The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-20

Mr.. H. Key Miner has purchased the
yacht, "My-akka" owned by Mr.. Charles
A Dean of Boston, and with Mrs. Miner
and their children will go on cruise
In southern waters about the middle
OF June
| che "My-akka" Is now moored in Mobile
harbor and Mr. Miner has recently be-
come a member of the Mobile Yacht
club he will take part In the annual
regattas at Point Clear.
Mr.. Miner will keep the My-akka when
not in commission, anchored near his
plantations on the Tombgbee river.
With his father Major Willis ]. Miner,
who also is the owner of a magnificent
yacht, Mr.. Miner had a cruise from Punta
Gorda Florida, to Mobile, and his plans
for his summer cruise are delightful. He
will spend much of his time in Mississippi
Sound. about beautiful Pass Christian,
and along that charming southern coast
cruising on down to New Orleans.
Mr.. Miner Is already an enthusiastic
yachtsman, and contemplates many der
lightful cruises.
The Mobile papers have contained de-
scriptions of the "My-akka and recent
article In the Mobile Herald says:
A handsome yacht, "My-akka," that Is
soon to become an acquisition to the
Mobile Yacht club, and the property of
II. X. Miner, a wealthy young bust
,l,a, In
Mobile yesterday afternoon at o'clock,
after a pleasant passage of 500 miles
from Punta. Gorda, Fla.
The magnificent yacht Is a twin-screw
speedway boat, forty-five feet on the
deck with an extraordinary beam of thir-
teen feet, equipped with all modern neces-
stiles and sumptuously appointed. Her
engines are 1S-horse power each, and
capable of maintaining a speed of ten
miles an hour The boat is equipped for
all manner of cruising and will be
fine addition to the Mobile Yacht club,
in which Mr.. Miner expects to enter.
The My-akka formerly the property OF
the wealthy gold mine owner Charles
A. Dean of Boston, from whom Mr. Mil
ner purchased her recently at cost Oh
$4,000. Mr. Miner and his father, w. j.
Miner who is a member of the Southern
Yacht club, New Orleans maintaining a
handsome yacht there, made the trip TO
Mobile, which he describes as a very
pleasant one, the Myakka reaching the
fort at II o'clock yesterday, negotiating
tic thirty-five miles in a fraction over
three hours.
Mr.
commercial firm of Miner & Kettig Co.,
of Birmingham and has extensive game
preserves near Mcintosh Bluff on the
Tombigbee river. During the summer the
My-akka will cruise between Mobile and
the game preserves as well as participant
Ing in the summer yachting events here
abouts and in the Point Clear regatta In
a social way.
The yacht is moored in the st. Francis
street slip and was viewed by number
OF admiring yacht enthusiasts today.
Mr.. Theodore Shonts, chairman of the
Panama commission, is the owner OF
fine old place on the eastern shore OF
Mobile bay and with Mrs Shonts and
their family come south almost every
winter.
He has spent thousands on the place,
for which nature had already done so
much, and 1t is now one of the snow
places on that picturesque coast. private
pier has been built, probably 200 feet
long, and the shore is lovely there IN
the balmy days of a southern winter
Perhaps the most striking beauty OF the
place are the gorgeous old trees, their
spreading branches draped with the grey
moss of the south. Such trees so sottly
covered are commonly found along that
coast, but they seemed to have reached
a height and a picturesqueness there at
Daphne not found elsewhere.
It was said that Mrs Shonts did not
wish a single tree removed for any i'm
provements that might be suggested, and
it was her wish that nature be undis-
tnrbed. The old place built years ago
had fallen to decay and the private park
showed neglect, but with millions at MS
command, Mr.. Shonts has Transformed
the place, and when l saw 1t two or
three winters ago 1t had every appear
ance of a perfectly kept estate. Ihere
were only caretakers in the house at the
time. as Mr.. and Mrs. Shonts were not
to arrive until some weeks later.
But there seemed a score of carpen-
tiers and decorators at work, and some
of the servants had arrived from Chi
cago When in the south the Shonts
maintain a most pretentious establish
ment, but it has always been surprise
to me that even that Mobile coast, some
what Isolated should have been found
by the northern millionaire. Perhaps we
are yet to have an America riviera MIS-.
Shonts, by the way, is at her southern
home.
Yacht enthusiasts will read with pleas
ure the following from the pen OF Julian
Hawthorne:
Plctorally, the scene resembied the
canvases of the marine painters OF the
early nineteenth century, or some Dutch
seascapes, in pale grays and browns with
the windmills omitted. Over head, once
in a while, peered forth an absurd little
white wafer, said to be the sum- but all
round about our own level the mys-
terious smother kept closing in, and then
again opening out little, as IL the at
mosphere were breathing heavily. Sill
houettes darkened through this impalpa-
BILE SCREEN and faded out again, silently
and without warning-the ghost of tug,
the phantom of a schooner the wrath OF