Mail Delivery via Boat – An Unusual Flotilla

Today my post is definitely a departure from my normal Covid-19 limiting choice of topics.  No food photos, no stray critters and no plants from around our home.  Today, it’s all about United States postal mail service!

Of course, most snail mail is delivered via mail trucks in the country and postal workers walking their routes in cities.  Then there are other places where folks have to go up to the post office to pick up their mail.  My mother lived in Concord Michigan and mail pick up at the post office was part of the daily routine.  Currently, the most unusual USPS delivery method is via mule train.  Supai Arizona is the capital of the Havasupai Indian Reservation and it’s located in the Grand Canyon!  Mail comes and goes to the village via mule train.  However, from what I can determine the mail is delivered to the post office where residents have to pick it up.

But, over the years as we’ve travelled around the USA, on a couple of occasions we’ve come across another fairly unusual means of mail delivery.  Boats and small ships still move the mail in numerous parts of the country.  Frequently, tourists can ride along on the routes…

Magnolia Springs is a small town in Baldwin County along the Gulf Coast of Alabama.  The town is home to the only year-around USPS waterborne mail route.  The postman’s vehicle is a 15 foot Alumacraft boat with a semi-V hull.  He spends 2 hours at the post office sorting his mail, then he loads his boat.  It takes him about 4 hours to travel the 31 mile route along Week’s Bay and the Magnolia and Fish Rivers.  This route has been in service since 1915. 

Customer’s mailboxes are located on their docks…so its boat to dock delivery.  If a storm pops up while the postman is delivering mail, he just seeks shelter in a customer’s boat house or in their home.

Every summer risk taking students try out for a position on Walworth II, the Mail Boat in Lake Geneva Wisconsin.  In order to land the job, applicants must be able to ride the boat, then jump off the boat at each dock, deliver and pick up the mail from the mailboxes and then jump back on the boat.  Incidentally, the boat never stops moving… There are about 60 lake homes on the route.  Adding to the pressure of delivering the mail and not landing in the water, is the fact that the boat also carries tourist who come along to view the homes and the mail delivery spectacle...perhaps hoping for a 'fail'. 

The original Lake Geneva mail boat dates back to 1873 when the roads were terrible and the lake was lined with summer homes for the wealthy from Chicago and Milwaukee.  In the beginning the watercraft was called the “Paper Boat”, referring to the delivery of the big city newspapers.  Many of the homes along the route were built by or owned by names familiar to anyone from Chicago…Ward, Crane, Wacker, Swift, Drake and Wrigley among them.

The oldest US Mail Boat plies the waters of Lake Winnipesaukee New Hampshire.  The Motor Vessel (M/V) Sophie C. is the oldest floating post office in the USA.  From mid-June to mid-September, the state’s only official US Mail Boat departs twice daily from a dock in Weirs Beach to make a total of 9 island stops on New Hampshire’s largest lake.  Over the summer she can deliver up to 40,000 pieces of mail to everyone from campers at the YMCA kid’s camps to wealthy families who own their own island.  You can even buy a postcard on the boat and have it cancelled with the official “Sophie C.” postmark.

Mail began to be carried on the Lake in the late 1800s but the first official date is 1892, when Rural Free Delivery Route #7 was established, with the vessel Robert and Arthur being the first mail boat.  That boat was succeeded by the Dolphin and then, in 1906, the Uncle Sam. In 1906, by an Act of Congress, the Uncle Sam became the only floating USPS post office in the country.

 

Another unusual mail boat operates out of Detroit Michigan.  The M/V JW Westcott II is a 45 foot contract mail boat that delivers mail (and ship’s pilots) to passing ships on the Detroit River.  This boat even has its own zip code...48222.  One unusual feature of this water borne mail delivery is that the passing ships don’t stop so the mail and any supplies are delivered while underway.  

Any mail addressed to ships’ crew members on vessels passing up or down the Detroit River can be delivered to them by being addressed “(Vessel’s Name), Marine Post Office, Detroit Michigan, 48222.  Mail is delivered to the passing ships via ropes and buckets…

The Westcott Company was established in 1874 by Captain John Ward Westcott.  He ferried supplies, and by 1895 mail as well, to passing ships via rowboat.  This water based form of mail delivery is not without hazard.  In October of 2001, the JW Westcott II sank in deep water when it was caught in the wake of Norwegian oil tanker, MT Sidsel Knutsen.  The captain of the Westcott II and one crew member were killed.  The vessel was later salvaged, refurbished and is still in service today.  The company has a contract with the USPS through 2021.

That’s all for now.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a little United States Post Office Trivia!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave