Contributed by Else Martin
JULY 6, 1918 — 97 YEARS AGO in MOSS POINT!
Post card photo of the “Alpaco” from the family of Mack Hobdy-
“To Hell with the Kaiser!” “Let’s launch the good ship ALPACO ahead of schedule!” 1918 – Launched by The HODGE SHIP YARD in Moss Point .
The Pascagoula Chronicle, July 6, 1918.
1917 — 1918 United States Emergency Fleet Corp.,
Dantzler Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.
& Hodge Shipyard — Moss Point
“Moss Point became a larger industrial center when two shipyards were established there in 1917 under the United States Emergency Fleet Corporation. Wooden cargo vessels, the famous “liberty ships,” were constructed to carry supplies of the “arsenal of democracy” to Europe. The Dantzler Shipbuilding and Drydock Company was located on the extreme tip of Moss Point, and the Hodges Shipyard was located on Beardslee’s Lake.” One resident said, “People from all over Mississippi and the South crowded our town.”
Reference Journal of Mississippi History, Shipbuilding on the Pascagoula River, Wm Larry Ziglar, p 4 and F. W. Cirlot, Historical Sketch of Moss Point, Miss., The Pascagoula Chronicle, May 19, 1917.
