The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-08-09
LOWERING TELLS
OF SIS. MIAMI
fContinued from Page One

- ~" Nyo o6Ns OAl N--N
identifying mark, Miami, was
unacceptable. Much of the sleep
ing quarters had been removed
during the Atlantic City renais-
sance, to make more deck space;
and now a double colonnade of
te-painted wooden post S
roughly indicates the location of
the vanished cabin walls.
The lifeboats are practically
new, their age indicated by the
bronze date plates of the manu-
factureF-l932 These boats and
the life preservers all bear the
name, Steel Pier.
Below decks the loungiRg room
that once graced the stern is q
cafeteria; you enter through one
pier of doors and leave through
the other.
There is a sign at the entrance
of the passageway on the port
side of the engine room: Minor.
Prohibited. Beyond the sign i:
an elegant bar. Forward, the
passage opens to recreation
room set with circular green stee
tables from the center of each Of
which is spread a gay umbFell;
supported by pole 1t look
like a misplaced Florida beach
colony-sadly misplaced.
/ Opposite the engines in the
starboard passageway is a tobac
CO and periodical stand. Tn,
yacht is in very good condition
well painted, and ship-shape, al
though the chief officer apollo
gized for the litter left by IN,
excursionists. but the crew wa.
making short work of that
The Steel Pier had a good bust
ness out of Atlantic City tht
summer of 1892, and that of 1913;
was fairly so. However, the de
preston was in full gear, anC
when on November %, 1888. Shit
returned to Miami she had no
been there for more than 81
years. 1t was planned to use hel
as a tourist boat for trips of shorf
duration out of Biscayne Bay
The old Flagler yacht appeared
sprightly enough when she en-.
tered the Government Cut and
passed on to Miami harbor-bui
she was a stranger in a foreign
! land.
Many Changes
The channel was much wider
than when the Miami steamed
south years before to open uI
the Havana service of the Flor
ida East Coast Extension from
Knights Key. Great ocean-go-
ing ships lowered above her
Piers stretched along much of the
once ugly waterfront. Freight
ships lay at their docks. A yacht
basin was alive with magnificent
pleasure craft, and the old-timel
crept in alongside the MhInsor
Line pier and suffered herself tC
4, be warped in. groaning, and TIED
up.
If Miami had changed, so had
the Miami a common ex-
cursion boat now, weary of the
sophisticated North, shopworr
from the summers use, living in
the past, fearing the present
doubtful of the future. To those
for whom she was ideRtified. hel
+. 250-foot length, her 40-foot beam
her gross tonnage of 174l, and
her licensed authority to carry
1148- passengers seemed hollow
mockery of those happier day:
back there in the graveyard OF
the years.
: Dine And Dance
The MlamIS cabins and state
rooms wherein the elect were
chartered on the occasion OF
Flagler's memorable yachting
parties. had disappeared. In theil
place was a glistening dance
floor and dining stalls. A string
dance band held forth with JAZZ
tunes on the stage once occupied
by an ensemble to entertain the
notableS who once rode the one
time patrician of the seas. CToday
the jazz band out of Boston j.
Joe Burke's-which surely canno
be an advertisement in KEY
West)
! AS an adventure into the realm
of excursion boating the Stee
Pier is said to have cost her pro
meters in Atlantic City nearl,
500, 900 for architectural change.
alone During the winter o.
f. 1924 AT Miami Soroe fo,tr-h o,,,