a “small tavern just off the docks” for a few beers.

Pleasantries ended after Dec. 7, 1941. President Roosevelt, who sailed into Port Everglades aboard his yacht Potomac in March, 1941, ordered German, Italian and Danish ships in U.S. ports to be seized. The crew of the Arauca was sent to Fort Lincoln in North Dakota and then Ellis Island for confinement until war’s end.

But what of the Arauca? Seized by the U.S. government, it was commissioned by the U.S. Navy as a cargo ship, the USS Saturn, to deliver supplies along the east coast. Soon after, it was reclassified and participated in the European theater. The USS Saturn received one battle star for service during the invasion of France. It was turned over to the Maritime Administration in 1946 and remained in its reserve fleet until 1972 when it was sold to a Spanish company and then scrapped.

For more on Port Everglades, see: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2021/02/bay-mabel-harbor-now-port-everglades.html

Copyright © 2020, 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan
_______

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

Miami News, Dec. 23, 1939

Palm Beach Post, Feb. 23, 1940

www.navsource.org

Tags: Fort Lauderdale in the 40s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, Fort Lauderdale during WWII, Fort Lauderdale history, history of Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale High School known as Flying Ls 1918

 

Fort Lauderdale Herald, Apr. 21, 1922

Bottom row: Students Burwall, Baker, Marsha II, Matthews, Johnson

Top row: Stuart, Clinton, Gordon, Dichtenmueller and Coach Prescott

Fort Lauderdale High, founded in 1915, became known as the "Flying Ls"  when its track team uniforms first displayed the name in 1918. The photo above is from the Fort Lauderdale Herald in 1922 when Flying Ls regularly earned front page coverage. The school retains its 1918 moniker today.

For more on Fort Lauderdale High School and how they got the name, Flying Ls, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/10/fort-lauderdale-flying-ls-fun-facts-and.html

Yesterday's Casino pool and today's Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center

            Florida State Archives

 

By Jane Feehan

The Las Olas Beach Casino and Pool, first built about 1915, attracted both pool swimmers and day trippers to the beach. The wooden structure underwent replacement in 1927 with a Mediterranean building designed by Fort Lauderdale architect Francis Abreu. The municipal complex included an Olympic-size pool 60 by 165 feet, and three to 12 feet in depth. The $125,000 structure officially opened Jan. 29, 1928.

A story in the Fort Lauderdale Daily News (Nov. 24, 1941) claimed “the pool is filled several times weekly with 420,000 gallons of filtered salt water pumped by three wells from more than 20 feet of rock and shell and sand. The chlorinating system is one of the best in the south.” The municipal building also included a wading pool for children and hundreds of lockers for visitors.

The same story touted the Las Olas Beach Casino and Pool as the “training ground of champions as well as one of the finest pools in the south.” It also hosted an annual national aquatic forum, which drew “the country’s outstanding swimmers and divers from schools and colleges in every corner of the land … [it] is a dripping wet trial session for pet strokes, new dives, water ballets and other natatorial kinks.”

Casino Pool 1966

The building sat just south of Las Olas Boulevard. It was demolished in 1965 to make way for new development. That year the buzz in town:  Fort Lauderdale was to be the "Swimming capital of the world."

The International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF), constructed a block or two west of the old Casino, was dedicated in 1965. The swim meet in December 1966 drew more than 2,000 participants. CBS sports was on hand to broadcast the event, "a CBS Sports Spectacular."

The pool area is now known as the  Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center. It was extensively renovated and opened January 2023. Work to re-build the International Swimming Hall of Fame began early 2025 and is expected to be completed 2028. It will stand as two towers flanking each side of the pool.

  

It has been a long time since the city was the "swimming capital of the world" or was the site of a televised "sports spectacular." 

Copyright © 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

https://www.parks.fortlauderdale.gov/beach/aquatics/fort-lauderdale-aquatic-complex

CBS and international swimming:

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/09/17/cbs-sports-international-swimming-league-october-16/

Other sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 29, 1928

Miami Herald, March 8, 1965

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 25, 1966

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 18, 2025.

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, swimming history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, Florida history, architect Francis Abreu, film research

Florida State Archive/Florida Memories - mid century

Fishing: Three hours catch in Fort Lauderdale

 

Three Hours Catch. Fort Lauderdale is Indeed The Fisherman's Paradise

This photo made front page of the weekly Fort Lauderdale Herald, Feb. 14, 1919. Movers and shakers and journalists of the time never let an opportunity pass for promoting their new city (incorporated in 1911). The photo above was taken about two years after a bridge was built to the beach at Las Olas Boulevard.

Other news printed on the same page: bids going out for carrying mail to the Glades, an experiment station deemed necessary for the Glades, delegates appointed to the League of Nations, and a Lauderdale lot as an anglers' prize. 

The fish above ... barracuda, wahoo or ...?

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, old Fort Lauderdale, early days of Fort Lauderdale, fishing in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale fishing history

Bonnet House: a slice of early Fort Lauderdale, art and whimsy

 

Entrance with fish sign
of welcome 

Bonnet House

900 North Birch Road
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304
954-563-6393
BonnetHouse.org


By Jane Feehan

Visitors to and residents of South Florida who are interested in seeing a slice of early Florida - before condos took command of the skyline - may be interested in the Bonnet House Museum and Gardens.

Named for Bonnet lilies on its freshwater slue (where swans live today) and listed on the 

National Register of Historic Places.

Bonnet House sits atop a natural Florida habitat on Fort Lauderdale’s coastal barrier island. It's bordered on the west by the Intracoastal Waterway near Sunrise Boulevard. The house was designed by Chicagoan Frederic Clay Bartlett (1873-1953), artist, art collector and one time son-in-law of Fort Lauderdale pioneer Hugh Taylor Birch.

Birch gave 35 acres of his beach holdings to Bartlett when he married his daughter, Helen Birch, in 1919. Work began on the estate in 1920 but ceased in 1925 when Helen died. Bartlett married Evelyn Fortune Lilly in 1931 and resumed construction on the property, which became their winter home.

In 1983, thirty years after Frederic died, Evelyn gifted the house and gardens to the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation (Bonnet House, Inc. bought the house back from the Trust in 2020 for about $886,000). She lived until a few months before her 110th birthday in 1997. 

The house, built around an expansive rectangular tropical courtyard, is filled with Bartlett’s works and objets d'art from world travels. Bonnet House’s eclectic, whimsical décor sets it apart from other early Florida estates. It’s well worth the $20 or so for an hour and a half guided tour. A golf cart ride throughout the grounds is provided for an additional $2. The site is teaming with wildlife, including an Osprey family. Call for hours. Local, senior, and children’s discounts are available.

For more on Hugh Taylor Birch, see index.

Lily pond at Bonnet House

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, places to see in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale sightseeing, South Florida history, artists in Florida, National Historic Register of Historic Places, Hugh Taylor Birch, film research 

Florida shows signs of growth and development in the 1940s

Scenic New River Fort Lauderdale 1948
Florida State Archives

In June 1945, the final official Florida State Census revealed the following about Florida and a few of its counties:

Florida population in 1945 was at 2,247,039, an increase of 349,624 over the 1940 census and  640,196 more than the Census of 1930. (In 1830 there were 34,730 residents in the state.)

Broward population in 1945 reached 50,442 compared to 39,794 in 1940.

The five largest counties, ranked from the top: Dade, Duval, Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk. Palm Beach County was 119 people short of being ranked ahead of Polk.

South Florida counties gained three House of Representative seats at the expense of North Florida. Those were: Brevard, Lee and Sarasota. Northern counties that lost representation and became one-seat counties were: Madison, Putnam and Suwannee.

The biggest population increases in Florida were in counties where there were military installations and new war industries. Broward's golden decade of growth was five or six years away.

Source:

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, June 11, 1945

U,S. Census

Tags: History of Fort Lauderdale, Florida population in 1940s, Broward County population in the 1940s, Broward Ciunty history, Fort Lauderdale history