08/14/2026
🚢 Steamboats on the St. Johns: Mellonville & Enterprise's Golden Age
In 1847, the first commercial riverboats began running to and from Jacksonville — small, independently owned steamers hauling both passengers and freight. Algernon Speer of Mellonville owned three of them: the Hancock, the Sarah Spaulding, and the Tom Thumb.
A decade before the Civil War, Jacob Brock of Enterprise launched his St. Johns River Line, putting the first large boats into service. After the war, a new era of steamboats ushered settlers and tourists into Mellonville and Enterprise.
Among the premier steamers of that era was the Starlight — a 131-foot, 261-gross-ton sidewheeler built in Portland, Maine in 1866. She could churn up the St. Johns at a brisk 12 miles per hour. Check out the second picture of an ad from Guide to Florida by Rambler, 1873.
The Starlight's story came to a fiery end on May 11, 1878, when she burned at the Sanford docks.
