Kudzu Queen
By the time one reaches middle age, a look in life’s rearview mirror all too often reveals a landscape littered with broken and withered dreams. How rare and wonderful it is to find someone whose lifelong dream has actually flowered and bloomed. How even more rare and wonderful it is to find that someone is willing to share her dream with others. Such is the story of Joshua, Mobile’s official tall ship.
This figurative dream began with a literal dream. When Carol Bramblett was 6-years-old, the Muscle Shoals girl had a dream one night that she was sailing a big, magnificent boat. In her dream, the boat was named Joshua. Time clicked on by, as time will. An adult Carol Bramblett found herself in Mobile, working as an engineering model builder for International Paper. Thirteen more years elapsed. International Paper suffered a downturn. Carol watched as co-workers lost their jobs and relocated. When the axe fell on Carol’s job, “I decided I wasn’t going anywhere,” she recalled. “I decided it was time to start building Joshua.”
Carol enlisted a small-but-dedicated crew of kindred spirits, including good friend Cindy Frank, and Joshua’s keel was laid on Nov. 14, 1993. Making Joshua a reality was a hands-on experience that lasted nine-and-a-half years, and which weathered a variety of adversities. At one point, the partially constructed boat had to be moved. Gene Everett Zirlott, an early Joshua enthusiast, died in 1997. Finances were an ongoing concern.
“Physically, the crew built Joshua themselves,” recalled Captain Tom Torbert. “The masts were telephone poles, at one point.” Regarding financial difficulties, Captain Tom remembered, “It takes money to build a boat. Captain Carol and Captain Cindy would build with the money they had. Then the money would run out and they’d have to stop building to make some more money before they could build more.”
Captain Carol recalled: “We didn’t have deep pockets. Sometimes, we didn’t even have pockets.”
Captain Carol’s nearly decade-long labor of love finally paid off. Joshua was commissioned Oct. 19, 2002. Joshua is a 26-ton schooner. Its length overall is 72 feet, with 32 feet of deck space. Joshua is licensed to carry 49 passengers. The ship operates from Marriott’s Grand Hotel, the Fly Creek Café on the eastern shore of the bay, and Grand Mariner Marina on Dog River in Mobile. Joshua is available for charters and for regularly scheduled 2.5-3 hour cruises. But do not make the mistake of thinking this is a mere sailboat. Joshua is as near to a time-travel vessel as you are ever likely to encounter.
“Joshua was built along the lines of schooners which plied these waters from the 1880s to the 1930s,” explained Captain Cindy. “The schooners were used for oystering and for hauling lumber and watermelons.” The Joshua crew is planning to make a watermelon run in the summer of 2007. Captain Cindy added that back in the heyday of the schooners, Mobilians would take boat rides to relax and to combat the oppressive summer heat. “It was 20 degrees cooler across the bay, under the oaks,” Captain Cindy noted.
This Sept. 27, at 5 p.m., Joshua slipped gracefully out of Grand Mariner Marina with 35 souls aboard. The occasion was a memorial sail to commemorate those unfortunates who lost their lives in the devastating1906 hurricane. As hurricanes were not assigned names in 1906, this catastrophic event is generally referred to as the ‘06 storm. The storm laid waste the Gulf Coast. The maelstrom came roaring ashore on Sept. 27, 1906 with winds between 120-130 mph. Barometric pressure was a then record low of 28.84 millibars.
Captain Warren Norville had family living in Pilot Town during the ‘06 storm. Captain Warren recalled his grandfather telling him about weathering the event:
“My grandfather survived the storm. He had an enormous oleander growing near his back door. About a dozen folks survived the storm by holding on to the oleander’s exposed roots.” Captain Warren noted his great uncle Joe also survived the storm, and in fact led a number of people to the safety of higher ground.
Captain Tom Torbert’s family lived on the eastern shore during 1906. Captain Tom noted that the ‘06 storm “wiped out Coden and Bayou la Batre.”
One of the reasons for Joshua’s memorial cruise, said Captain Warren, is that “The storm had an incredible impact on the waterfront. And most people today don’t even realize there WAS a big storm in ‘06.” Captain Warren noted, “People on the water had some inkling that something was about to happen, because they had barometers. But the people inland had virtually no warning.”
Imagine a storm of Katrina’s magnitude, but with no warning. In Alabama, more than 100 people lost their lives. The ‘06 storm was responsible for a myriad of deaths, from the Florida panhandle to Louisiana. In Pensacola, 50 people died. In Biloxi, more than 20 schooners and hundreds of smaller boats were lost. On Lake Bourgne, Louisiana, approximately 100 Malayans who resided in a settlement died.
It is the intent of Joshua’s crew that these people, and the storm that took them, not be forgotten.
Captain Cindy said, “This is a cruise to show gratitude for what we have, and to remember what others have lost.”
Joshua sailed east on Dog River, towards Mobile Bay. Pelicans wheeled in the sky, dipping towards the schooner and then veering off. Buoys bobbed gently in the calm water. The sun beamed upon Joshua’s wooden deck. A wispy kiss of a breeze ruffled hair off of foreheads.
“It was probably a day much like this, 100 years ago,” noted Captain Cindy. “A nice day. Warm and beautiful. People had no idea what was coming.”
Joshua sailed east-southeast at four knots. My cares seemed to have been left back on shore, and I impulsively pondered throwing my cell phone into the bay, like those people on television commercials do. Then I remembered I had left my cell phone in my car, because I had known with absolute certainty that I’d somehow manage to drop it overboard if I brought it.
About an hour out, Captain Carol turned Joshua out of the wind, and the crew let the sails luft. Joshua lay nearly still in the water, rocking almost imperceptibly. Captain Cindy read data she’d collected about the ‘06 storm – wind speed, barometric pressure, etc. The parallels to Katrina were unmistakable. Indeed, that is the point.
“Terrible storms have happened before, and they’ll happen again,” said Captain Carol. “God isn’t out to get anyone. It’s just nature, and it’s just what happens.”
Captain Carol read a list of boats known to have been lost in the ‘06 storm. She noted, “The reason I am reading the boats’ names instead of the peoples’ names is because we don’t know the peoples’ names. They will never be known.” After each boat name, Captain Cindy solemnly tolled the ship’s bell. At the conclusion of the reading, the crew passed out red carnations to the assemblage. Captain Carol offered a toast: “To all the souls who have died and gone before us, may they rest in peace. And for all the souls who come after us, may God have mercy.”
Reverently, we offered our flowers to the bay waters. Then the crew expertly adjusted the sails. Captain Carol resumed her place at the wheel. Joshua began slicing smoothly through the water once again, leaving over 100 red carnations and a host of remembrances in our wake.
Contact Tamara Ducote at TDDucote6@aol.com.
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