INTRODUCTION
Captain Pete Skrmetta Obituary
Radio Interview with Captain Pete by Deep South Magazine in the Summer of 1954
Introduction:
Peter Martin Skrmetta, “Captain Pete”, Croatian Immigrant and Biloxi, Mississippi entrepreneur established what is today known as “Pan Isles, Inc.” in 1926. The company has been in continuous operation ever since. In fact, the Skrmetta family has provided passage to over a million Ship Island visitors in the ensuing years.
Captain Pete’s son Peter Matthew operated the company beginning in 1953 after returning from military service in the Korean War. Captain Peter Matthew managed the business and piloted the ferries until his passing in the summer of 2024. At that time the Skrmetta family excursion boat business was handed over to the third generation, three of the original Pete’s grandsons. The operation today includes Ship Island Excursions along with the Ship Island food and beach services. Pan Isles, Inc. operates through contract with the U.S. National Park Service.
The Park Service administers the entire string of Mississippi barrier islands as part of Gulf Islands National Seashore. The Pan Isles fleet consists of two 105-foot passenger vessels that provide the daily ferry service to Ship Island and Fort Massachusetts, circa 1858. The season stretches from March through October.
In addition to the island ferry services, the company offers year-round chartered shoreline cruises for corporate parties, class reunions, and other types of special events cruises, day or evening. A 2-to-3 hour charter usually includes a short tour of the Gulfport State Ship Harbor followed by a cruise near the Gulfport-Biloxi shoreline. Catering and entertainment are optional. The company also provides daily 90-minute dolphin watching adventures and weekend sunset cocktail cruises.
The Early Years
The Skrmetta family boat service had its origins near the turn of the century. In the late 1800’s, the harvesting and canning of oysters and shrimp had become Biloxi’s chief industry. Biloxi had emerged as a challenger to Baltimore for the title of “Seafood Capital of the World”. Several large canneries were built on Biloxi’s waterfront to process the tons of oysters arriving at the factory docks each day. Demand for workers in the seafood industry was great. At the same time, many immigrants from Eastern Europe were arriving in South Mississippi and Louisiana. Cannery owners hired hundreds of these immigrants to work in their plants and crew their boats.
Many of these workers were fishermen who arrived with their families from the Dalmatian islands off the coast in southern Croatia. Like millions before them, all were looking for improved economic conditions and a better life in America. However, there were also secondary causes such as the desire to be united with relatives living here, to escape oppression of the Hapsburgs and compulsory military service in Austrian armed forces.
Hard working with superior boat building and boat handling skills, these Adriatic fishermen easily adapted to working in Biloxi’s booming seafood industry. The Dalmatians or “Austrians”, as locals called them, quickly began building and operating the shallow draft, wood sailing schooners that hauled in the catch harvested from the Mississippi Sound and Louisiana marshes. The Biloxi Schooner became the primary vessel of a fleet that provided an annual harvest of millions of pounds of oysters and shrimp.
In 1903, 16-year-old Pete Skrmetta arrived in Biloxi from the Croatian Island of Brač to live with his uncle, Nick Skrmetta. Nick was a seaman who came to Biloxi after jumping ship in New Orleans in the 1890’s. Nick worked in the Lorenzo Lopez seafood processing plant for several years. Lopez appreciated Nick’s hard-working traits and invited his Croatian relatives to come to work for his company. Skrmetta’s relations with names like Sekul, Pitalo and Trebotich started arriving from Brač to work in Biloxi’s seafood factories and help crew the sailing schooners that provided the catch.
Pete went to work crewing with his uncle and other Dalmatian fishermen on the factory owned schooners. He became an excellent skipper, eventually piloting some of Biloxi’s most famous sailing schooners, including the I. Hiedenhiem and H. E. Gumble. A tireless worker, Pete quickly gained a reputation as a proven moneymaker for the factory owners and their employees whose salaries were dependent on the amount of the catch arriving each day by schooner.
By the early 1920’s, Pete Skrmetta had his own boat built by the Covacevich Shipyard in Biloxi. The vessel was a 56-foot, diesel-powered schooner lugger he named the Pan American.
Capt. Pete’s first “Excursion Boat”, circa 1926
Summer Island Excursions Begin
By 1920, an increase in refrigerated warehouses, coupled with advances in fishing technology, including converting sailing schooners to diesel engine power, allowed larger shrimp harvests to be shipped throughout the country. In summer, the Mississippi Sound offered fisherman an unlimited supply of brown shrimp. However, a shortage of freezer facilities during this time caused the shrimping industry to virtuously shut down during the hot summer months. Boats sometimes arrived at the docks forced to shovel tons of catch over the side because factory owners had no place to store catch. By early summer, most local freezer plants were loaded to capacity. Many factory-owned boats were moored to the docks for weeks. Industrious boat owners found other work for their vessels. When Pete wasn’t shrimping, he used his vessel for hauling general cargo. For example, he frequently hauled small clam or “key” shells to beachfront properties from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi to be used for building private driveways. Many of his shells became part of the public beach road that evolved into Highway 90.
Pete and his crew often hauled summer watermelons from Grand Bay, Alabama to the French Market in New Orleans. To maximize profit, he would pick up a load of “key” shells on his return trip from suppliers in Lake Pontchatrain to be sold in Mississippi. It was during this time that Pete began to charter his diesel-powered lugger for summer pleasure cruises into the Mississippi Sound.
For years, local residents and tourists enjoyed excursions into the Sound. People had sailed or rowed out the eleven or so miles to the Mississippi islands since the arrival of the French explorers at Ship Island in 1699. After WWI, the tourism industry grew as a complement to the Gulf Coast’s simultaneous boom in timber and seafood production. The prosperity of the twenties, along with the Coast’s reputation for lax enforcement of prohibition laws, brought hundreds of tourists to Biloxi. As a result, construction of beachfront hotels quickly followed. Famed resort hotels like Tivoli, Biloxi, and Whitehouse were built to accommodate the growing number of visitors arriving each summer by rail.
Each property had a long boat dock jutting out into the Sound for boats to pick up site-seeing and island excursion passengers. In 1923, Colonel J.W. Apperson, owner of Biloxi’s Buena Vista Hotel, decided to offer gambling as well as drinking to his patrons. To accomplish this, he had to go beyond the so-called “12-mile limit” which was considered legal for gambling and alcohol. In the summer of 1926 Apperson began working with Mr. Walter “Skeet” Hunt, the owner of a small sand island between Horn and Ship Islands called “Dog Island”. Hunt and Apperson needed regular boat service to transport patrons to their new resort island, renamed the “Isle of Caprice”. The resort quickly became popular and before long hundreds of people were visiting the island located approximately 10 miles south of Biloxi.
Pete Skrmetta became one of several boat owners that ferried visitors and supplies to the island’s casino and dance hall during the summer months. The Pan American would make stops at each hotel pier picking up passengers wanting to “surf bathe” in the clear green Gulf waters surrounding the island. The excursions became popular, and Pete was soon realizing a profit. In 1926, a round-trip ticket to the island was one dollar per passenger.vi Food, “Barq’s” rootbeer, and highballs made from imported bootleg whiskey sales were an important profit center of the excursion business. As many as three trips a day were offered, including an evening cruise complete with a jazz orchestra, roulette table, and slot machines. The excursion business became so popular that Pete extended the Pan American 20 feet to 76-foot total length, added a second deck, and increased seating to accommodate over 150 passengers.
Unfortunately, the ill-fated Isle of Caprice operation lasted only a few years. The island literally sank into the Gulf due to natural and man-made causes. A series of storms and strong, persistent, westward moving currents constantly washed the fragile island into the Gulf of Mexico. Visitors had picked the protective sea oats and combined with the natural forces, this destroyed the sand dunes, adding to the beach erosion problem. By 1932 the island was submerged in several feet of Gulf water.
Captain Skrmetta realized the economic potential in continuing a tourist attraction of this type, and in 1932 purchased property on the eastern section of Ship Island to begin his own resort development. That same year he formed the Pan American Association and began construction of a new island pavilion and dock using some of the lumber from the abandoned buildings on the former “Isle of Caprice”. He completed a 200-foot dock and small beach pavilion in the spring of 1932. Later that summer he began carrying passengers to his new resort to an island just several miles to the west. Like the Isle of Caprice, the east end of Ship Island would prove to be an attractive resort destination because of the clear gulf waters for swimming, and a distance from the mainland that allowed for the sale of alcohol and gambling.
Fort Massachusetts Becomes A Fishing Resort
On the Western tip of Ship Island sits Fort Massachusetts, a nineteenth century brick fortification commissioned to protect New Orleans from foreign invasion. The British had used the island’s protected, deep-water anchorage in January of 1815 for their unsuccessful attack on New Orleans. Senator Jefferson Davis pushed to include Ship Island in the Federal Government’s coastal fortification program that had started in the 1830’s. Senator Davis’s efforts paid off and fort construction began in 1859 and was completed over 9 years later in 1868. The magnificent brick and granite structure was considered obsolete by the 1870’s and abandoned by the federal government in 1900. The one remaining 15-inch Rodman cannon that was not sold by the federal government still stands guard from on top of the fort today.
The Fort sat empty for over 30 years until June of 1933 when the government sold the western section of Ship Island, including Fort Massachusetts, to the American Legion Post 119 of Gulfport. The Legion planned to use the Fort as part of an island fishing resort for veterans of WWI. Legion members added improvements to the Fort, including a diesel-powered lighting plant, and hotel style living quarters. Overnight accommodations were established by building screened enclosures in the lower casemate areas which once housed 10-inch cannons. A 400-foot pier was built next to the fort to accommodate arriving excursion boats. Later, a large beach pavilion and restaurant were built next to the fort, turning the spot into what Legion Commander Luther Maples described as a “real playground and fishing resort”.
To capitalize on summer tourists flocking to Biloxi, the Legion began a partnership with Captain Pete by offering him an exclusive Biloxi ferry contract to haul passengers to their new resort. The agreement called for him to give up his fledging operation on east Ship Island. He accepted the offer and began an association with the American Legion that lasted until the National Park Service purchased the Island in 1971. As the number of patrons increased, Captain Pete would eventually built three increasingly larger excursion boats: Pan American Clipper (1937), Gulf Clipper (1950), and Pan American II (1963).
Captains Pete’s ferry service did well during summer, operating two (2) boats daily at capacity. Captain Pete and his crew transported thousands of visitors from Biloxi to the island resort each summer. Pete also offered evening cruises with music, dancing, cocktails and gambling.
The resort ultimately became a financial burden for the Legion. Maintaining equipment and providing fuel and supplies to the island was costly. Equipment did not last long in the harsh saltwater environment. Storm damage frequently called for continued and expensive repairs to the pier.
Island challenges came in many forms. Even during the depression, good workers were hard to find. The island isolation and brutal heat in summer was not popular with the employees, and many quit after working a few weeks. In the days before climate control, living on the island was challenging. Daytime summer heat and humidity were sometimes unbearable. In winter, freezing north winds made the treeless island feel like the Arctic. On most spring and summer nights, mosquitoes forced residents to remain inside. The sale of alcohol sometimes led to problems with rowdy patrons. The staff had no law enforcement assistance and had to fend for themselves when encountering belligerent customers.
Winter storms periodically damaged the island dock, not to mention tropical storms and hurricanes that flooded and damaged buildings.
During WWII the island resort was shut down. The resort was off limits to the public for four years. This added to the Legion’s financial problems. After a particularly destructive hurricane in 1947, the American Legion decided to get out of the resort business and turned the island operation over to Captain Pete and his family. Pete and his wife, along with their two sons and seven daughters, took over operations and financed the island facilities until Captain Pete’s death in 1963.
Skrmetta Family Begins Island Operation
During the twenty-four years from 1947 to 1971, the Skrmetta family provided all the labor, equipment, infrastructure and financing to build and maintain several 300-foot docks, beach pavilions, and bathhouses on the island. They were the sole providers of food service, trash collection, security service, fort maintenance, and all infrastructure and utilities needed to operate the island facilities. Many times the family paid for dock and building repairs after storms and hurricanes. In 1959 eldest son Peter personally contracted and paid over $4,000.00 to keep Fort Massachusetts from collapsing on the north side due to rising water Hurricane Camille in 1969 was especially destructive, completely destroying everything on Ship Island, including a new 3000 sq. ft. snack bar, power plant, and 600 ft. boat dock. In 1970 Peter mortgage everything he owned to replace the island facilities. Providing infrastructure and services on a continuing basis has been critical to visitor comfort and to Ship Island’s popularity. Expanding the boat service with departures from Gulfport in the early sixties was important to the continued success of the company.
Gulfport to Ship Island Ferry Service
Pleasure boats traditionally operated day excursions out of this Mississippi City since to the Civil War days. A regularly scheduled Gulfport Island service was available through an operator affiliated with the American Legion starting in the 1930’. Dr. Lee Darron, a Gulfport optometrist, operated a Ship Island excursion service through the 1950’s. The current Gulfport ferry service to Ship Island began in 1963. The Skrmetta family started operating a daily Gulfport excursion service that summer after expanding the fleet with an additional vessel for the Biloxi operation, the 76 foot, 250-passenger, “Pan American II” launched in 1963. Pete Skrmetta, Senior died that same year and left two vessels and the business to his sons, Peter Matthew and James Noel. The brothers decided to split the business into two services, one in Biloxi, and a new service in Gulfport. Peter chose to manage and operate the Gulfport ferry service. Working with the American Legion, he moved the 65-foot, 224 passenger, “Pan American Clipper” to the old Legion Pier located next to the newly opened “Marine Life” oceanarium on the west side of the Gulfport Yacht Harbor.
Years of hard work and investment had paid off for the Skrmetta family. By 1973, the two businesses were successful boat operations with government contracts and over 40 permanent and seasonal employees.
In 1981 Captain Peter built another ferry, the 65-foot, 150 passenger, “Island Clipper”, to support the increasing Gulfport passenger counts. In 1986 Peter bought the Biloxi ferry operation from his brother Jimmie.
The next decade brought significant growth to the business. In 1990, the company purchased the largest vessel yet, the 110 foot, 374 passenger, “Gulf Islander”. This spacious all aluminum vessel greatly increased passenger count for the ferry service and allowed for year-round, climate-controlled charters. In 2000, Pan Isles purchased another large aluminum vessel, the 105-foot, 308 passenger, “Capt. Pete”. The company continues to offer regular service to and from the island from March through October. The Skrmetta Ferry service has carried over 1.2 million passengers out to the Mississippi Barrier Islands since the first season almost 100 years ago.
Ship Island is nationally recognized for its high-quality natural beaches and pristine gulf water for swimming. Ship Island Excursions, together with Mississippi Aquarium, Lynn Meadows Discovery Center, and I-10 Sports Complex, make Gulfport a true family destination.
Currently, the Ship Island ferry operates exclusively out of the Yacht Harbor at Jones Park, making the city of Gulfport the “gateway” to Gulf Islands National Seashore.
A Partnership with the National Park Service
Ship Island became a part of Gulf Islands National Seashore in 1971. The National Park Service made many needed changes to the island infrastructure and visitor amenities. Improvements included a new 600-foot concrete dock, restoration of Fort Massachusetts, and construction of more accommodating visitor facilities. The Park Service introduced a life guarded swim area, interpretive rangers, full-time law enforcement, and maintenance staffs. The improvements, together with the National Park Service’s reputation for offering the public outstanding natural and historical resources, contribute greatly to the popularity of Ship Island.
Making the transition to National Park Service concessionaire in 1971 was achieved through an interim, five-year National Park concession permit. In 1976, the Skrmetta family was the successful bidder on the first ten-year national park concession contract. Since then, the company has been awarded several additional park service contracts to provide the ferry service and visitor amenities, including food service and island beach rentals.
The Skrmetta family is a strong supporter of the National Park Service mission to preserve and protect the natural and historic resources within the National Seashore. The company has been an active participant in several successful park advocacy campaigns to stop inappropriate development that threatened the barrier islands and our National Seashore.
Community Service
The company supports the local community whenever possible. Each year Pan Isles provides free Island transportation to beach cleanup crews. The company provides discounted boat tickets to all school and youth groups and donates hundreds of tickets to fundraisers for local schools, churches and other nonprofit organizations, including local law enforcement youth programs. Please go to our website msshipisland.com for more information.