Mount Pleasant Magazine March/April 2016

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blood. They brought the food. They
brought the building supplies and so
on,” said Roy Williams, a longtime
resident of Sullivan’s Island. “After
all, this is an island. What did we
produce over here? A few oysters and
some shrimp?”
Children of the island laborers
were reported to have walked from
homes as far away as the western tip
of the island – where many of the
support staff employed principally by
the government lived – all the way to
the western tip of the island to catch
the morning ferry on their way to
school in downtown Charleston
“Because we were on an island,
unless you had your own vessel, you
were dependent upon the ferryboat
system for survival. They carried
everything,” Williams explained.
“You had people coming over for the
summer, wealthy Charlestonians,
and they would bring furniture, the
family cow, chickens ... and they also
brought things like ice over here.”
“With regard to the resort, mom-
and-pop stores would have to make
their money in the summer because,
in the early days, once October came
– mothballs,” he continued with a
chuckle. “They moved everything,
and, when the trolley came, they
used the trolley, but, before that, it
was the ferryboats.”
The teams of mariners like those
manning the Hibben Family Ferry
were able seamen, but the waters of
Charleston Harbor are notoriously
choppy, the currents strong and the
weather unpredictable. As routine as
a voyage might begin, by trip’s end,
both children and captain might end
up with the hairs on the backs of
their necks taut with tension.
“It was dangerous getting on
these ferryboats. A squall could blow
up, and, from here to Charleston …
that’s a trip, and especially with how
fast some thunderstorms can whip
up,” Williams declared.
Steam power carried the ferry
industry into its heyday in the late 19th
century. The merciful introduction of
the steam combustion engine relieved
teams of oarsmen from their posts and
preserved many a ship hand’s life in the
process.
Ferries were the lifeblood of Sullivan’s Island, bringing food, building supplies and many other
necessary items to local residents.
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