Naples Florida history | Naples Pier

By Nancy Webster, Naples Historical Society docent 11/06/2008
When Hurricane Donna rolled over Naples in 1960, most of the pier collapsed.
First came the hotel, and then the pier. In January 1888, there was, as yet, no pier. Before it, the Naples Company used the fastest steamship on the coast, Capt. Merritt’s Fearless, which the company purchased.
This ship, which ran from Punta Gorda to Naples, entered through Gordon Pass and sailed up into Naples Bay, according to the company’s promotional brochure. However, during low tides, passengers had to be shuttled ashore by “lighters” out in the Gulf, which featured some troublesome sandbars. In June 1888, a construction contract was awarded to Capt. James Canty, in Fort Myers, for a 600-foot, T-shaped wharf in the 18-foot water on the Gulf side, facing the hotel. Pilings and timbers were off-loaded in the surf and towed ashore. When the hotel opened in January 1889, the wooden pier had just been completed and was where passengers and freight were loaded and unloaded, and was a fishing site, too. The post office was located at the foot of the pier, where it stayed until 1922, when an
accidental cigarette fire destroyed the building and part of the pier. A combination boardwalk and tramway, fitted with rails, extended from the foot of the pier along Pier Street, now called 12th Avenue South, to the hotel. A cart could easily
roll out materials and luggage, and children loved getting on for a push.
By 1909, a bathhouse and changing rooms were available; freight lifts had also been added. Then, unwelcome guests arrived. The hurricane of 1910 almost destroyed the pier and kept the hotel from opening in 1911. It was rebuilt 100 feet longer, with two wings, forming a “V.” A 1926 hurricane severely damaged the pier and pushed saltwater into all the cisterns and wells. It also delayed the building of the Tamiami Trail. In 1935, there was a Labor Day hurricane. But, it was the hurricane of 1944 that caused the pier to be completely rebuilt to sturdier standards; 100 feet longer, in 22 feet of water. It was then a recreation pier, with dancing, fishing and sunset viewing being paramount. Hurricane Donna rolled over Naples in 1960, and the pier collapsed under the force of Category 5 winds and water. That spelled the death of the hotel. Philanthropists Mr. and Mrs. Lester Norris paid some $130,000 to rebuild the pier again, rather than add the cost to the tax rolls. Ten months later, the pier was back, still the heart of Naples. Visitors and community members can learn about the Naples Pier and many other notable Naples structures and characters with a docent-guided tour of the The Palm Cottage house museum. It is open for tours from 1 to 4 p.m., Wednesday and Saturday. Information 239-261-8164.
Sources: “The Founding of Naples,” Jamro and Lanterman; “Florida’s Last Frontier,” C. Tebeau; “Naples,” Frazer; “When Peacocks Were Roasted,” Reynolds; Naples Company promotional brochure, 1888; “Historic Naples,” Behrens; “The Timepiece,” Vol. XI, No. 3, Naples Historical Society.
History: WW II U-boats off the Florida coast
By: Tom Williams 03/25/2009
Out of 40,000 German submariners that went to sea in U-boats, 30,000 never returned.
German U-boats that once prowled the Gulf of Mexico have left a legacy of mystery, tragedy
and intrigue – and 56 sunken ships that still rest on the sandy seafloor today. Two of the ships that sank during the war were torpedoed less than 100 miles from Marco Island, and the story that follows illustrates both sides of the conflict, from above and below the water. By 1942, America was mobilizing fast and gearing up for the war against the Japanese,
but the coastal defenses of the eastern seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico were not prepared for the long-range U-boat and a backyard naval war with Germany. On June 10, 1942, Kapitanleutnant Horst Uphoff and his crew of 35 German submariners cast
off the lines of the U-84 under the heavily fortified submarine pens in Brest, France. The U-boat commander and his veteran crew were on their sixth patrol, bound for the Atlantic Ocean and ultimately, the Gulf of Mexico. After participating in a successful “wolf pack” attack – a coordinated assault with several other German submarines against an allied convoy – Uphoff and the crew of the U-84 cruised unchallenged into the Old Bahama Channel. Knowing that the Gulf of Mexico and the waters between Florida and Cuba were heavily traveled shipping routes for the enemies of Germany, Uphoff ordered his Type 7-B submarine, with the long-range fuel tanks, to prowl north along the Southwest Florida coast, just to the west of Everglades City.July 18, 1942, was the last day afloat for the Honduran registered Baja California.The steam-powered freighter was a 257-foot Norwegian ship, built in 1914 and commanded by Aage Christensen. There were 32 crew and five armed guards aboard as she sailed from New Orleans, and with the her fair and calm, she parted the southern Gulf waters, headed for Guatemala. Shortly after dawn on July 19, Uphoff and the submerged U-84 torpedoed the Baja California, steaming alone on a southerly heading, and brought World War II to within 55 miles of Marco Island. Captain Christensen’s Baja California and her cargo of Willis jeeps, glassware and war materials now rest in 115 feet of water, approximately 55 miles west of Marco’s coast. The first torpedo slammed into the old freighter’s port bow and the second exploded near the chief engineer’s quarters. The ship instantly began to list, as Christensen ordered the crew to abandon ship. Within 10 minutes, the surviving crew had rallied to lower lifeboats and watched in shock as the Baja California slipped beneath the calm Gulf waters. Three of the ship’s company was killed when the torpedoes exploded and 10 others injured. The survivors abandoned ship on one lifeboat and two rafts, and were rescued the following day, under a broiling summer sun, by a Cuban fishing schooner bound for Havana.
Uphoff and the officers of the U-84 watched from a distance, as the freighter sank and the crew of the Baja California scrambled aboard their lifeboats. There was no further hostile action taken toward Christensen and the stranded survivors of the Baja California. Fifty-six ships sank in the Gulf of Mexico in 1942, compared with only one U-boat. The U-166 was sunk by depth charges, 30 miles from the entrance to the Mississippi River. In no other body of water did the German U-boats have more short-term success than in the Gulf of Mexico. With the success of the U-boats obvious, the Gulf Sea Frontier Task Forces ordered coastal defenses strengthened and documented vessels conscripted and placed into submarine patrol service. The situation was so desperate that Vice Admiral Russell Waesche, commandant of the Coast Guard, consulted with various yachting organizations to utilize small, armed boats as submarine observation craft.In Key West, Ernest Hemingway obtained machine guns, grenades and bazookas for his personal yacht, Pilar. As captain, he routinely went on patrol, but only once saw a U-boat, from a distance, before the
submarine submerged.

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