Iconic Coast boat captain spent 72 years of his life crossing the Mississippi Sound
Peter “Captain Pete” Skrmetta safely ferried hundreds of thousands of people across the Mississippi Sound to Ship Island in his 72 years as a boat captain.
He ran the family business as owner-operator of Pan Isles Inc. for over five decades, modernizing the fleet from wooden boats he built to the metal ones capable of seating hundreds floating in the port of Gulfport today.
He worked seven days a week in his prime, said Louis Skrmetta, the oldest of Pete’s four sons. A perfectionist who repaired or rebuilt Ship Island’s pier after every storm, Skrmetta was a veteran of the Korean War and was a husband of 69 years.
“That was my father,” Louis said. “He delighted in doing things right. He wanted people to feel safe.”
Captain Pete died on Sunday at the age of 94.
Pete was a Biloxi native and grew up on Point Cadet, born into a family of proud Croatian immigrants. He had seven sisters and one brother. That’s where he met his wife, Jackie, who was also Croatian and lived across the street. They married shortly after high school and had four sons.
Louis said the business grew under Pete, whose father, Peter Martin Skrmetta, had started in the ‘30s ferrying passengers to the Gulf islands during shrimp fishing’s offseason.
They ferried patrons out to the islands in wooden boats they’d built decades before the islands were designated as part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.
Under Pete, Pan Isles Inc. secured the designation as the official contractor with the national seashore. It has maintained the Ship Island Excursions contract, one that Louis said is highly competitive, since the national seashore was designated in the early ‘70s.
Pete earned his captain’s license at 18 and served on the crew of his father’s ships, working his way up the ranks. He inherited the Gulfport arm of the business when his father died in 1963.
At the time, a Skrmetta-owned ferrying operation also operated out of Biloxi, but the Gulfport location eclipsed it and Biloxi’s location closed in the ‘80s.
In the ‘90s, Pan Isles Inc. started using metal boats. Louis said most of the permanent staff has been with Pan Isle Inc. for over 20 years.
Louis is now Pan Isle Inc.’s CEO and shares ownership with two of his brothers. He worked 48 seasons of ferrying with his father. Pete didn’t officially retire until four years ago, when he was 90 years old. Even after retirement, he was on the payroll as a consultant, Louis said.
“He was a larger-than-life character,” said Louis. “He really was.”
He recalled stories of his father’s service in Korea with the Marines First Division when Pete would chat with handicapped and shell-shocked veterans of Vietnam and the Second World War.
In Korea, Louis said, Pete was calm and collected. He comforted his fellow servicemen on the front lines with Catholic scripture and even converted a few.
Louis said the only hobby Pete had time for was going out on a shrimp boat he aptly named St. Michael, after the Catholic parish.
He didn’t go to football games or graduations, Louis said, because his father was always working. They drove together, at one point seemingly every day, from Point Cadet to the Port of Gulfport.
“He taught me everything I needed to know,” Louis said.
The hope, Louis said, is to maintain the business and keep it in the family. Weathering storms and evolving the business to match the interest of patrons is the next step.
Peter Matthew Skrmetta died from the effects of a stroke a few days before his death. He is preceded in death by his wife. He is survived by four sons, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Pete, sharing a name with his father, lives on as the name of a boat in the Pan Isles Inc. fleet, aptly named the “Capt. Pete.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2024 at 12:53 PM.
