The Shifting Sands of the Historic Gulf Islands

“A calm day at last,” said Billy Long, skipper of Miss Teak, a 42-foot National Park Service boat that cruises the placid waters of the Mississippi Sound.

Visibility was poor, but at least the rain had stopped and the seas had quieted after more than a week of stormy weather.

This foggy day, Long was taking Ranger Jill Kinney, 29, from Biloxi to West Ship Island, 10 miles away. Later, Long would return Ranger Mike Sharp, 38, and the four-person maintenance crew back to the mainland for the weekend.

Kinney would be alone on the 3.7-mile-long island until Monday morning. Her only company on the flat, treeless island dotted with dunes and lagoons would be the alligators, water moccasins, raccoons, rabbits, mice, rats and thousands of songbirds, pelicans, osprey and gulls.

West Ship Island, about one-half mile wide, is one of six small sand islands and a few mainland estuaries that make up Gulf Islands National Seashore off Florida and Mississippi. Geographically, the National Seashore is an anomaly, stretching 150 miles east to west from Santa Rosa Island south of Pensacola, Fla., to West Ship Island with a lot of water and Alabama in between.

Changing Geography

The geography here is subject to change. Mississippi’s four National Seashore islands between Mississippi Sound and the Gulf of Mexico--West Ship, East Ship, Horn and Petit Bois--are constantly being reshaped by the waves, currents and storms.

On Aug. 17, 1969, for instance, Hurricane Camille cut Ship Island in two, leaving in its wake a mile-wide channel between what are now West and East Ship.

Two hundred years ago, Horn Island was in Alabama. But it has moved eight miles west and is now in Mississippi.

The Isle of Caprice between Horn and Ship islands no longer exists. It boasted a resort and gambling casino in the 1920s, but was washed away by hurricanes and storms. Now it’s a submerged sand bar.

“We like winter best out here on West Ship,” said Paul Hicks, 53, one of the year-round Park Service maintenance men.

Keith Husley, 48, and Hicks have worked here 14 years, living on the island five days, returning home for weekends. Dan Thomas, 35, and Ted Butts, 33, have worked here a year.

“In summer at least 1,500 people get off the tour boats each day,” said Hicks. (Only National Park personnel are allowed to stay overnight on West Ship.)

Visitors come to swim, stroll the white sand beaches, gather sea shells, bird watch, fish and see Ft. Massachusetts, a Civil War fortification. Water temperatures of the sound and the Gulf in summer average 85 degrees; air temperatures are almost always in the 90s.

Structures on Stilts

Except for the beaches and sand dunes, the island is mostly marsh lands where snakes, alligators, mosquitoes and gnats thrive. The nine structures on West Ship--the visitors center, bath house, restrooms, snack bar, Park Service residence and workshops--are all built on stilts. An 8-foot-wide, quarter-mile-long boardwalk leads from the pier on the sound side to the beaches on the Gulf.

Petit Bois (7 1/2 miles long and one-half mile wide) and Horn (14 miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide) have been designated by Congress as wilderness islands. Camping on Petit Bois, Horn and East Ship islands is permitted. Access is by private boat.

Two rangers are assigned to West Ship; two others to Horn Island. The rangers also patrol the other two islands using Boston whalers. During summer four Park Service lifeguards and five ranger-naturalists are also stationed on West Ship Island.

West Ship was discovered by the French in 1699 and named Isle aux Vaisseaux--ship island. French, British, Spanish, the Confederate and U.S. flags have flown over it.

Fleet of British Ships

In December, 1814, a fleet of 60 British ships rendezvoused off Ship Island before an unsuccessful attack on New Orleans. Confederate forces held the island from January to September, 1861. Later 18,000 Union troops were stationed here; 230 of them died and were buried on the island.

A red-brick fort built during the Civil War still stands. Ship island also had a prison for Confederate soldiers, sailors and civilians. Troops were stationed on the island during World War II.

As Jill Kinney pulled a cart loaded with supplies up the long pier for her weekend stay, Billy Long sounded Miss Teak’s horn. He and the others aboard the boat waved goodby to the ranger.

“West Ship is all yours,” her partner Ranger Mike Sharp shouted. “Have fun.”