Another Florida Ocean Passage Ticket - The Plant Steamship Company

The Plant Steamship Company headquartered in Tampa on Florida's West Coast actually predated the Florida East Coast Steamship Company whose tickets we've reviewed in prior blogs. The Plant Steamship Company was running trips from Tampa to Key West and Havana by 1887. The two companies eventually would merger to become The Peninsular and Occidental Steamship Company.

The Company was founded by Henry Plant whose resurrected several Southern transporation companies from the ashes of the Civil War and later turned his attention to the development of Florida, at first in Tampa and then in Key West.

Plant Steamship Company

S.S. Mascotte Ocean Passenger Ticket

K(ey) W(est), Florida to Havana, Cuba

September 30, 1898

Bob Patetta scan

Reverse side of ticket

R173, $1 Commerce Documentary

tied by an illegible cancel dated SEP/30/1898

Bob Patetta scan

Actually Henry Plant's development of rail lines into Tampa as well as his docks there lead the US Army to choose Tampa as an embarkation point for the invasion of Cuba by the Cuban Expeditionary Force in late June 1898. Cuba was in American hands in a matter of weeks and presumably it didn't take long for the Plant Steamship Company to resume regular service to Cuba.

Thanks go to Bob Patetta for providing this ticket and several others that we've included in our series of blogs on ocean passage tickets.