The Bitter End America's Dunkirk
By Captain J. Gary "Gator" Hill
M
ost mariners have heard that it’s unlucky to rename boats or ships, however, it happens quite frequently for one reason or another. One example is the La Concorde. If that doesn’t ring a bell, maybe you’ve heard her called by her later name Queen Anne’s Revenge. Or how about the USS Ion formerly known as La Amistad. Want to know more? You all have the internet and can easily find more details about these two vessels and others that’ve had their names changed. Today I want to tell you about one a little closer to home. In 2017, Captain Derek Brown, and his wife Amy Brown, owners of Captain Derek’s Dolphin Adventures on Tybee Island, acquired a 52-foot Glenn Young tour boat which came to be known as The Monster. Prior to that she’d carried the name Chelsea Screamer. The name probably doesn’t ring any major bells, unless, by chance, you visited Manhattan in the late 90s or early 2000s. In particular 2001, even more precisely September 11th. The prior owner of Chelsea Screamer, Sean Kennedy, was still on land at 9:59 a.m. when the South Tower collapsed. Not knowing what had occurred, he made his way down to Chelsea Piers where the Screamer operated. At 10:28 Chelsea Screamer was sitting a mere 1,500 yards from where the towers collapsed and Kennedy knew something had to be done. He immediately began answering the call to aid those in distress, in the ages-old tradition of mariners. Nosing his 56-passenger boat into the slips on the north side of the New York Waterways World Financial Center terminal he and his mate started to usher people aboard before transporting them to safety. Later, this would be referred to as Americas Dunkirk, and well chronicled in the book, Saved at The Seawall; Stories from The September 11 Boat Lift. For many days afterward, Kennedy offered up the use of this proud vessel to ferry search crews and support personnel, as well as food and other items to aid in this great humanitarian project. Fast forward nine years and Chelsea Screamer finds herself right dead center of another national emergency. This time of an environmental nature: the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, due to a faulty blowout preventer. At approximately 1:56 p.m. CDT, on April 20, 2010, a fire on the rig started a series of cascading failures that resulted in the platform sinking on April 22. The blowout preventer should have closed the wellhead but failed to do so, which resulted in the largest oil spill and natural disaster in American history. Sean Kennedy, born and raised in Biloxi, Miss., had transformed his one-time tour boat into a crew boat and once again carried support crews aiding in the cleanup of the spill. Afterwards, Chelsea Screamer was hauled out and sat idle on the hard, until Derek and Amy purchased and moved her to Tybee Island.
Today, Chelsea Screamer, now The Monster is back to her former mission of carrying tourists on dolphin and sightseeing tours on Tybee Bay and the Savannah River. If you look close enough there are still a few old signs of her original name, some lettering outlines on her bow, and along the side of her hull, as well as some older gear that is still serviceable. An upcoming engine swap will replace the aging Detroit 8V92 diesels with the more environmentally friendly 6CTA Cummins, which will power her as she continues to be the premier tour boat on Tybee Island. Be sure to book her for the 2022 season. Till our wakes cross again, peace and love and shrimp and grits. I’ll see you on the water!
Email: TheOriginalCaptainGator@gmail.com 22
Southern Tides Magazine
October 2021
