1930s FISHING TRIP TO BIMINI, BAHAMAS SS SAPONA SHIPWRECK & PAN AM COMMODORE FLYING BOAT 96894

Join this channel to get access to perks: Want to learn more about Periscope Film and get access to exclusive swag? Join us on Patreon. Visit Visit our website Shot by an unknown American tourist, this fascinating home movie shows a fishing trip to Bimini in the Bahamas in the 1930s. It contains a segment that shows one of the Pan Am Commodore flying boats, and rare footage of the wreck of the SS Sapona, a ship connected to the so-called “Bermuda Triangle“ disappearance of Flight 19. The film begins with footage of a man in a hat fishing off the back of charter boat. At 1:25, shots of the harbor area of what is probably Nassau Harbour. The Nassau Harbour Lighthouse aka Hog Island Lighthouse (or possibly Gun Cay Lighthouse ?) is shown at 2:05. The aircraft shown at 2:55, tail NC667M, is one of 14 Consolidated 16 Commodore flying boats bought by Pan Am from the NYRBA Line in December 1930. The plane operated on the Miami to Santiago de Chile route via the east coast of Latin America. The shipwreck at 4:05 is the SS Sapona. This was a concrete-hulled cargo steamer that ran aground near Bimini during a hurricane in 1926. The wreck of the ship is still visible above the water, and is both a navigational landmark for boaters and a popular dive site. Sapona was built by the Liberty Ship Building Company of Wilmington, North Carolina, as part of a fleet of concrete ships authorized by Woodrow Wilson during World War I, because steel was in short supply. Like many others in the fleet, the ship was completed after the end of the war, and Sapona was sold for scrap to Carl Fisher, one of the developers of Miami Beach. It was initially used as a casino and later for oil storage. In 1924 it was purchased by Bruce Bethel, who moved the ship to Bimini, using it as a warehouse for alcohol during the era of Prohibition. Bethel also intended to use the ship as a floating nightclub, although this plan never came to fruition. In 1926 the ship ran aground in a hurricane and broke apart. During World War II, the wreck was used for target practice by the U.S. Army Air Corps and U.S. Navy. Flight 19 vanished while returning from a bombing run to Sapona and the nearby Hens and Chickens shoals. The film concludes with the fisherman posing with a large tuna. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.“ This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit