 ship island incidents ship island incidents osarep tue 3232010 1731 on the 1 st of april 1884 the ship island pilot commissioners met at biloxi to settle controversies concerning the actions of their pilots antoine v bellande was a party to these hearings in the first incident captain harry c james 18481923 spotted the british vessel  superior  and immediately went to meet her in his schooner in his sail to the incoming ship his skiff became adrift james put about to recover the small boat captain bellande s boat was astern of hc james and when he observed that james had turned back to recover his skiff he proceeded towards the british vessel south of ship island bellande reached the  superior  first but according to her captain did not hail the vessel pilot bellande also failed to secure a line to board her meanwhile captain james came along side hailed the english captain as required and inquired as to whether he needed a pilot when an affirmative came fourth captain hc james boarded the vessel took command and brought her into safe anchorage north of ship island the ship island pilot commissioners ruled for antoine v bellande implying that the omission to hail was not truly relevant  the pascagoula democratstar april 18 1884 p 1  the other contested action involved antoine v bellande and pilot fritz abbley 18461905 who was his brotherinlaw the spouse of margaret harvey 18471886 the rule in question was that which granted the pilot who brought a ship into port the option of taking her out to sea the outbound vessel was required to fly the departure flag twentyfour hours before weighing anchor as notification to the pilot of its intent to sail if the pilot did not board the departing ship during the notification period he lost his right to pilot the vessel its leaving port was then open to any other certified ship island bar pilot in this particular episode captain abbley failed his appointment to board a departing vessel which he had berthed earlier pilot bellande took the ship safely across the ship island bar fritz abbley protested that the time had not expired for him to be in charge of the departure the pilot commissioners recused themselves stating that they had no jurisdiction in this matter experts in attendance at this hearing were critical of both decisions  the pascagoula democratstar april 18 1884 p 1  the biloxi herald of november 16 1889 related the following about antoine v bellande   our party could not think of returning from biloxi eithout first visiting ship island which has connected with it much of interest especially to those whowere in the service of uncle sam from 1862 to 1865 it was here general ben butler had his 80000 troops while the party were all busy fishing for red fish off the old dilapidated wharf the writer wandered out upon the island and accidentally ran across an old sea pilot by the name of bellante sic who was walking up and down the shore looking for seashells we did not wait for any formal introduction but at once oprnrf the conversation with him and found he was a uspilot during the war   101 views  