fish population in Charlotte Harbor. Goode’s
report noted:,“... being in immense schools, the
upper portion of the bay (harbor) affords
inexhaustible feeding grounds which are
exceptionally free of predacious fish. When
leaping from the water in great abundance, the
mullet make noises like the sound of thunder. This
continues day and night.”
THE ERA OF ICE
In the late 19th century, the entire nature of
commercial fishing in Charlotte Harbor was
permanently transformed by the construction in
Punta Gorda of an ice factory. In 1886, Isaac
Trabue had persuaded Florida Southern Railway, a
component of the Plant System, to extend its line
to Punta Gorda's dock area. In 1891, Trabue
constructed a new ice-manufacturing plant near
the dock (named the Ice Factory Company). It
was soon producing 15 tons of ice per day during
the fishing season. Now it became possible to
keep fish in fresh condition by packing them in ice
immediately after the catch.
In 1895, competitors formed the Punta Gorda
Ice and Power Company, with a 25-ton ice
manufacturing capacity. The company installed
larger generators in 1901 and, by 1908, was
selling electricity to the city of Punta Gorda under
its new name, De Soto Manufacturing Company.
At the time, De Soto advertised “pure ice” at 50
cents per 100 pounds. In 1913, De Soto was sold
to Southern Utilities, a subsidiary of the New
York Ice Company. The local plant was renamed
the Punta Gorda Ice and Electric Company. Then,
early in 1926, Southern Utilities was purchased by
the newly formed Florida Power and Light
Corporation.
The availability of an integrated railway system
and insulated boxcars permitted the speedy
transport of iced fish from Charlotte Harbor to
cities throughout the eastern U.S. Use of ice to
preserve fish quickly rendered obsolete the
earlier techniques of drying and salting. During
Punta Gorda Ice and Power's first full year of
operation, 3.6 million pounds of fish were
shipped out of Punta Gorda.
The first ice-making machine in Punta Gorda
may have been based on the work of a
Frenchman, Ferdinand Carré, who, in 1857,
introduced ammonia gas rather than air or ether
52 GASPARILLA ISLAND September/October 2019
(a dangerously flammable chemical) as the
refrigerant. During the Civil War, Carré's machine
provided the Confederacy with badly needed ice
when the supply of natural ice from the northern
states was cut off.
The Punta Gorda Ice and Power Company also
used ammonia as the refrigerant. After first being
compressed in a large cylinder, the expanding
ammonia gas supercooled an adjacent tank of
brine. Then, when a series of steel buckets,
suspended from the ceiling, each containing about
30 gallons of water, were immersed in the
supercooled brine, the fresh water inside the
buckets would freeze into blocks of ice. A similar
method of ice making was used for many years
by the Gault Gasparilla Fishery, located in Placida.
In 1897, E. C. Knight (grandfather of Walter H.
Monson, the Harbor's last run boat captain) and
L. B. Giddens joined together to establish the
Punta Gorda Fish Company, in competition with
several other dealers who were operating from
Punta Gorda's old “long dock.” The long dock was
abandoned after Henry B. Plant removed his
Florida Southern Railway tracks in a dispute with
The IGA grocery store next to the old railroad
tracks in the village of Gasparilla, at the north end.
If you were a fisherman you could buy groceries
there and use fish as currency.The train brought
supplies to the store from one side, the anglers
took supplies out by water.