“Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship. The mate was a mighty sailin’ man, the Skipper brave and sure. Five passengers set sail that day for a three-hour tour, a three-hour tour.”

Since last fall, I have wanted to go on one of Blakeley State Park’s boat tours of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. And I didn’t want to go on the short two-hour trip that just ran up and around the Delta. I wanted to go on the longer one that included a trip through the state docks and the Port of Mobile. I wanted the three-hour tour.

Of course, Capt. Steve threatened to throw overboard anyone who started singing the theme to “Gilligan’s Island.” It had been running through my head for the week prior.

As instructed, I arrived early at the park. It takes about 15 minutes to wind your way over mostly unimproved roads to get to the pier. But I still got there with plenty of time to spare. Even though it was forecast to be sunny and in the mid-70s, I recalled park director Jo Ann Flirt mentioning for a previous story that it was breezy in the Delta, making the trip pleasant even in the heat of summer.

Let’s just say I was glad I had on long pants as we headed north from Blakeley. The speed of the boat, combined with a headwind and me on the shady side of the boat made it a little chilly.

The voyage was more than enjoyable, it was educational. In addition to seeing the awe and wonder of nature, the narrated tour included a huge, heaping helping of history – from before the Civil War to as recent as the week before when a pair of fuel barges caught fire and exploded in the Port of Mobile.

Blakeley used to be the county seat. Why? Location, location, location, It is located in a bend in the river with a solid bluff on the bank. As the water sped up going around the curve, the natural dredging effect created a deep water port. Most of the Tensaw River is 20-25 feet deep. At Blakeley, the water is at least 80 feet deep, meaning even the largest ships could dock there in the 1800s.

As we passed Gravine Island, Capt. Steve related stories of the Ghost Fleet, where the Navy mothballed Liberty ships in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and the tragic story of Summer Moody, who was shot and killed there last year.

At Big Bayou Canot, the boat was intentionally turned around to give the 40-passengers a better understanding of what lead a barge to hit a train trestle in the middle of a foggy September 1993 night and cause an Amtrack train to derail. It resulted in the deadliest track wreck in U.S. history with 47 killed and 103 were injured.

While I enjoyed the views of ospreys and herons (the water was too high to see any sunning alligators), I was really waiting to get to the docks. Born in Greenville, Miss., I have seen towboats all my life, so the increase of barges and some tows was a welcome sight. Once we got into the port proper, it was a regular cornucopia of sights and sounds.

Cranes and gantries were busy loading and unloading. Tows and tugs were making their way up and down the river. Some ships were being repaired in dry docks. Others were being scrapped. It was when we got to Austal that things really picked up speed. On the east side, workers were busy completing a massive trimaran for the Navy. One of just three in the world, the ship is capable of 44 knots.

While I was trying to get a picture of the 400-foot long ship, the Carnival Triumph was passing by on the other side of the tour boat. Not that the doomed ship had broken loose again, it’s more that we were passing by it, and getting an up-close view of the skid marks all the way down the starboard side where it broke loose a couple of weeks ago. We also got an up-close view of the huge gashes where it hit a dry dock and later a Navy dredge.

And before we could get past, there were the remains of two fuel barges that exploded three days earlier sitting on the other side of the river. There were also a host of container ships, coal ships and one unloading Brazilian billet iron.

As we left the mouth of the Mobile River, we came up on the backside of the battleship USS Alabama. I’m used to seeing the front of it while zooming along the Bayway. The slow view was shared by a pair of brown pelicans who circled our pontoon tour boat and plopped in the water close enough to get a nice detailed photograph.

The trip back up the river to the park was mostly uneventful. We were travelling at speed along clean channels heading back to the park. The boat would occasionally spook a great blue heron, causing the majestic bird to take flight as the boat passed by. It did offer nice views of the Mobile skyline slowly disappearing behind trees and marsh grasses.

Personally, I enjoyed the trip and would recommend it to anyone. I’m looking forward to doing it again.

William Moore is the Senior Editor at Gulf Coast Newspapers. He can be reached at wmoore@gulfcoastnewspapers