Tampa Ship history

Development of the Tampa Bay region began after the territory became part of the United States in 1845.

James McKay, arrived with his wife in Tampa in 1846, the year after a hurricane wrought destruction upon Tampa’s budding growth.

A major partner in the evolution of Tampa’s maritime history was a railroad tycoon, Henry Bradley Plant, who brought Old Port Tampa a rail connection to Jacksonville in 1884.

In 1886 Vicente Martinez Ybor established a cigar factory in Tampa.

Around this time, Plant expanded his empire to include hotel property and steamships, and one of the steamers he deployed in Tampa-Key West-Havana trade, Mascotte, was made part of the city seal when Tampa was incorporated as a city in 1887.

By 1888, tracks ran all the way from Old Port Tampa to New York.

Following United States intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of independence, 1898 brought the Spanish-American War, and, in May of that year, Lt.

Tampa’s cattle trade with Cuba resumed after the Civil War, led by rancher Doctor Howell Tyson Lykes, who went on to found the Lykes shipping empire in 1900.

As the 19th century drew to a close, local business leaders were coalescing in an effort to gain federal support for deepening Tampa harbor channels and by 1905 had convinced Congress to authorize the United States Army Corps of Engineers to dredge to a 20-foot depth.

In 1914 Percival Ellicott Fansler introduced the world's first scheduled commercial airline service with the St Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line.

On September 26, 1918, the TAMPA was escorting a convoy to Wales.

Sailing ships docked at Lee Terminal at the Port Tampa Bay Oct 13, 1919

Two other cutters have carried the name TAMPA. The second TAMPA was a 240-foot cutter built in 1921.

The advent of the automobile soon clipped Jannus' wings but was responsible for a large settlement wave that occurred 1923-26.

Local voters joined in with their support, approving a bond issue that provided funds for onshore structures and municipal docks, which were completed in 1924.

By 1929, a 27-foot channel was in place and the port commission was abolished, with the city’s public works department taking its place in overseeing the port.

The third TAMPA was originally named SARANAC. It was a 250-foot vessel built in 1930.

In 1942, Matthew McCloskey developed a shipyard at Hookers Point in Tampa, on land owned by Tampa Port Authority.

On January 12, 1944, the very first Victory Ship, named the United Victory, was launched.

The world-class SS American Victory was built in 55 days and was delivered to the United States War Shipping Administration by the California Shipbuilding Yard on May 24, 1945.

The site was acquired by the City of Tampa from the War Assets Administration in January 1948 and leased out on an annual basis.

Over 400 Tampa residents cruised on American Victory’s decks to Skyway Bridge with a restored Navy T-38 Trojan fighter plane from 1949 as escort.

Taking the name TAMPA in that year, the cutter served the Coast Guard well until it was decommissioned in 1954.

After serving in WWII, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the ship went through a $2.5 million restoration in June 1985.

American Ship Building expanded it by converting the neighboring shrimp boat dock into two Panamax graving docks, to supplement the two existing graving docks, but the company went bankrupt in 1995.

In October, 1996, Captain John C. Timmel learned the SS American Victory was earmarked for scrap if not acquired for memorial purposes.

Almost one million volunteer hours since 1998 has gone into the continuing restoration of this small piece of American history.