FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Fairhope Public Library’s ship has finally come in. Larry Thomas and Dean Mosher of the Fairhope Single Tax Corp. (FSTC), along with model builder C.C. “Peco” Forsman, presented the library with a model of the steamship Heroine, a 179-foot vessel that had quite a bit of history cross her bow.

The ship had a beam of 19 feet and 2 inches, and a draft of 7 feet. Its registered tonnage was 108, with burden tons rated at 214. The propulsion was steam-drive side wheels.

The Heroine was built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1862 for John Fraser and Co., according to Forsman, and was used as a blockade runner for the Confederacy. It was involved in five successful incursions and four successful escapes.

Its last run as a blockade runner ended in Mobile on June 6, 1864. The Heroine was surrendered to the Union, along with the city of Mobile, on April 12, 1865, and sold to private interests in December 1866.

James Carney saw the Heroine being used as a towboat in New Orleans sometime in the 1870s, according to Forsman’s research. He purchased the boat and had it retrofitted for passenger transport.

The Heroine served along the Gulf Coast and in Mobile Bay, making regular stops at Fairhope and Daphne until 1907 when condemned by the Marine Inspection Service. It was abandoned in Mobile.

“If not for the bay boats, growth on the Eastern Shore would have been slow-slow,” Forsman said. Research revealed more than 800 direct references to bay boats in back issues of the Fairhope Courier and other documents of the day.

One of the first major project colonists tackled in Fairhope was the building of a pier where the bay boats could dock. Forsman said the structure was built 1,800 feet long so it ended at a point where there would be 10 feet of water at low tide.

Mosher applauded Forsman’s work and stressed the importance of the bay boats, saying, “No one has ever pulled that much history out. Fairhope was essentially an island for the first 25 years.”

FSTC commissioned Forsman to create 10 models of the bay boats that served Fairhope and the Eastern Shore from the late 1880s until the late 1920s.

“This is the fifth bay boat Peco has done for our community and already surpassed all our expectations, said Thomas. “These models bring to life a fantastic era that was a very important part of our history.”

When all the models are completed, they will be gathered for a large exhibit celebrating the bay boat era in the Fairhope Museum of History. Until then, the FSTC will display them at select locations and return them after the exhibit is over.

Two of the boats already built are currently in the FSTC office on Fairhope Avenue, one is in the Fairhope Museum of History and the other is in the Thomas Hospital emergency room.

“The Fairhope Single Tax Corp. has always had a close relationship with the library, going back to our beginning in 1899,” said Tamera Dean, library director. “We are so happy to continue that partnership that gives so very much to our community.”