Pier 19, Mosquito Fleet Berth
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Jean Lafitte's pirate ships (1815-21) and Republic of Texas Navy (1836-40s) once sailed here. Galveston Wharves & Cotton Press Company, chartered 1854, built early dock. Confederate marine assaults at sites in vicinity freed the isle city of Federal occupation, 1863. Rum runners allegedly invaded the area in 1920s. Through the years, the Mosquito Fleet docked here among other ships, enriching the city and nation and blending Asian and European fisher customs into Americanisms. The international custom of blessing fishing fleet is observed yearly in Galveston. Fleet is named for boats' insect-like profiles. (1974)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This stretch of Galveston waterfront has carried nearly every current of Gulf history — Jean Lafitte's pirate ships, the Republic of Texas Navy, Confederate marine assaults that broke Federal occupation in 1863, and, so the story goes, Prohibition-era rum runners. In calmer years it became the berth of the Mosquito Fleet, small fishing boats named for their insect-like profiles. Their crews blended Asian and European fishing customs into a distinctly American trade, still honored in the yearly blessing of the fleet.
Why it matters
Few American docks distill so much national history — piracy, revolution, civil war, and immigrant labor — into a single working waterfront.
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Related people
- · Jean Lafitte
Themes & tags
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