FORT LAUDERDALE'S FIRST PARTY BOAT

 

With the 2009 Fort Lauderdale Boat Show wrapping up another successful season, I thought my readers would enjoy a sail back in time to see how this tropical paradise lured the first of Fort Lauderdale's luxury boaters, way back when.

In  1893, Frank Stranahan's camp and ferry crossing on the New River caught the attention of the local newspaper,  the Tropical Sun.  Stranahan's camp, then called the New River Station, was the focal point adjacent to the original fort where traders and nature hunters met.  The New River Station then consisted of sturdy tents and comfortable cabins which attracted the sporting crowd to the surrounding Everglades for fishing and hunting. (Today, Stranahan House stands as a historic site on the New River in the heart of the city.)

In 1896, Mr. C.B. Cory, a wealthy naturalist and sportsman, arrived with a refurbished Mississippi steamboat named the Wanderer.  The ship cost Mr. Cory $100,000, then a princely sum for a pleasure craft.  The Wanderer offered twelve bedrooms, a magnificent lounge, a piano, a recreation room and a gun room.  According to one observer, the 90-foot vessel, "at the time represented one of the finest privately owned boats in the country."

Mr. Cory moored the vessel along forty acres of property he purchased on the banks of the New River. Over time, Cory transferred ownership to his friend, a famous actor, Joe Jefferson.  Mr. Jefferson entertained society notables, such as Grover Cleveland, as well as a number of women guests who were frowned upon by the local residents.  The Wanderer enjoyed notoriety as the first "Party Boat" in Fort Lauderdale until the Hurricane of 1926 reduced it to timbers.

As we watch the mega-yachts from this weekend's Boat Show glide through Port Everglades in all their sleek, nautical finery, keep in mind the hearty folks who appreciated Fort Lauderdale's boating attractions in the "wild" days, when "wild" held an entirely different meaning!  

Happy sailing!