Steamboat Coming In!

Scheduled steamship travel to Key West began in 1829, with the establishment of the city's first post office and the necessity of regular mail delivery. But it wasn't until 1848 that a Charleston company brought dependable, fast steamship travel to the city. The Isabel could be counted on arriving every two weeks like clockwork_ bringing mail and visitors with her. Although ships on course from Baltimore to Havana, with stops in Key West, plied their route in the late 1860's and early 1870's, it wasn't until 1887 that regular Key West-to-Havana service began.

Started by Henry B. Plant and his Plant Steam Ship Line out of Tampa, the ships Mascotte and Olivette were the best that could be built, with no expense spared in their construction. Just a few years later, Henry M. Flagler bought a failing Miami-Key West-Havana route and ship, the City of Key West. In 1910, the two lines merged to form the Peninsular and Occidental Steamship Company (capitalized at $2,000,000), running the three aforementioned ships and the Miami. (Flagler and Plant had actually been in business together since 1882 when they'd formed a holding company to control Plant's steamships, trains and hotels.)

Later in 1910, each ship was making three round trips a week between their various home ports, Key West and Havana during January, February and March, and two round trips each week for the rest of the year. P&O would maintain a long and healthy relationship with Key West, extending into the train years and beyond.

(Below) According to the fine print in this P&O brochure, stop-overs in Key West were always encouraged­ "in one or both directions." And we now know the Miami promised "sixty-first-class-cabin rooms, especially designed for service in the semi-tropics."