The Steamer
WILMINGTON
The Steamer WILMINGTON was built in 1882 in Wilmington, Delaware.
She ran on the Delaware River for several years.
In 1890, Capt. John W. Harper purchased the WILMINGTON and brought her to run on the Cape Fear river in North Carolina.
In 1926, the WILMINGTON was sold and
was rebuilt as a diesel vessel called the PINELLAS.
She ran as a ferry boat, in Florida, from 1926
until 1942, when the U. S. Navy
requisitioned her for Government Service.
Her name was changed, during WWII, to
the SEABROOK.
In 1946, the vessel was sold back
to her original owners.  
About 1955, the PINELLAS
became a fishing excursion boat.
James Sprunt, a Wilmington, NC area
historian, wrote a short story about the
WILMINGTON.

This was a Christmas Ghost story which
included Capt. Harper and his crew.
Capt. John W. Harper
A postcard showing the Wilmington, NC
waterfront, including the Steamer WILMINGTON at the foot of Market Street. c1900
A man and woman on the deck
of the WILMINGTON.
The wheelhouse of the
Steamer WILMINGTON and
the Wilmington, NC waterfront.
I suppose, mile marker 3
on the Cape Fear river.
http://books.google.com/books/download/A_colonial_apparition.pdf?id=yEwtAAAAYAAJ&output=pdf&sig=ACfU3U0a4jWNusstSjUUCK854pWBXQHB4A
click on the link below:
If you would like to read
this short story, please
“A real thing to remember was the smell of the engine room on Captain Harper’s boat, the Wilmington, as it hummed and throbbed its way to Southport. A clean hot, steamy, oily smell, that one got as he looked down at the wheels and the smooth running pistons of nickel, of brass, of steel, all so well polished.”

[Excerpt from James Sprunt's, Tales and Traditions of the Lower Cape Fear, 1661- 1896.]


In 1917, Capt. Harper's daughter, Ella,
died when she was 12 years old.
Capt. Harper died just a couple of weeks later at age 61.
John W. Harper, Jr.
died the next year, at the age of 21, of influenza and complications due to pneumonia.
http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/search/results.aspx?id=mck&type=text&t=James+H.+McKoy
"The Steamer Wilmington"
by James H. McKoy
(via ECU Digital Archives Online) 
To read a wonderful description of the steamer, please click on the link below:
Master Don C. Auble aboard the Pinellas Ferry c1950
Seabrook

(YFB-38: t. 101; 1. 122'; b. 22'; dr. 6')

Pinellas (ax-Wilmington), a ferry built as a steamer at Philadelphia in 1882, was acquired by the Navy on 28 July 1942 on requisition purchase from the Bee Line Ferry, Inc., St. Petersburg, Fla.; renamed Seabrook and designated YFB-38 on 9 September 1942; and placed in service at Jacksonville, Fla., after conversion for Navy use at the Merrill Stevens Dry Dock and Repair Co.

Seabrook provided ferry services for the Naval Air Operational Training Command at Jacksonville throughout World War II. She was placed out of service on 14 September 1945. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 11 October 1945, and, on 14 March 1946, she was delivered to the War Shipping Administration for resale to her previous owner.

[ from HistoryCentral.com
http://www.historycentral.com/navy/Steamer/seabrook.html ]