The following is an excerpt from a Post and Courier article published March 12, 2023
When I read in the recent commentary by Barbara Melvin, CEO of the State Ports Authority, that the Union Pier master plan will recognize the historic Mosquito Fleet and its African American fishermen with “new opportunities to fish on the harbor,” this seemingly generous gesture rang hollow.
In “Southern Provisions” by University of South Carolina professor David Shields, he introduces the free black man Charles Leslie, whose diligent, thorough research determined the varieties of seasonal, local fish that were viable for catch by Mosquito Fleet fishermen in the late 1860s until well into the 20th century.
This established the Mosquito Fleet as the earliest purveyors of fish acceptable for the tables of the poor and rich, the latter having fancied cod from northern fisheries through the mid-19th century.
The legacy of the Mosquito Fleet has been slowly eradicated by the South Carolina State Ports Authority, first by moving the fleet from the base of the market and then, eventually, fencing off the water access that these fishermen used north of the current terminal pier.
Any potential for this to be recognized as a nationally significant site, on the order of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, is in jeopardy with this plan.
It is critical to our history that property is available as part of Union Pier’s waterfront to appropriately honor this legacy with similar interpretive possibilities such as water access, boat building and other educational opportunities.
Merely providing a plaque at a fishing pier would only further erase the real economic contributions made by Mr. Leslie and the Mosquito Fleet to our current booming restaurant and seafood industries.
WHITNEY POWERS
Charleston