The Mosquito Fleet  

Charleston’s Mosquito Fleet was a group of hardy African-American men who, for nearly two centuries, braved the winds, waves, and weather to supply city residents with fresh fish and seafood each morning. Seeing them sail into the harbor with a day’s catch was one of Charleston’s most iconic sights during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Folklore credits the daughter of Gen. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Revolutionary hero and delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, with giving the fleet its nickname, noting that the boats looked like a swarm of mosquitos coming over the horizon. Before refrigeration, Charlestonians depended heavily on the Fleet’s fresh fish for a major portion of their daily diet. Because of that and the important economic role they played in the city, the fishermen were held in high regard. Gen. Pinckney even donated waterfront property at the east end of Market Street for their boats to dock. The Fleet’s work was hard and dangerous, a testament to a strong work ethic and perseverance in the face of risk and adversity. In the first half of the 19th century, the fleet was made up mostly of enslaved fishermen; under South Carolina law, fishing boats were one of the few things a slave could legally own. After emancipation, freedmen continued fishing much as they always had, though now they were supporting themselves and their families through wages made from selling their catch. Street vendors and shopkeepers crowded around the waterfront eagerly awaiting the fish that included whatever was biting that day: porgy, sea bass, whiting, trout, croaker, bluefish, snapper, grunt, shark, and jackfish.

Their wooden boats were made from whatever wood was available – cypress, pine, oak – and their styles included versions of canoes, dinghies, and flat-bottomed bateaus. They all had oars for days when the wind was calm and home-made sails, often created from colorful quilting or scrap materials left over from the women’s sewing, when the wind would aid their travels. They hand made their nets and tackle as well, using long lines with a dozen or so hooks tied to each. Each boat held two to seven men and a captain. Crewmembers paid the captain about 15 cents per day for a seat.

Believing there was safety in numbers out on the treacherous sea, the boats left, fished, and returned together. One of the most remarkable things about the Fleet, traveling as far as 15 to 20 miles offshore, is that the men of the Mosquito Fleet used no navigational aids, maps, or compasses, relying instead on their memory of landmarks and intuitive sense of direction. The hurricanes of 1893, 1911, and 1916 took a toll on both the men and the boats of the Mosquito Fleet. A 1940 hurricane did as well, at a time when large, refrigerated commercial vessels had begun to outcompete traditional fishermen. Hurricane Gracie (1959) heavily damaged the dock and many boats that were rarely, if ever, insured. The Fleet fished on a much smaller scale through the 1970s, and by the 1980s only a handful of old fishermen continued the vocation they loved. Some, too old to go out, would fish off the dock or help make and mend nets for the others.

The end came with Hurricane Hugo in 1989, when the dock donated by Gen. Pinckney two centuries earlier was destroyed beyond repair and remnants of the last boats were found as far away as the intersection of Calhoun and King streets. The dock’s site is now part of the Union Pier redevelopment project, which the State Ports Authority recently sold to local businessman Ben Navarro.