The Lettie

Naming your boat after a beloved, beautiful or famous woman is a custom that goes back hundreds of years. The ships that carried early explorers from Europe to the New World had names of women. It was also common practice of the British Navy and until recently the US Navy.



The Lettie

There may not be any conclusive reason for it but most traditional seagoing men still stick to it. I'm looking for a light weight Kayak to add to our camping equipment and will probably Christen it "Mary."

I read that Bartholomew "Bat" Fogarty of Fogarty Boatworks in Manatee County, Florida built a Schooner in the early 1900s that he raced several times and it had a reputation for being extremely fast. There are several newspaper articles about it in the Manatee River Journal archives.

There are at least two surviving photos of the boat identified with the name "Lettie" and saying Fogarty sold to Captain Carl William Bahrt who was a Ship Pilot in Tampa Bay.

Carl William Bahrt was married to Luddie Garner, the sister of my great grandmother, Sallie Adams Fulford.

My first thought after seeing the name was that it was named after Bahrt's wife but I wasn't sure this was true because of the spelling. I never met the Bahrts or their children and couldn't find any record of Luddie being called Lettie.



1967 Interview of Ollie Zipperer Fogarty

In addition, Bat Fogarty had a sister named Mary Letitia Fogarty so maybe the boat was named for her.

Recently I found an interview the Manatee County Historical Society did of Ollie Zipperer Fogarty in 1967. She was a contemporary of Bahrt and Luddie and in the interview she called her Lettie.


I don't know if Bart Fogaryt had a name on the boat when he owned it but I'm now pretty sure it was Carl William Bahrt that painted on the name Lettie.




Luddie Garner Bahrt

Luddie Garner Bahrt was born September 13, 1885 in Carteret County, North Carolina and died March 31, 1964 in Tampa, Florida. She is buried in the Myrtle Hill Memorial Cemetery in the Bahrt family plot. Her father was Elijah Meadows Garner and her mother was Hope Jane Foreman.